Debra Jones found out Wednesday how much the owners of Castleberry's think her 30 years at the company are worth.

About $2,000 -- before taxes.

The longtime Augusta-based canned meat manufacturer told production workers they could expect severance packages of two to four weeks' pay based on their length of service, according to Mrs. Jones. The company announced Tuesday that it would close after a 60-day transition period and confirmed the bad news to employees the next morning.

"Most of them, they just looked stunned," said Mrs. Jones, an incubation technician and forklift operator.

According to the Development Authority of Richmond County, Castleberry's is the county's eighth-largest manufacturing employer. But the effects of the closing go beyond the 327 production employees who could be out of jobs just before the holidays. The closing of the county's 20th-largest taxpayer will be a significant blow to Augusta.

"These closings do impact the tax base," interim Tax Commissioner Fred Stallings said. "We're talking about a big impact."

Taking the biggest hit will be the Richmond County school system.

Of the $324,545 the county is billing Castleberry's this year in real estate and personal property taxes, 68 percent ($220,761) is scheduled to go to the school system. It's a relatively small amount of the school system's overall 2008-09 budget of nearly $275 million, but the revenue loss is part of a continuing trend of financial woe for a district already experiencing a dwindling tax base and declining enrollment.

Here are examples of the ripple effect the Castleberry's closing could have:

- Some of the 327 people affected might lose their homes because they can't pay mortgages, which affects property tax collections.

- Some of the out-of-work employees might find jobs elsewhere and move, taking away money they would have spent in Augusta.

- Some of those who leave Augusta will take their school-age children with them, affecting the amount of money the school system gets from the state for enrollment.

Frank Dolan, the finance committee chairman of the Richmond County Board of Education, said layoffs could happen if the trend continues.

"This doesn't just happen overnight, like you run off a cliff and fall straight down and you lose 30 percent or 40 percent of your budget," Mr. Dolan said about the school system's current tough economic times. "You lose 1 percent, one-half percent a year. It's a drip, drip, drip in a bucket until all of a sudden the bucket's full. What it's going to do is drive cutting costs, and you're going to cut costs through layoffs. That's all we have left to cut."

Augusta won't be the only community affected by the closing, because some of the workers likely live in surrounding counties, said Mark Thompson, an economist and the business administration chairman at Augusta State University.

Then, there's the intangible effect of losing a local business icon such as Castleberry's.

"Everybody hears what's going on nationally and you look at Augusta and there's some things that go on in Augusta that says we don't quite follow what goes on nationally. Maybe in some ways we're isolated," Dr. Thompson said. "But now I think a lot of people in the public will look at it as, 'Yeah, the national economy is starting to affect Augusta. It took one of our firms that we never thought would leave.' "

Castleberry's has been in Augusta for 82 years, but the past 14 months have been turbulent for the plant on 15th Street.

Its owner, Toronto-based Connors Bros. lost $38 million when the plant shut down for two months last year after botulism toxin was found in some of its chili sauce. It shut down again for three weeks in March after the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture pulled operating permits, citing operational deviations. That shutdown cost Connors Bros. $700,000.

The botulism contamination made at least eight people sick in Ohio, Illinois and Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The family of a New Mexico man filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Castleberry's in July, blaming his death on botulism he contracted after eating chili sauce.

The FDA report blamed management for the contamination, citing poor maintenance on two cookers responsible for the botulism toxin.

In announcing the sale of its product line to Hanover Foods Corp., and the impending closure of the Augusta plant, Connors Bros. said Tuesday it would help displaced workers with severance packages and job searches.

A spokeswoman for Connors Bros. didn't respond to a request Wednesday for specific information about that assistance.

According to Mrs. Jones, Castleberry's employees who have worked there less than five years will get two weeks' pay; those who have been there five to 10 years will get three weeks' pay; and for those with more than 10 years, four weeks' pay. After the meeting on the plant floor Wednesday, human resources gave workers letters with the severance details, she said.

Production workers were told Wednesday that GED classes and other training might soon be available. They were also told they could make COBRA payments to continue their health insurance coverage, Mrs. Jones said.

"That's $300 and something a month," she said. "Who can do that when you don't have any income?"

Mrs. Jones and her husband, who was laid off from Castleberry's in 2006, have two adopted children, a 3-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son. The company just started offering 401(k) plans to production workers this year, Mrs. Jones said, and she estimates that she has only a few hundred dollars in her account.

"Now I got to go out here at 50 and try to sell myself," she said. "I haven't really had a chance to think about it, but looking at the way the economy is, the way Augusta is with a lot of people going through temp services just to get their foot in the door, it's going to be tough."

Reach Mike Wynn at (706) 823-3218 or mike.wynn@augustachronicle.com.