Oklahoma Briefs: Mercury plans to close plant

Mercury plans

TULSA — A Tulsa boat motor manufacturer will close this fall, but its parent company could be moving from Wisconsin to Stillwater. Mercury Marine says MotorGuide, whose award-winning trolling motors have been built in west Tulsa since 2000, will close Oct. 30 when its operations are consolidated with Attwood Marine Products in Michigan. Mercury is the parent company of both Attwood and MotorGuide. Mercury says the Tulsa plant employs 61 people, some of whom will be offered jobs in Michigan. Meanwhile, published reports in Wisconsin say that Mercury Marine is considering moving all or part of its operations to its sterndrive plant in Stillwater. The Oklahoma Legislature has granted the Stillwater plant’s request to delay payment of penalties resulting from its failure to meet requirements of the state’s Quality Jobs Program.

Poultry case moves forward

TULSA — A federal judge has rejected a request by 12 poultry companies to delay the trial in a lawsuit over pollution in the Illinois River watershed. The companies, defendants in the case, had filed a motion asking for more time to handle paperwork from Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s office. The defense motion also argued that the case is unusually complex and that "billions of dollars” in damages could be at stake. But at a hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell said the Sept. 21 trial date had long been in place. "We’re going to hold your feet to the fire,” Frizzell said. After the hearing, Edmondson said the defendants "would like to never have a trial.”

Edmondson sued 13 companies in 2005, claiming that bacteria leeches into the groundwater, springs and wells.

From Wire Reports