Shock.
"All the faces in the room dropped...I mean you could hear a pin drop..its was really really ba.")
Fear.
"I got four kids. with health insurance, when I hit the door I wont have any health insurance."
Devastation.
"You can't tell me they decided this morning to shut this mill down."
Emotions are running both high and low in the city of franklin after news of its largest employer shutting its doors.
At a press conference Thursday morning, management for Memphis-based international paper announced that after more than a century the company is closing its Franklin Papermill.
By spring of next year, more than 1,100 people will be without a job.
"I don't want to think about it."
Rusty Brett just opened his restaurant, the gray fox, back in april. His business relies heavily on the hundreds of people who work at the mill.
He says when they lose their jobs, he worries about his.
"Everything is affected by the paper mill in Franklin."
Rusty is one of many business owners worried about how the trickle down affect of the mill closing will affect their bottom line.
"Its hard trying to build a business..its been up and down with the economy, and then this on top."
For now, this tight-knit community is praying for each other and hoping the city and state come through with a plan.
In November of last year the plant lost 50 jobs and in may of this year they lost another 155.
The paper mill makes up 25 percent of the Southampton County's revenue.
The governors office says the state employment commission will be setting up an economic crisis strike force to help the laid off workers.
"All the faces in the room dropped...I mean you could hear a pin drop..its was really really ba.")
Fear.
"I got four kids. with health insurance, when I hit the door I wont have any health insurance."
Devastation.
"You can't tell me they decided this morning to shut this mill down."
Emotions are running both high and low in the city of franklin after news of its largest employer shutting its doors.
At a press conference Thursday morning, management for Memphis-based international paper announced that after more than a century the company is closing its Franklin Papermill.
By spring of next year, more than 1,100 people will be without a job.
"I don't want to think about it."
Rusty Brett just opened his restaurant, the gray fox, back in april. His business relies heavily on the hundreds of people who work at the mill.
He says when they lose their jobs, he worries about his.
"Everything is affected by the paper mill in Franklin."
Rusty is one of many business owners worried about how the trickle down affect of the mill closing will affect their bottom line.
"Its hard trying to build a business..its been up and down with the economy, and then this on top."
For now, this tight-knit community is praying for each other and hoping the city and state come through with a plan.
In November of last year the plant lost 50 jobs and in may of this year they lost another 155.
The paper mill makes up 25 percent of the Southampton County's revenue.
The governors office says the state employment commission will be setting up an economic crisis strike force to help the laid off workers.
