St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman is anxious to hear if there's good news when the Ford Motor Co.'s outlines its plans Thursday morning during the release of the company's second-quarter financial report.

He's hoping they'll mention the St. Paul Ford Plant — where Ford Ranger pickups are made. It's scheduled to close in 2009, but the hope is that the company will decide to retool the plant to build other vehicles, more suited to today's gasoline and environmental situations.

Said Coleman in a statement today:

"We are hopeful that tomorrow's call with Ford will bring good news for the City of Saint Paul.  Over the last two years, we have been increasingly optimistic about the role Saint Paul's Ford plant and its world-class workforce can play in the future of the company and in our economy.
 
"With our partners on the state and federal levels, we have worked faithfully with Ford to find the best fit for the future of the Ford plant site, with our priority on retaining the existing plant.  We know that the highly skilled and creative workforce in our City and at the plant can easily retrain and retool to meet market demands, and we will continue to push Ford to keep the plant open and producing vehicles that consumers want to buy and employees are proud to build." — Joe Kimball