Anchor offered $2M plan

The plan was presented at Anchor's corporate headquarters late last month during a face-to-face meeting between a local task force of city and county leaders and the company's top executives.

About $430,000 of assistance would be one-time benefits while $1.5 million would provide on-going savings through grants, plant improvements and pending legislation.

Implementing the plan, which would actually cost the city little, is contingent upon company officials keeping Anchor's Griffith Street plant open and at minimum 250 of the plant's current 350 employees on the payroll.

Local officials have yet to learn if their efforts were successful.

Anchor Glass Container Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Aug. 8 for the third time since 1996. Some fear part of Anchor's bankruptcy reorganization plan could include plant closings.

A county/city-created task force flew to company headquarters in Tampa, Fla., Aug. 24 to offer a plan they hoped would save the Salem plant.

Local officials declined to comment on details of the plan upon returning from the Tampa meeting Aug. 25, saying it included sensitive information. Some of those details have been released..

Outlined in the $2 million plan were state, county and city initiatives.

Pending legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Doug Fisher, D-3rd Dist., would provide a six percent discount on gas taxes for the glass industry.