By NICOLE MONTESANO
Of the News-Register 

Meggitt Silicone Products, one of McMinnville's largest employers, has renewed its lease with McMinnville Industrial Promotions.

Company President Daniel Rader declined comment, but MIP President Carol Granger said the company indicated it was considering relocation of its operations if talks failed to produce an acceptable result. In the end, she said, the company signed a long-term lease.

Meggitt employs more than 200 people at an 82,000-square-foot plant on Lafayette Avenue. The plant has been producing aerospace seals and other products in McMinnville since the early 1980s.

Its products include silicone and rubber extrusions, custom-molded parts, aerodynamic and fireproof seals and flexible hoses and grommets for military and commercial aircraft. It also produces connectors for use in nuclear plants, which are designed to withstand earthquakes without contaminating the environment.

Meggitt Aerospace Equipment, a division of Meggitt PLC in Great Britain, purchased the local operation from Elastomeric Silicone Products in 1997.

Keeping the jobs provided by Meggitt was MIP's key concern, Granger said.

"Those are important jobs," she said. "These people live here and support their families and kids. McMinnville has grown to the point now that these jobs need to stay here and we need to create new job horizons for young people that want to stay here."

Jody Christensen, director of the McMinnville Economic Development Partnership, said the community is fortunate in having a number of substantial employers like Meggitt and needs to do everything it can to keep them.

"The landscape of diversification adds to our success," she said. "We can't afford to be a community that has just two or three large employees. We have to have a variety of employers that are a variety of sizes."

The range of jobs available provides more security for employees, who are able to move from one job to another, or move up in their professions, Christensen said.

"Having businesses that require similar types of manufacturing skills (means that) if employees need move from one job to another, they have a business right here in town that gives them that opportunity," she said. "We want people to have entry level positions, to have positions they can move into, and be able to continually grow."

Manufacturing jobs are especially important, Christensen said. "What we've found doing research for MEPD is that retail and service positions in general do not pay as much as some industry and manufacturing jobs," she said.

Keeping jobs in town helps to keep the city vital, she said, because residents who work in town tend to feel more connected to the community. "When most of the people who live there commute outside, there becomes a disconnect to what's happening inside the community. They become allied to the place where they're driving to."

Keeping employees in town also helps to support other businesses, Christensen said.

"If you leave our community, so does your money," she said. "For example, my husband commutes to Vancouver so he buys lunch in Vancouver. I would much rather have him buy lunch in McMinnville."