BY KYM LIEBLER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A group of girls ride their Huffys to go swimming in Celina, OH.
(Gary Landers photo)
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CELINA, Ohio -- A cycle of life is ending in this western Ohio town.
Where families once banked on lifelong employment at Huffy Bicycles and children took Huffy bikes for granted, the manufacturing plant that has steered Celina for 43 years closes Friday.
The ubiquitous presence of Huffy bikes -- propped on porches, pedaled along Grand Lake St. Marys and laying in lawns -- and the absence of any other bike models reveals this city's loyalty to the company. But after the last bike is assembled Friday and 650 workers punch out, Mercer County's unemployment rate shoots from 2.9 percent to 12 percent and "Huffy" is expected to become a dirty word.
"I think you'll see a lot less Huffy bikes on the street," said Mercer County Economic Development Larry Stelzer, who was in Huffy management before assuming his current job in 1990.
In May, the Miamisburg-based Huffy company announced it was closing the plant, Mercer County's largest employer, by year's end and transfering operations to its plants in Farmington, Mo., and Southaven, Miss.
![[map]](celinamap_180x177.jpg)
The company said the move is necessary because foreign competition, especially in Asia, has driven down retail prices and reduced profit margins.
The decision to shut what was once the largest bike manufacturing plant in the world has brought the cruel reality of corporate downsizing into Celina's small-town cocoon.
About 100 employees opted for an "early-out" and have already left. The majority, or 650 people, will be let go Friday. The rest of the 250 workers will remain until Oct. 2.
"Just about everybody has a friend or a neighbor or a relative who's worked at Huffy," Mr. Stelzer said. "The closure's going to impact the whole community. It's a big hit for Celina; a lot of buying power's going to dry up; but more than that, people are going to be out of work. This is big-time emotional stuff."
Celina, population 10,400, sits on Grand Lake St. Marys about 100 miles north of Cincinnati. Wide sidewalks provide ample room to stroll past downtown's eclectic storefronts and 19th-century architecture. Banners sway from lampposts touting the city's repeated distinction as one of "The 100 Best Small Towns in America." In Celina, hourly wages go a long way. A family can buy a solid, four-bedroom house not far from downtown for $70,000.
There's a simple innocence to Celina living. Elementary-age children ride their bicycles to and from the Eastview Park swimming pond. Many learn how to fish and sail at a young age. It's a tourism city, although it's obvious those who most enjoy the lake are the people who live here.
Along Main Street in Celina Huffy bikes are a commomn sight.
(Gary Landers photo)
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"It's beautiful here," said Arlene Salzmann, a real estate agent who worked at Huffy several years ago. So did her daughter. Over the years, her family's owned dozens of Huffy bikes.
"I can't imagine living anywhere else. I don't cringe when my kids go out after dark," she said. "This is home. People go away, but they always come back. With the plant closing, the whole town's behind the Huffy workers. We try to lend a sympathetic ear."
On a perfect summer day last week, empty lawn chairs dotted the curbside of downtown Main Street as people staked claim to front-row seats for Saturday night's Celina Lake Festival Grand Parade. In the past, Huffy employees proudly hoisted the company banner and marched with Kiwanis and Rotary clubs, the Celina High School band and small-town dignitaries.
This year, the soon-to-be unemployed Huffy work force marshaled the parade. In place of the Huffy banner, they carried a sign proclaiming, "Huffy work force -- the Best in the World."
Zelda Zizelman, who has assembled Huffy bikes for 20 years, was among them.
"We know what next Friday holds, and we can't even think about it," said Mrs. Zizelman, whose husband, Rex, has worked for Huffy for 32 years. "We all thought we'd live and die and retire at Huffy's. We never thought they'd close this place down."
Like an expert cook reciting a special recipe, Mrs. Zizelman knows bicycle assembly by rote:
"You start out with the frame, put the fork in the frame. From there, it goes onto the line. The crank's installed, you do the crank. Then you do brakes, most models take the hand brakes," she said. "You do that. Each one adds one more part down the line til the end, til the wheels. Wheels are last."
She and other seasoned employees understand foreign competition from China and Mexico has made their jobs obsolete. It's cheaper to make bikes overseas and import them to America.
Still, the bottom-line company line doesn't make the reality of unemployment easier.
What is easing the blow are the people of Mercer County and Celina. Epitomizing small-town concern, the county this year formed Huffy Employee Logistics Plan (HELP) to give displaced workers financial counseling and help with job training and placement.
Dee Bohman and Terry Huser, clerks for Huffy for more than 42 and 22 years, respectively, clocked out of the Huffy plant Thursday and headed toward the Huffy union hall for assessment tests organized through the HELP program.
"Everyone has reached out," Mrs. Huser said. "You can just feel the community's support. That's what makes me feel this community's going to survive this. It's not going to be easy and there's a lot of uncertainty, but there's a sense that we're all in this together."
In its heyday in the 1970s, Huffy Bicycles cranked out 20,000 bikes a day, Mr. Stelzer said. In recent months, production has slowed to about 4,800.
To the city and county, the economic ramifications of the plant closure are steep.
In 1997, Huffy paid $191,600 in real property taxes to Mercer County, and $497,000 in personal property taxes, Mr. Stelzer said. The city will lose income tax revenue and the county also will lose sales tax revenue.
If there is a silver lining in the Huffy closure, it's the opportunity the city and county now has to attract a new business to the plant's $8 million, 850,000-square-foot building. So far, three interested companies have toured the plant, Mr. Stelzer said. He declined to elaborate on which companies they are or what they do.
One of the building's selling points is the area's highly skilled work force.
"We've got 1,000 skilled people who have 20 to 40 years experience. These are not bums that got fired," Mr. Stelzer said. "In a very tight labor market, this is a tremendous asset."
With Huffy leaving, the county's largest employer will be Agco Manufacturing, a company that makes farm equipment and employs 900 workers. Reynolds & Reynolds, a printing business, has a work force of about 600. In addition to its manufacturing job base, Mercer County's wholesale and retail industry employs almost 3,000 people. "We don't know what we're going to do next," said Mrs. Zizelman, who earned $10.05 an hour at Huffy. "There's jobs out there, but they're $7.50 or $8.50 an hour with no health benefits."
Last Christmas, Mr. and Mrs. Zizelman bought their four grandchildren Huffy bicycles. "But no more," she promised last week, standing outside the plant commiserating with co-workers.
"I definitely will not ever be buying another Huffy. If they can't support me, I won't support them."
