Kenosha is out of the running for the Foxconn project, upping Racine County’s chances to land the Taiwanese manufacturing plant.
Mayor John Antaramian notified Gov. Scott Walker in a letter on Monday that the city of Kenosha was withdrawing its bid, saying the “current status” of the legislation makes the city unable to “support and/or absorb the development of the Project.”
“Yeah it’s a tough decision, but the job I have here is to protect the city of Kenosha, that is my first responsibility,” he told reporters at a news conference yesterday. “I do believe Foxconn is a wonderful opportunity for the region, but for us with the way the language reads, it doesn’t quite work, and that was our concern.”
Antaramian, a former state lawmaker, said Foxconn was eyeing one location in Kenosha County in the town of Paris, west of I-94 north-south. The company has also been eyeing sites in Racine County.
Antaramian said Foxconn has a specific location in mind for Racine County, but M.T. Boyle, chief of staff for Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave, said he “cannot confirm or deny” that just a single location in the county is left in the running.
In a separate statement, Boyle said he’s “hopeful that Foxconn will choose to call Racine County home.”
“We may have a chance to transform our region, creating tens of thousands of new jobs for Racine County, and we are hard at work to capitalize on that chance in a well thought-out, careful, and conservative way that makes Racine County highly desirable, while maintaining our commitment to the taxpayers of our great County,” he said. Read the full story here.
;
