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United Steel Workers vote to support Kitchell

Last Updated on April 30, 2015 by cassnetwork

Cass County Communication Network welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns. The following Guest Column was submitted by Dave Kitchell, Democrat for mayor, on April 28, 2015.
I was honored and humbled Tuesday afternoon to see so many members of the local United Steel Workers Union at the American Legion.
I spent about an hour with them and received their vote to support our campaign.
The union voted without any dissenting votes to support me after several members asked questions about what a Kitchell Administration would be like. Among their concerns are ongoing Logansport Municipal Utilities problems at the Carter plant in Cass/Logan Industrial Park. Due to water problems, Carter executives have been forced to bring in portable toilets for their workers.
In the mayoral forum last week, incumbent Ted Franklin said the problem is attributed to the Federal Aviation Administration which has not approved Logansport’s site for a new water tower.
Kitchell said after the meeting that Carter and its employees should be a greater priority of the city administration.
“It isn’t fair to management or employees to be doing their jobs with 19th century infrastructure in a 21st century economy. We have to be moving more quickly to prevent this from ever happening again before Carter’s executives decide there are plenty of other cities with municipal utilities that don’t have this problem. Working with members of the Indiana congressional delegation should have been a priority for this administration so that the FAA and the city could resolve this issue more quickly.”
Kitchell said the other concern with the project is that the city’s plan to annex area between the city limits and the industrial park to leverage industrial park TIF money for the Logansport Mall is the type of funding that should be used to build a new water tower now.
“Instead, it’s money that the city is counting on to redevelop the Logansport Mall. The current administration is risking the loss of yet another local employer after losing Co-Tronics, the Logan Stampings expansion, Next Day Container and Staples in the last year.”
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