Rockdale's future shaky

Oct 05, 2008 (The Eagle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- AA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- As the shock of losing more than 1,000 jobs in less than a year begins to wear off, community leaders in Rockdale are finally able to shift their sights toward the future, they say.

Officials in the Milam County city of fewer than 6,000 people said they were inundated with interview requests from newspaper reporters and television crews after Tuesday's announcement that aluminum producer Alcoa would lay off 660 employees and shut down the smelter at its Rockdale plant. And they've received many calls from worried residents and sympathetic government officials from other parts of the country.

"It has been a real circus," said Denice Doss, president of the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce.

But now city leaders, along with Alcoa workers who will be jobless by Christmas, are preparing to spend the next few weeks laying out a strategy to save their city. On the surface, they appear optimistic, but they acknowledge that ideas are scarce.

"Even though some people don't believe it, it will be OK," Doss said. "I have already heard some positive comments that we are going to move forward. We don't exactly know what that means, but we do know that it will be OK."

Officials from city and county government, the Rockdale school district and the Chamber of Commerce are planning meetings to begin studying the impact of losing that many jobs.

"Right now, I guess you may say we are trying to formulate a plan on how we are going to meet up and try to fix this," said Milam County Judge Frank Summers. "There will be a loss of jobs and payroll. If 90 percent of the money being spent comes from Alcoa, then what is going to happen? How many houses will be vacant?"

Officials said that because the government institutions are so small in Rockdale, they had little but anecdotal information about the importance of Alcoa in their town.

"This is like trying to grab a porcupine when you are naked," Summers said of devising a path for the future.

Alcoa was the largest employer in the city for decades. At the beginning of the year, it had more than 1,000 workers but laid off about 160 in the past two months. The 660 layoffs announced Tuesday will be completed by December.

In addition to the 820 displaced Alcoa employees, more than 200 contract workers are also expected to lose their jobs, officials said.

According to city-data.com, fewer than 12 percent of the city's residents have college degrees. Still, the starting pay at Alcoa was more than $18 an hour, plus benefits.

Prospects for those who lost their jobs are relatively strong -- as long as the people don't mind moving or commuting a long way to work, said Cindy Jerman, director of the Central Texas Workforce Center's office in Rockdale.

Reports of a job fair organized by the workforce center to be held in November prompted more than a dozen employers from around the region to contact Jerman late last week, she said.

"They are excellent employees for a company to hire," Jerman said of the laid-off workers. "They have work ethic, training and an ability to work under tough conditions, because that was not an easy environment and not an easy job."

None of those potential employers come from Rockdale, however, so the situation may be dire for those who do not want to move, she said.

"The reality is, there are no jobs in Rockdale that will be for them," Jerman said. "Nothing will match their salary or skills."

David Edmonds, president of the Local 4895 of the United Steelworkers union, said laid-off employees would get the first shot at jobs at other Alcoa plants across the country. Some workers, he said, will move to Tennessee to try to find jobs at that plant.

"Alcoa has cut jobs at a lot of places, though, so I don't know how much luck they will have," he said.

The large number of people leaving will likely result in a lot of vacant houses, officials said, and drive down housing prices. That, in effect, will lower the tax income for government agencies.

Milam County officials said they were unable Friday to estimate how much of a hit the area governments would take. They anticipated that Alcoa, which pays millions of dollars of taxes to local government, would reduce its tax burden by 85 percent next year.

Officials said they were fortunate, however, because energy producer Luminant is set to complete a power plant in August that will help even out the loss of revenue.

Doss, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, said officials were researching other small cities that have suffered from plant closings and hope to learn how to handle the job losses. A few leaders from similar towns have called to express sympathy, she said, and Rockdale will reach out to them for advice.

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