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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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