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Edon, Ohio, used to be called Mudsock because pedestrians walking its wet, unpaved streets sometimes would sink to their socks.
Now the economy of this village of about 900 and the rest of Williams County is stuck in the mud as well.
Ohio had the seventh-worst unemployment in the United States in July. And Williams County has had the worst unemployment of Ohio’s 88 counties since April. In July, the rate was 17.5 percent. August numbers are due Tuesday.
Standing behind the mechanical cash register in Mudsock Mercantile, lifelong Edon resident Bruce Kannel said he hasn’t seen things this bad in his 65 years.
“I imagine in the Depression it was hit hard, but I haven’t seen it as bad as this,” Kannel said.
Mudsock Mercantile, with its hardwood floors, pesticide smell, shelves of hardware and antique toys, was owned by Kannel’s family from 1944 until 1962 – a time when the village economy boomed, Kannel says.
After retiring this year from Spangler Candy Co. in Bryan, the county seat, Kannel works part time at Mudsock Mercantile and fills in on a postal route when the man who normally makes deliveries is ill.
Mudsock Mercantile is open, as is Edon State Bank across Michigan Street and several other businesses. But they’re punctuated by buildings that have been vacant for years and seem likely to remain so.
“The main industry in town is Metaldyne,” Kannel said Sept. 10. “If anything happens to that, it’s really going to hurt the town.”
He was referring to an auto parts plant that’s being sold in bankruptcy court by Metaldyne Corp. Four days later, Metaldyne announced it was laying off 50 of its 171 Edon employees.
The horrors of the longest recession in 76 years have shown a stubborn persistence in Williams County.
Unemployment rates went higher in the RV hub of LaGrange and Elkhart counties in Indiana. But they’ve been the scene of two visits by President Obama, and by June and July unemployment in both counties was below that of Williams County’s.
RV plants in northeast Indiana have been bought out of bankruptcy and have begun to rehire workers and again make their products. But a Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. travel trailer plant in Edgerton, eight miles south of Edon, closed in March, putting 175 workers on the street. It remains closed, awaiting a buyer.
Even though it draws customers for cut-rate items such as 50-cent loaves of bread, the Buckeye Flee Market in Edgerton is feeling the bite. Owners Joyce and Paul Collins estimate that business this year is off 25 percent to 30 percent.
“Our Fridays and Saturdays are not like they were,” Joyce Collins said.
It’s hard to find somebody who thinks the Williams County economy is going to come back quickly.
“We can’t just say that by thinking positive, everything is going to straighten out,” said Mike Long, mayor of Montpelier, a village of 4,320 10 miles north on Edon. “Hopefully, things are going to get better, but you have to have sustained, positive growth.”
As mayor, Long has seen a 4 percent to 5 percent slump in village revenue. But as the owner of a skating rink, an ice cream stand and a fitness center, he has seen much greater losses.
“They took a huge hit,” Long said, estimating that revenue dropped 70 percent in 2008.
Now he says things are gradually improving.
“It’s going to be a long, slow ride on that,” Long said.
Family-owned Spangler Candy Co. – maker of the familiar Dum Dum Pops and other candies – in Bryan has been a mainstay of the Williams County economy for generations. CEO Dean Spangler said his business has been growing, possibly because its products are relatively inexpensive.
“I almost feel embarrassed telling people that,” Spangler said. “But we’ve been doing basic blocking and tackling for a long time.”
The 420-member workforce typically stays on for a long time once hired, but in July, Spangler advertised jobs. It got 600 applications in one day for 10 open positions, Dean Spangler said.
Williams County – and the rest of northwest Ohio – suffers in part from the convulsions in the auto industry over the past year and a half, Spangler said. Neighboring Defiance County is home to General Motors Co.’s Defiance Foundry, and Williams County and Defiance County possess numerous parts makers.
Spangler hopes the government bailout of GM and Chrysler Group LLC will help the area’s economic fortunes.
“The thing you worry about is, does Detroit have it together and will this work?” Spangler asked.
For Daniel Tarr, 46, it’s already been a long wait. He was laid off in July 2008 from a parts supplier, 20/20 Custom Molded Plastics LP in Montpelier.
Now he’s living at the Sanctuary homeless shelter in Bryan.
“I just keep looking every day,” Tarr said. “I don’t ever remember it being this bad.”
Around the corner at the offices of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the unemployed trickle in, looking for jobs.
“It’s pretty sad. We haven’t had any job orders come in for quite a while,” a worker there said, referring to notices of available jobs. She declined to give her name because it’s against department policy for non-managers to talk to the media.
But Susan Jackson, who runs the office, confirmed demand for services has increased. Most dramatically, Williams County has seen a 50 percent increase in demand for food stamps over the past two years, Jackson said.
“We’re trying really hard to get people back to work,” Jackson said.
April Handsone, 19, is trying really hard to get back to work. The West Unity resident was in the office after being laid off from auto-parts maker CK Technologies LLC in Montpelier this year.
She said she’d take anything, including fast food or baby-sitting.
“You can’t be picky around here,” Handsone said. “A paycheck is a paycheck.”
