WATERFORD -- Jeff Whitney called Hazleton home until July.
But when he was recruited to manage the Troyer Farms chip plant in Waterford Township, Whitney thought he had found a new home and what might be his last job.
Whitney said he jumped at the chance to return to the work he had learned during a 15-year stint at a Frito-Lay Inc. plant. He and his wife, Mary Ann, leased McMullen House Bed and Breakfast in Titusville and were looking forward to buying the property.
"I made the career move thinking this was going to be it," Whitney said. "This is what I was looking for."
But it wasn't to be.
On Jan. 5, Whitney said, he was called to a meeting with a human resources employee. He was told he was being laid off along with 76 other employees, many of whom had worked there for decades.
Bickel's Snack Foods Inc., which has owned Troyer Farms since December 2008, had decided to transfer the work to York.
His last day would be March 4.
As manager, Whitney's only privilege was hearing the news first.
There was no severance pay for employees, and no bonus for staying until the plant closed.
"Basically after that they turned their back on me," Whitney said. "I would have expected better. It was not handled in a very professional manner."
Bickel's, a division of Hanover Foods Corp., has not responded to requests for interviews. The company referred questions for this story to Gary Knisely, an executive vice president for Hanover. He did not respond to a message left by the Erie Times-News.
Whitney said time has given him little insight into what prompted the move.
Whitney said the plant and its employees were meeting quality goals and producing an average of 80,000 pounds of potato chips a day, substantially more than the plant's goal of 65,000 pounds.
What's more, as a condition of buying the company from the Troyer family, Bickel's had a five-year free lease of the Waterford chip plant, Whitney said. The company, which is maintaining a number of local employees, plans to continue to use the building as a sales and distribution center.
Mark Troyer, who sold the company to Bickel's in 2008, has said he's looking ahead to what he might do with the building at the end of the lease term.
Troyer has said he might use the building for some kind of food production, maybe even another chip plant.
But for now, those aren't as much plans as possibilities.
Whitney and a lot of other former Troyer employees can't wait for what might come later. They're looking for jobs now.
The plant's continuous fryer, a production mainstay, was shut down March 4. A handful of employees are expected to continue to make kettle-fried chips for another week or two.
Beverly Rapp, regional rapid response coordinator for the state Department of Labor & Industry, said she's generally optimistic about the employment prospects of former Troyer employees.
"We had a lot of area employers who were very interested in that workforce," she said. "Right now, the food industry is picking back up."
Rapp, who met with employees to explain their options and the help available through the Pennsylvania CareerLink, said several food-service companies from the region have expressed a specific interest in this group of employees.
Because those workers will be classified as dislocated, employers who hire them through the CareerLink may be eligible for tax credits, she said.
"We had six employers who called us who were wanting to work with us," Rapp said. "I think they (employees) are going to have some options."
Rapp said she's encouraging workers who don't find jobs to avail themselves of government training money that might be available.
"This workforce has the opportunity to better themselves," she said. "They can make themselves more marketable."
Whitney can vouch for that.
He used CareerLink services and government programs to obtain certifications during a previous layoff that helped him land his next job.
"You have to do the work," he said. "They (CareerLink) are not going to hold your hand and do it for you."
Whitney said he's not waiting for opportunity to come his way. He said he's on the computer and working the phones every day. He has an interview lined up in South Carolina.
He worries, though, that the opportunities that come along will take away from the business he and his wife have begun to build and an area he's come to embrace.
That's not how he planned it when he and his wife left Hazleton nine months ago.
"This is where I wanted to be," he said.
JIM MARTIN can be reached at 870-1668 or by e-mail.
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