Nov. 1--FRANKLIN -- More than any other of the industrial cities and towns that dot Southside Virginia, Franklin is a company town.

Just about everyone and everything in and around the city has a vital connection to the big International Paper mill on the Blackwater River.

Retirees and workers from the mill gather regularly at eateries such as Parker Drug Co. or Fred's restaurant. Along Main Street in downtown, companies such as Southside Gas Service have relied on the mill and its employees for much of their business.

Paper mill money has seeded foundations that built or supported public facilities all over the community. Many buildings carry the Camp name, after the mill's founding family. There's the Paul D. Camp Community College, the Ruth Camp Campbell Memorial Library and the James L. Camp YMCA, among others.

Many of the plant's 1,100 employees are secondand third-generation workers. They mostly live in Franklin -- just across the river from the mill -- or neighboring Isle of Wight and Southampton counties. Some commute from North Carolina, just 10 miles down the road.

"This mill has been good to my family," said Kirk Okleshen, who has worked at the plant for 20 years, just as his parents and grandfather did.

"Unfortunately, I feel like they did let us down."

On Oct. 22, International Paper Co., the Memphis-based papermaking giant that took over the mill when it acquired Union Camp Corp. in 1999, announced that it will close the hulking factory next year. The company blamed the economic recession and overcapacity in the paper-making industry.

Some wonder how the community will survive without its top private employer, if laid-off employees are forced to go elsewhere to find work, leaving other local businesses to wither. In the wake of the announcement, residents have expressed anger and fear. Yet some also hold out hope that the region can recover, just as it did from the flooding during Hurricane Floyd in 1999 that ruined hundreds of businesses in Franklin.

At a community meeting Wednesday at the community college, political leaders urged people to stick with the community.

"It is an opportunity to remake ourselves and be something we have never been," said Franklin Mayor James P. Councill III. "We have always been a paper mill town. Maybe we can be something else, and better, with the same quality people that we have."

Many workers say they don't want to leave, but they have few options locally for work. Some say they are already looking east, toward the Hampton Road area, particularly the shipyards, for work.

"Everybody that has been here has been here all their lives practically," said Benjamin Johnson, a plant employee for 23 years who says he is thinking of going back to school for retraining. "We are a family. If I stay or if I go, that won't change."

"I don't want to go. It's my hometown," Okleshen said. "But I've got to do what's best for my family."

Bo Owens, another employee with 25 years at the plant, said he has no plans to leave but can't rule it out. "All of my family is here," he said. The mill, he said, "has always been the place to work. Where else could I make $26 an hour with nothing else but a high school education?"

Caroll Story, president of the United Steelworkers Local 2-1488, which represents hourly workers at the plant, said the mill has 931 hourly workers. About two-thirds of them are 49 years old or younger. More than 300 are younger than 40.

"An employee who is 49 years old, and with 30 years of service -- unless we can pull a rabbit out of that hat -- will not be able to tap into their pension," he said at the community meeting.