1982-10-28225
October 28, 1982
SPECIAL MEETING
OF THE
CITY COUNCIL
Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, a special meeting of the City Council
of the City of Mound, Hennepin County,. Minnesota was held at 5341 Maywood Road
in said City on October 28, 1982, at 1:00 P.M.
Those presente were: Mayor Rock Lindlan, Councilmembers Pinky Charon, Robert
Polston, Gordon Swenson, and Donald Ulrick. Also present were: City Manager
Jon Elam and City Clerk Fran Clark.
The Mayor opened the meeting and explained that this meeting was called to
discuss the annoucement that Tonka Corp. has made about. closing it's plant
in Mound and moving to El Paso; Texas. He then .turned the meeting over to
the City Manager who explained that Mr. Steve Shank, President of the
Tonka Corp. was present to share with the Council his thoughts on how to
minimize the impact of the closing on the community.
Mr. Shank explained that many things went into Tonka's decision to move the
plant: competition; inflation, production costs (labor, wage rates and
most of all transportation costs). He assured the Council that property
taxes in Mound were not the issue. The schedule for the move will be to
continue work at the Mound plant for the first half of 1983 and phase down
the plant in the last half of 1.983, closing by the end of 1983• Tonka will
work to make the transition easier for the employees by sponsoring job fairs,
etc. The Tonka Corp. is actively looking for other firms to take over
the buildings and is open to suggestions about future uses. They feel
they haven major investment in the buildings and would like a positive use
for the property.
The City Manager stated that the major impact to the City will be the
water and sewer and the railroad. He has spoken with the MWCC and they
will adjust their bills to the City as Tonka scales down their operation.
Charon moved and Ulrick seconded a motion to adjourn at 1:50 P.M. The
vote was unanimously in favor. Motion carried.
Jo Elam, City Manager
Fran Clark, City Clerk