Grand statement considered in Piketon plant situation

PIKETON — While hoping it won't be necessary, union officials at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon have received authorization to put together a caravan to Washington to protest funding cuts that could cost between 350 and 500 jobs.

During a Wednesday morning conference call, United Steel Workers Local 689 President Herman Potter said that if a grand statement is needed in the nation's capital to drive home the point that continued full funding of the project is essential to the region, one can be put together.

"We actually have authorization from our membership – they have provided me authorization to pay for buses to go to Washington, D.C., to make a statement and we're contemplating how that can be done over the next few weeks," Potter said. "Of course, there's all sorts of other things associated with it in the planning, so we were kind of hoping not to have to waste money to send a bunch of people just to make that point in Washington, D.C.,

"We kind of thought we didn't have to do that and that we could actually make ourselves known pretty clearly here without doing that, but if we have to go sit on the doorstep en masse, we're going to sit on the doorstep en masse."

Since WARN notices were sent out late last month about potential large-scale layoffs due to funding cuts and a reduction in a uranium barter program used to help fund the cleanup, letter-writing campaigns, petitions and calls to congressional representatives have been in full swing in an effort to get the Department of Energy to change its stance.

Chamber of Commerce officials in Scioto and Pike counties have even put together a 10-minute video featuring several community voices that show an impact beyond just the workers at the plant.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, during a visit to Chillicothe on Tuesday, said all of those efforts have been heard in Washington.

"I'm not concerned that the Department of Energy doesn't know how we feel because (union officials and others) have come to (Washington) and they've made their case," Portman said. "More of that would be good, it's always good."

What's needed, however, is a change in the approach to the project among those in Washington, Portman said.

Potter was scheduled to leave with a delegation for the nation's capital Wednesday night for Thursday meetings with the DOE's Office of Environmental Management and members of congressional appropriations committees. The meetings follow up on a discussion a couple of weeks ago with representatives of the Office of Management and Budget.

"Our stumbling block is clearly there are people within the Department of Energy that basically want this project to go away," Potter said.

During Thursday's visit, an invitation will be extended to DOE to send representatives to a town hall meeting set for 6 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Pike County Government Center in Waverly, where community response to the cuts and the cuts' impact will be discussed.

Wednesday's conference call involved not only Potter and David Bowe, president of the union that represents fire and security personnel at the site, but also representatives from the boards of commissioners from Pike, Scioto, Ross and Jackson counties and area economic development organizations

Between them, they expressed a desire for more involvement from Gov. John Kasich as part of his presidential run, more involvement from officials on the state level and a commitment to a comprehensive plan for the cleanup that would take some uncertainty out of the lives of affected families trying to plan for their futures.

They also voiced concerns about cuts impacting the safety of workers who would be remaining at the plant and about the estimated $47 million economic impact that the loss of those jobs could have on the region.

"It doesn't just affect the jobs at the plant site," said Shirley Bandy, executive director of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce. "It affects the restaurants, the eye doctors, the physicians, the movie theaters. It affects everyone and it's going to be widespread and very painful if this goes through."

Bowe also expressed concern over security at the site if the cuts take place. Currently, he said there are 45 officers on site. Five have already agreed to take advantage of a voluntary separation program, with security positions that could be eliminated ranging anywhere from three to 25 people.

That would put a real strain on those workers remaining who would have to pick up the slack, Bowe added.

"When you're dealing with security, if you've got them running around doing certain things and not paying as much attention to detail as they possibly could, then problems arise," Bowe said. "I think you know what happens in the security business when you're not as vigilant as you could be because of the way the money problems have made it."

Shortly after Wednesday's conference call, a press release was sent out by the Office of Environmental Management stating that Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will provide the opening remarks at the first DOE National Cleanup Workshop Sept. 29 and 30 in the Washington D.C. area. In his remarks, Moniz is scheduled to talk about the progress made in addressing the "environmental legacy of the nation's Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear weapons program as well as the department's priorities moving forward."

The workshop is being designed to focus on such things as "major cleanup successes planned for the next two years, contract and project management improvement, efforts to develop new cleanup technologies and more," according to the release.

Video link

To see the video put together by the chambers of commerce in Pike and Scioto counties visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI_Bz4-bcn4&feature=youtu.be. The video features voices from across the community talking about the impact funding cuts at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon would have on the entire community.