CHAFFEE TRIES TO LURE BUSINESS TO OLD PLANT

CHAFFEE -- The new Chaffee city administrator is in the process of earning his keep.

Ron Eskew, who was appointed in August as Chaffee's first full-time city administrator, is attempting to fill the portion of the city's industrial park that was left vacant when Thorngate Ltd. closed its factory in the summer.

"That's part of his job," Chaffee City Councilman Jerry Wolsey said. "It's very important that we bring in a new business to fill that building.

"I have every confidence in Ron. When we hired him I said he'd more than pay for himself over time."

Eskew told the Chaffee City Council Monday night at its regular meeting that he is meeting with two businesses that have expressed an interest in locating in Chaffee. He said he is reluctant to give out too much information, but is hopeful the city can persuade one of the businesses to take over the building.

The city is inspecting the roof, plumbing and electrical wiring of the building, which is about 70 years old, in anticipation of visits from the companies.

The old Thorngate building is one of three businesses in the Chaffee industrial park, along with Columbia Sportswear and MFA Fertilizers. Records are sparse on the building before 1935, when Oscar Bukstein bought it. He and Charles Wahl turned the National Garment Factory into the Chaffee Manufacturing Co. and owned the building until 1966.

Hart, Shafner and Marx, the company that owns the Thorngate line of clothing manufacturers, bought the building that year and moved in.

That company stayed active, employing up to 400 people during the 1970s, until last summer when it pulled out. The closing of the Chaffee factory was the last step in a series of cutbacks.

The Chaffee Thorngate plant went through some union strifes during the 1970s, then in the 1980s began cutting back on wages and workers. By the time the factory closed it was down to about 150 employees, many of whom went to work at the Cape Girardeau Thorngate Ltd. plant.

Wolsey said bringing a company back to the Thorngate building would do more than just provide more jobs.

"It would be a major asset to us," he said. "The people who used to work for Thorngate shopped here in Chaffee, they ate lunch here, some of them even ate breakfast here before they went to work.