California Pellet Mill is closing after nearly 80 years of business in Crawfordsville.
According to an unnamed source, employees were informed Thursday morning that the plant on East Wabash Avenue would be shutting down. Employees were then given details about severance pay.
CPM has operated in the city since 1946, making it a longstanding part of the local economy.
Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton said the city was not given a prior warning.
“We have reached out to our contacts with CPM and have yet to receive a response,” he said Friday. “However, we have confirmed that they have notified our utilities of their intent to discontinue their Crawfordsville operations.”
The closure comes as a surprise, Barton said. City officials had been in regular contact with the company in recent months.
“Over the last year, they have told us things were turning around at the facility, and we know they made a sizable investment in improvements and new equipment at the facility during the last 12 months,” Barton added.
The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers with 100 or more employees to give at least 60 days’ notice prior to mass layoffs or plant closures. This law is meant to allow workers time to prepare for unemployment and to seek new opportunities, while also giving local communities a chance to respond.
It is unclear how many people the local plant employed. Barton assured the community that resources were being mobilized to assist affected workers.
“We have notified our Regional Workforce Board and they have begun the process of deploying resources to assist those who will need to transition to new employers,” Barton said. “Fortunately, our local economy remains strong with record levels of opportunity, and we are fully committed to assisting those affected by this announcement.”
CPM did not respond to the newspaper’s attempts for comment nor did it issue a press release with further details about the closure.
