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MUNCIE, IN-For more than 100 years, the former Warner Gear plantproperty here avoided closure as it switched in the 1940s tobuilding Ford's first automatic transmission, then to manualtransmissions, then to various differential cases for automakersthat included General Motors Corp. However, BorgWarner announcedFeb. 8 that it will shutter the 59-acre property, which includes a1.3-million-sf, 1930s-era building. Now, community leaders arescrambling about what to do about the large property, and the 700jobs the city will lose during the next two years.

The company announced that it will close the company'sDrivetrain Group plant, citing customer restructuring andsignificantly lower production schedules, by the expiration of thecurrent labor agreement in April 2009. Terry Murphy, vice presidentof the Muncie Delaware County Economic Development Alliance, saysthat obviously the closing will have a negative impact on thecommunity, and that the property will be hard to fill.