Aircraft Manufacturer Promises To Hire Up To 200 More Workers When Able

Duluth, MN, city officials Monday decided to loan Cirrus Design Corp. $2 million, extracting from the company a pledge to expand its payroll in the town by 200 if it's physically able to accommodate the increased production.

Most of the money would go toward cleaning up the Cirrus plant site, which has pollution and soil problems, according to council members.

"We're undertaking to make the site buildable for Cirrus," Duluth Economic Development Authority Board Member Tom Cotruvo told the Duluth News-Tribune.

Not all the money has yet been pinpointed though, Cotruvo admitted. The city is still trying secure a $900,000 grant from the Federal Economic Development Administration to be used for construction of a parking lot adjacent to the Cirrus plant hasn't been finalized because Congress has yet to pass final funding for the administration.

For that reason and because he said he only received documents on the Cirrus loan Friday, City Councilor Russ Stewart's was the sole dissenting vote in the 7-1 decision.

"I got a big pile of information on Friday and a lot more today," he told the News-Tribune. "I've not had enough time to digest it and feel comfortable making a multimillion-dollar decision."

The city owns the ground on top of which the Cirrus plant sits. Cirrus pays Duluth a "market-rate" lease, Cotruvo said.

FMI: www.cirrusdesign.com