If Werner Co. pulls its ladder line out of Sugar Grove Township and axes 500 jobs, it will pack an economic wallop to the Greenville area economy the likes of which haven't been felt in decades.

It's a harsh assessment, acknowledged Richard Miller, but there's little doubt it would deliver a devastating punch.

"I do think this blow will be much, much more serious than anything we've had so far,'' he said.

As head of Keystone Research Inc., a consulting firm in Greenville, Miller has advised and overseen a number of businesses over the years.

A lifelong resident of Greenville, he believes the loss of those jobs will be even worse than when Trinity Industries closed its Greenville plant in December 2000. Employing 2,000 four years before it closed, the rail-car maker was Mercer County's largest employer. But its employment dwindled swiftly as orders dried up.

"This one will hit harder than Trinity,'' Miller predicted. "Trinity drew from a very large geographic area. The Trinity people generally didn't seem to live in this area.''

A secret to Greenville's success in those days was it kept the wage taxes collected from Trinity workers because other communities outside the area didn't know they were available, he said.

"This town is going to dry up and blow away," said Jerry Hancock, a Greenville resident who was at the New England Tavern on Clinton Street Wednesday afternoon. "Greenville is in a lot of trouble now."

While he doesn't work at Werner Co., Hancock said he knows several people who would be affected by any loss of jobs.

"My neighbor works there," he said. "It will be devastating for them."

Several people who work for Werner Co. were at the OC Hotel & Cantina Wednesday afternoon after they got off work from the day shift.

One man, who asked not to be identified, said he'd learned the news on his way out the door. He helps to make fiberglass ladder rails.

"There was a note posted on the bulletin board," he said. "The note said any moving of operations would be permanent, that 450 union guys and 50 salaried workers would lose their jobs."

After the union officials got the news, a general meeting of the union was called, the man said. Additional meetings are planned for Thursday and Friday, with representatives from the national union organization present.

The union might be able to work out concessions to keep the jobs in the area, the man said, but even if they do, he isn't interested.

"When I started in 1979, I was making about $100 per week," he said. "I won't go back to that."

Taking a sip of a beer, he said, "That company has really gone down the tubes."

A Sheakleyville man who also was at the bar and refused to be identified, said 500 layoffs would definitely affect his floor-covering business. Besides his sister being a 26-year employee of Werner, he said, the local buzz he's been hearing so far "doesn't sound good."

"Greenville is a dying town and that's all there is to it. It has been for years."

As workers filed out of Werner Co. shortly after 5 p.m., they hurried to their cars, walking in groups of twos and threes, but keeping their eyes on the ground, hands stuffed deep into their pockets, not speaking to one another.

One man said, "It's not definite. It's just an idea, a proposal, right?"

A loss of 500 jobs will just add to Greenville's financial woes. The borough is Pennsylvania's 18th "distressed" community and is on financial life support from the state after posting a budget deficit last year of more than $1 million.

Greenville Mayor Cliff Harriger said the loss of jobs will devastate the borough's "wage-tax outlook," taking it practically to zero. Part of the state's financial recovery plan was raising wage taxes for borough residents from 1 percent to 1.7 percent this year.

Besides the loss of tax revenue, Harriger said, "I'm not sure where those 500 people would go, that's 500 homes. We have enough problems in our town without this happening."

Miller recalled other area plant layoffs in the 1970s, when he owned a beauty salon in Greenville. Those furloughs didn't affect business much, he remembered, "but if Werner laid off, or if there was a strike there, our business would be down.''

This latest news adds to an already grim picture for employment in Mercer County.

A sluggish economy, a desperately ailing steel industry and shifts in company strategies have taken their toll on the local economy in recent months.

Employing 250, Damascus-Bishop Tube Co. in Reynolds closed its doors late last year and moved its operations to the Pittsburgh area. Last week, Wheatland Tube Co. said it will close a former Sawhill Tube plant it bought last year unless a deal with a buyer is found within the next two months. The 300,000-square-foot plant mainly produces mechanical tubing and employs 115.

A meeting between United Steelworkers and a potential buyer was scheduled for today but was canceled on Tuesday, a union official said. There was no word if that meeting will be scheduled. A Wheatland Tube official declined to comment.

Herald Staff Writers Amanda Smith-Teutsch and Larissa Theodore contributed to this story.