Rich Van Wyk/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis - The city is losing 300 jobs. Citizens Gas and Coke announced it is closing its coke plant on the city's near south east side.
The market is so bad that the utility's president told Eyewitness News he couldn't give the facility away.
Three hundred workers left work Thursday knowing they will be out of work soon. After nearly a century of operation, Citizens Gas and Coke is closing its Indianapolis coke plant.
Greg Tandy has labored at the plant for 18 years. "I'm going to wait it out and look for another job," he said quietly.
After losing more than $17 million last year and a million dollars a month this year, the utility's president and CEO Carey Lykins says it is time to stop the bleeding. "We've been in the hemorrhaging category," he said.
The plant's huge ovens turn coal into coke. It's used to fire the furnaces of foundries and steel mills. Citizens Gas & Coke put the sprawling facility up for sale 11 months ago.
Bankruptcies of US steel mills, the decline of the American auto industry and less expensive imported coke are all factors that make the plant unsellable, according to Citizens Gas and Coke.
"We didn't get an offer, period," said Lykins. "I would have been happy to take a dollar for the plant." Instead, he couldn't give it away. "Sad, isn't it?" he said.
It's saddest for for the people depending on the plant for a living. Some 41 workers qualify for early retirements. Rick McDonald is one of them.
"I'm sad for the other guys that [are] going to miss out. They have families to feed. It is not a good feeling still," he said.
Surrounding neighborhoods valued the jobs, but blamed the plant for foul-smelling, polluted air. Over 30 years, the utility says it spent more than $100 million on environmental safeguards.
The coke plant will be shut down over a period of months. The utility says it will take years to demolish the buildings, clean up environmental hazards and clear the land.
The utility, which employs 1,100, will negotiate a severance package with the union representing the factory workers. It has not decided when the factory will shut, President and CEO Carey Lykins said.
The workers were notified last month about the possible closure of the plant.
