Dothan, Ala.-Tri-State Plant Food, which can trace its beginnings back to 1897, has ceased production and laid off most of its employees, but still isn’t calling it quits – at least for now. General Manager Bill Harrison wouldn’t return several calls, but he told the local press that “all I can say is we’re ceasing production for now.” Harrison explained, “It was the economy, basically. We’re not in production, but we’ve got some inventory we have to handle, liquidate. We’ve got a skeleton crew, the bare minimum it takes to do that.” The locals claim Tri-State came into being just eight years after the city’s oldest business, Porter Hardware, opened its doors. That puts Tri-State in operation for more than a century, dating back to 1897. It took over its present location in 1985, and has been in production continually since then. Before Harrison’s Nov. 13 announcement the plant had employed 38 people, but the economic downturn of the last few years probably was the final blow. Harrison said the skeleton crew will continue to work, and that no timeframe has been established for how long the facility will stay open.
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