Five weeks after an explosion rocked the ConAgra plant in garner killing three people, the facility is getting ready to reopen.

Originally ConAgra thought it could get the factory up and running in August.

It now says the plant will reopen July 19th.

“It’s very exciting. It’s like Christmas in July,” said Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams.

Williams says he had no doubts the plant would fully re-open.

“They’re keeping their word about rebuilding and putting people back to work. The whole community’s pleased with it,” he said.

ConAgra employees were told about the re-opening at a meeting held Friday morning at Southeast Raleigh High School.

Most were pleased to hear the news.

“I’m pretty sure they’ve got everything safe and ready. They wouldn’t have called us back if they didn’t,” said returning employee William Hall.

But, some employees remain skittish about returning; like one woman who worked in the part of the plant that was destroyed by the blast.

“They said it was safe and it could be, but I don’t want to take no chances,” said Katrina Pettiway.

She said she’ll return to work, reluctantly.

“I’ve got to do what I got to do, but I don’t feel safe about coming back,” she maintained.

At the time of the explosion, the Garner plant was the only one in the country that made Slim Jim’s.

 Production will resume just about the time that the supply of those meat snacks is starting to run out in stores and markets across the country.

The explosion destroyed the South part of the plant which packaged the products.  That portion of the plant will not re-open when production resumes, so ConAgra hired an outside company to do the packaging for them.

In the meantime, the firm is working with Garner officials to get the damaged portion of its facility back on line.

“We’re working with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week right now’’ said Garner Economic Development Director Tony Beasley.

“The inspections dept is out there working with their contractors and employees to get the manufacturing side up and we anticipate doing the same thing for the packaging side,” he said.

Beasley estimates it’ll be another six months or a year before the packaging side of the facility is re-opened.