O'Leary residents 'disappointed' in potato plant closure

O'Leary residents are concerned about the closure of the Cavendish Farms potato packaging plant. Cavendish Farms announced Monday, the facility will close in December and 40 jobs will be lost.

The news hasmany residentswondering what this will mean for their community.

DawnHelm, the general manager of the O'Leary Farmers Co-op Food Market said the loss of 40 jobs is a big impact in a town as small as O'Leary.

"It's very disappointing because ourstore struggles because we're up west and there's not a lot of population.Another 40 jobs is going to really deter a lot of business and shopping in all the businesses uphere," she said.

"I worry about the families and how they're going to cope with that."

'All of us are going to be impacted'

Helm said the Food Market is one of the only grocery stores in the area.

"I'm sure all of us are going to be impacted. When people aren't driving by to go to work, they're not stopping for lunch, they're not stopping to pick up a little bit of groceries on their way home. So it will impact the business I'msure."

Helm said the packaging plant was an important addition to the town's economy.

"We employ 40 people here. So, it'skind of like whoayou know, there's anotherbusiness with 40 employees. We support a lot of community activities and the more sales go down, the less we can support that stuff."

'Ripple Effect'

She said because the town and the surrounding areas aren't large communities, it creates a greater impact.

"That'sa pretty big chunk of the people....None of us are large communities.It's going to have a big ripple effect, I think."

Arnold Smallman, who lives nearO'Leary, said he sympathizes for the people that work there.

"I don't know what they're going to do. It's an awful thing. I didn't like it at all."

Cavendish farms said it will try to place the workers from O'Leary elsewhere in the company, if possible.

Come December, the plant will only be used for storage,supplying some seasonal work.

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