BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, DEC. 3, 2015) — THE PLANET reported this first, that the Polymer Processing Development Center (PPDC) once of GE Plastics progeny and now of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Sabic), will be shuttered. The move was confirmed yesterday in a report in Plastics News, an industry journal.

PN reports that in 2017 the PPDC as well as a technology center in Exton, Pa., will be consolidated into Sabic’s Selkirk, N.Y., plant. It’s not certain how many jobs Pittsfield will lose, but it’s certain to further drain the city economy. The previously announced move of Sabic’s Pittsfield HQ to Houston, Texas, to take place in June next year, will result in about 500 jobs lost — 300 directly from the company and 200 in contractors and vendors with Sabic accounts. The jobs lost when the PPDC moves will be in addition to the 500. These positions represent one of the last large groups of high-paying, white collar jobs in the city.

It says a lot about the city’s ability to compete in the workplace, including the huge concern businesses have over Pittsfield’s lack of educated and reliable workers, that Sabic is consolidating to Selkirk, which is only about 40 miles west of Pittsfield.

From Plastics News:

“Some of the 300 headquarters employees in Pittsfield will transfer to Sabic offices in the Houston area. In addition to Lexan-brand PC, Sabic makes several specialty resins including Noryl-brand PPE, Ultem-brand polyetherimide, Cycolac-brand ABS and LNP-brand compounds.

“The business that is now Sabic IP has been based in Pittsfield in some form since 1903, when General Electric Co. bought the Stanley Electric Manufacturing plant there. GE began making phenolic plastic resins in Pittsfield in 1909. Sabic bought the GE Plastics unit from GE for $11.6 billion in 2006.”

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There’s no honest way to spin this into some cartoonish “silver lining,” as Mayor Dan Bianchi tried to do when Sabic announced it was closing the HQ on Plastics Avenue. This leaves the gigantic Building 100 to tower empty over the city, casting a shadow taller than any amount of nonsense and “good cheer” spun by The Suits.

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Did Coco Dip into PPD Union Funds in 2010, Too?

To update our previous reporting of the firing of Pittsfield Police Department officer Jeffrey Coco on theft charges, PPD sources tell THE PLANET they believe Coco allegedly stole from the patrolman’s union in 2010.

Fired PPD officer Jeffrey Coco (Berkshire Eagle file photo).

The exact amount from the alleged 2010 incident isn’t known, but sources say it was “in the neighborhood of $5,000-$10,000.” They say that the earlier alleged thefts were discovered by “one of the union’s elected officers.” That would narrow it to either the president, the vice president, or the secretary. Sources say Coco was allowed to pay back the money. He served as union treasurer at the time.

One exasperated source told THE PLANET, “So after he got caught stealing by a union officer, a year or two later he becomes union president? Go figure that one out.” As for a motive for the alleged 2010 theft, sources say “one, he was in financial trouble, tough to imagine with a salary of over $100,000 a year; [and] two, to pay for a lavish wedding. He got married (second time) that year.”

The questions THE PLANET raised yesterday not only remain but become more in urgent need of answers. Meanwhile, according to his attorney, Coco plans to appeal his firing from the PPD. Coco is being represented by Lori Levinson from Great Barrington. Levinson would not say if Coco will deny the allegations. Levinson said that “as far as we know, based on my understanding, no friends or family members [of Coco] have been implicated in any alleged wrongdoing.”

Again, we add the reminder than anyone charged with a crime remains innocent until proven guilty in a court of law or otherwise.

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“Oh what a tangled we we weave when first we practice to deceive.” — Sr. Chopper (as she was known by her 9th grade Latin class), circa 1965, St. Joseph’s High School.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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