I know someone who works at this plant that was slated for closing

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http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=482743

Grant Park: Reynolds won't close plant after all
Nov. 16, 2011, 10:51 am
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By Dimitrios Kalantzis
[email protected]
815-802-5144

Good news for Kankakee County, great news for Grant Park: The Reynolds Food Packaging plant in the tiny village is not closing down -- as early reports indicated -- but rather considering an expansion to its current staffing levels by 50 percent.

Local officials on Tuesday confirmed the plastic manufacturing giant's about-face, which comes six weeks after it submitted a state-mandated report that it would be closing the plant at 304 NE Main St. and laying off all 98 workers by Dec. 16.

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Person I know who works there said some guy in a suit who he had never seen before came into the plant yesterday to make the announcement that the plant was not going to be closed after all. He said some of the workers actually began crying at the news.

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1. I know this area very well...mostly farmland just south of Chicago and almost

on the stateline (IN/IL)....great news! Nice little town. My family's farm is close in IN. I have always thought that stories of plant 're-openings' at Christmas time only happen in Hallmark channel movies! Good for the Grant Park people! Thanks for posting.

[NNN0LHI]

2. The town has an interesting history

My wife and I stopped into their Historical Society last year and we were amazed.

We learned the Grant Park and another little town called Sollitt a few miles north of Grant Park about a hundred years ago were competing for who was going to get the local post office built in their town. The two little towns were just about equal in size and population. Sollitt may have even had the edge a little? Back then having a post office meant everything. Meant the train stopped there and everyone would come into that town to the post office to get their mail and do their shopping. Grant Park ended up getting the post office and the town of Sollitt pretty much blew away after that.

We used to go to a bar in Sollitt several decades ago called Sollitt Tap. It was the only business in town. Small biker bar with an an actual reel to reel audiophile quality stereo system that really cranked. Big huge speakers. The balls on the pool table would start moving on their own a little bit when the owner really cranked it up.

Amazing times.

Don