JEFFERSONVILLE — To many in Jeffersonville, Jeffboat is already gone.
Carol Lee O’Neil and her husband used to own a bar called O’Neil’s in the late 1980s and ’90s where Slammer’s Bar and Grill is today.
Located just two blocks up from Jeffboat, workers used to cram into her bar after their shifts to grab a drink.
“…They kept us in business,” O’Neil said.
At its peak, Jeffboat employed 13,000, although that was during World War II.
Still, just over a month ago, around 20 Jeffboat workers could be found nursing drinks at Slammer’s, said Johnnie Miller, one of the bartenders. Today, after several rounds of layoffs at the 80-year-old shipyard, which have whittled its staff down to around 200 from about 700, only four or so Jeffboat employees still visit the bar.
The loss of Jeffboat customers shouldn’t affect the bar too much today said Rodger Caldwell, the father of Rex Caldwell, the bar’s owner. Slammer’s was crowded on Tuesday, even at 11:30 a.m., thanks to the bar’s regulars, many of whom live near the business.
Still, Caldwell is saddened by the news of Jeffboat’s closing, which was announced over a week ago.
“I hate it because I knew so many people who worked there over the years,” he said.
Slammer’s is just one of a handful of businesses surrounding Jeffboat; they include a laundromat, convenience store, auto repair shop and more. Wendy Dant Chesser, the president and CEO of One Southern Indiana, said in a previous interview with the News and Tribune that she expected the businesses near Jeffboat to be impacted by its closing, but many of the owners on Tuesday said that they didn’t think they’d be incapacitated by the development.
Matilda Adkins, an attendant at Becca’s Wash House across Market Street from Jeffboat, said that over the past year, she’s watched several customers employed with the manufacturer stop their trips to the laundromat.
But the majority of Becca’s business comes from elsewhere, Adkins said. That’s the case for Hardaway Automotive, too, which sits one business down from Becca’s.
“Most of them guys are do-it-yourselfers,” said Jim Hardaway, the owner of the auto repair shop.
In fact, Hardaway thinks that Mayor Mike Moore’s hopes for a commercial and residential development on Jeffboat's footprint would benefit Hardaway's business more than the shipyard, although he said he’s sad for the workers who have lost their jobs.
“I hope they park a big gambling boat there or, you know, high-end housing or retail, and I think that’s what it’s gong to come down to,” Hardaway said.
The longtime mechanic would be up for selling his business, too, if a developer wanted it.
“I’m getting too old to do this stuff much longer,” he said.
That’s not to say there aren’t drawbacks to Jeffboat closing for some businesses and organizations.
For the last five years, the manufacturer has hosted a fundraiser for the Howard Steamboat Museum, said Director Keith Norrington in a previous interview. The museum teaches the history of the family who started the shipyard that eventually became Jeffboat.
Discount Tobacco & Deli, a convenience store across from Jeffboat, used to be crowded at lunchtime with employees clamoring for a chicken dinner, said Stanley Powers, a current Jeffboat worker.
Powers still visits the shop every day for a cup of coffee, but the 22-year Jeffboat employee no longer sees many of his friends there, nor does he at work, either.
“It’s really kind of strange,” he said.