MARTIN MARIETTA'S lease on this facility in Sparta ends in March, according to company officials.

Martin Marietta closes Sparta plant

Martin Marietta Composites closed its Sparta plant on Jan. 31 and will vacate its manufacturing building on Industrial Park Drive by the end of March, company officials said this week.

The closing affects 28 employees, including 13 from Alleghany County, Plant Manager Scott Moncrief said at a county commissioners meeting Monday night.

"Last Friday, Martin Marietta made the decision to close our operation resulting primarily from the economic conditions," he said.

County officials said the news is disappointing not only for employees, but because the manufacturer in better times showed great potential for growth.

All of the employees are being given severance packages, Moncrief said in a statement issued before the meeting. Nine employees will remain through March to transfer equipment to storage.

The engineering and marketing staff in Raleigh has also been reduced, from eight people to four, Vice President Grant Godwin said in a phone interview Monday.

The company began production in Sparta in 2003 building bridge decks and truck trailers out of composite materials, Godwin said. It later expanded to military and other transportation applications and at its peak employed about 120 people. For about the last year and a half, employment had been around 44, he added.

For several years the company has allowed the county parks and recreation department to use level property at the plant site for children to play soccer.

"We are going to do everything we can to see if that arrangement can continue," Moncrief told the commissioners. County Manager Don Adams said land at the site had been leveled for possible future expansion of up to 180,000 square feet when the plant was built, and is big enough for numerous soccer fields. He said the request to use the property must be renewed every year.

Godwin said the building and property are owned by a New York company that bought it after Bristol Compressors left, which was in 2002.