For Franklin, a lesson in surviving severe job losses

MARTINSVILLE

Eva Allen knew one way of life for 31-1/2 years. Her last day of high school was on a Friday, and the following Monday morning she started a sewing job at the Sara Lee manufacturing plant.

She made a decent wage, drew good health benefits and had a 401(k) she thought would see her through retirement.

Allen never considered working anywhere else.

It was the same for buddies Monroe Boothe and Al Powell, whose world was inside the walls of American Furniture. They knew their co-workers better than they knew their own family.

"We had tunnel vision," Powell said.

And then life as they knew it ended. The textile and furniture businesses collapsed, tanking this town in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.

In more than 10 years, 10,000 jobs have been lost, with many moving overseas.

Some 180 miles east, the city of Franklin and Isle of Wight County brace for their own version of economic turmoil. In the fall, International Paper announced it would close its mill near Franklin in 2010, at the cost of 1,100 jobs. In February, Smithfield Foods announced it would close one of its plants, at the cost of 340 jobs.

As textiles and manufacturing once breathed life into Martinsville, paper has been an employment engine for much of Suffolk, Southampton County and especially Franklin.

The smell of money, it is said, has puffed from the smokestacks of International Paper since the 19th century. The workers, many of them second- and third-generation employees, will lose jobs when the mill closes. The ripple effect from the plant's closure could see an additional 3,000 jobs gone and $33 million in tax revenue lost in Isle of Wight.

As it has in Martinsville, an ingrained way of life and community will become just a memory.

"My heart reaches out to the people of Franklin - it really does," said Allyson Rothrock, executive director of Martinsville's Harvest Foundation, created in 2002 largely to initiate community revitalization. "But the worst thing they can be thinking right now is 'poor, pitiful Franklin.' You can reel from something like this or you can keep going.

"Because, really, when I look at Franklin, I see opportunity."

Unemployment has hovered around 20 percent in Martinsville and the surrounding county for the past 10 years. Perhaps the most difficult concept to grasp was that no savior was going to ride into town and turn the economy around.

"There are people who still long for the day of one employer hiring 2,000 to 3,000 workers," said Mark Heath, CEO of the Economic Development Commission in Martinsville and Henry County. "Instead, you might have 10 plants employing 100 each."

While federal and state aid is often a help, it's not the answer, Heath said. "The community that invests the most in itself reaps the rewards," he said. "The state is not going to save you. In this day and age, there's no credible economic development that doesn't adopt a holistic approach."

Encourage small business. Raise educational levels. Nurture existing business and strengthen long-time relationships. Cultivate new areas for growth. Sell your community.

"Nobody is going to wake up one day in Ohio and say, 'I think I'll move to Martinsville, V a.,' " Heath said. "Every town has an advantage. You've got to figure out what it is."

In Martinsville and surrounding Henry County, many of those workers have set out to find their own advantages and build new lives around them.

Bertha Cobler, 61, worked as a quality manager at the giant Tultex plant for 18 years. She knew it was a bad sign when she inquired about ordering supplies and was told to hold off.

"They told us at 4 o'clock to clean out our desks and don't come back," Cobler said. "I went through the anger, the hurt, the resentment - the wondering, 'What am I going to do?' You just can't go sit at home and wait for something to happen. You have to make it happen."

Her new job is in administration at Patrick Henry Community College.

"I don't like change," she said. "I was making good money, and I've gone to making half that. You have to make sacrifices. I changed my whole lifestyle, and that's easy to do when you don't have a choice. I don't have a cell phone. I used to love to shop. I gave up shopping. Now I see something I like, I keep on walking."

Some in Martinsville are still not on their feet. Wanda Martin, 61, was forced to sell her cosmetic business she owned for 16 years.

At the unemployment office in Martinsville where she waits to settle a dispute about her benefits, she talks about how difficult going back to school is at an advanced age.

Like many, Martin is at Patrick Henry in pursuit of an entirely different career. Her plan is to be a keyboarding specialist in a medical office when she graduates in a year. "When you go back to school after 42 years of being out, you don't grasp things as easily," Martin said. "It's stressful."

She is making due without a steady income thanks to some serious belt tightening.

"I don't buy clothes," she said. "I don't go out much. I watch the thermostat. When I have errands, I try to do them all in one day to save on gas."

Heath, the director of the local economic group, said being aggressive has become a way of life for his organization. That paid off with companies such as RTI Metals choosing to relocate to the area with promises to invest $100 million there and create 150 jobs. Martinsville landed the new venture after the city and county worked together to build an industrial park and shell building.

Investing in overlooked resources is also critical. Martinsville has boosted its tourism by adding trails and boat inlets, and the Smith River has since become a popular spot for kayaking and fly-fishing. Upstart outfitters are among the new kinds of businesses sprouting up.

"Three years ago we had no input pulls for boats; today we have seven," Rothrock said. "You have to ask yourself, 'What are your treasures?' Franklin has their share of them, too.

"Franklin is so rich in history. They have a legacy. They have to ask themselves, 'What can we do to prepare for the 21st century?' You have to have your eyes wide open. You'll learn you don't have to be dependent on one big manufacturer, whether it's furniture or paper."

Franklin has already started that journey.

"We started thinking about it the day of the announcement," Franklin Mayor Jim Councill said. "We didn't wait a minute."

The city has joined with Isle of Wight and Southampton counties to form an economic development team as well as committees addressing the mill reuse, small business and other concerns. About 30 to 50 workers visit a transition center at the mill each week, for information about finding a job, training or insurance coverage.

"The response that we're getting is, 'We live here. We grew up here. We're not leaving,' " Councill said.

Pilot writer Hattie Brown Garrow contributed to this report.

Vicki L. Friedman, (757) 222-5218, vicki.friedman@pilotonline.com