11/16/2009

William Brown didn't exactly make a bunch of friends during his stop in Salina on Friday morning. The executive vice president of global operations for Hawker Beechcraft was in town to meet with employees of Salina's Hawker plant.

As reported last week, the company announced the plant will close and 238 employees will lose their jobs.

It's good that a high-ranking official made a personal visit to discuss the plant's future. But some of his comments at the meeting did not sit well with employees or those involved with Salina economic development.

The Journal's Michael Strand talked with Hawker employees after their shift ended Friday. They told him that Brown said local officials did nothing to keep the plant in Salina.

"Bill Brown specifically said Salina wasn't offering anything to keep them here," employee Sherri Curtis told Strand. Others at the meeting verified the comment.

What a fascinating thing for Brown to say. At a press conference last week, a bevy of local folks said the opposite. They include: Salina City Manager Jason Gage; Tim Rogers, executive director of the Salina Airport Authority; and Dennis Lauver, president of the Salina Area of Chamber of Commerce. Saline County Commission Chairman Randy Duncan and state Rep. Deena Horst, R-Salina, also were in attendance.

The message at that presentation was that local leaders and state economic development officials had repeatedly contacted the company to find out what could be done to preserve the Salina plant.

Chamber director Lauver said only a "broad and general statement" of need was the response. A request for more details went unanswered.

We know these officials would not have called a press conference for a group lie. We believe they did their best to retain these high-paying jobs and we are confident they have evidence to verify their correspondence with Hawker.

On the flip side, we'll give Brown the benefit of the doubt. It's possible, though unlikely, that employees reporting Brown's comments misinterpreted what he said. Or perhaps Brown just didn't get the memo detailing Salina's efforts to retain the plant.

Whatever the case, this episode does nothing to boost our confidence in Hawker. Instead, it confirms that the company planned all along to close the local plant, no matter what company officials might have said to the contrary.

-- Tom Bell

Editor & Publisher

822-1491

tbell@salina.com

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