Tami Chambers was pumping gas Tuesday for a customer at the Sunoco station on Route 31 in Mt. Pleasant when she heard the news: Sony Corp. is closing its nearby East Huntingdon plant.
Chambers worked at the plant for 18 months before moving to Florida briefly.
"I was hoping to get my job back," she said. "A friend of mine was going to take me out there Wednesday to fill out an application. I liked working for them."
Chambers worked on an assembly line installing components for flat-panel television sets. She said rumors that the plant would close have circulated in the borough for years. The rumors intensified every time a layoff was announced.
"I was hearing that when I worked there," she said.
Nevertheless, the announcement caught her and others in the Westmoreland County community by surprise and left townships and school districts wondering how they will make up the loss in tax revenue.
Don Wilson of Mt. Pleasant said the plant closure will affect an area that's already been hit by the housing market slump.
"The price of houses, when a company comes in, goes up," Wilson said. "The price of homes, when they're leaving, goes down. There have been houses on the market for a couple of years."
While Wilson has had the same job since graduating from high school, he has a nephew and niece who lost their jobs at Sony during previous economic slumps.
"I've worked 42 years for Pepsi," he said. "I'm retiring in six months, never been laid off a day."
Sony is the third manufacturer to vacate the troubled industrial site along Route 119. Chrysler built the plant in the late 1960s but never finished it. Volkswagen took over the facility and produced cars there for a decade.
"Whoever they put in that building stays until the tax breaks are done, and then they leave," Wilson said.
The closure will impact workers from a broad area, according to a 2005 survey by the Economic Growth Connection and the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp.
Sony workers live in four states and 14 counties, said John Skiavo, executive director of the Economic Growth Connection.
But the plant's suppliers all are based in Western Pennsylvania.
"We don't know what the impact will be among suppliers," he added.
When Sony closes, the Hempfield Township Municipal Authority will lose its biggest customer, which provided 17 percent of its annual revenue.
On Monday, the authority passed its 2009 budget, which will increase sewage rates by $5 a month because of revenue loss from Sony. The authority was guaranteed at least $100,000 a month from Sony from its American Video Glass Co. When the subsidiary shut down, Sony guaranteed the money to the authority until the agreement expired in October.
Authority Manager Rege Ranella said the income from Sony will decrease next year from $1.2 million to $75,000 under the terms of a deal in which the company agreed to make an annual payment in lieu of real estate taxes.
"It shouldn't be a big impact," Ranella said. "We're going to lose some revenue."
Supervisor Bob Davidson, who is a member of the authority, said the revenue loss could be offset by another sewage project scheduled to go online next year.
Jude Abraham, business manager for the Hempfield Area School District, said the district receives $260,000 from Sony in lieu of taxes. He said the district could be hit with losses from earned income and real estate taxes.
In a struggling economy, the Sony news "is almost adding insult to injury," Abraham said. "No matter which way you look at it, it's a detrimental blow to our economy."
East Huntingdon Supervisor Howard Keefer said the township receives approximately $53,000 in annual payments from Sony in lieu of real estate taxes. Keefer said the board will review the impact but said the township has always been "frugal."
"We hate to see it go," he said. "It's been a good relationship. That building sitting there (vacant) is not a good thing."
Mt. Pleasant Borough Manager Jeff Landy was surprised to hear about the closing given the high demand for flat-panel television sets.
"I heard they were selling well," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment