ROCKDALE - “We are devastated. Everyone is just reeling right now. We don’t even know what to think or say,” Rockdale Chamber of Commerce president Denice Doss said.

Since the early 1950s, Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations has been the major employer in Milam County.

Rockdale residents on Tuesday morning learned the company would shut down the final three potlines at its Rockdale Operations, leaving more than 600 employees out of work.

“We are starting to think about all the people it’s going impact, and that’s not the actual employees, but the businesses out there,” Mrs. Doss said. “It’s devastating for all. This has happened so fast. I spoke to people this morning who had just bought a new house or a car. They were not expecting any of this.”

Cameron Chamber of Commerce manager Brandy McLerran said with Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations closing the remaining three smelters, “We know that there will be a significant impact to our economy. Yes, our neighbors in Rockdale will have a much larger impact, but the entire county will be affected as well. Alcoa has been a landmark of Milam County for 54 years, and to lose that sort of job base for one county is devastating.”

Alcoa’s announcement was “not totally unexpected” to County Judge Frank Summers.

“Personally, I felt that Alcoa would be shutting down in the near future when they sold their control over their power costs,” Summers said. “Seems to me perhaps even a planned shutdown, and power is now the excuse.”

Alcoa once owned and operated three lignite-fired electrical generating plants and a lignite coal mine to fuel the processor, which at peak performance produced aluminum ingots with eight potlines, but “they decided to sell both and now blame power costs as issue for their closing,” Summers said. “Just does not make a lot of sense to me, unless it was part of an overall plan.”

Bottom line is that Alcoa is in business to make money, Summers said. The Rockdale plant is more than 50 years old; thus, “the reality in industry is that industrial plants simply do not have a realistic productive life span of 50 years.

“If it were not now, eventually we would have to face the fact that the Rockdale Alcoa plant would reach the end of its productive life span,” Summers said. “That time has come.”

Summers said he was hopeful the plant would be brought back on line in the future. He also praised Alcoa as being a good corporate neighbor.

“Many families in the area were raised on income from the Rockdale plant,” Summers said.

Dave Edmonds, president of United Steel Workers of America Local 4895, said the announcement ultimately was a shock, “but I could kind of see this coming with the other three potlines coming down. Rockdale Operations was making money and was competitive in the aluminum market when they were running six potlines. When they went down to three, we all knew it was going to be a struggle.”

Unfortunately, metal prices have dropped, the world economy is in a mess, and Alcoa and Luminant have not been able to reach any kind of agreement on a longtime power source, he said.

“It is a sad day for all the steelworkers and all their families and all of Central Texas. I can only imagine the negative effect it’s going to have,” Edmonds said.

jwilliams@temple-telegram.com