By ROD ROWE, Goshen News
rod.rowe@goshennews.com
Here in this close-knit, one-stop-light town in western LaGrange County, the nation's economic crisis is as real as it is anywhere in the country.
As manufacturing jobs within the city limits evaporate by the hundreds, this modest community is left to consider how it will survive in the years to come.
The planned shutdown of the Starcraft RV plant in Topeka by mid-January, announced Monday, was another major blow to this town of just 1,100 people.
But, the hundreds of people who work in the RV businesses in the region have felt a slowdown in production all this year.
Plants in the area have been operating at less-than-maximum capacity, with some factories stopping production an average of a week per month all this year. In recent weeks work schedules have been three to five days per week, with some operating the first two weeks in November and possibly the first half of December before another shutdown for a time.
For a variety of reasons, orders are down and RV dealers are not stockpiling units, but order them after they are sold, workers explained.
Several RV workers who enjoyed coffee and lunch together at Crossroads Cafe Tuesday pointed out that this year they have been off work an average of one week each month.
"If I had to depend on the factory," said Floyd Miller, who lives seven miles outside Topeka, "I'd be in bad shape."
Miller works for one of the Topeka RV firms owned by Thor, but also raises calves and farms near the town.
His employer schedules work weeks ahead, giving employees notice of when they will be needed, so they may adjust their lives.
Larry Miller, who lives northeast of Topeka, has worked for about four RV companies since he turned to factory work in the early 1970s. He also farmed his property over the years, too.
Miller said he remembers in the winter of 1972-73 that Jayco Inc. sent workers home at Christmas time and said "stay home until you get a letter." He said that shutdown was for about two months.
He now works for a wood products company that supplies the RV industry, and is working about three days a week.
Shutdowns were once normal
Topeka Clerk-Treasurer DeWayne Bontrager said back 25 years ago it was normal for RV firms to have winter shutdowns. But in the past 10 years the demand for the products has kept most plants operating all winter long and employees have become used to that steady work.
Mark Lucas, president of Crossroads RV, said more than 400 people are working four days a week at the four plants and one service center at Topeka.
"We have new products going to the Louisville show in two weeks," Lucas said.
He said employees - many of whom have been with the company for the 10 years it has been in existence - are putting their best foot forward. Quality is at its highest and the plants are the cleanest they have ever been.
And employees are showing how caring they are, even when money is tight.
Lucas said the company gives Thanksgiving turkeys to employees each year and this month about half the workers donated their turkeys to local food banks.
Shift in business
While some in Topeka may be feeling the effects of the work slowdown, demand for products at the Topeka Hardware has changed, but remains steady.
"Sales are about the same, but appliances are down," said J.J. Egli, who has owned the downtown hardware store the past nine years.
He said he believes the sale of new appliances is down this year, because of a drop in new home construction.
But he quickly added that his full-time serviceman is staying busy making repairs.
"People are fixing things instead of buying new," Egli said. "Everything else is picking up," as residents and farmers may be making their own repairs this fall.
Egli said his store is diversified, and he pointed to strong demand for hunting and fishing supplies, suggesting those out of work may be pursuing those outdoor interests. He added that he now has paint ball, sporting good and pet supplies.
Egli said he thinks high fuel prices this year kept some customers close to home, buying what they need at Topeka, rather than taking a van ride to other towns.
He said January and February are usually the slowest months in the business. He doesn't see that changing.
"I expect it to be really slow," Egli said. "We'll see."
Staying upbeat
As people revert back to the land for a living, Topeka farmer and Pioneer seed corn salesman Mike Cunningham is expecting great things.
On Tuesday the 30-year seed business veteran took a break at the Crossroads Cafe as he waited for a customer to call him on his cell phone.
"I am having the best year I've ever had," Cunningham said. "I'll be fine. I'm upbeat."
Over at the Redman Homes of Indiana plant, where people make modular and manufactured housing, the company now has two plants operating and had a third plant for a time this summer to catch up on business.
Employees at Redman continue to work five days a week.
"(We) have solid business in Indiana," said Laurie Van Raemdonck, vice president of investor relations at the company's Troy, Mich. headquarters.
Redman ships homes to several midwestern states, from Wyoming to North Carolina. And the firm was a leader in building modular housing, she explained.
But she explained that the manufacturing housing industry is in its 10th year of decline after seeing a peak of 373,000 homes shipped in 1998. This year, through September, the industry was down 10 percent from last year, with 65,400 units built.
"We thought 2008 would be slightly up," she said. And business in October is usually descent, while there is normally a slowdown in November and December.
She blamed the drop in demand to the overall housing conditions, turmoil in the financial area and low confidence levels of consumers.
Redman has communicated with its dealers that it will not participate in the winter show at Louisville, but instead will host a dealer factory show in April.
Investing in the community
In full view of the economic downturn, Tom Miller and his wife Morag, owners of the Topeka Pharmacy, had a choice to make.
They chose stay and keep serving the town from their little corner of the main intersection.
Instead of pulling up roots, the Millers updated their building and remodeled the entrance.
"We have our challenges," Tom Miller said, "but we are up to it."
Miller said he can continue to compete with the national pharmacies in other towns. Many of his patients do not have insurance to pay for prescriptions, he said, but can still afford lower-priced generic drugs.
"I consider us a dinosaur," Miller joked, "but a dinosaur with tennis shoes."
Here in Topeka, the locals have a history of taking care of their own, like many other Amish and Mennonite communities.
As the town's clerk, Bontrager believes that spirit and work ethic will ultimately save this little town and its workforce.
"They'll be back," he said.