The owners of Meatworks hope to have the business back open by mid-April, following its temporary closure this Spring in the midst of financial and quality control issues.

The 287 State Road meat processing and packaging facility opened in 2018 and since then has been a vital resource for Westport and other area livestock farmers. But it took a temporary “pause” earlier this Spring, leaving many farmers with nowhere local to bring their products.

“We know that this is difficult and we apologize for that,” wrote Jonathan Previant, president of The Livestock Institute (LVI), which developed Meatworks.

“We wish we had some other way to address our financial situation. However, wishing won’t solve anything.”

The Dartmouth Grange recently hosted a meeting with Previant and area farmers, where he laid out the issues that brought Meatworks to its present state, and what the LVI board plans to do about it.

Following the meeting, Previant said he hopes Meatworks can right the ship and re-open by Monday, April 15.

He wrote that Meatworks suffered a “multi-level failure that accelerated the collapse of an already declining quality control and general management system. In short, a failure of leadership.”

The company needs an influx of $400,000 to $500,000 by this coming Monday, April 8 in order to be able to open the following week.

“If we don’t have it, we will have to delay re-opening.”

Most important, he wrote, is making customers whole, doing a better job with quality control, and earning back trust.

None of the possible solutions will matter, though, if “we don’t regain the trust of the community,” he wrote.