"It obviously would be a concern for all we've been doing for the last decade to develop our community and develop our front door, which is the downtown area," Jim Mentesti, president of the Great River Economic Development Foundation, said when he first learned of the proposal.

However, after he met Wednesday with Roger and Dianne Sutter, the farmers behind the operation, both Mentesti and Quincy Mayor John Spring became more comfortable with the development. Mentesti already knew Roger Sutter, president of the Fabius River Drainage District, because they worked together to improve the levee and protect the roads and bridge approaches to Quincy.

Mentesti said his fears were calmed when he learned the Sutters were involved and they are building a state-of-the-art facility.

The Sutter facility will be a deep-pit confinement barn. Concrete slats, on which the hogs will live, allow for waste to fall into the pit. There will be no lagoon on the property, and waste will be used as natural fertilizer by injecting it into the ground, rather than spreading it on top of the soil.

"Frankly, that's what the city does with our waste that comes out of our (wastewater treatment) plant," Quincy City Planner Chuck Bevelheimer said. "It's shipped to farms and plowed in."