Feb. 7--DEXTER -- Southeastern Minnesota has begun to look like a battlefield map in an economic war zone.

Dexter, Lewiston, Spring Grove and Lake City have all fallen victim to closures and scale-backs. Scores of employees in those cities are expected to lose their jobs in the weeks ahead in a recession that some economists say has yet to reach bottom.

But mayors, city officials and business leaders in the affected cities dispute the notion that the closures are harbingers of doom to their communities. Yes, people are hurting. Yes, the closures have been painful. But their cities are far from experiencing an economic Armageddon, they say.

Dexter's downturn

Dexter is among the small cities that hasn't been spared in the economic downturn. Late last month, McNeilus Trucking and Manufacturing announced it was closing its Dexter plant with nearly 40 employees. The plant made fiberglass or composite tanks for cement mixers.

The move only directly affected a couple of people in Dexter. The rest came from outside the city of 333 people. Either way, it is still bad news, said Dexter Mayor Randy Stephenson .

"It's still 40 people out of work, which doesn't help the whole state or anything any good," he said.

When the plant was first built, city officials were hoping that expansion might occur within five years to double the size of the building and lead to more hire more employees hired.

Dexter has three bars, a motel, and one truck stop. It used to have two, but one of them, the Windmill, closed last summer. In many ways, that was more painful to the city than the closing of the McNeilus plant.

"That really hurt, because a lot of people from the Dexter area worked out there," Stephenson said.

Economic ripple effect

Each town has struggled with the shock and fear that comes. Even though Dexter's loss was 40 jobs, one of the smallest losses in the region, it's still someone's job and it brings the economic turmoil news close to home.

Consider the other job losses in southeastern Minnesota:

In Spring Grove, 200 people will lose their jobs when Northern Engraving closes its plant this town of 1,300 people.

In Lewiston, more than 100 people will lose their jobs when Herff-Jones closes its photo lab and memory book location.

Meanwhile, Lake City is still assessing the economic damage from Federal-Mogul's decision to scale back its operations.

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