Governor to Shelby: Thanks for the effort
Posted: 12/4/2009
Calling it akin to "another Toyota" for Kentucky, Gov. Steve
Beshear came to town Friday to give Shelby County a pat on the back for a
valiant effort in trying to lure a Harley-Davidson manufacturing facility here.
In a speech at the Shelby County Extension Service office,
Beshear noted that the county got some valuable attention despite losing out to
York, Pa., where the company is located.
Harley's union rank and file on Wednesday voted by a vast
margin -- 89 percent to 11 percent -- approving concessions that would keep the
plant from relocating to Shelby County. Concessions included wage freezes,
increased employee health insurance contributions and fewer vacation days.
"I wanted, as governor of this commonwealth, to come here and
personally look you in the eye and say two things: No. 1, thank you for all of
the hard work that you put in; and No. 2, congratulations on all the hard
work," Beshear told the crowd of 40 or so. "We came up a little short."
But, he said, the Shelby County effort did not go unnoticed.
"All of the work that everybody in this room and others did
has not been in vain," he said. "This work will put this community and this
state in a better position to win (when a similar situation comes up)."
The governor said that Harley-Davidson's site-selection team
looked at over 50 communities and industrial sites in seven states. "In the
end, Shelbyville and Shelby County, Ky., was chosen above all of those as the
alterative site if Harley-Davidson decided to move from York, Pa.," he said.
"That says something about this community. They were impressed with the
workforce here, they were impressed by the lifestyle, and they were impressed
by how this community came together to put this effort together. Because of
these efforts, we now are very high on that site-selection group's radar
screen.
"I'm excited about the future of Shelbyville and Shelby
County, because we showed what we could do and we came close to pulling off a
project that would have been, in some senses, another Toyota, in this state,"
he said.
 |
 |
 |