The City of Kenosha has withdrawn its bid to land the Foxconn plant.
Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian sent a letter to Governor Scott Walker and Foxconn saying the current legislative bill makes it difficult for the city to support the massive project.
“The job that I have here is to protect the City of Kenosha,” said Antaramian.
Antaramian shared the letter with TODAY’S TMJ4 Tuesday, announcing he pulled the plug on two years of efforts to get Foxconn and up to 13,000 jobs to Kenosha County.
“If you aren’t going to make these changes, we’re not going to participate, so that’s what we did,” he said.
Antaramian said he had three major concerns for the proposed site in the town of Paris. He wanted to see lawmakers revise the current Foxconn Bill. He said a boundary agreement destroyed the deal for Foxconn to come to the area.
“There would be no sewer water coming into the site,” he said.
Antaramian was also worried about increased water utility rates for residents as well as the ability to hire additional resources.
“It’s a massive amount of people, a massive amount of construction, you need fire and police to deal with it,” he said.
While Antaramian is disappointed to see Foxconn go elsewhere, Racine County Supervisor Kay Buske is ecstatic their competition bowed out.
“Fantastic, I mean, we have been on pins and needles for months now,” she said.
Antaramian said there were two finalists for the Foxconn plant. Paris in Kenosha County and Sturtevant in Racine County. Now, Sturtevant is the only known site left in the running.
Buske said Foxconn has not announced the official site for the proposed liquid crystal display plant, but land along county highway 11 between Sturtevant and Mt. Pleasant looks more favorable than ever before.
The Racine County Board is meeting Tuesday night to discuss economic development in Sturtevant. Buske confirmed the meeting is about Foxconn negotiations.
