The City of Kenosha is hoping to take control of the former Chrysler engine plant later this year, providing more leverage over the site’s future. Mayor Keith Bosman admits it will be costly. “But we’ve got enough money through various channels now, where we can go in and start doing the demolition, and doing the cleanup,” said Bosman. “The idea is preserving the newer buildings. Chrysler invested $500 million in that property ten years ago. So there’s buildings on there that have industrial value.”
Bozman said the city already have upwards of $5 million toward environmental cleanup, and expects to get more. “We’ve got a ten million dollar grant that is contingent upon us taking the property. That gets us up to around $15 million of what we think might be $30 to $50 million of what would be needed to get the property in the condition that we would like it to be in.”
Mayor Bozman acknowledges the Chrysler company, which still owns the site, can always sell it, but there’s been nothing to this point. “They may think that the industrial market is coming back now, that they feel that they’ve got a chance to find a buyer out there. But this has been going on for a year and a-half of probably the worst economy that any of us remembers.” Engine work stopped several months ago at the Chrysler plant in Kenosha, affecting several hundred workers.
Janet Hoff, WRJN