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New GTI facility in Winchester, Indiana
Exploring outside the
fort… am I missing something?
By Bob Rhoades
Bill LaFramboise, the executive vice president of GTI in Greenville, in
a recent press release by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels said “This new
plant is needed (in Anderson, Ind.) due to capacity limitations and a
tight labor market in Greenville, Ohio,” If you look on
CityData.com, it says Greenville has an unemployment rate of around
10%. The loss of 325 jobs to Anderson, IN is sort of a rough blow
for Greenville and a major victory for Anderson.
Perhaps the next thing we need to see is an explanation from Mr.
LaFramboise to exactly what the limitations are in the industrial park
and how the job market got so tight with an unemployment rate of close
to 10%. It would be good to have an explanation from almost
anyone on these subjects.
Some people during the school campaign said that industry location had
nothing to do with good schools. I think it does, does anyone
else?
Further on in the article Mr. LaFramboise said the following: “It will
also provide us with improved efficiencies and flexibilities to meet
our customer’s needs. We chose Indiana, and specifically Anderson,
because of the availability of a good site, cooperative government and
a plentiful workforce.” We don’t have a good site? Our
Government isn’t cooperative, there’s no one to work? Ouch!
Here we were all this time thinking our government was doing all they
could do, that we had plenty of land in the Industrial Park and with a
10% unemployment rate plus plenty of unemployed in Miami, Montgomery
and Preble counties, we thought we had enough people too. Shame,
Shame! Either we haven’t been told the truth or Bill wasn’t told
the truth. But then of late, it’s been hard to tell hasn’t it.
WHIO reports that the crime rate in Dayton has declined! We all
know why don’t we? It’s because the next story after that story
was of some dimwit from Dayton coming up here or over to Eaton, or Troy
or Piqua to commit their crimes. Breaking into houses, slitting
people’s throats, we’ve had it all. Perhaps we need a story
on that. Would any of that have a bearing on the addition of 325
jobs to our labor force?
We have a history with this sort of thing. Corning Glass of
Corning, NY came to Greenville in 1955. They employed a lot of
people from all over the area. Machine shops popped up everywhere
to supply the local plant with the precision they needed to produce
headlights and consumer ware for the parent Corning Glass. The people
worked hard and then after 50 years, Corning said, the plant wasn’t
making enough money. My question was “did corporate give them
enough work?”
One has to hope that this isn’t happening again. It is unreal to
believe that a company would put all of its eggs in one basket.
On the other hand with economic conditions as they are, losing 325 jobs
to a town that’s only about an hour and 15 minutes away makes one
wonder.
It just seems sort of odd to be able to drive past a plant in Anderson
and see the sign Greenville Technologies on the front of it. Ohio
has done well with Honda and we should all be thankful for that.
But let’s also not get complacent. Let’s hope that none of
our other industrial base decides to “explore” outside the fort!
Just wondering, maybe I missed something.
Sources for the quotations from Rhoades…
City of Anderson, Indiana
Also from the Herald Bulletin
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