When times get tough, remember Lansing's button company

La Crosse Tribune, Mar 28, 1994 by Hardie, Charles

More often than not these days, factory closings mean jobs moving from the Midwest to other parts of the country or even beyond borders.

Nowhere is the loss of those jobs felt more sharply than in the smaller towns and villages which have already been hit hard by the farm economy's demise.

But these days a small company in Lansing, Iowa, is not only retaining jobs, but expanding.

Lansing Company Inc., which packages and distributes buttons for its parent company Belding Heminway Company Inc. of New York, has hired 60 people since Jan. 1 and will build a 20,000 square-foot addition to bring its plant up to 104,000 square feet this spring.

Company president Gayle Decker said plant shutdowns in Missouri and New Jersey resulted in the additional jobs in Lansing.

With 165 employees, Lansing Company is believed to be the community's second-or third-largest employer, behind Northern Engraving and the school district.

Founded in 1896, the company first manufactured buttons from clam shells taken from the Mississippi River. Today the company just packages and distributes.

Decker said the expansion is "good news" for the community of about 1,000 people.

"It brings work to Lansing. We have that great Midwest work ethic, which was one of the major decisions in bringing the jobs here."

PHONE PHACTS:

Century Telephone Co., the parent company of Monroe County Telephone Co., for the most part last week blamed regulation changes for a request for a 63-percent rate hike it is requesting for Monroe County customers.

That regulation change was the establishment of Extended Calling Area service last fall that ended long-distance charges for calls to some communities, costing the company revenue from those calls and funding from a statewide phone pool.

But those regulatory changes have not resulted in rate hike requests for most other phone companies in the state, says Tom Gross of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.

Gross said so far about 15 of the state's 90 phone exchanges have asked for rate hikes because of the changes. And five of those requests come from Century Telephone areas.

Even though the proposed hike is 63 percent, Gross said the Monroe County request is not unreasonable, since the cost of residential service is only going up to $12.15 a month from $7.42. He said the PSC has already approved rate increases that bring monthly charges up to more than $20 a month.

The average monthly rate for the state is in the $10 to $12 range, Gross said, although Wisconsin Bell--which represents two-thirds of the state's phone customers--has no flat fee and charges by the call.

A final decision on the rate request is expected by late April.