TORRINGTON – As you make the trip down Highway 26 bound for Scottsbluff, Neb., if you look past the natural beauty of the Scottsbluff National Monument and the quaint charm of the villages along the way, just off the road, something different stands out from the plains – ruin. 

To be specific, the ruins of Western Sugar Cooperative processing facilities. 

“On Wednesday, three of us from the City of Torrington went to attend a meeting in Scottsbluff and on the way, we passed the Morrill factory,” Torrington Mayor Randy Adams said. “We passed the Mitchell factory. We know there’s an old factory in Gering. They’re just ruins.”

And Torrington could be next.

Western Sugar Cooperative announced last week it would eliminate another 101 positions at its Torrington facility by the end of March. These permanent layoffs are in addition to 92 workers who will be laid off by the end of this month. 

In a letter addressed to Torrington Mayor Randy Adams, Torrington Workforce Center Manager Gilbert Servantez and the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, Western Sugar attributed the layoffs to its evolving business needs. 

“This letter is to formally advise you that based on current and projected business plans and needs, the company intends to permanently lay off employees at this facility,” the letter read. “This decision will result in the mass layoff of approximately 101 employees at the facility, with the layoffs commencing on March 14, 2019, or within 14 days after that date. The layoffs of these positions are expected to be permanent.”

In all, Western Sugar will be eliminating 193 positions at its Torrington facility. In the latest round of layoffs, six job classifications will be affected. There are expected to be 64 craftworkers, 19 laborers and helpers, six technicians, four first- or mid-level official managers, four administrative support workers and four operatives affected. The letter also said the schedule of the layoffs, job titles and employees affected are posted at the factory.

Western Sugar President and CEO Rodney Perry did not respond to multiple messages requesting comment, but told the Telegram in November the cutbacks are due to Western Sugar upgrading its Fort Morgan, Colo., and Scottsbluff facilities and focusing production to those facilities. 

 “This is something that we originally announced back in Sept of 2016,” Perry said at the time. “We did a press release on it, so I guess I’m a little surprised.

“As we announced in Sept. 2016, we would be investing in newer technologies and expanding our Scottsbluff facility and our Fort Morgan facility. At that time, we said it would be over the next 24 months, then with that going into effect and doing those projects, we would be reducing our activities and workforce in Torrington.”

In the same interview, Perry said it was Western Sugar’s intent the current sugar processing campaign would be the last in the Torrington facility, which has been producing beet sugar since 1923. 

“It is our plan that this will be the last campaign that we will process sugar beets there,” Perry said. “We will still store sugar there from other sites and other locations. We will bring it in there and store it, pack it and ship sugar out of there. We will maintain the operation and some of the people.”

It’s unclear, however, how many people will still be employed in Torrington. Perry declined to answer specific questions about the number of employees at the Torrington facility during the November interview. 

“I’m not going to get into the specifics of that at this time,” he said. 

The Department of Workforce Services has organized a rapid response team to aid the displaced workers and help them find jobs or training. Eastern Wyoming College, Goshen County Economic Development Corporation and the Wyoming Department of Corrections are joining DWS to help the workers find career training, further their education or find new jobs. 

“Our No. 1 goal is to find employment for these workers here,” Servantez said in November. “We want our workers to stay here, if at all possible. They have homes here and they’ve lived here for most of their lives. Our goal is to try our hardest to keep these people here. What we’re looking at are other businesses in Wyoming that are currently hiring. That’s another thing that we’re doing. We’re calling business that are currently hiring here in Wyoming.”

But it will be tough to find placement for nearly 200 workers. Adams said it will be nearly impossible to keep all of those workers local. 

“I think that it’s a sad, sad story for the city of Torrington,” Adams said. “We’re going to lose 200 jobs. There’s no community around that can absorb that many jobs. There’s no place in the community that can hire 200 people, so they have to move on. I think some of them are probably going to go to Scottsbluff and try to be absorbed by the Western Sugar plant down there. I don’t know about the rest of them. It’s just a sad thing for the city. 

“We’re going to see the changes when we see the loss of sales tax, the loss of property tax and those things. It’s hard to lay out the total impact.”