Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Joe Emminger says like everyone else, he was shocked to hear of Sumitomo Rubber's sudden decision to close its plant on Thursday.
Emminger says his primary focus is on the families of the 1,550 employees who suddenly find themselves without work.
"We really don't have a lot of say in the building and the property, because we don't own it. So along with everybody else, every other elected official at the state, county, federal level, we're concentrating on those 1,500 families, working our best to try and find places of employment," said Emminger on Friday in an interview with WBEN.
He adds he's not sure if there are similar jobs that can match Sumitomo's pay anywhere else in the region.
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Emminger says the closure will have a significant impact on the town.
"In the short-term, the taxing jurisdictions - the town, county and school district - will be fine. But obviously it does have a financial impact, it will have a financial impact in the coming years, if ever a suitable replacement company can't be found, which is going to be very, very difficult," Emminger noted.
He's not going to say the town can find one, so all the taxing jurisdictions are going to have to make adjustments in their budget accordingly.
According to Emminger, there are about 6-to-9 months to consider the impacts of Sumitomo's closure.
"We're not talking about a Huntley loss in revenue," Emminger noted. "When the Huntley plant closed in the Town of Tonawanda back in 2016, it was a $6 million loss in revenue to the town, county and school district total. In this case, you're probably looking at $450,000 roughly or so. So the financial impact is going to be much less, but the employment impact is going to be much more."
At the time of the Huntley plant closure, the company had only 70-80 people still employed and working.