Area officials happy after Ford meeting

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080403/BUSINESS/804030393

Prospects bright for Louisville site

By Jere Downs • [e-mail] • April 3, 2008

The mood was giddy yesterday as Gov. Steve Beshear and an entourage of state and local officials arrived at Louisville International Airport to declare that Ford Motor Co. executives confirmed their commitment to invest hundreds of millions of dollars and build a new vehicle at the Louisville Assembly Plant by 2011.

"All of us have a greatly increased comfort level as a result of this trip today," Beshear said upon the return from a meeting in Dearborn, Mich. "We will get a new product here. … We won't be faced any time in the future with the possibility of a shutdown."

Gov. Steve Beshear, center, was joined by, from left, Joe Reagan of Greater Louisville Inc., Economic Development Secretary John Hindman and Mayor Jerry Abramson during a news conference after the Ford meeting.

Ford executives declined to reveal to the group what new product might be coming to Louisville Assembly, Beshear said. This summer, Ford will eliminate the 1,000-worker night shift at the Fern Valley Road plant in response to declining Explorer sales.

Still, Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson said that Ford's intention to qualify for state subsidies with its plans to convert the plant to a flexible manufacturing facility "was as strong as new rope."

"This was not a somber meeting," Abramson said of the daylong trip. "This was a meeting where there was excitement in the room."

Kentucky will schedule talks this month with Ford to tailor lucrative tax incentives approved last year by the General Assembly to avoid a plant shutdown, said John Hindman, secretary of the Cabinet for Economic Development.

FULL story at link.