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Life after the mill

Stephanie Ritenbaugh
| Tuesday, January 10, 2006 5:00 a.m.
As Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corp. begins to phase out its West Leechburg Works, there's no word yet as to what will happen to the riverfront mill once operations cease. Officials are expected to meet in the coming weeks to discuss what the "indefinite idle" on the mill will mean for the workers and the community. The site also houses a machinist shop that serves the nearby Vandergrift and Bagdad plants and a water treatment plant, said Gary Bell, borough council president and president of United Steelworkers of America Local 1183, which includes West Leechburg mill workers. "Those are some of the issues we're going to discuss," said Bell. Whether the mill is officially shut down or remains idle affects the pensions of the workers, Bell said. The site is primarily a finishing mill for steel coils delivered from Ludlum's Brackenridge Works in Harrison. Officials said the news is disheartening but did not come as a shock. "This is not a big surprise," Bell said. "We've been trying to keep the plant open since the reopening of the contracts." Contracts were reopened in 2004, when Allegheny Technologies Inc. acquired J&L Specialty Steel. ATI said phasing out the West Leechburg plant, one of the oldest mills in the Valley, will save the company $10 million a year beginning in 2007. Company spokesman Dan Greenfield said the plant will be phased out over several months. "As far as any further decisions, there are no plans as of now," Greenfield said. In the meantime, officials are trying to figure out how to handle this in terms of tax revenue. Ann Miccolis, borough and Leechburg Area School District tax collector, said the borough and Westmoreland County collected almost $13,000 last year in property taxes from the site. The school district collected almost $53,000. As for wage taxes, the school district and borough collected a combined total of almost $26,600 between October 2004 and September 2005. Terry Knepshield, president of the Leechburg Area School Board, said the district has been prepared for such a situation. It has been setting aside money in a tax stabilization fund and by keeping a relatively high fund balance. Knepshield said that the district, with a $10 million budget, has a fund balance of between $1 million and $1.5 million. "That will allow us to weather this -- at least initially," he said. Knepshield expects that the board will hear a detailed report on the impact of the closing at its meeting Jan. 18. Officials from Westmoreland County didn't return calls for comment yesterday. The number of employees at the plant has been decreasing since the 1970s, Miccolis said. In 1974, there were 1,886 employees subject to the occupational privilege tax. In April 2005, that number was fewer than 243. Councilman Leonard Kotvas said the borough needs to be "fiscally alert" since the company's move will cut into the small town's budget. The plant covers 1 million square feet of a borough that only takes up 1 square mile of Westmoreland County. "Our biggest problem is our tax base," said Kotvas, who said a reassessment of Ludlum's facility in 2004 already cost the borough $18,000 and sparked a 2-mill increase to 22 mills. "In West Leechburg, there's not a lot of other income," Kotvas said. "Until they figure out how they're going to do this, I'm not sure how this will translate into dollars and cents at this point." "We're going to have to know how things are going (in the borough's finances) from month to month," Kotvas said. "In years past, Allegheny Ludlum has been our salvation here as part of our tax base and a good member of the community," Kotvas said. "It's just like any town that loses a business. It's hard." There's also the question of what will happen to the facility, itself. "I don't believe they'd leave it to be an eyesore in the community," Bell said. "I don't know the condition of the soil. I'm sure the government would take a look at that before they tear it down or shut it down. I'm sure that can be addressed by Growing Greener or some other type of program to help secure money to help that site." Ludlum also owns and maintains a bridge that leads to the facility. "It goes nowhere but the West Leechburg plant," Bell said. "I don't see us as a small borough being able to maintain that bridge." Assistant City Editor Dave Williams contributed to this report. Additional Information:

About Allegheny Ludlum

Allegheny Ludlum is the largest employer in the Alle-Kiski Valley. It has about 2,190 hourly employees at five plants in the Alle-Kiski Valley, according to figures provided in February 2004 by leaders of the four unions that represent workers in local plants. Companywide, Ludlum has about 3,200 workers at about a dozen plants in the United States. Allegheny Ludlum operates melt and finishing shops at its Brackenridge Works in Harrison, and has plants in Vandergrift, West Leechburg and Bagdad (Gilpin). Ludlum has other plants in Pennsylvania as well as in Ohio, Massachusetts and Connecticut.


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