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Rose garden has many thorns

To the editor:
A rose garden has many thorns. We were led to believe that Andersen Windows was such a great deal for all of North Branch. Well itís not. We were told that there would be 135 new jobs. Not now and not all for North Branch. Andersen Windows will have only 55 jobs in two years. Of the 55 jobs, 24 of them are from people who are already working in White Bear. That leaves 31 real new jobs. That leaves 80 unaccounted jobs. They will create those 80 jobs in years 3-5, and keep them through year 12. After that who knows what will happen. There is no guarantee, that people from North Branch will fill these jobs. One might ask themselves how much is this all costing us? Well letís start with the land.
We bought the land for several hundreds of dollars and sold it for one dollar. Now we pay to put a road in as well as run water/sewer, as well as all other utilities. To be fair we did get a grant that pays for half of the road and utilities. Then we had to buy an extra 4-plus acres of land for an additional amount of land. The price of $150,000 is for the extra land, plus no assessing the adjourning amount of land. We had to put up Branch Acres Park as collateral. All this land falls into the $1 dollar for the total land (more than 17 acres) that we are selling to Andersen Windows. The extension of Golden Ave. is estimated (from WSB) to be around $520,000. The city will only have to pay 1/2 of the cost, and the rest will come from other sources. Also we will receive a grant from Minnesota Investment Fund of $500,000. This can not be used to cover the cost of the land. We hope to get some of it back in donations from Andersen Windows in the future, said our finance director.
Next is property tax. Andersen will not pay property tax for the building. The only property tax will be on open farm land. The amount they pay will continue to be on open farm land for the next 12 years. We the citizens will pay for other infrastructures and upkeep for the next 12 years.
Letís talk salaries. For those 24 jobs the first two years, the average hourly salary is $13 an hour. Thatís a little more than $27,000 a year before taxes. Now compare that with Polaris in Wyoming. Polaris is getting around 300 jobs to start, with the expectation of more jobs later. The average salary is said to be between $60,000 to $80,000 thousand a year. How does this compare to $13 dollars an hour here in North Branch?
I feel we are not getting the ìpromised land,î we are still paying out more and more money and not getting nearly enough. JOBZ is not what it is cracked up to be. How much will the taxpayer pay out, and how long do we wait just to come out even? What price = progress?

Theresa Furman
North Branch

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