Montgomery Official Says Caterpillar Plans to Stay

Char Coulombe-Fiore, executive director of the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation, recently told the village board that Caterpillar may move 800 jobs, but the company will still have a big presence in the Montgomery area, according to Kendall County Now.

"They are not going to leave the area for a very long time," Coulombe-Fiore told the village board at a meeting on Monday. She said Caterpillar officials had told her they have no intention of selling or leasing their facility just south of Montgomery.

Caterpillar made an announcement earlier in the month that they may shift production of some equipment to other U.S. locations, possibly eliminating 800 manufacturing jobs. The company would keep 1,200 sales and maintenance jobs in the area.

Coulombe-Fiore said that when she started working with the Montgomery Economic Development Corporation seven years ago, Caterpillar only had 1,200 employees at the facility.

Village President Matt Brolley expressed concern about the impact on businesses that support the Caterpillar facility.

"It sounds like they have many, many other consultants that do work at the building, whether it is the cafeteria, security, snow plower, HVAC maintenance who are probably all businesses in our area that would be impacted, maybe to a great deal," Brolley said.

Photo by Greg Thompson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, via Flikr. (https://creativecommons.org/li...)