It's been a long road for Rebecca and Robert Goosen, but they have finally found a home for their new business, the Piedmont Cutting Edge Meat Market.

The couple broke ground recently for their new shop, at 15475 Sturgis Road in Piedmont. It was the third community in which they tried to set up shop.

"Today is a really good day for us; we're in debt up to our eyeballs, but it's still a really good day," Rebecca Goosen said on the day she and her husband broke ground for their new shop.

J. Scull Construction Service is constructing the building, and it should be ready to open in three to four months, Rebecca said.

The Goosens are betting that the public would prefer to buy meat from a small-scale retailer that sells custom cuts of locally raised beef and other meats. There have been concerns about beef recalls and other problems with mass-market slaughter facilities.

"We're just trying to open up an old-time butcher shop," Rebecca Goosen said. "There is such a call for this kind of facility."

When their new shop opens, the Goosens plan to process beef, buffalo, lamb and wild game, either as a custom processor or as a retailer. That is what they have done from their home-based business in the Piedmont area for nine years.

In addition, Rebecca Goosen makes and sells an award-winning line of sausages, and she is developing a preservative-free sausage.

They also want to sell South Dakota-Certified Beef. The state program certifies that beef sold with the state seal has been raised and processed according to standards established by the state of South Dakota.

But their idea of a butcher shop was a hard sell in Rapid City and Summerset, where they earlier tried to open their shop.

Their first plan was to build the upscale meat market and slaughter facility on South S.D. Highway 79 near Minnesota Avenue. But neighboring businesses objected, in part because they worried that a meat market would lead to odors, flies and other nuisances.

After a lengthy fight, the Rapid City Planning Commission in January denied the Goosens a conditional-use permit for the property at Highway 79 and Minnesota.

Then the Goosens tried to buy the antique mall building in Summerset. Again, the couple ran into opposition from neighboring property owners.

"If you say slaughterhouse or kill floor, people get Black Hills pack in their mind," she said.

Black Hills Packing Co., later Federal Beef Processors, was a large-scale slaughter facility just west of downtown Rapid City. It was an industrial facility, and at times, the smell of livestock was apparent several blocks away.

But Rebecca Goosen said the type of facility they plan will be low-key. For one thing, it will not be a slaughter facility. The Goosens will have Sturgis Meats or some other facility perform the initial processing.

And newly incorporated Piedmont welcomes its newest new business, said Phil Anderson, chairman of the Piedmont board of trustees.

"I think our board of trustees is proactive with business," Anderson said. "We realize it's going to be a little tough to fund our town strictly with property taxes. We do need more sales tax revenue."

He said Piedmont didn't specifically approve the butcher shop project. The town does not yet have planning and zoning ordinances in place.

In fact, when the Goosens started the approval process with Meade County officials, Piedmont did not yet exist as a town. Voters in Piedmont voted to incorporate in August.

For more information about the Piedmont Cutting Edge Meat Market, call 787-9547.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com