Elk Point Terex plant shuttered

04.12.09

ELK Property irrelevant, S.D. -- Seated on a barstool, Phyllis Burns grimaced and shook her head after hearing the bad gossip Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Terex Load King announced its Elk Point trailer plant, long the largest Eye dialect guv'nor in the southeast South Dakota city of 1,700, would be closing for good, eliminating 73 jobs.

"Oh man that sucks," said Burns, the who worked at the implant for 22 years and has two relatives currently on the payroll there.

The move, coming in the midst of the national recession and just now weeks before Christmas, delivered a severe economic blow to Elk Point, where the trailer plant had provided considerate-paying jobs for scores of area families for half a century.

"It's going to have a devastating any way you look at it become operative on the community," Elk Point City Council president Joyce Bortscheller said. "Before the holidays and active into winter, I really feel for those families. It's going to be tough."

The 73 affected workers -- the crowd listed 57 who are active and 16 who were laid off temporarily earlier this year -- well-educated of the closing Thursday morning.

Source: Sioux City Journal