LSC job loss could financially impact Kendallville, surrounding community

On September 1, LSC Communications, a print and digital communications company, notified the Indiana Department of Workforce Development that they would lay off all of the roughly 307 employees at one of their two facilities in Kendallville.

Hunter petroviak.thanks for joining us.o e of kendallville largest employers will start laying off over 300 people on october first.

That loss of jobs could be a big hit to the noble county community.fox 55 caleb saylor is live in kendallville tonight to tell us more about the closing of part of l-s-c communications operations and what's next for the employees..caleb..on september first lsc communications notified the indiana department of workforce development that they would lay off all of the roughly 307 employees at one of their two facilities in kendallville.

City and county officials i spoke with today say if it takes too long to get those losing their jobs back to work and the building occupied again, it could mean big money lost for the community 3 ick to my stomach.

It was quite the blow.

Kendallville mayor suzanne handshoe described her reaction when she found out lsc communications, a paper book publisher, would be laying off over 300 people.

Handshoe says there was no discussion about trouble at the company, even though they had such a good repore with the city see it coming at all.

There was no dialogue at least introducing the fact that things weren going well.

I was very disappointed to receive notification in a letter.

0:18-0:23 in a warn letter to the state, lsc communications say the job loss is due to ontinued deterioration of market conditions.

Employees who spoke with fox 55 off camera say with education systems converting to digital, ther less need for paper materials, causing a decline in profits.

As the jobs are phased out, handshoe says the total payroll lost in the community would be about 28 million dollars, meaning the city loses out on payroll tax money, and if the building sits vacant too long, theyl loss property tax money as ersonal property, theye all lumped together with their machinery, so still significant, probably in the hundreds of thousands.

Gatman with the noble county economic development corporat on says he didn receive any notice either besides the warn letter to the state.

Hat are we going to do to take care of the workers.

I mean, the first priority is taking care of our own and the folks who work at lsc is part of the noble coun all mily, so it about that.

With little notice, the city and county are scrambling to keep disruptions to a minimum for people and the government ur goal is to get every single one of those employees placed in a job and, again, to occupy that plant and get those back on the tax rolls.

I reached out to lsc communications this afternoon for comm heard t haven back from them.

Handshoe and gatman explae ed that they been contacted by multiple employers in noble county to fill open positions and with the help of lsc, have created two job fairs the lsc employees will have the ability to attend and handshoe says her office has been contacted by at least 4 other businesses who have discussed possibly occupying the buil empty.

So t there is actually some cautious optimism surrounding this situation.

Reporting live in kendallville, caleb saylor, fox 55 news