DANVILLE — Since this fall, multiple businesses have either left the area or reduced staffing, which has not gone unnoticed by Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr.
Hyster-Yale, which had been in business in Danville for more than 50 years, announced its closure in early December.
Williams spoke about those situations in the city as a priority to discuss.
“Number one is the situation with Hyster-Yale,” Williams said. “I would like everyone to know just some of the things that we did in order to try to prevent them from leaving our community.”
Williams said he and Logan Cronk were approached by representatives about consolidation, costing the city of Danville around $30,000. The business negotiations were “radio silence” for months, according to Williams.
“We showed them many different sites throughout the community, some that were in Danville and some that were not in Danville proper,” Williams said as the investors became serious and communicative. “Although I want them to be in Danville, if they’re not going to be here, it’s much better that they be just outside of Danville or in Tilton or Hoopeston or Westville or Georgetown than if they leave our community entirely. That’s 200 and some odd good-paying jobs.”
Williams said city officials worked to put together a proposal with support from the council, as well as support from Governor JB Pritzker, and Christy Richards with the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
“They put together a package as well. We thought we put together a really strong package, and it seemed that we did,” Williams said. “A couple of months pass, and I’m on vacation, and they call and say, ‘We need a million and a half dollars more, mayor.’” To which Williams said he was reluctant, but wanted to secure the business, so he reached back out to members of the state government.
As part of the package, Hyster-Yale engineering staff would receive free tuition from the University of Illinois, as well as collaboration from the university on projects.
Williams said not long after, he was informed the company was considering the Avon, Ind., location.
“Fast forward to two days before Thanksgiving. I get a call from my team in panic mode, Mayor. They’re telling us they need 5 million more dollars,” Williams recalled. “I reached out to the state again.”
Williams said the state was able to come up with an extra $4.5 million to meet the demand of $5 million. And, at that time, the developer, Paul Offutt, offered to reduce the cost of the structure by $10 million, making city officials feel comfortable with the company staying in Danville.
But that all came to a swift change when Williams said he found out they were leaving the city from the news media. Williams thinks the company moved over the border due to lower minimum wage and unions.
“What I can tell you is that, unfortunately, our shop here was one of their last union shops in the country,” Williams said. “So in my estimation, I… wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with that, especially given that they have told all of their employees that work here, that if they want to continue to work over there, that they have to reapply for their jobs.”
Minimum wage in Indiana is $7.25 an hour versus $15 an hour in Illinois.
Alderman Jon Cooper agreed that the business crossing the border signals what he calls advantages over Illinois.
“So you know that’s putting us in a bad spot, with us being on a border,” Cooper said. “I mean, we went above and beyond, I’m sure. How can we combat that? And I don’t even know if we’re going to be able.”
Williams is optimistic despite the current circumstances.
“On how do we combat that — make sure that we’re as good as that we’re as good as possible to do business with here, to make sure that we have incentives available when we do have the opportunity to grab things,” Williams said. “And the other thing is, we’re going to be working with Vermilion advantage for them to be more proactive.”
Which Williams says he thinks this will be corrected soon, as Vermilion Advantage finalizes the hiring of its next CEO.
“As we hire the next CEO, we can be assured that we have someone who’s innovative and proactive instead of always reactive,” Williams said.
Alderman Jaleel Jones suggested more businesses near busier roads.
“I just think it would be a very reasonable thing to maybe put more business out by the highways rather than in town,” Jones said.
“We can’t tell them [investors] where they are going to invest their money,” Williams said. “We can incentivize it, which we have, but ultimately they decide, you know, where they want to be.”
The mayor indicated many choose to put up shop near the busiest intersections, which, for Danville, he says are mainly up north, like Winter and Vermilion streets.
“There is an appropriate time for a more lengthy discussion,” said Alderman Doug Aherns said.