TOWN OF WALLKILL – The Ball Corp. can manufacturing plant on Ballard Road in the Town of Wallkill will be permanently closed down before the end of the year. That message came to Orange County officials in a letter from an executive who said the facility, built in 1972, does not have the room to add new equipment while at the same time, replace current machinery.
“After careful consideration of these realities and discussions with the union in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement, the decision has been made to permanently cease operations at Ball’s Wallkill plant in Q3 or early Q4 of this year, subject to customer demand,” said John Campbell, vice president for government relations.
The county offered to assist Ball in finding new suitable space, but Campbell wrote they will supply their products from other existing facilities.
County Economic Development Director Steven Gross said his office and the Orange County Partnership will now begin to market the building.
“We are now taking stand working with the Partnership to try to find a new occupant for that building. We don’t want it to sit there vacant any more than it has to. There is a lot of room for manufacturing in the county and it’s a good site, it has a great location as far as highway accessibility.”
The Wallkill Ball plant employs approximately 200 workers who will now need to find new jobs by the end of the year.
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