MOUNT VERNON — Siemens Energy will be closing its doors in Mount Vernon later this year.
Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Mavis confirmed the news with Knox Pages on Tuesday. Mavis with a Siemens representative this morning after the company made the announcement to its employees.
“For the last couple of years we believed that we were going to have somewhere around 325 engineering-type jobs left here in Mount Vernon,” Mavis said.
The mayor said it wasn’t a surprise that layoffs would occur — they were made aware of that fact over the last couple of years — but the news that the company would shutter its Mount Vernon location came as a blow.
“These were good jobs. We kind of counted on them,” Mavis said. “Yes, we were going to reduce the number of employees, but in the end we were going to have 325 jobs that are well-paid and benefitted and it was going to be good for our community. To learn this morning that by the end of September there won’t be any jobs there is a concern.”
According to Mavis, this was not a case where the city could offer incentives to keep Siemens in town. He was informed by the Siemens representative that the company had been laying off workers throughout its entire company, which has facilities worldwide.
“We aren’t the only ones being hit,” Mavis said. “No matter what it is for the other communities, our concern is with the city of Mount Vernon.”
The city will have to go to work to find new occupants for the complex on North Sandusky Street.
“We’ll call our people together to talk about this impact,” Mavis said. “We were fortunate to pass that additional income tax, but losing this many jobs that would be paying that 2 percent is a concern, a grave concern of ours.”
The 325 Siemens engineering-type jobs were to be moved into renovated office space within the Siemens complex. A portion of that space was going to be available for rent. So, the city of Mount Vernon, Knox County, and Siemens teamed to hire a marketer to market the open space before this latest announcement.
“We’ve had some interest, but we haven’t had any takers yet. What this will do, this will make the balance of that space available in that Cooper complex down there. Hopefully our marketing will be successful,” Mavis said. “We believe we probably are not going to get another company with 1,000 employees. We’ll probably get smaller units manufacturing in there.
This will not be easy. This will be a blow to our community.”
The mayor noted that the lease on the silver building at the corner of West Chestnut and North Sandusky streets is up at the end of the year. The building was scheduled to be torn down; Mavis said that plan will continue on as scheduled.
A company statement on the closing is expected soon.
Siemens purchased the former Rolls-Royce Energy gas turbine and compressor business in 2014 for $1.33 billion. Prior to Siemens taking over the business, Rolls Royce announced a 10 percent reduction in the Mount Vernon workforce. Siemens announced layoffs in 2015 of 25 to 30 percent of its workforce, or about 50 salaried employees and 200 union workers. The announcement came just six weeks after the company officially took over the facility.
Another reduction in the local Siemens workforce occurred in 2016 when the company announced that package assembly and test activities were being transferred out of the Mount Vernon facility and into other sites within the Siemens company.
