POSTVILLE -- As Agriprocessors and the town of Postville stand on the edge of a financial cliff, hope has emerged that the plant will soon find rescue via outside investors, a well-placed employee at the company said this weekend.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he said a group of investors toured the plant shortly before the company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 4, and another group is scheduled to arrive this week.

There is optimism that a deal can be reached within the next month, he said.

The news, which has spread through Postville's Jewish community, gives hope to people struggling to pay the mortgage and feed large families. They are teachers, rabbis and small businessmen and employees at the plant itself, all of whom depend on Agriprocessors for income.

"They're hoping something comes in and there's a new beginning on the horizon," he said. "There's a potential for renewal in a very big way because the company gets bought up by a corporate company, and with corporate you have a cash flow we haven't seen before."

Despite Agriprocessors' multitude of legal problems, its sophisticated kosher meat operation, built up over the company's 20-year existence, remains attractive because its product commands a premium on the market, which results in higher profit margins than non-kosher meat.

Companies from Costco and Sam's Club have approached the company as recently as a month ago because their product has proved popular, he said.

But with production at a near standstill, those relationships have been put on hold, he said.

Agriprocessors, at its peak the nation's largest kosher meat producer, was raided by federal immigration agents on May 12. The company and its top officials have been charged by state and federal officials for immigration, child labor and payroll violations.

The company now employs only 200 workers, down from more than 900 before the raid, and has shut down its beef line.

Agriprocessors owes the city of Postville $100,000 in utilities and other payments, a debt that rises every month.

The kosher plant pays the city $334,000 every year for a waste water facility it uses. The city operates a $2.5 million annual budget.

"Right now we're not having any financial distress. Will it probably be coming? Probably so. We hear there's not a lot of people left there, but it's too early to tell," said Darcy Radloff, the city clerk.

Most of those who relied on Agriprocessors for a living, including a few Jewish families, have decided to leave town.

Its workers after the raid, most brought in through labor companies from around the country, packed up for greener pastures more than two weeks ago when Agriprocessors ran out of money.

Hundreds of Somalis from Minneapolis who arrived in July left several weeks ago.

The most recent group, about 200 people from the Pacific island country of Palau, decided to abandon the town this weekend.

The workers arrived in September on the promise from Palauan recruiters of cheap rent and decent wages, despite letters of warning from union leaders and residents.

Most expressed anger at Agriprocessors, but also at its government for allowing them to make the exhausting and expensive 72-hour trip by plane and bus to a doomed situation.

When Hersey Kyoto, Palauan ambassador to the U.S., arrived in Postville Friday, his countrymen had just found out they would not be paid for the most recent two weeks of work, and some had their electricity cut off.

Kyoto, whose eyes were red by the end of the day, said he had never dealt with anything like this in his 11-year career as ambassador.

He tried to assuage concerns that the government did not do enough to protect them.

"We are a Democratic country. We cannot make people do things," he said. "Unfortunately, the people who recruited them painted them a rosy picture."

But some did not buy that explanation.

"Don't tell me you can't stop a recruiter from recruiting. That's bull. Yes you can, you're the president of the Republic of Palau. You have every right to look out for the children of Palau," said Joanne Obak, 29, the sole breadwinner for her two sons, brother and mother back home.

Community members are gathering donations, mostly from churches in the Midwest, to help pay for any transportation and job search expenses.

Most still hope to find jobs in Iowa or neighboring states. A few prefer to find a way home, but that has proven difficult. A handful have already flown back to Palau.

Agriprocessors purchased the round-trip tickets this fall and scheduled a return flight in September 2009.

When Jeff Abbas, manager of Postville's community radio station, tried to change the dates of some tickets, he encountered difficulties because they were purchased with frequent flier miles.

In addition, he recently discovered he can find people flights to Guam, but that they will be stuck there until Dec. 9 due to a lack of flights.

There is not much the Palauan ambassador can do for people who want to return home beyond pressuring the airline to waive a $150 fee to change the return date.

"Our budget is very small," Kyoto said.

Hide Miyozawa, 41, said he still hopes to make enough money to return home and build a house. So he will travel to Kansas or Minnesota in search of work at meat packing plants.

He feels bitter over his situation, he said, but retains hope that he will find some stability by joining a union at his next job.

With decent wages, he said, he will regain the enthusiasm he felt when he first heard of Agriprocessors as a tour boat operator in Palau making minimum wage, $2.50 an hour.

"We were excited. We had never been outside of our island. We wanted to go back home after a while and build a house," Miyozawa said.

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad at (319) 291-1580 or jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.