By ANN PIERCEALL

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

CLARKSVILLE, Mo. -- Clarksville is reeling from the announcement Wednesday that the Holcim cement plant is permanently closing.

Mayor Jo Anne Smiley said the closing will have a huge impact on the town. Many of the 490 residents work at Holcim or one of the other businesses that serve the plant or operate alongside it.

"We're looking at river traffic and road traffic. We're looking at the school district being affected in a major way," Smiley said, describing the closure as "another blow" to the town just months after it fought Mississippi River flooding.

"It was a tough time already. This just makes it tougher. All we can do is be vigilant and be aware of who will be affected and how they're being affected, and help in any way can," she said.

Clarksville is one of two U.S. plants that Holcim, a Swiss-based company with holdings around the world, plans to close. Clarksville and the Dundee, Mich., plant fell victim to one of the largest slumps to hit the cement-making business.

Holcim reports cement sales in the North American region fell by 9.7 percent to 11.2 million tons from 12.4 million tons in the January-September period in 2008, compared with the same period last year. Volume of aggregates sold were down by 12.3 percent in the first nine months of 2008, to 37.7 million tons from 43 million tons last year.

The combined annual production capacity of the plants in Clarksville and Dundee is 2.2 million tons of cement.

Holcim's Ste. Genevieve, Mo., plant south of St. Louis will remain open. It is undergoing a major upgrade and expansion that is expected to be completed next year.

Nancy Tully, Holcim US Inc.'s manager of public affairs, confirmed that the closing of the two plants is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2009. More than 180 Holcim employees at Clarksville will be out of work.

Tully said the company is speaking with its employees individually about the employment options available to them.

"Certainly if anyone wanted to apply at any other facilities .... that's available to any of our employees," she said.

Also planning to aid the Holcim workers is the Missouri Department of Economic Development and Pike County officials. Carolyn Wisecarver, executive director for Pike County Economic Development, said DED's rapid-response team will be in next week to help develop a plan to assist Holcim workers and others affected by the closing.

"We'll do everything we can to try and assist the employees. It's going to affect lot of other local businesses that supply to them, as well," Wisecarver said, noting that many of the Holcim employees have been there for years and that it is "not a young labor force."

"We're going to keep looking at the positive and hope something comes in to help these employees," she said.

The economic factors that hit Holcim's U.S. operations are working against Continental Cement's plant in Hannibal, too, but there is one major difference.

"They're a worldwide company, and we're privately owned," said Continental spokesman Frank Salter. "And we already did our upgrade, which makes us a more viable cement plant right now. We're pretty tight right now, but it will help us in the long run."

-- apierceall@whig.com/(573) 221-5879