Chris Vernon’s family founded Vernon Co. in Newton in 1902 with the help of seed money from Maytag Corp. founder Fred Maytag, and over the past century they never imagined Vernon would outlast the home appliance giant.

“They’ve always been the 600-pound gorilla in town,” said Vernon, president of the family-owned business, which manufactures and markets promotional products.

That is, until Whirlpool Corp., whose purchase of Maytag was approved earlier this year, announced May 10 that it will close the company’s corporate headquarters and two manufacturing plants. The closings, which are expected to be completed by the end of 2007, will put 1,800 people out of work and end Maytag’s 113-year era in Newton, a town of just under 16,000 people.

“There’s always been that dread,” Vernon said. “Many people just wondered when the next shoe was going to drop. A lot of people recognized that what happened last week was bound to happen. It was just a matter of when.”

After years of speculation and dread, particularly following a United Auto Workers Local 997 strike in June 2004 and a series of layoffs, the community has begun to prepare for what seemed to be the inevitable: the loss of the town’s largest employer and the central player in its economy.

Now, Newton is learning the downfall of putting all your eggs in one basket, and the mantra ringing through the ears of the city’s business and community leaders is “diversify.” The goal is not to bring in another large manufacturer, which Vernon said is “very, very unlikely.” Instead, the emphasis of planned economic development initiatives is on bringing a variety of small to mid-sized employers to Newton and encouraging growth of existing businesses.

“Obviously, we need to look at rebuilding our economic base,” said Craig Hamilton, director of the Jasper County Economic Development Corp. “We’ve been pretty one-dimensional for a pretty long time. In recent years, we’ve had some diversity, but we need to continue working on that. For long-term growth and stability, I think that is the key to success.”

Kim Didier, executive director of the Newton Development Corp., said the short-term solution is to address the uncertainty among Maytag workers by assisting them in finding employment, either in Newton or in surrounding communities. That will also be a long-term solution for many employees facing the loss of their jobs, and local leaders are undertaking efforts to match those employees with jobs. Already, the telephones at the Newton Development Corp. “have been ringing off the hook” with calls from employers seeking out Maytag employees with particular skill sets, Didier said.

Community leaders continue to point toward the $70 million Iowa Speedway and a biodiesel plant, both of which are under construction. The projects are expected to provide jobs to dozens of people, and the racetrack is expected to drive further development of the town’s service industry.

“It’s not 1,800 jobs,” Didier acknowledged. “But with 15 jobs here and 100 jobs here, you create a stronger economic base because it’s diversified.”

She said existing local companies are another promising source of new jobs. During the first quarter, the Newton Development Corp. visited 14 Newton companies, all but one of which indicated it was nearing record employment levels or was planning to expand.

“For a community our size, 80 percent of our growth and expansion will happen internally,” Didier said.

Didier expects some Maytag workers will explore a small-scale approach to entrepreneurship, such as opening a small store in town. Others, she said, particularly those with technical skills and an entrepreneurial spirit, may explore more capital-intensive entrepreneurial opportunities, perhaps made possible by hefty severance packages from Whirlpool. She hopes the community can provide technology, licensing and business development assistance that will perhaps enable Maytag’s research and development specialists to pursue some of their own product innovations.

Part of those efforts will come through a partnership with Des Moines Area Community College’s Newton campus and state agencies such as Iowa Workforce Development and the Iowa Department of Economic Development to not only provide services such as mental-health evaluations and health insurance information, but also job training initiatives.

“We’re trying to retain what we believe is our most valuable economic asset, and that’s the people,” Didier said.

But some Newton employers are beginning to sense the potential for a broader hit to the city’s workforce. Many employees of Maytag’s corporate headquarters have been offered jobs with Whirlpool at its headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich. As a result, other employers in town are facing the loss of those workers’ spouses. Vernon has already lost his director of human resources, whose husband has accepted a job in Benton Harbor. The company has filled that position internally and will backfill to address other vacancies, perhaps creating employment opportunities for Maytag workers, Vernon said, though the company is not in an “active, aggressive hiring mode.”

Skiff Medical Center, which will become one of the town’s largest employers, so far has not been inundated with those types of situations, but “we anticipate it being a problem,” said Eric Lothe, the hospital’s president and chief operating officer. “With a hospital, there are only two or three people doing the same job. So it will have a significant impact.”

He is hopeful, however, that a new partnership with DMACC, which will begin offering a nursing program at its Newton campus, will encourage some Maytag workers to start new careers in the health-care sector.

Some community leaders feel as though they are treading in familiar waters, having already coped with the loss of close to 2,000 Maytag jobs in recent years. Because those layoffs had little noticeable effect on the local economy, some in the community believe history has shown Newton can weather the storm.

“We’ve absorbed about half their workforce over the last few years and our population has not changed,” Lothe said. “But with the rest of the workforce looking at that decision over a one-year period of time, that could be more problematic.”

He has struggled with the opinions expressed by some that Newton will be better off because Maytag is leaving, but said, “I do see signs that some of that dependence upon Maytag that was always there is starting to wane. And over time that will strengthen the community.” For several years, the hospital has tracked the amount of its business that can be traced to Maytag workers and their families. At its peak, patients with ties to Maytag accounted for 15 percent of total hospital revenues. Today, it’s about 12 percent.

“While it’s still a significant number, it’s not insurmountable,” said Lothe, adding that Skiff is “probably having the best year we’ve ever had.”

Few deny the many benefits Maytag brought to the community over the past century, not only through jobs but through financial contributions to civic and charitable projects. Last year, half of the $400,000 raised through United Way of Jasper County’s annual campaign came from Maytag workers and through the company’s matching contributions, said Vernon, a United Way former board chair. The non-profit group provides financial assistance to about 20 human service agencies.

“One of the things we’ve tried to communicate to our staff is an attitude of thankfulness,” Lothe said. “We’ve been blessed to have had Maytag not only as an incredibly stable employer, but they’ve been incredibly generous to the community.”

In touting Newton to potential residents and employers during this rebuilding effort, Didier said one major selling point is the town’s physical infrastructure, which has significantly benefited from Maytag over the years.

“There are not many communities that compare to Newton in terms of the public infrastructure but also the human capital and the spirit of the community,” she said.