Muncie StarPress Online Thursday, January 31, 2008 End of an era today when smokestack comes down *By KEITH ROYSDON* kroysdon@muncie.gannett.com A chapter in Muncie's long auto industry history is set to close today as the smokestack at the former Chevrolet plant on the city's south side is demolished. The smokestack -- emblazoned with name Chevrolet -- is scheduled to be toppled around noon today by a contractor working for General Motors in what one labor union official called "the end of an era." The precise time of the demolition, using explosive charges, was uncertain. Jerry Friend, the city building commissioner, said he was told by the contractor performing the implosion that the 190-foot-tall smokestack would be demolished at noon, but General Motors spokesman Sharon Morton told The Star Press the demolition could come as early as mid-morning. "This is more of an art than a science," Morton said. "They will get everything set up and implode it. They couldn't be real precise on the timing." Friend said depending on the number of spectators, police might establish a perimeter that could close Eighth Street -- at least -- to traffic. The smokestack, which served the former factory's power plant, will fall well within the boundary of General Motors property, Friend said. The demolition might draw a crowd. Although the plant -- known as Manual Transmissions when it closed in March 2006 -- has been razed, the smokestack is a local landmark and symbolic, to some, of the passing of the auto industry as Muncie's largest employer. As many as 3,400 people worked at the Chevrolet plant at its peak in the late 1970s, although only 380 worked there when it closed in March 2006. The city's other big auto parts maker, BorgWarner, will close its Kilgore Avenue plant in early 2009. As many as 6,000 worked at BorgWarner in its heyday, but only about 630 hourly and 125 salaried employees worked there recently. "It is the end of an era," said Mike Jones, chairman of United Auto Workers Local 499. "It's sad to see it go, that's for sure, but more importantly, what it represented is going away. That's even sadder." The Chevrolet Muncie plant opened in 1935 and employed 1,100 people at the start. Over the years, it operated as Detroit Diesel Allison Muncie Transmission Plant and New Venture Gear, a General Motors/Daimler Chrysler joint venture. More than 1,200 had worked at Manual Transmissions before gradual layoffs to reduce the workforce began. General Motors announced the plant's closing in August 2005. Demolition has taken several months, and the smokestack is the last remaining major piece to fall. "This is the last hurrah," Friend said. "It's too bad." /*Contact business editor Keith Roysdon at 213-5828.*/ c/aaa/genealogy/robbins/waltSr/chevrolet_smokestack_013108.txt