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Tremonton » For months, many business owners in this small northern Utah community 20 miles northeast of Alliant Techsystems' Promontory plant waited for the dreadful blow.
On Tuesday, it finally arrived.
ATK laid off 550 of its employees, including 400 at its nearby plant. The pink slips didn't come as a surprise -- the company had announced in July layoffs were coming -- but they were painful nonetheless.
"I've noticed the impact for awhile now because the word has been out about layoffs coming up," said Tom Greer, who owns and operates Greer's Do It Best Hardware on Tremonton's Main Street. "If I didn't know I would have a job in a couple of months, I'd be saving my money and spending less, too."
In another sense, though, it may be months before the real impact of the loss of 550 good-paying jobs at ATK is finally felt throughout the northern Utah economy.
The reason is that the maker of solid-fuel rocket booster motors is providing the affected employees with severance packages that include up to 26 weeks of separation pay based on years of service.
"It will be a few months, maybe around Christmas or New Years, before those severance packages start to run out," said Linda Hansen, executive director of the Box Elder Community Pantry in nearby Brigham City. "Then, some of those ATK employees will be faced with either making their house payments or buying groceries, and we hope they'll
ATK said the layoffs were the result of reduced federal government spending from the upcoming completion of two space and defense programs -- the space shuttle and the Minuteman III missile.
"Obviously, this was something that we had hoped to avoid," ATK spokesman George Torres said Tuesday. "We regret having to take these steps during this economically challenging time. In spite of these challenges, there is a strong future for our company."
Torres said the reduction in force included 130 employees in Magna, 400 at its Promontory facility west of Brigham City and 20 in Clearfield. Magna workers make Minuteman III motors, those at Promontory work on space shuttle rocket motors and those in Clearfield wash motors that have been fired and prepare the casings to be reloaded with propellant.
Included among the 550 ATK employees who lost their jobs were 130 who volunteered for the layoff, Torres said. "The processing for those 130 volunteers was handled on Friday and Monday," Torres said. "For the others today (Tuesday) was their last day on the job."
Max Weese, who is leaving office in January after 16 years as Tremonton's mayor, said he doesn't know what percentage of the ATK layoffs involved city residents, with many of the company's employees commuting for nearby communities that include Brigham City, Farr West and Ogden.
"However many we lost, it is going to be a problem. People who are out of work don't spend as much money as people with paychecks coming in," he said.
Gary Bean, a retired Marine who helps his son run a computer-repair shop next door to Greer's hardware store, expressed concern that a half-dozen computers left at the shop by ATK employees won't be collected because the owners are now out of work.
"They won't pay the bill because they're half scared to death," he said, noting that the family-owned shop recently started charging a deposit before repairs begin so that it won't end up in possession of more computers than it can sell.
When ATK announced in July that the layoffs were coming, Tremonton real estate agent Kathy Fuhriman predicted she would see more higher-priced homes coming onto the market.
And that is precisely what happened, she said, citing a number of examples of ATK employees who "unfortunately bought (their homes) at the top of the market and can't get that much for them anymore."
Although Box Elder County's unemployment rate stands at 5.8 percent, northern regional economist John Mathews at the Utah Department of Workforce Services said the loss of 400 or so jobs may not move the jobless numbers much.
"They're certainly going to feel it, though, if only because of the income and wages lost," he said. "Fortunately, this isn't like the aerospace problem the state went through in the early 1960s when the entire industry practically shut down."
ATK also will be trying to help place some of its laid-off employees with other companies. "We'll be holding a career fair on October 21 that will include representatives from over a dozen companies in the area that may be interested in hiring some of our people," Torres said, mentioning names that included L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin and Aerojet.
Bob Walton, one of the managers of Kent's Market on Main Street, offered a grim sense of optimism, recalling periods 30 and 40 years ago when layoffs by ATK's predecessor, Thiokol, "emptied entire neighborhoods."
This time around, he said, "I think it will work out for most of these people. They'll figure things out ... Contracts will come back, and [ATK] will rehire people."
But he acknowledged that the depth of the recession has caused more concern this go-around, causing people to become more fiscally conservative.
"People are smarter about what they're spending their money on. They might not be buying bags of candy bars but cans of tuna instead," Walton said.
