Site
searches 1 . By Mr. Bob Gumbinner
A
number of times Mr. Halpern looked for a site to relocate the
presensitized plate production. One year, he and I spent many days
traveling over much of Orange County, NY. We met a builder at a site
in Newburgh who showed us around the county. We later saw a 200-acre
farm with a well built stone barn and house on 200 acres in Columbia
County, NY which I said we should buy. We drove to Hazelton, Penn.
There the industrial development people “CANDO” made a very good
presentation. Mr. Halpern was impressed. We sent our plant manager,
Leo Golusinski, to check it out. On returning he said “Don’t you
dare go there. The workers are hard cold miners and bitter.” John
Brunner who had run the sheeter and the finishing of paper plates
came from that are and agreed with Leo. We flew to Raleigh NC and
were taken by a NC state plane to Asheville. We saw an excellent
site by the Swananoa River. The Governor’s assistant took us to
lunch on the terrace of the Grove Park Inn. He also showed us
several sites near Durham, NC. Realizing we were Jewish, he said he
was not going to take us to the Winston Salem area since our staff
might not be happy there. We sent Leo Golusinski to Asheville. On
his return, he told us there should not be any problems with workers.
There had been a strike by the police but it was more of a personal
matter. When we lived in Asheville, very few people knew about it.
I did not believe Mr. Halpern was serious about moving. It may have
been a ploy for union negotiations. Although not a site visit, after
Leo Golusionski’s premature death, the plant manager we hired owned
a Mohawk plane. He flew us to Delaware to look at a plant where
plates were being made by anodizing with silicate. On the way back
we had to stop for several hours to avoid a storm.