The process to grant a tax abatement to Cargill Inc. began Monday during the Montgomery County Council meeting. Representatives of the Linden grain marketing facility were present at the meeting to request a 10-year abatement on a planned $17.5 million expansion.

Cargill Linden Plant Manager John Barrett shared expansion plans with council members. The expansion is expected to take three years to complete and will include a new office building, two new large grain bins and enclosed grain conveyor belt, grain pit and an additional lane inside the property.

The expansion is projected to increase capacity at the facility by 10 million bushels per year.

Barrett explained the plant is presently serving more trucks than what it was built for. Because of the heavy truck traffic problems such as trucks waiting to enter the facility causes traffic backups on C.R. 1100N. The goal is to unload and load trucks quicker and have more room within the facility to keep the trucks off of C.R. 1100N.

“Our present facility was built to handle 100 grain trucks today,” Barrett said. “We are averaging 145 trucks per day. This expansion will allow us to take care of the truck traffic more efficiently and more quickly.”

Barrett reported that he recently met with county commissioners to present the plan as a way to solve the truck backup problem.

As part of the expansion project, merchandising agents will work in Linden and the site will be a regional office hub. Currently, grain buyers are located in an office on the Purdue University campus in West Lafayette.

All 20 present employees will be retained.

Additionally, the expansion plan includes Cargill connecting to the town of Linden’s water and sewer systems. The company currently uses a well and septic.

The plan is to have the phased expansion complete in July 2029.

The council approved a declaration to start the procedure to award a tax abatement. The actual abatement could be approved at the Dec. 9 council meeting.

In other business, the council:

• Approved the introduction of the 2026 Montgomery County Compensation Plan.
• Approved the introduction of the 2026 Montgomery County Solid Waste District Appropriations Ordinance.