During this week’s Valley City Council meeting, it was announced that the John Soules Foods project would be pushed back until July 1, 2021.

Whenever it arrives, the John Soules Food plant is expected to bring 200 new jobs to the area. Once production lines are added by 2023, another 500 jobs are expected to be added in the process. The plant will be cutting, seasoning and packaging beef and chicken that were slaughtered elsewhere.

Although that wasn’t great news, it’s still been a positive year for the city of Valley on the financial front. 

As far as the fiscal year numbers are concerned, the total revenue has increased from $5.8 million to $7.3 million in the past year. Five of the past six months, more than $600,000 a month has been generated in sales tax revenue. Mayor Leonard Riley thanked local citizens for shopping in the area to contribute to those increases.

There are a lot of things people would like to see in the Valley area, whether it be roadwork or improved infrastructure.

Those types of things happen when people shop local, generating tax dollars to fund those types of projects.

Things look to be on the upswing in Valley, and the best way to continue that momentum is to encourage local shopping.