A handful of employees has clung to hope this week in the midst of uncertainty surrounding DESA, but the company will close its Bowling Green plant permanently in about two weeks, according to a letter from the company to Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker.

According to the letter dated Tuesday, layoffs began Monday and “will continue for the subsequent two weeks resulting in the shutdown of both facilities. This shutdown is expected to be permanent, and will affect the entire operation.”

The company, which located in Bowling Green in 1982 and employed 300 people about three months ago, took a sudden nosedive last week when it missed a loan payment and its creditor, GE Capital, seized DESA’s funds, leaving the company empty-handed.

The company’s shareholders pitched its lenders a strategy Friday, which would have allowed DESA to get the funds it needed to keep its doors open. But the proposal fell through, and the lenders remain unwilling to give DESA additional funds, the letter said.

Therefore, the company must close its doors, leaving hundreds of employees jobless. About 150 workers were laid off last week, and some employees left work Friday wondering whether they would return Monday.

About 30 employees in the chainsaw department were called back to work this week, while other workers attended meetings to discuss their unemployment options, according to employees.

While the company’s closure will heavily impact the community with a loss of occupational tax revenues and other business fees, the most devastating impact will be felt by the workers, who abruptly lost their jobs a week before Christmas, Walker said.

“This is heartbreaking to see so many hard working people suddenly lose their jobs,” said Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon. “Particularly at a time when prospects for a replacement job are so low. What an extraordinary burden for these families.”

Melissa Niceschwander moved to Bowling Green with her five children about six months ago when her husband landed a job at DESA. The family traveled from Arkansas to start their new life in Kentucky.

Fast forward to Wednesday, and Niceschwander is traveling back to Arkansas after her husband suddenly lost his job. They are trying to transport the bulk of their belongings before what will be a depressing Christmas, she said.

“We’ve lost more than just a job,” she said. “Here it is Christmastime and instead of being able to enjoy Christmas, like we thought we were going to, we’re not going to be able to do what we want to at this time of year.”

And the Niceschwander family might be split up as early as January due to the job loss. Melissa’s husband is looking to get alternative work, which would take him to the East Coast – leaving Melissa and her five children to restart their life in Arkansas.

“He feels like he’s failed our family, but I don’t think he’s failed us at all,” she said. “I feel that DESA has failed their employees. That, to me, is the failure.”

In the past week, frustrated employees said they have lingered by the phones, waiting for solid information about their job status. Workers have attended meetings in the past few days to get outside advice about their unemployment options.

Company officials have repeatedly declined to comment on the situation.

According to the letter, DESA could not inform its employees about the company’s situation sooner because it might have disrupted efforts to get crucial funding.

“While the company would have preferred to give earlier notice, the events have occurred so recently and suddenly that such notice was not feasible and would have undermined the company’s aforementioned financing efforts,” the letter said.

A spokesperson for the DESA plant in Russellville, Ala., who wished to remain unidentified, said the facility has halted operations and is waiting for information from company officials.

“We know as much as you do,” he said.

The company also operates another stateside plant in Santa Ana, Calif., and has six international facilities. The company moved its heating operation from China to Bowling Green about five months ago, bringing about 400 additional jobs to the local plant and prompting a visit from Gov. Steve Beshear.

Good news continued to surround the plant, when DESA announced three months ago that it planned to move its power tools division from Manchester, Tenn., to Bowling Green, adding 100 jobs to its work staff.

The company was still filling those positions when it crashed last week. Several people said they were shocked by DESA’s sudden downfall.

“The fact that they appeared to be doing very well – they had renegotiated new contracts; they were bringing jobs overseas,” Walker said.