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Local leaders turn focus to finding new tenant for GM stamping plant
SATURDAY, AUGUST 01, 2009
By Al Lawrence
ONTARIO – The chairman of the Mansfield Makes Sense for the New GM committee said local officials were given a very firm but well presented "no" during a hour-long private meeting Friday with Tim Lee, General Motors' vice president of global manufacturing.
The panel of local leaders was lobbying perhaps for the last time to try to reverse GM's decision to close the Mansfield/Ontario Metal Center.
Local businessman Steve Cobb said one positive outcome of Lee's visit to Ontario was his comment at a second, public meeting. Lee said he asked the head of the Motors Liquidation Co. – what is left of the old GM – to look into alternative uses and options for the local plant.
"I thought the connection we had with the future of the facility was a big plus – a very, very positive thing," Cobb said. "It gives us a very high-up connection." He also was "delighted" that the community presented a positive image of the GM work force and employee attitudes during the hour-long session.
Ontario Mayor Ken Bender, who led both meetings, insisted the only goal of his committee's presentation in the earlier meeting was to keep the plant open. But the group also inquired whether GM would modify the closing plan and keep the facility open longer in order to allow more time to explore options.
Turns out, delayed closure was not an option either, he said, because the building and grounds transferred to Motors Liquidation during Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
Gary Utt said Lee questioned productivity statistics the committee presented in its attempt to show the business sense of keeping the Ontario operation running.
"He said not all our numbers were accurate, and that they were fluid and changing," the county commissioner said. "We thought ours were more correct."
Mansfield Mayor Don Culliver was disappointed with the meeting's outcome and said local officials now must do the best they can to move forward and market the facility.
"You're never satisfied when you don't get the answer you're looking for," he said. "One good thing is that making contact with federal and state representatives has put a focus on us that we ordinarily would not have."
Culliver and Utt felt the Mansfield Makes Sense committee should now step back and allow local development officials and agencies to find a new occupant for the plant. Because of ever more stretched municipal and county finances, both hoped state or federal officials could provide economic development funds. No promises were made, they said.
Utt noted that 80 percent of the plant assets will remain after production is shut down – including all the electric buses and cranes.
"Someone can come in and almost turn on the lights and start work," he said.
Bender said he already has had some inquiries about the GM plant from what he called "quality people with a genuine interest." He declined to put a number to those inquires or divulge the nature of the industries.
Bender insisted the effort to attract a new tenant to the 2.1-million-square-foot plant should be a community effort, not just a project for area development offices.
"This is bigger than that," he said. "We are going to work as a group because we have to be successful. It's too big a project."
Originally posted on
The Mansfield News Journal Website »
Announcement!
MANSFIELD MAKES SENSE
PRESENTATION TO GM
The Mansfield Makes Sense for the New GM Committee presented these materials to GM Vice President of Global Manufacturing, Tim Lee on July 31st to make a case for retaining the Mansfield-Ontario Metal Center.
Download full presentation » [2.05 MB PDF]
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