Get out of the office.
News doesn’t usually just happen at your desk.
Through the years, I’ve offered that bit of advice to an untold number of reporters.
So guess what happens when an old news guy at heart no longer has an office … or a even a desk? He wanders out and maybe finds a story.
In this case, it appears Abiel Bag Co. is coming to Muscatine. The company has put a sign — with its name, a website address and telephone number — in the window of the former Hatfield Motorsports at 1108 Grandview Ave.
Since 2010, the building has been owned by Community Bank in Muscatine, which acquired it in foreclosure proceedings, according to county records. The building has been vacant since about that same period.
I’m told Abiel Bag will employ 10-12 people in Muscatine. But I don’t know much about the company or its plans. The website address listed on the sign doesn’t appear to be active.
A man whose name I did not catch returned the call I had made to the telephone number on the sign in the window. He said the plant, which should be running in two to three weeks, will make bags for the company’s liquid division. The plant will start out by making bags for liquids produced by Grain Processing Corp. and other local companies. It could eventually expand into making bags for sand, gravel and other similar materials.
Anyone who is interested, the man said, should stop by and fill out an application.
Brome Hill 