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Businesses Adjusting to Life after Idling of GM Lordstown Plant

Since the last Cruze rolled off the assembly line at the Lordstown plant last month, legislators have asked GM to reconsider its decision to idle the plant.
KABIR BHATIA
/
WKSU
Since the last Cruze rolled off the assembly line at the Lordstown plant last month, legislators have asked GM to reconsider its decision to idle the plant.

A month after the last Chevy Cruze rolled off the line at GM’s Lordstown plant, some laid off workers are moving away and businesses in the Mahoning Valley are feeling the effects.

Leaving Lordstown

At Cockeye’s Barbeque in Warren on Saturday, a small crowd gathered to bid farewell to yet another GM employee who is transferring to a facility in Missouri. Stacey Hoover says many of the GM employees have become regulars in the four years since she opened the restaurant. She says the layoffs will have a trickle-down effect in the region.

“Losing all the folks at Lordstown, that’s a real thing for us. We’ve kind of become part of their routine. Will it impact the business? Yeah, maybe. But at the end of the day, will it impact us, personally? Yeah.

“Honest to Gosh, you get a little emotional because it is the last time you’re going to see them. But, I can’t tell you how many have come back. They went to Kentucky, they went to Missouri, they went to all these different places. And when they come back to town to see family, they come to see me.”

Since the last Chevy Cruze rolled off the Lordstown assembly line in March, a number of local leaders, legislators and others have asked GM to reconsider its decision.

Copyright 2019 WKSU

Kabir Bhatia joined WKSU as a Reporter/Producer and weekend host in 2010. A graduate of Hudson High School, he received his Bachelor's from Kent State University. While a Kent student, Bhatia served as a WKSU student assistant, working in the newsroom and for production.