Meeting with Indalex officials leaves Girard mayor pessimistic

The plant’s future is ‘bleak,’ the mayor says.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

GIRARD — The state would consider tax credits or other economic incentives to keep Girard’s largest employer in the city.

Even so, all signs indicate Indalex Aluminum Solutions is going to shut down its Girard plant, said Mayor James Melfi.

About 300 people would lose their jobs.

No final decision was made on the plant, but “it looks bleak to me,” Melfi said.

“My optimism is greatly reduced,” he said. “My optimism is certainly waning.”

Indalex officials met Monday with Melfi and state officials. Company officials discussed the problems the plant faces: A slowdown in new home construction nationwide is severely hurting Indalex’s aluminum extrusions that are produced for window and door frames.

The company announced last month that the drop in demand meant the likely closing of its Girard plant.

A final decision is expected in March, said Melfi and Kenneth Carano, the governor’s regional director for the Mahoning Valley, who met Monday with Indalex officials. The two men aren’t optimistic about the plant’s future in Girard.

The plant would close “if the need doesn’t reverse, and it doesn’t look like it will reverse,” Carano said.

The Girard plant is to be closed because it is the oldest and least efficient of the four Indalex plants that produce extrusions for the building and construction industry, company officials say.

The plant is the largest employer in Girard, providing $281,000 of the city’s $3.5 million in income tax collections last year, Melfi said.

“We’ll continue to operate very lean,” Melfi said of the city’s finances. “We will survive.”

But the closing is devastating to the employees and their families, he said.

The company laid off 45 workers in August. Also, 85 additional workers were let go in October.

The company’s three other plants are in Toronto and Montreal in Canada and Gainesville, Ga.

Though the Girard plant is expected to close, Indalex plans to continue operating its Niles facility, which employs 80. That plant produces extrusions for the transportation industry.