I would suggest the City and State file an injunction against GM and require immediate clean up of that entire place. It's a toxic waste dump and no company will ever move in or purchase the property. Cradle to grave liability means you buy the land you also own the toxic waste underneath. Force GM into a position where it makes more sense to reopen and keep jobs there. If they get off the hook somehow it will be up to Janesville to pay the cost and that means you and I.

Only a dope could say something like "It's hard to sympathize with former GM workers, cause they made to much money" then call someone else mean. It's pretty sad how jealous some people STILL are that others were making a wage that actually supported a family.

WOW! smarty and turtle, you must not even read your own posts. How mean and hurtful was your statements?!! And I didn't notice you chastising anyone who demeaned the good people at GM who were just trying to make a living like everyone else. And I would say 90% of my posts were replies to a good, honest debate.
If my facts or opinions are wrong, feel free to correct me. Not unsubstantiated generalities, but something that can be confirmed. There are opinions and facts, with opinions being disputable as the difference. You won't hurt my feelings.
dope...wow, that's a good one!

Chad vader....your attempts at humor fail miserably. They just come across as mean. Try to be a little more engaging rather than confrontational. You won't sound like such a dope.

ihavealife, actually at age 62, if you are drawing a pension, you lose what is called "the supplement" to your pension. After that you get about $51 a month per year of service (30 years,$1530) skilled trades retirees get a few dollars more per month for each year. At 62 you either start drawing SS or wait until you are older and live on the pension and savings/investments/job.

ZOOM, you are right GM paid the money into the pension fund and paid wages. But, the money in the pension fund would have been wages if there was no fund. The money for health care would have been wages if there was no health care. Like everything else it was negotiated, like the money diverted to the SUB fund from wages. Like the money to help fund health care diverted from wages to make the union run VEBA(health care) work. They are all negotiated benefits instead of wages. A lot of people would rather have had the money instead of the benefits, but then they probably would have been watching their 401-k evaporating the last year or so like alot of other Americans!

916WI - he was the father of Luke Skyrunner ;)

Thanks, zoom. I never said GM made all the right decisions. That is above what the line worker controls. To complain about our wages and benefits is a petty act by some. Everyone has the same opportunity to gain more wealth, its that some find complaining easier than improving their own lives. There are many more companies that have pensions that add cost to their product or service, yet in this city only GM is talked about. Maybe if our trade policies were more fair to US companies and labor we would not have such a bad economy.

The biggest problem with GM is not, as chad_vader has correctly pointed out in the past, wages and benefits. The problem is that GM North America management hasn't figured out how to make a profit for at least the last decade or so. The economic collapse is simply the straw...

"Zoom -technically the money going into the retirement fund was in lieu of wages, so we did contribute to the fund but it was direct."

In lieu of wages? It's a benefit, paid by the company, not a wage. That's the kind of fuzzy math the non-GM people get hot and bothered about. GM pays for your pension IN ADDITION TO your generous hourly wage. That is far different from a 401(k), which is SUBTRACTED from wages (before taxes). Hourly wages being equal, defined benefit plans (pension) will always cost a company more money, hence most have dropped them a long time ago in favor of defined contribution plans (401(k)). I never said GM was special, just a dinosaur. I was correcting the false idea that the Transplants are doing better because they don't have a lot of retirees, when in fact,it doesn't matter how many retirees they have, becuase their retirement plan is employee funded, not company funded. When your sales drop 50%, but your pool of retirees collecting a defined benefit pension stays roughly the same, you have a problem.

Gixxer.....Who is Dark Vader?

Who are you ? (chad vader) Are you related to Dark Vader just another clown hidding behind a mask or what?

Oh Chad Vader, you so funny! Oh so funny.

Maybe you can find a job in the comedy sector. Like running for the school board or city council. But I think they have enough goofs and clowns already.

Pharm - I don't know for sure, but I think they had it changed to 401k's for new hires.
Zoom -technically the money going into the retirement fund was in lieu of wages, so we did contribute to the fund but it was direct. This is no different than many other pension plans other companies have. Yes, it is a burden for GM compared to the transplants, but a pension plan is nothing specially made just for us.
Of course, wait till the hillbillies at the non union plants find their wages cut down to match our new hires. Better not get that double wide.
joker - you need to take that act on the road. Really. Go stand in the road.

I have heard that GM, Ford, Chrysler, went to a 401 type retirement plan in the last contract. Can somebody tell me if that is the case? If GM goes bankrupt there won`t be any question about whose responsibility it will be to clean up the plant site because they will have that burden lifted from their shoulders by the court.

Wow, Cjjs, for once I agree with you. Excellent post. Chad Vader, I do not understand your comment about Communisim and collective bargaining. As usual, you try to use big words to try to look important. But I am done arguing with you and making you look foolish. Admit when you are defeated. It will make you feel better.

I guarantee that for the next few years one of the major issues in Janesville will be the condition of the closed GM plant, who is responsible for it, vandalism at the plant, cleanup of some toxic waste at the plant and various attempts to reuse the facility.

Bottom line, GM will stall and argue back and forth with city officials as to who will shoulder the cost and responsibility of the property. I wonder what the value is for the property once everything has been stripped out. Would Janesville buy the property at a price say for $1 and take on all liability and ownership of the property? This scenario would allow Janesville more control over the future of industry in our beloved city.

The real difference between domestic and transplant compensation is retirement benefits, not wages. GM's old school pension plan pays benefits long after a person retires. The transplant factories have defined-contribution pension plans (401(k)) instead of defined benefit plans (pension). Employees pay into the fund toward their post-retirement packages. The transplants will never have the same pension debt that GM, Ford and Chrysler have, no matter how big they get.

916WI - You are correct about times being different, yet looking at the labor / management struggles and distribution of the companies profit, these will always be the same and history does offer some insight to it. And while I don't like the wage decrease, I can see why it is needed. And as any business man knows, to make a million you need to start with a million and a half. GM is reinventing itself. That will take money right now, but if the economy gets better where people start buying cars again I think they have made some good moves to be profitable again.
Nice to see an intelligent post, even if I may not share your whole viewpoint.

smartypants - there are a lot of jobs in Janesville that may be considered overpaid in our society, and many considered underpaid. Yet complaining about people who made good wages and shared that wealth with the community is very child like. While the fat cats above us make millions, a lot of times even when they screw up, they enjoy seeing those of lower status fight amongst themselves to take the spotlight off of who is really the greedy bastards.

Joker - I learned that in school, in a class called economics. You obviously never have been in a classroom, you don't have class, and the only thin you have in common with class is the last three letters.
To all the rest, it is nice to see intelligent posts that let the joker know what kind of idiot he is. He doesn't even know the difference between Communism and collective bargaining. Funny how he always brags about himself. I find that all pompous, overblown windbags like that are very delusional about their status in life.

So Tim Cullen is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Lets look for another company for the GM building and then hope GM decides to come back in 3 years or so. So Tim... what if you find a company to move into that plant and 3 years later GM says were going to reopen. What will you do with that company?

Why would anyone want to move into that building in the first place. If any business would come to Janesville they most likely would build a new building. Look at all the other empty buildings in this city.

The city of Janesville should not have to pay 1 dime for any tear down of that fossil. The day after Izusu is done the demo should start and be charged back to GM.

There is not a major company that will come to Janesville with ammount of taxes that the state charges to reside here. Look just over the border in Illinois thats where they are going.

Wake up Mr. Cullen and drop GM like they droped Janesville.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Fund covers pensions up to $52,000 a year. There is no one ,except in ex-management, making anywhere near that. Wages are almost the same between GM and foreign makers, the difference comes in when retirees pensions and health care are added to the mix. Foreign makers give less for health care, and as of yet, they have very few retirees. Almost 40% of GM`s debt is owed to the UAW to cover the union taking health care costs off GM`s books beginning next year. This was GM`s idea to save money in the long run, and if they manage to survive it will work. But, only if enough money is put into the fund to cover the costs of the plan. That is a sticking point right now.

I see statements made about learning from our history with regards to organized labor. A huge problem with this it that we live in a completely different world now, so there is no possible way you could apply the "lesson" learned in the past to modern times. There was no foreign competition during the industrial revolution. There was no ease of connectivity between countries or continents. From a manufacturing standpoint, you simply cannot expect to compare the past to anything that is going on today. The statement made about labor rates "shouldn't have been allowed to fall to $14/hr." made absolutely no sense. The only two options to maintaining labor rates was to increase the price of the product. Which would be suicide for GM, considering that Honda and Toyota are taking more and more of their market share every day. The other option in keeping labor rates high would leave GM with no option other than to move production to a place to avoid the labor expense. Mexico seemed to work well for them.......The last comment is in regards to the pensions. There was a post stating that the government has an interest in keeping GM running to avoid being responsible or the $100 million in pensions. I believe the Guarantee Fund only insures a certain percentage of the pensions. Even at that, at least we would be dealing with an absolute. It took GM less than one quarter to burn through $14 billion with no sign of the bleeding slowing anytime soon. The company has become a black hole as far as cash flow is concerned and it's not fair to keep asking taxpayers to keep throwing their money into it.

Most people in the Janesville area make much less than $14/hr. I believe $10-12 is probably a good average. Not hard to see why the non-GM worker has a hard time sympathizing. The only people to afford the GM vehicles were the ones that were paid that high wage to build them. At $10-12/hr you are lucky to buy a used vehicle and only when your last used vehicle croaked. Well who am I telling....you will be in the same boat soon. It's a bumpy ride.

Joker, you specifically blamed the workers and union for Janesville closing, but you still haven`t given one example of why that is. If it was just wages and benefits Arlington would be closed also, and the SUV`s would still be being built in Mexico where wages are one tenth of what they are here. For all your supposed intelligence and education you don`t seem to be able to give one specific example of how the union and workers managed to close the Janesville plant.

Pharm, come on now, stick to the point here. You are all over the board. If you would read closer, you will see that I indicated that many parties are to blame for GM's downfall-workers, UAW, management,Congress,etc.

Bellagio, no you are wrong. I do know quite a bit. And that is why I am quite successful and have done quite well for myself. I have several college degrees and substantial wealth to prove it. I am sorry you are jealous and perhaps not having any success in life.

Video vamp, since you are new here, I will try to be gentle. Look, your naive view on unions is so outlandish. Do you really think that if all workers were united, we would have it better off? What are you, a Communist?

Your wages and benefits were out of control. Pure and simple! What is wrong with $14 an hour? How much did you contribute to your pension? How about for your health care insurance?

As countless people have said on these blogs, many people did well on the GM gravy train. GM, their shareholders, workers and the communities where the plants were. But this gravy train was bound to crash and come to an end. I suggest you do some more research about this.

Mr. Joker, do you really think that labor costs of under 6% caused GM`s problems? Even management disputes that. And it still doesn`t address what you said about the Janesville plant, does it? All auto makers are having trouble, not just the unionized ones. You made a blanket statement about the closing of the plant being due to the union and workers that is untrue. The economy closed the plant, not the contracts.

Ok Pharm, are you telling me that the high wages and benefits that the workers received caused no problems for GM? That this did not cause a financial strain on their operations? That the pension and health insurance for retirees did not contribute to the problems at GM? Do you really believe this?! If so, you are a complete fool!

And trust me, the other plants will be closed very soon.

I am new on this discussion about G.M. but as a retired G.M. worker who worked in 6 G.M. plants in 3 states including the Janesville plant it is unfair to blame the workers.
The problem across the country is that the major corporations got greedy and pitted worker against worker as the ceos made 20 to 30 million a year. No worker in this country can get blamed for the economic crisis that was created.
I get mad when people bash the wages we made. If all workers would have stood together we would all be making a decent wage. But because of all the bashing against autoworkers now the new hires make 14 dollars an hour.
Another point to be made is the fact that the government does not want G.M. to go bankrupt because it will cost the taxpayers 100 billion dollars to pay our pensions which are insured by the pension guarantee board.
That is why loans to be paid back by the autoworkers makes a whole lot more sense. So when you bash the autoworkers make sure you know all the facts. We will receive our pensions but it is sad that the younger workers will now make 14 dollars an hour.

Joker, you gave no examples of why the Janesville plant was closed because of the union or workers. The only ones you gave had to do with the union in general, and I have a difficult time understanding how you can make an idiotic statement, offer no proof to back it up, and pretend you have made your point. You stated the workers and union contributed to the plant being closed, yet many others are still open. What was different here? You didn`t answer that yet. Decreasing sales closed the plant, the economy, gas prices closed the plant, not the workers or the union. No company is selling more SUV`s than GM, even now. No company is selling more vehicles in the US than GM, even now. Explain how the workers and union closed the Janesville plant!

Pharm, I have already given examples of how UAW and the workers continued to the problem. If you are too dense to understand, then that is your problem. Also, I love how you state that in the past few years, the workers and UAW made concessions. Hmmm....how about a few years before that? Or a few years before that? When was the last UAW strike at GM?

I could go on and on and continue to run circles around you but I am a nice guy and will call off the dogs.

Chad Vader, as usual you make no sense. Oh, and thanks for the history lesson. Where did you read it from? The UAW Handbook under the section called Propaganda?

ljs64 - you brought up some old memories. I also heard that Jess's Other Place, and Hollywood Drive In, along with Toot-N-Tell are coming back to the area. I can't wait. I heard the Jeffris family is the primary investors....

If gas wouldn't have spiked to close to $4 a gallon, our economy would not have plumeted to historic lows. If you look back, it was gas prices that started the free fall.

I personally think TheJoker should get a new user id...TheRiddler seems more appropriate.

Once again the joker talking nonsense! He certainly has the right name.

Joker - a market economy works that way. The buyer (GM) bargains with the seller (labor represented by the union) to come to a mutually satisfactory price. Same as when you bargain with the dealer to buy a car. Duh!
We have learned from the mistakes made during the Industrial Revolution, where people were forced to work for basically nothing and had no rights or voice at all. That is why unions were formed, to use the group of labor as a bargaining force instead of individually (called collective bargaining).
Has the local protected people who should have been let go? yes. This is not a perfect world. But you don't scrap the car because one plug is fouled. You fix it.

Mr. Joker, not one thing you said addressed the claim you made that the UAW and workers caused the Janesville plant to be closed. They actually made more concessions here in the past few years than most GM plants. Give a specific example where the union or workers caused this plant to close while others are still open. I`ll wait while you call your sources, or your magic 8-ball, whichever gives you the answer.

Hmm....examples of the UAW and workers being part of the problem? Well, if you have to ask, then you really are clueless. How about fighting GM with contracts, benefits,etc? Like retiree health obligations, employee contributions to health care coverage, workers going on strikes,refusal to make concessions on workforce reductions or wage cuts. Should I go on?

Trust me, GM is just as guilty(maybe even more)and they symbolize incompetence and mismanagement in my book. My point is, everyone is to blame for this problem. The key is to learn from the mistakes and then make sure we do not repeat them!

Joker,I always said the union was not perfect, but you tend to listen to only what you want to hear. If you could point out specific examples before you assign blame that would help. People like you try and simplify this too much and just go for easy targets. There are many factors why Janesville no longer has a product, with the union NOT being one of the major faults. You should quit drinking the anti-union moonshine.

Joker. I don't understand your reasoning. Aren't all GM plants union? Why would they leave Janesville because of the union? GM only "offered" what they could afford at the time of the contracts. The union bargained in good faith and GM constantly pushed the limits of its contracts. GM doesn't "give" anything. They only "gave" when they wanted something bigger in return. How many times have any of the auto companies given you a discount because your vehicle was made in Mexico as opposed to the US? Give me a break. The reason the auto companies are failing is because we are in a global economy now where trade is not balanced and favors foreign imports. Now that the Americans are not purchasing because of the erosion of their purchasing capability and the erosion of the middle class here, the foreign competitors are failing, also, without unions.

The US will not recover from this recession/depression using the tools that were used in the great depression, because we are so tied to foreign investment, loans and a global economy. Gosh, maybe you should visit a library and read some real history. I learned my early history at my grandfather's knee when he told stories about working in a bridge manufacturing plant (before unions) for 12 hours a day and he would get whipped if he didn't bring his foreman lunch. Making less than $2.00 per week and raising a young family, it was very difficult to bring the foreman lunch but with no welfare or assistance by the government, and no laws governing the workplace at the time, he and his generation sucked it up because they needed to make a living.

Mr. Joker, could you use your usual reliable sources and tell us the reasons the UAW and the workers were responsible for the plant here to close? I, for one, would be very interested to learn why it wasn`t the slump in sales, and the fact that there were three plants producing the same vehicles. Please elaborate!

Chad Vader, quit drinking the UAW Kool-Aid and admit that UAW and the workers contributed to the problem of GM leaving Janesville. Fingers need to be pointed at several groups, including UAW and their members.

THE PLANT AT ITS CURRENT LOCATION WILL NOT OPEN. maybe gm will relocate with a new product near the interstate but that is not likely in the near future. how could it be unless the city council votes a few billion to build a new plant. gm has some great cars with great economy that they are successfully building at other plants. until those start making money what sense does it make to expand. gm's biggest problem was unfettered expansion and reliance on a few of their procucts to carry the whole company. it seems they were slow to read the market future and provide accordingly. of course, the union, unfairly, took and still takes most of the flack pertaining to gm's failure.

Right on localboy!

Xlsi - you probably think you were screwed over by the UAW, yet don't realize that you probably got more benefits than if you didn't have the union. Was it perfect - no - but did you really try and change anything or just sit in a corner and complain about it?

ILturtles - GM's "greed' as you put it pumped a lot of money into this local economy. Quit being so bitter.

Turn the plant into a landfill. The soil has to come out from the plant anyways. It is toxic beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm sure waste management would be quick to jump on some landfill lease to haul in some garbage like they already do.

This is not the time to blast the UAW for the troubles of GM/Janesville. If the Union was guilty of anything it was protection of certain workers not intent on giving the company value for the wage. The UAW wages were inline with cost of living adjustments tacked on since the 70's. My statement is company wide and not just Janesville. Janesville has made significant gains in productivity in production, but fell backwards in Skilled Trades and other areas.

Now that is funny,should GM return to Janesville in 2012 all the high price labor will be removed.
Any bets on who will be first in line for those 14.25 per hour jobs??
Lets try,Xisi,Smartypnts50 and wezzel. Any bets???????

deweeze I agree 100%!! UAW got what they had coming. I unfortunately was part of that local 95 bs over at LSI. Wow what a joke the union was

Mr. Cullen, is it that you can't learn or that you won't learn? The door is not slightly ajar, it's flapping in the wind like an old ghost town. If you want to squeeze through that door everyday and keep the place swept up for the 3 years until you expect them back, why you just go for it. Meanwhile, the hard working folks who have faced reality will try somehow to make sense of this fiasco and move on....maybe you should consider that too. It's over.

The deweeze hasn't a clue that is a fact. I wonder if he went to school in Rock Co.? If he or she did,the quality education they got is because of the people of the UAW. I remember as a boy working for .15 cents a hour on the farm and that wasn't long ago. So Deweeze,you should be the one to wake up!!!

Get a clue deweezel, the union only got what GM gave them. That is called collective bargaining, nothing wrong with that. And the only reason you made more than minimum wage on a non union job was because of the union wages they had to compete with. Or maybe your related to the boss, so he had to pay you more. Learn how an economy works before you try and be an expert.

"Considering no other companies have shown interest in the plant, GM is the only option for Janesville, Cullen said" If no one else is interested in the plant and the city, county and state can't interest any buyers then I'd say it's obvious GM isn't interested in this plant in this location either. Make it a hydroponic garden and employ cheap labor from south of the border to grow the crop.

Wake up UAW..........You voted yourselves out of a job with your high wages and the rest of the gimmies and got to haves if you want me to work you insisted on.
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Now its time to come down to reality with the rest of us that most of you have looked down your noses at all these years. This is how the rest of us live.
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This is what the area needed to bring things back to where they should be.
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Let this be a lesson learned to other unions. Get greedy and have to have the best of everything........ Well say good-bye to your jobs and way of life.

If the horse is dead can I have it's saddle????

Three reasons that it may come back in fiture years is that the hokey, dokey, pokey crew headed up by Doyle and Sheridan, is that it's a fight between Dana Corp, Parker Pen and Disney World all fighting over the rights for the future of the plant. They just can't make up their minds as to who they should start making a UAW contract with at $55/hr, so they need to keep people's hopes up for their GM jobs back at the end of their 80% pay. Good Grief!!!!! What a dilema.

Shopierehuh they need to replace all the water lines in the plant unless you want to drink black sparkle nasty tasting water YUMMY! If you worked down there you know what I'm talking about it was yucky!!!Yes it could all be fix but it would be lots of money..

Yes, I heard Nino's, The Leftguard and the Ramada Inn all were returning to Janesville. I am still holding out hope!!

I heard that Parker Pen was going to come back and make horseshoes and railroad passenger cars. Odd coincidence that you would mention it.

Personally, I'm still waiting for Parker Pen to return.

badgerinbuckeye, Typically a "brownfield" is designated by the EPA after a study. I am surprised that they have done a study so quickly. Could you please post a link to this news? Also could you please post the costs to clean this up that you mentioned? Thanks.

Wasn't the plant on city water, danias? If so it's the same water the rest of Janesville drinks. Also, the manholes coming up when it rains indicates either insufficient storm drainage due to plugs or capacity problems or it would indicate infiltration of storm water into the sanitary sewer due to the same. These are correctable plumbing problems. Neither have any thing to do with environmental problems commonly refered to as "Brownfield" in the context of abandoned industrial sites.

The Janesville GM plant is now what is called a "brown field". the cost of the clean-up fo the site wouldn't be feasible or realistic,it will just sit there and become dust in the wind.

Robinhood the water wasn't even safe for the workers to drink and you want to put a water park there! That place has so many problems that they would have to put a lot of money in there to fix it is would be worth it, When it rains the manholes are bursting up its a major health hazard it not worth the time. If Gm won't come back tear it down!

Uh... the economy? In this economy it would be foolish to commit to spend the money to reactivate this plant - however much the locals want it.

Of course GM is not coming back to Janesville. Sheridan, Cullen and Doyle are Democrats, they are pandering to the labor vote. They want to be able to say that they did everything they could to get GM to reconsider.

What is odd is some people's inability to understand the term "excess manufacturing capacity". A year ago when gasoline was three dollars per gallon and rising, GM had 270 days inventory of the Janesville GM product on hand and three plants building it. Last April or so, GM announced the elimination of the second shift at Janesville. Right there is when the employees at GM Janesville should have been getting their affairs in order, it was sure enough apparent to many of us that this plant was going to close, long before GM made the announcement.

GM might declare bankruptcy, if so they will have to trim more manufacturing capacity. If they don't declare, they will have to trim manufacturing capacity as part of the bailout terms. The Janesville plant is tooled up to build a product that is not selling well, it is of no real use to a nearly bankrupt company.

No Virginia, GM is not coming back to Janesville. It is time for a reality check. Stop listening to the pandering politicians.

Anyone who thinks GM is coming back to Janesville is a fool. Come on Janesville Gazette, quit trying to make up a story that does not exist. And thank you Tim Cullen for your usual political double talk. You make no sense. You say the door is still open then you say Janesville should take over the property and look at other options. HUH??

Like others have said, GM will do their song and dance and put off their obligations regarding the property. The facility will rot and fall apart and soon will be like the former Wagon Wheel in Rockton. Nobody will claim ownership and it will burn down building by building over the years.

Liquidation bankruptcy remains a distinct possibility for GM. In that case, the taxpayers would be on the hook for cleanup whether we like it or not.
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I don't have any criticism of the task force. They are charged with trying as hard as they can, as long as they can, to get either GM or another tenant into the site. It's not their fault the economy tanked.
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Isuzu is not an option. They quit the US consumer market this winter. It was only profitable for them to piggy-back on GM domestic production.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008...
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What's going to happen is that the site will be split up and either sold or leased piecemeal. There just isn't a demand for that kind of space, but there might be 3-5 companies that would easily take part of it.

By the end of the month, GM will have to present the rest of their plan to reorganize the business to the Federal Government in order to receive any more loan money. In those plans it has been said, they need to close several more plants one of which is a truck plant. Those truck plants on the list are located in Flint,MI, Pontiac,MI, Ft Wayne,IN, and Shreveport,LA. I wouldn't get my hopes up that Janesville will come back to life as these plants facing a possible closure are much newer or closer to the home base.

If GM returns to Janesville in the future, it's likely that they would build a new plant. In the meantime, they should be required to tear down and clean up their mess, then (after it's cleaned up) WI should seize the property as a partial repayment of the millions they were given to guarantee jobs here through 2012. The site would be a great place for that water park the city wants to open so badly. It already has good interstate access and great parking. As was already stated, retention is an option that is long gone, they aren’t returning to what used to be. If GM produces a product in Janesville again it will be a completely new business no different than if Ford or some other company built a new plant here. I’m all for a new plant and jobs here in Janesville who ever the company is, but the ship has sailed and sank on keeping the old GM here.

So true, befair. Those of us getting an education do worry about jobs in the area when we graduate. Most have stayed because they like the Janesville area and want to find jobs in this area, and don't want to move. If Janesville is to get over all this, it needs desperately to start attracting business now to accommodate all those newly trained people.

To clarify, the article says Tim Cullen believes the city should try to gain control of the site. What exactly does this mean? GM should be responsible for this property, not the taxpayers of Janesville. Gaining control, if it would happen, should not mean letting GM off the financial hook in any way, shape or form. And do we even want control? Complex issue!

Also to clarify, it's one thing to be laid off by an employer who is going to be able to call you back in the foreseeable future. It's entirely another situation when that job might be gone for good. Self-preservation has to kick in. I've spoken with lots of people who are retraining themselves for new employment. What I'm saying is that Janesville needs to work very hard at attraction, not just retention. We need new work for people who have lost jobs that are not going to be calling workers back when unemployment benefits are used up and retraining is finished. GM is a large component of this problem, but not the only one. Janesville has taken some big hits to its industrial base and the identity of our community is changing has a result. Who will be be in the future?

First, the plant has to be stripped down before it would really be used for anything else. That is what J.P. Cullen is doing now. It has only been a few months since the plant closed, is anyone stupid enough to think something was going to zip right in there?
Second, if the property was eventually given to the city, would it be available for the Superfund? That would reduce costs to the city for cleanup.
Third, no one can positively say GM will never need more capacity in the future. ( well, except the losers who just want to see GM fail, not understanding what that really means).
People who complain about this stuff are not looking for solutions, they are the problem with our society.

It borders on unethical to keep pumping the line GM may come back. It is nonsense. What does Wagoner have to do? Hit Cullen over the head with a 2x4 before he gets the message? It is over with folks. Starting looking elsewhere.

so the people of janesville will pay for the plant in higher taxes? will it be another park ?
what would the city do with it? glad janesville has got all that extra money to burn! or so they think.

There are several very important issues in this story that all need to be addressed in the interest of moving forward and protecting our future:

1. GM returning to Janesville is a longshot, a very long one!
2. If that longshot even has a chance, it would be something that would happen at least three years from now. Unemployed people can't wait that long.
3. There is an enormous vacated site that someone has to deal with and it will be expensive to do so. Shouldn't the current owner be held responsible? That property isn't gaining value as time goes by.
4. Apparently no other major industry is looking at Janesville right now to reuse the site.
5. If the city somehow gained control of the site where would we get the money to deal with it?
We can't wait years to resolve these issues. Wishing and hoping are a complete disservice to this community. We've got a big open wound and time alone won't heal it. We need a strong, proactive task force to focus on a future for Janesville without GM and it doesn't look like there's a lot more time to waste!

If GM does return in 2012, the EPA will not let them turn a screw until they completely tear out the old paint department and put in a new one. The old paint department is grandfathered in until then.

What about Isuzu? Has anybody (city/county/state) been courting them? I don't think the city wants that building/site. I will guarantee you it is an environmental mess.

Good God how much longer are we gonna keep beating this dead horse? GM is gone and there is A better chance of leaded gas and HOT PANTS coming back at this point! You can't stuff crap back in the donkey and you are not going to get GM reopened in Janesville Because the JOKER told us so!!!!!!!!!