Toro closing Mississippi lawnmower plant; 120 jobs lost

Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | June 20, 2003 | The Associated Press

[Willie Green]

OXFORD, MISS. -- Bloomington-based Toro Co. will close its lawnmower engine plant in Oxford in January, idling 120 workers. Employees were informed Tuesday.

Because the lawnmower engines they had been making for nearly 20 years were essentially banned under new federal emissions standards, the announcement came as no surprise to many employees and community members.

Toro, in a statement released Thursday, said it had tried to find a way to keep the Oxford plant open, but closing was the only option.

[1Old Pro]

Lawnmower pollution eh? Have they banned two-stroke engines yet?

[vetvetdoug]

Bad business practices or more government meddling by the EPA? No brainer there. Now some foreign government can get their companies to make the engine cheaper.

[Willie Green]

Because articles from the Minneapolis Star Tribune must be excerpted, I selected "auto excerpt" when posting. But the problem is: the article is only 3 paragraphs long anyway, so it posted the whole thing. Do with it whatever you think is necessary. Thanks.

[Onelifetogive]

Bloomington-based Toro Co. will close its lawnmower engine plant in Oxford in January, idling 120 workers. Employees were informed Tuesday.

Because the lawnmower engines they had been making for nearly 20 years were essentially banned under new federal emissions standards, the announcement came as no surprise to many employees and community members.

I can't wait to get home and watch the national news tonight. Brokaw, Jennings and Rather should be all over this. Environmental regulations cost hard -working Americans their jobs.

</sarcasm>

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The story doesn't say so, but I wonder if these are Lawn Boy 2 cycle motors. Toro owns the LB line.

[Willie Green]

Lawnmower pollution eh? Have they banned two-stroke engines yet?

They're working on it.
Outboard engines for motorboats are the primary targets.
There, the environuts have both air and water "standards" to squawk about.

[Gritty]

These jobs were not killed by foreign imports, but by Environmental idiocy.

How much pollution does a lawnmower throw out, anyhow? As much as John Kennedy's private jet, which he uses to fly around the country promoting these laws?

[caisson71]

I hope those 120 workers and their families can breathe better while waiting in that unemployment line. The lamestream media is all over the "White House" for changing a supposed scientific environmental report recently released. I say it's about time we start to prohibit disinformation on the environment by employees of our own government. Publishing junk science only exacerbates already misstated (lies) public information.

[RichardW]

As I understand it, this is the obsolete Lawn-Boy line. They were ranked dead last in a recent comparison report. All good things come to an end.

[SoDak]

I love my Lawn Boy...so much so that I purchased a second one to store in case the first one ever gives in, and they aren't allowed to sell them anymore.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

It wouldn't bother me to see 2 stroke marine engines done away with. They inject about 25-30 percent of the lube oil they "burn" into the water with their exhaust. I'd miss my Stihl chainsaw, tho...

[Willie Green]

They inject about 25-30 percent of the lube oil they "burn" into the water with their exhaust.

But gas is mixed with oil at about a 50:1 ratio for the older engines (new designs may call for 100:1 or even less oil). So even with the older design, you're still talking about a piddly amount of oil that's being "lost". The water probably gets more "polluted" just from your body oils if you go swimming.

[hedgetrimmer]

Two-stroke engines are banned in federal recreation areas I think.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Here at the Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri, we are over-supplied with nasty 2-stroke jet skis. Put four of them in a cove, buzzing around for an hour and the air is blue.

[waterstraat]

Where are all the new jobs and new factories we were promised when NAFTA was passed? I thought there was supposed to be a labor shortage as we opened up the chinese, mexican and indian markets to american produced goods.