By Scott Unger • Of the News-Register • 

Ultimate RB to close in McMinnville

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Comments

BigfootLives

Imagine being one of the employees that have just lost their jobs with a rough economy and all signs of it getting rougher and then reading this sickening post in the NR with the city actually giddy over the prospect of getting the land to continue their winescape fantasy. The city can't pay its bills and they are still looking at new toys. When does it stop?

Was the city evening concerned about losing a manufacturer that has been in town for 35 years? Maybe the laid off commoners can learn to code, or let them eat cake.

CubFan

I'm curious "why" they are closing. Are they consolidating operations to another location out of state? Or is the entire company closing?

Jeb Bladine

As someone involved in early formation of McMinnville’s Urban Renewal District, I would suggest that “realistic anticipation” is a better description than “giddy” to describe the city’s response to this news.

Creation of the Alpine District and its inclusion in the UR District – along with the downtown core area – was a long-term city economic development strategy that has yet to be realized. It was known from the beginning that the RB Rubber area might become a key to diverse development in the Alpine area.

For years, there has been discussion about helping to facilitate relocation of RB Rubber with some form of local land swap in order to both retain a valued manufacturing operation and open up room for more strategic UR development. Owners of RB Rubber were never pressed in that direction, and the city has appreciated the economic value of those jobs.

Now that owners of RB Rubber have made an economic decision to consolidate operations elsewhere, the city would be remiss not to consider the possibilities of acquiring or partnering in the development of that site.

tagup

Growth is inevitable and the city’s interest makes good sense. It was the company that made the decision to close.. should the city leaders ignore the potential of the location because they feel bad about the layoffs?

Shorty

Having been away from this comments section for sometime, I must say, Bigfootlives petulant and nonsensical rants never cease to amaze me for their utter stupidity.

eallen23

RB rubber has been purchased multiple times by different private equity firms over the last few years. They also have a location in the Portland area, so my guess is that it is more economical to move all operations to that location. As a business right across from the operation, they have been helpful neighbors over the years, assisting us before we bought our own forklift, however I won't miss the giant semis blocking our street.

BigfootLives

Jeb, where was that in the article? It went from business is closing, 30 family wage jobs lost in a rocky economy (are there 30 replacement manufacturing jobs in town?) straight to 'we have to develop this asset, this project would be 18 months, we're going to need 11 million dollars...' and to be fair to say, that was 80% of the article.

Shorty, I sincerely hope that you or yours were not effected by this closure, but 30 families were. I don't wish that on anybody.

tagup

A cursory google search shows multiple open manufacturing positions available at Cascade Steel, Meggett, Franz. All in McMinnville. Multiple employment agencies are also advertising opportunities. The jobs market locally, seems ok at the present time.
This was RB’s decision to close. Seems to me that city leadership would be negligent if they didn’t investigate the possibilities at that location.

Shorty

Bigfootlives—I don’t believe for one second that you “sincerely hope that you and yours are not affected by this closure.” I have deep empathy for the thirty families that are affected. I lost my job to a company closure when I was past middle age. I’m keenly aware of how soul crushing it is.

Shorty

Bigfootlives continued …
My criticism of your comment is the stupidity of making links that don’t exist, e.g. “…and reading this sickening post (newspaper article?) in the NR with the city actually giddy over the prospect over the prospect of getting the land … etc.” That’s stupidity

Rds

So why are they closing? Very poor reporting on the news and the story just morphed into the development group salivating over this company and the jobs being gone. Article title was misleading and should have been about developing committee.

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