JEFFERSON COUNTY, N.Y. -- As it has just about every day for the past year and a half, work continues on the massive expansion project at the Great Lakes Cheese Plant in Adams. The plan was announced as a $67 million, 142,000 square foot addition to the regular facility that already sits there.

There was originally talk about moving the plant all together, a move that would have crushed local farms and impact business. But in the end, officials say it made a lot of sense to stay.

"There was a lot of pressure to relocate this plant to the south of Syracuse," Great Lakes Cheese Adams Plant Manager John Jennings said. "We felt if we went any distance farther than 15 miles, we would probably lose our seasoned work force we had."

And the result could be big for Jefferson County. Not only will 15 or so jobs be added, but operations will grow, too. Expansion means packaging will be up to three million pounds of cheese a week and 2.5 million pounds of milk will be processed.

That's where local farms come in. The increase in demand should boost output for dairy farmers.

"If they didn't make this commitment, the facility probably would have gone away and made it more difficult for farms to market their milk at a higher cost for transportation," Jennings said.

"If Great Lakes Cheese went away, that would have cost dairy farmers at least an extra 25, if not 50 cents per 100 pounds of milk they ship," Jefferson County Ag Coordinator Jay Matteson said. "If you lost that 25 cents, that would be a tremendous impact."

Work on the plant should finish in September. It could be running at full capacity by December.

The new plant is expected to produce 870 million pounds of cheese a year.