A turkey processing plant in Huron has been in operation for just over a year. It processes 17,000 turkeys every day and they want to expand. With that expansion can come challenges.

About half of Dakota Provision's workforce is made up Spanish-speaking Hispanics. Other plants around the area are also drawing large minority populations. It seems the city of Huron and the surrounding are has embraced its new found diversity.

When the new turkey plant started up, the town knew there would be an influx of people who did not speak English. But Huron's diverse past gave it a leg up when it came to choosing a site for the plant.

Ken Rutledge is the CEO of Dakota Provisions, "Huron had a history of meat packing. The old Dakota Pork plant, there were a couple of beef plants that had operated here, there was a history of dealing with production and those 2 things convinced us toward Huron."

Another plant has been dealing with diversity for nearly a decade.
The Jack Link's beef jerky plant south of Huron in Alpena pushes through several different kinds of meat every day.

Terry Smith is it's V.P. of Operations, "Basically it's coming in raw, and coming out the other end of the building in a finished ready to eat Jack Links package."

About half it's workforce, made up of 750 employees, is Hispanic. The biggest challenge is communication. A bilingual H-R department helps.
Signs are printed in both languages.

But Terry Smith says the payoffs far outweigh the challenges. The workers are just treated like family, "They're good hardworking homes and people they have families like you and I."

The city of Huron has had to adapt to the changes, especially when it comes to policing the city. But law enforcement has an important tool.

Manuel Gonzalez is a native of Puerto Rico. He's the only cop around who's fluent in Spanish and that has him on the run, a lot, "I'm the only law enforcement translator for this entire area. Depending on the time of the day and the time of the year, I can be pretty busy."

But his experience and language skills make him extremely valuable here.

Doug Schmitt is the chief of the Huron Police Department, "He's been a true asset to my agency and I know he has to Beadle County Sheriff's Office as well. There's many calls we get involved in where the language barrier is so great that we, our limited Spanish, we're not able to communication properly with the people."

And then there are the schools. The Huron district has about 120 students who speak limited English - about 6% of the student base.

Randy Zitterkopf is the superintendent, "They're very hard working students. The families are extremely interested in their students success in school I tell you, overall it's been a very positive thing for the families for our teachers, and the community as a whole."

The schools have had to add some staff for "English as a second language" students, but they also utilize community members who are bilingual.

Although the changes brought on by new business have posed some major challenges, the Huron area seems to be the perfect fit for the diverse dynamic.