PHILIPSBURG

Officials tried to prevent closing

Group contacted company about furniture plant

Lori Falce

PHILIPSBURG — Could 34 jobs in Philipsburg have been saved? The Moshannon Valley Economic Develoment Partnership never found out.

According to Executive Director Stan LaFuria, the partnership didn’t get far trying to keep the institutional furniture manufacturer Shain Solutions from closing its Philipsburg operations in December as planned.

Sister company Diversified Woodcrafts confirmed Thursday that as of Dec. 7, all operations will continue out of its Suring, Wis., plant.

“We contacted a company official and asked if there was anything that we could do to get the owners to reconsider their decision; possibly bring in Governor’s Action Team officials, and elected representatives to determine if a package of assistance could be put together to assist the company,” LaFuria said in an e-mail. “We were told that it was not necessary to attempt that strategy as the owner has made up his mind to close the Philipsburg area plant.”

LaFuria sees the closing as an example of what can happen when company owners and their headquarters exist far from manufacturing plants.

He noted it’s easier for those companies to leave areas than it is for home-grown businesses.

“In this very bad economy, jobs are being lost at record rates because companies are cutting costs to survive, a national epidemic,” he said in an e-mail.

“The owner of the Shain plant also has a plant in Wisconsin, so a decision was made to consolidate in an effort to cut expenses in a bad economy, (and the) product line moved to the Wisconsin plant.”

It’s not a new story in Philipsburg. LaFuria cited the General Cigar Co.’s departure in the mid-1980s, and the Cannondale bicycle accessories plant and the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, both of which came and went in the 1990s. More recently, the area lost Cable Manufacturing and Assembly, and Polestar Plastics.

Now, workers and their families feel the sting once more. LaFuria said the partnership has contacted the area PA Career Link representative “to make sure that the state employment professionals will be doing everything possible to assist the employees.”