Hope lingers in Lordstown

By Katie Seminara

LORDSTOWN — Some are banking on Lordstown’s future in the face of more hardship facing General Motors.

Michael and Judy Hodak of Lordstown recently purchased the Subway restaurant in the Lords- town Plaza on Tod Avenue.

“We’re happy to be doing business here,” said Michael Hodak, who chose Subway for its business approach.

“In the short term, I’m always concerned about our neighbors, but in the long term, I think Lordstown will survive,” he said.

Hodak worked at the Lordstown GM plant for 10 years during the 1970s and ’80s and said if the company can prove it is viable within the 60 days given by President Barack Obama, then it should receive government aid.

“I think bringing new blood into GM isn’t a bad idea, but only time will tell,” he said of GM CEO Rick Wagoner’s being replaced by Fritz Henderson.

The automobile industry is critical to the economic success of the Mahoning Valley, and “even if the building sits idle for a while, someone will manufacture cars there,” Hodak said.

“We have too strong of a work force to not use the factory and it’s a good shipping location,” he added.

For others in Lordstown, the success and improvement in the auto industry is essential to their own job security.

Ken and Jean Rice have lived in the village 29 years, but Ken worked in Newton Falls, where he was recently laid off from his job at a railway products company.

“If GM closes, Lordstown will be dead; Newton Falls will be too — that’s why I’m out of work,” said Ken while at the Lordstown Laundromat in the Lordstown Plaza. “If the car industry goes up, I’ll get called back to work.”

In the meantime Ken will be searching for a job and wants to stay in the Lordstown area.

“Now I have to find a job when thousands are out of work,” he said.

If summer rolls around and Ken is still out of a job, Jean said her brother could possibly find him construction work in Texas.