White County plant’s closing could cost 500 jobs

The White County plant opened in 1968 and makes small motors for electrical controls.

Jobs will start being phased out in a few months, a company spokesman said. Officials blamed the closure on competitive pressures and said some of the work will be shipped to Asia.

“It hurts. It’s like a dagger in the heart,” Sparta Chamber of Commerce president Wallace Austin said. “It’s really going to hurt.”

Emerson once operated two plants in Sparta but closed the second plant a few years ago.

White County officials had planned to visit Emerson headquarters in St. Louis in May, and say they will still make the trip to ask the company to relocate another operation to Sparta.

Sparta is located about 80 miles east of Nashville. It had a population of 4,599 in the 2000 Census.

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On the Net:

Emerson: http://www.gotoemerson.com/index.jsp

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Information from: WTVF, http://www.newschannel5.com/ and WKRN, http://www.wkrn.com/