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Malaise seeps into sheltered Citrus areasBy ALEX LEARY © St. Petersburg Times, published February 6, 2001 CRYSTAL RIVER -- It was Martin Schneider's turn in the barber chair, but he gladly gave it up. The economy was on his mind, and he was on a roll. "We're going into a recession," the 85-year-old Beverly Hills resident said with certainty. "If things keep up like this, we might not go into a recession, we might go into a depression. I'm pretty pessimistic about the outlook." One by one, Schneider counted off the national companies that have fired employees or closed altogether in the past two months. But the most solid evidence of the moribund economy, he said, are the layoffs here in Citrus County. Last week, Florida Power cut 62 workers and Metal Industries closed its Crystal River manufacturing plant after 22 years, stripping another 50 jobs from the county. Citing growing competition and slower sales, Scotty's closed its hardware stores in Inverness and Crystal River. Two doors down from Fred's Barber Shop on State Road 44, Ralph Contopoulo was lighting a cigarette after lunch at the Village Cafe. He, too, is keenly aware of the local changes but said the fears are being exaggerated. His motorcycle dealership just saw one of its most successful months ever, and sales remain strong. "The news media is the one that is hyping this," Contopoulo said. "I'm sure we do have a slowdown, but it's overhyped." The Tampa Bay area is only starting to feel the pinch of the job cutbacks that are gathering momentum nationally with the slowing economy. But Citrus County has few major employers, so the loss of jobs, even if only a handful, can have a greater effect. "This is the first time in my adult life that I've seen anything of this magnitude happen in this area," said Ed Tolle, a longtime business leader and former Crystal River City Council member. The work force reductions at Florida Power were triggered by a merger with Carolina Power & Light. When the $5.3-billion takeover was announced in August 1999, the Raleigh, N.C., utility said it would cut $100-million, largely by eliminating duplicate jobs. Some jobs in Crystal River would have been lost regardless. The nuclear plant here had increased its staff to deal with regulatory shutdowns in 1996 and 1997, but those issues have been resolved, officials say. Since the merger, 160 jobs have been trimmed from the Crystal River plant. Some people left for other jobs, and some retired -- but a good portion were squeezed out. And more cutbacks are imminent at Florida Power's four coal-burning plants. "When the nuclear power plant was built, everybody expected a lot of increase in growth, and that's what happened," Tolle said. "The job security in the county has always been ascending rather than going down. It's going to be an interesting thing to see what happens." Citrus County never has had a stellar economy, in part because of its large retirement population with fixed incomes and its relatively rural landscape. But the economy has not been a disappointment, either. Longtime residents say the collective job cuts, which include 50 that were eliminated at Pro-Line Boats last fall, could be the first signs of real trouble. A week after losing his job at Metal Industries, James Head has applied for several painting jobs but so far has come up empty. "It's not easy to get work," he said while working a temporary job at a hardware store in Crystal River. "People seem skeptical of hiring. They don't know what's going to happen next."
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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