REDWOOD FALLS -- Minnesota's JOBZ tax incentives helped convince a South Dakota firm to expand in Redwood Falls and will help save 180 of the 250 jobs that are being eliminated by the closing of an electronics plant.
JOBZ brought lots of applause for Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday, when he, U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and state legislators Dennis Frederickson, R-New Ulm and Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, addressed many of the workers whose jobs will be saved.
But Pawlenty and company officials with Daktronics Inc. of Brookings, S.D., said the presence of a highly-skilled work force and aggressive community leadership in Redwood Falls were equally important in saving the jobs.
"It's not every day that you have a South Dakota company setting up in Minnesota,'' said Matt Kurtenbach, vice president of manufacturing for Daktronics, to a crowd of over 200.
The company will purchase the Artesyn facility in Redwood Falls at the end of the year.
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Daktronics plans to begin producing its Galaxy line of electronic message boards at the plant in March, with a work force of 140.
Another 40 Artesyn jobs are being saved by the creation of Rural Value and Integrity by Kevin Wald, owner and founder of Ritalka and its Specialty Specs plants in Montevideo, Granite Falls and Redwood Falls. RTI is acquiring the division of Artesyn that repaired embedded power systems for electronic devices. It will continue to provide the nation-wide service from its Redwood Falls location, according to Wald.
RTI has already employed its new workers. Daktronics is in the process of interviewing applicants. Kurtenbach said the company hopes to notify successful applicants in a few weeks' time.
"Wonderful,'' is how Carol Hammerschmidt, a former Artesyn employee who has accepted a position with RTI, described the turn of events.
Other Artesyn employees were equally generous in their praise. Calling the changes more than welcome, Loren Krause noted that many of the Artesyn employees have long employment histories with the plant, which was originally owned by Zytec.
The average tenure of workers at the Artesyn plant is over 17 years, and there are workers with 30 years of experience, according to Earl Weaver, vice president of Emerson Electric.
Both Daktronics and RTI are offering comparable wages and work. Wages in the Artesyn plant ranges from $11 to $20 an hour, according to Julie Rath, director of the Redwood Community Development Corporation. She pointed out that the plant is home to a highly skilled work force: most of its employees are trained in 17 different skill sets. The plant won the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award in 1991.
Gov. Pawlenty credited the work force, local community leadership, and JOBZ with making possible the developments. The governor told his audience that he was not about to apologize for the special advantages that the Jobs Opportunity and Buildings Zone tax incentives offers rural Minnesota.
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"Rural Minnesota needs it,'' said the governor. He said that a forward moving Minnesota requires a healthy economy in both rural and urban areas.
Daktronics couldn't find the workers it needed to continue its growth in Brookings, and was considering an expansion in Sioux Falls, S.D., when the company was contacted by the Redwood Area Development Corporation. The contact last summer came only days after Emerson Electric Company announced its plans to close its Artesyn facility in Redwood Falls and eliminate its jobs at the year's end.
