Superior City Council Takes Up Kestrel, Community Of Color Commission

The Superior City Council decided Tuesday to join with the state in efforts to recover millions in loans awarded to an aircraft company for jobs that never materialized. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation said it would pursue legal action against Kestrel Aircraft Company last fall.

Kestrel Aircraft Company was issued $4 million in loans by the state in addition to a $2.6 million loan it received from the city of Superior and a roughly half-million-dollar loan from Douglas County. The governments announced their support in 2012 with the hopes the company would build an airplane manufacturing facility for its single-engine turboprop plane, the Kestrel 350. The deal was anticipated to create more than 600 jobs in Superior. However, the company employs a fraction of those workers and hasn’t made loan payments since late 2016...