? Local officials have confirmed that three Kansas counties are finalists for a new Tyson Foods Inc. chicken-processing plant.

The sites are in Cloud County in north-central Kansas, Montgomery County in southeastern Kansas and Sedgwick County in south-central Kansas. Montgomery County proposed a site in Coffeyville.

State Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Heather Lansdowne said Wednesday that 16 communities in Kansas pursued the project, and Tyson narrowed the list to three.

The company has been searching for a new site since it put plans on hold in September for building the plant outside Tonganoxie. Opposition in the northeastern Kansas community of about 5,300 people caused local officials there to back off support for the project.

Lansdowne said Tyson will be looking at the potential sites over “the next month or two.”