Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Politicians try to save glass plant -- By Peter McIntyre

A last ditch attempt will be made to keep the Owens Illinois glass plant in Lavington from closing.

Vernon mayor Wayne Lippert will arrange a meeting with Coldstream's mayor and the chairman of NORD to see if something can be done.

Lippert realizes it may be too late with the plant expected to close this Friday.

"We need to go ahead and try to do something. We've had some discussions elsewhere, some in-camera, that have prompted this at this time, to be able to try and do something. Yes, it would have nice to do something sooner but we have been working on some things. It may be last ditch, but better off to try it now, than later on."

Lippert says if they can't hold off the closure, they may be able to help find a buyer, or other uses for the site.

He says the lower dollar could make the plant more viable.

Owens Illinois cited economic factors when it announced the closure two months ago.

It will put 300 people out of work, although an undetermined number of employees and manager Tom Herger will remain on for up to six months to decommission the plant.

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Too bad they have not tried this concentrated effort earlier. Let's see, Friday it's scheduled to close. That means they have two days to convince those in power to keep the plant open.

Sounds like a good plan!

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Or, at least acted like they were interested around the time of announcement would have been better than this. It made for much needed good laughter during our lunch break today. The response by politicians of any stripe around this issue has been nothing short of pathetic. We would have expected a little more from people who could have at least attempted to make a difference. But virtually nothing but CYA at this point, oh and I heard something that civic elections are coming up.
Tim Werry

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I have been a resident of Coldstream since 1976. I have had 15 years of experience on Council, 3 years as Mayor. As a current Councillor I am working to achieve fair water and sewer rates and to ensure that taxpayers get fair treatment. The current direction regarding water supply is unsustainable and I am doing all I can to get the most cost effective water supply possible.