Troy Mine closure: locals discuss effects on the people and community

“I don’t want to leave,” Scott Savage told his wife, Nicci, as they drove from Troy to Kalispell on Tuesday. Scott got on a plane to Juneau, Alaska, where he would work for two weeks at the Hecla Greens Creek mine before returning to his wife and two elementary age children back in Troy. He may not want to leave, but he does what he has to do.

It’s part of a five-year plan the Savages have for Scott to make good money up in Alaska and then return to Troy to find a job that may not pay as well, but in which he would be close to his family.

The scenario is already a common one in Troy and may become more so with Revett Mining Inc. placing the Troy Mine on care and maintenance. The designation means about 75 workers will be laid off for the foreseeable future.    

Scott worked for ASARCO when they shuttered their operation in 1993. After going back to school in Havre and earning a degree in metal fabrication, he found work in Seward, Alaska at the shipyard. Scott then found work closer to home in Columbus, where he worked at the Stillwater Mine. Nicci said Scott came back to work in Troy when Revett started mining again in 2004, but he had to find steady work after the mine closed down in 2012. That’s when Scott landed a job at Hecla Greens Creek in Alaska.

Savage gives Revett a lot of credit for keeping her husband working as long as they could in 2012. But with the mine’s future uncertain, Scott had a tough decision to make. “You can’t live on hopes, maybes and promises,” said Savage.

She’s concerned what the shutdown will mean for area businesses and families. Savage works at Trojan Lanes and said the shutdown could hurt the winter bowling leagues, which is the busy time of year for her employer. “It’s going to be scary, really scary. It’s happening again.” Last time the mine shut down, Savage said they had to basically recruit 51 bowlers to replace people who had to move for work just to keep the league going.

Many of the business owners that offered comment on the mine closure were more concerned with the families that would be affected than they were with their own businesses.

The manager of Stein’s Family Foods for 34 years, Jim Baillie, said he feels for the families and the mining company. “You know that’s too bad. I feel bad for those people. I feel bad for Revett trying to get those guys back and getting a crew and then having to start over each time. For the people, for the mine, it’s just terrible.”

Making adjustments to his staff and their hours is something Baillie said he may have to consider. “It will be interesting to see this time how bad it affects us. We’ll have to see.”

Baillie said Troy has always been a tough place to live, but the town seems to keep an even keel by not getting too high or too low. As far as Stein’s goes, “We’re going to maintain, we’re going to do our thing, we’re not going any where,” Baillie said. He noted food is a commodity people will continue to purchase.

The mine’s closure may take some of the wind out of the town’s sails. “We were very optimistic about this next year with the mine ramping up employment. I could just see things on the upswing and see it in people’s attitude this last fall and winter and it seemed like we were on a roll. But boy, we’ve been here before, unfortunately.”

Owner of Roy’s Mini-Mart and the Holiday Motel, Mike DuPerault, said his business may suffer because of the mine closure, but like Stein’s, his enterprise offers something everybody will continue to need: gas. He joked beer sales may also go up as the local economy goes down. “Alcohol and depressions go hand-in-hand.”

All jokes aside, DuPerault is concerned with what the mine closure will mean for the economy. “I wish we had another industry to fall back on,” DuPerault said. “I think forest management would be a great thing in the area.”

DuPerault said if things slow down at his gas station he may have to pick up more hours to cover any lost income. “I can’t change any of my fixed expenses,” he said.

Down the street from Roy’s at TCO Lube and Tire an employee who wished to remain anonymous said, “It sucks,” when asked what he thought about the mine closure. Owner Mike Cole added, “This part of the country is in dire trouble; it’s a sore subject.” Both men were skeptical that tourism could replace industries of the past to drive the local economy with Cole saying, “Tourism only provides minimum wage jobs.”

Brad Jones was getting supplies for his workday at Gamble Hardware on Wednesday. Jones is an electrical contractor in Troy and felt the same way the unnamed employee at TCO did. “I think it sucks,” he said at he continued to gather items. “I’m sure nobody’s excited about the closure.”

Jones said he anticipates his business will be negatively impacted by the mine closure saying he knows and works for a lot of the people who work there. Jones was born and raised in Troy and said, “60 to 70 percent of the mine workers are from Troy, so it’s going to affect us pretty good.”

Shera Winebark is also a Troy native whose father worked at the mine when she was growing up, but unlike some people, she doesn’t have a strong opinion about the mine closure. “I don’t know enough to be angry. I don’t mind sticking my head in the sand.”

Her sister’s husband is one of the men in the area who has a long-distance commute for work. He travels from Troy to Nevada.

Winebark doesn’t forecast any loss of business at the Silver Spur bar and restaurant at the north end of Troy. “It doesn’t really affect me; people still want entertainment and food,” she said.

She said during previous shut downs, “Most families stayed and guys went out, which doesn’t hurt as much.”

Mary Ruth Bellamy was getting her nails done by Carene Cratty at True Blue Boutique and Nail in Seahawk blue, green and white on Wednesday. Bellamy knows the scenario Winebark spoke of all too well. “This town is full of women raising children with their dads out of town,” said Bellamy.

Cratty is sure she’ll lose a couple of clients as a result of the latest episode of Troy’s mine closure. “My business was really hurt two or three years ago when the mine closed, and I haven’t got any of those clients back,” she said.

Another customer at True Blue had a story of how someone she knew was touched by the mine closure. One of Beth Schweitzer’s friends bought a house on Grant Street no more than six months ago. Her husband will lose his job at the mine, which means they won’t be able to make the payments on their house. “What do you do, where do you go?” Schweitzer asked.

Owner of True Value and Kootenai Drug, Chris Hermes, has an idea about what might happen to people the position of Schweitzer’s friend. “We’re talking hundreds of people, when you count kids and wives, so they’re going to be moving out of town to find jobs in Nevada or Alaska or wherever the jobs are. These are vibrant young families that mean a lot to the community, it’s going to hurt tremendously.”

Hermes understands the mine’s decision to closedown operations. “It’s just the nature of mining, metal prices drive the direction of the mine. The same goes with any of these natural resources, even logging. If we could log we’d have a lot of loggers in town.”

Winebark’s sister was probably one of the people Hermes was referencing when he said he has employees that have husbands who travel to distant locations to find work to provide for their families. “We see that first-hand here, but you got to go where the money is.”   

Hermes has about 15 employees between his two businesses. “We’re doing our part to keep the economy going. We haven’t had to lay anybody off and I don’t think we will.” He’s staying optimistic about the future for the laid-off miners and his business. “We’ll be fine, they’ll be fine, we just might not be fine in the same town.”

According to one of the most recognizable figures in Troy, Darren Coldwell, the mine closure has tremendous repercussions. “It’s a huge hit. Not only for those employees and the families it affects, but also just for the morale of the community. When you thought they were finally starting to make some progress and they were starting to hire again. We could see them getting back into the 200-plus employees.”

Coldwell said if Revett was one of the large corporations they would have been out of the area five years ago. “Over the last couple years they’ve worked really hard to keep it going. I do appreciate Revett and the Troy Mine, they really have tried to help the community, but the bottom line is it’s a business. They have shareholders to report to, they can’t just keep doing it. Sooner or later you have to pull the plug.”

If copper prices continue to make mining unprofitable the implications for the city and the county will be enormous said Coldwell. “It’s going to be huge for the schools and the city. Their contribution to the school is huge. I think right now they’re the largest taxpayer in the county. When you take that base out that’s going to be a huge impact on everybody.”

Coldwell said the donations Revett has made to the community made them exceptional neighbors. “They contributed to Fourth of July, they contributed to the new basketball gymnasium a couple of years ago. Every time there was an opportunity for them to step up and help the community, they were definitely willing.”

The city has a buffer of about one year to before any tough choices on any cuts would have to be made Coldwell said.

Kathy Peters was back at Jack’s Café on Wednesday morning serving coffee and making breakfast. She had been sidelined for a couple of months after shoulder surgery. Talk from a group of men migrated from trucks to guns to the closure of the Troy Mine.

Les Winn had just gotten off from working the night shift at the mine. When he told the men in his party that he would no longer be employed at the mine because they were shutting down it was news to them.

Winn said he’s not in as bad of shape as some of the younger guys who will be looking for work. “I’ve got social security and a farm up in the Yaak that I can peel some trees off of every so often.” He also had a back-up plan. “My wife is going to have to get another job or two to support me,” he joked.

The bottom tier of the economic pyramid is mining, agriculture and heavy machinery explained Winn. “That’s the foundation of any economic structure, no matter the form of government,” he said. Winn said without any job opportunities in the area the only thing that could help the area is logging. “Not all of us are high-tech,” he added.

Steve Betlatch was coming into Jack’s as Winn was on his way out. Winn said Betlatch has the scoop an all things Troy-related. Betlatch claimed he was the recipient of the honesty award in ninth grade.

Betlatch wasn’t sure what, if anything could replace the mine closing. “That was about the last thing standing. After lumber and mining, that was the last thing we’ve got around here.”

He said he’s seen numerous cycles in the natural resource industries in the area. “One comes up and one goes down. I don’t know when the next one is going to come up again.”

Betlatch said, Troy will make it through this round of economic uncertainty like it has in the past. “We all get by with a little help from our friends.”