Plusquellic meets with Bridgestone Executives

Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Topics: Politics, Economy
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Akron mayor Don Plusquellic traveled to Tokyo Thursday (last week) to meet with Bridgestone-Firestone executives. The city has been working on a $68 million dollar deal to convince the tiremaker to keep its technical center in Akron. ideastream's Kymberli Hagelberg has this report.

Mayor Plusquellic said the Tokyo visit took place because he was “in the neighborhood” at an economic trade mission in central China.

Plusquellic:"We met with the vice president who’s in charge of the Americas and the European operations so he will be directly involved in the decision making process. We left there feeling very good about what we had talked about and their reaction, so I am very hopeful.”

The Akron Bridgestone location employs about 600. Most of the company’s American operations moved to Nashville in 1992. Last month, Akron pitched its multi-million dollar proposal for the tech center to Bridgestone officials. It included city, state and county government incentives. A local Bridgestone team may make a recommendation favoring Akron or Nashville sometime this month.

Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3