By: Diane Benjamin
Spending for the Town of Normal Monday night: http://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2589
There is nothing wrong with honoring MLK, but why are tax dollars used? I wonder how much Bloomington paid considering the Council and employees are invited to come and eat for free, and bring a friend.
The Rivian agreement with Normal says you will be paying to take care of the grounds. The bills are starting to come in! I wonder if fixing the sign is a taxpayer expense too:
Don’t miss the rebates!
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Why is your government holding SAT prep classes?
Where is the line between what government should do and what they shouldn’t?
Have fun at whatever Easter event they have planned – it cost you $1000 just for the eggs.
More buying economic development:
The Flats is student housing. ISU tears down dorms, why did a developer have to be paid to build housing? The students have to live somewhere!
Is this Normal’s way of controlling what gets built? Note: It’s in a TIF district.
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Right… a car company that we have to cut the grass for? Are you kidding me? But they say they are going to invest 40 million in the plant over the next few years… when anyone who knows anything about making cars would tell you that 40 million is a joke and they would need 400 million to mass produce cars in that plant. Mayor Koos and Normal is being taken for a ride by Rivian. I predict they will sell what they can out of the plant and be gone. Don’t forget that Normal has agreed to provide some sort of security for them too! What is the hourly rate for a Normal police officer?
Maybe that’s why an officer wasn’t present at the protest after the debate. Normal couldn’t afford one at both places.
I assume you will be able to find out how much security is costing Normal for Rivian? It has to be a good amount of money? I remember that the agreement was pretty vague about what they were going to provide.
I can try a FOIA.
Dear Town of Normal,
I might create some jobs in the future. In the meantime would you mind taking care of my yard and any other maintenance items that come up? Please let me know where to send my list.
I have a tree that needs to come down…looks like Normal spent 20 grand on pruning and tree removal at the Rivian plant…. I just need a couple hundred bucks – oh yes, I do have some bushes that need trimming so make it 300 bucks and I am good.
Sweet deal Rivian has going there. Can Normal maintain my lawn well just in case I want to sell my home someday and I want it to look nice? BTW you will be creating more jobs by using someone else to maintain it. At least it was nice of you to use a local company but you might want to bid that out to a lower cost provider of the same service…just sayin. I maybe sort of gather you didn’t bid that out and just picked a company. They must be jumping for joy.
With Trump working out a deal to change the CAFE standards how do you think electric cars will fair? Uh probably not to well. I’m with Lawrence. Normal and the taxpayers are being taken for a ride.
Yes they are Marc… this is one big scam…. Rivian is already working with the liquidator to sell plant assets – Normal is essentially subsidizing the liquidation of the plant through Rivian! Just the copper and steel alone in that plant is worth a lot of money. The stamping shop has some large valuable presses that could be sold. There is a lot of money in that plant that could be parted out over time making Rivian a lot of money. If Mitsubishi left the body shop robots when they left – they could be sold for millions of dollars. I am just guessing here (yes I worked there) that there could be 40 million in salable assets in that plant. Yes the taxpayers of Normal are paying to mow the lawn and trim the trees of a liquidator disguised as a car company. Mayor Koos, you should be ashamed of yourself for being suckered into this….
Blinded by “the vision.”
Koos has no shame. Never has, never will. Same with Renner. Modern day snake oil hucksters.
Pardon me but I can only think that either what drives these (government) people is some form of kickbacks or complete ignorance, and unfortunately both have been proven on many occasions throughout the course of government in general.
I am not sure how many pounds of copper are in the plant, same with aluminum, brass, steel, etc., but it could have a lot of scrap value as Lawrence suggested.
http://www.scrapmsc.com/our-pricing/
My guess would be that Mitsubishi did not leave $10, 20, 40 million in assets in a plant they sold for very little.
That’s a good guess, however when people are in a hurry to get out sometimes they leave everything!
The large and relatively new Komatsu monster press (this did the one piece sidebodies) was probably 20 million new – it took 3 months just to set this press – This is a progressive die press that are 3 stories high with a footprint of 4 large houses. All the presses (even the old ones) are worth a lot of money. If the robots are still there – there are most likely 250 of them. Many are expensive relatively new industrial robots – used they could go for 10 – 15 thousand a piece. I know all the forktrucks and haulers are still there. Some are almost new. There are probably close to 50 forktrucks there. Rivian may be scam artists, but they are not dumb. They are going to cash in on that plant and leave.
Imagine this scenario: Mean while back at the Rivian CEO’s office: Hahahaha, those people in Normal are really stupid. We’re going to make so much money on this it’s sick! Hahaha, hey pass me another glass of the Dom, ah hell just give me the whole bottle! Hahaha, bottles of Dom for everyone! Ha, this caviar is really good,,,ummmmm, good! Where did we get this? Order another case of it, we’ll eat caviar all week thanks to those stooges in Normal. Ha, if that’s normal behavior for Illinois government, no wonder the state is so broke! I almost feel sorry for the citizens. Nah. Ha, ha, hahahahahahahahaha (all the way to the bank.)
Who is profitting from the growing Volkswagen dealership(junkyard) growing on the north side of the plant? If a company is renting that out, isnt the city getting some taxes in return? Interesting to know….