Camshaft Machine may not be moving to Logansport

Logansport officials expressed surprise today at news that Camshaft Machine Co. might be staying in Michigan.

Skip Kuker, president of the Logansport-Cass County Economic Development Foundation, said he had been talking to the company for months.

"I just talked to them on Tuesday," he said.

Not long after hanging up from that call, he said, he got a call from the Jackson Citizen Patriot seeking comment on news that the company had decided to expand in Coldwater, Mich., about 60 miles south of its current operation in Jackson.

The newspaper also called Logansport Mayor Mike Fincher.

"I told them I hadn't heard it, but I said that if it was true, then good for Coldwater," Fincher said. "You can't be mad at them. They're trying to bring jobs to their community the same as we are."

Fincher said he also couldn't be mad at Camshaft.

"We'll be glad to talk to them again," he said. "If this deal doesn't work out, maybe they'll be in the market to expand again sometime, and maybe they'll consider Logansport."

Councilman Teddy Franklin, Fincher's opponent in next month's election, had had claimed some credit for luring Camshaft to Logansport. He expressed surprise at today's report.

"That's news to me," he said. "If that's the case, apparently there was a better offer in Michigan than there was in Indiana."

Kuker said he had not yet given up hope for the negotiations.

"I have not been informed by anyone at Camshaft that we are out of the running," he said. "Until I hear it from them, I won't give up on the possibility."

Fincher agreed.

"I don't think it's a done deal," he said. "If the company isn't saying anything, maybe we're still in the running."

The announcement came from Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who included the plant among several projects expected to create more than 1,600 jobs.

"These projects illustrate Michigan's competitiveness for companies looking to grow and create new jobs," she said.

The Citizen Patriot quoted Ray Snell, a supervisor in the township that is home to Camshaft's current operation, and Bridget Beckman, a representative of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

It did not, however, contain a comment from the company.

"I think you'll see that the article says I have no comment," Mike Easterday, the company's president, said in a telephone conversation this afternoon. "That's my position, and I'm sticking to it."

The Coldwater City Council is reportedly scheduled to meet Monday to consider setting a public hearing on $272,000 in tax abatements. In an interview with the Citizen Patriot, City Manager Bill Stewart stressed that the deal was not final.

"It's not official until everybody signs, but we're working on it," he said.

The company had indicated last spring that it was headed to Logansport, and city and county officials had approved a package of incentives.

The company had said it would employ about 90 people with an average wage of more than $26,000 a year.

Snell said the township had offered 20 acres of land and $5.5 million in incentives to keep the expansion in Jackson. He noted that the company had a history in Jackson dating to 1942.

"We're disappointed despite all the community has invested that they chose to go somewhere else," he said.

The Citizen Patriot said the company was proposing to lease an 80,000-square-foot building in Coldwater and then to build a 140,000-square-foot building by 2011. It said the company was proposing within the next five years to add 180 jobs with an average wage of $687 a week.

Beckman told the Jackson newspaper her agency got involved in the negotiations after learning those jobs might be headed to Logansport.

"It was a very real concern," she said.

She acknowledged the loss of potential jobs in Jackson, but she said the state had little option.

"When we're faced with the choice between facilitating the company's move to another site within Michigan or go out of state, it's not much of a decision to be made," she said.