COUDERSPORT – About 525 Time Warner Cable employees in
Coudersport exchanged hugs, shared personal e-mail addresses and
wished each other well on Monday before walking away from their
jobs for the final time.

As announced in early December, the company shut down its
Advanced Product Customer Center and a related division, the Sales
and Marketing Advanced Retention Team (SMART).

About 50 of the affected employees have taken Time Warner jobs
in other states. For all but a handful of the others, the future is
filled with uncertainties.

“I know it’s going be very strange to wake up tomorrow morning
and not have a job to report to,” said Pam Sprouse, a Coudersport
native who joined Adelphia 14 years ago. She, like most of the
others, was picked up by Time Warner when that company bought
Adelphia’s assets last August.

Sprouse said she was filled with mixed emotions, the strongest
of which was gratitude.

“I’m just very thankful to Mr. Rigas for keeping Adelphia here,”
she said. “I think the skills I have acquired and the experiences
I’ve had here will benefit me in the long run and something will
come along.”

She was referring to Adelphia founder John Rigas’s determination
to maintain corporate headquarters in rural Coudersport, which ran
counter to the traditional business model. At its peak, Adelphia
employed upwards of 2,000 people in the town.

Time Warner’s workforce in Coudersport now numbers about 75
holding onto jobs in the engineering and information technology
departments.

Two of that company’s executives, Human Resources Director Jim
Foster and Customer Care Vice President Andy Haines, circulated
among the workforce on Monday during a farewell luncheon. A banner
reading, “Thank you for your dedicated service to Time Warner
Cable!” hung over the buffet.

Most of the employees who gathered at the lunch tables were
filled with uncertainty and anxiety.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to do,” conceded Candi Hand
of northern Potter County, who was a supervisor and trainer at
SMART. “Hopefully, I’ll find something else.”

Kerry Hawver of Port Allegany, a customer care representative,
will also be looking for work.

“I really don’t want to leave the area,” Hawver said.

“I’m looking into landing a technical job that would allow me to
stay here, but we’ll see how it goes.”

For Tracey Notaro of Coudersport, the termination notice from
Time Warner was a case of d_jT vu. She was among the 200 Adelphia
employees who were not offered jobs when Time Warner came to town
in August.

“This is a little harder to take the second time around,” she
said. “Fortunately, my husband was able secure a job out of the
area. Once our oldest son graduates from high school in June, we’ll
be gone. It’s sad, but it’s reality.”

Most of the employees have qualified for a severance check, as
well as up to a half-year of unemployment compensation benefits
from the state while they look for work.

Jim Callahan of Emporium, who started with Adelphia’s Long
Distance telephone division in 2001 and switched to SMART, said
he’ll eventually look for marketing positions in Bradford, Olean,
N.Y., or St. Marys.

“I’m used to driving a distance my job, so that shouldn’t be too
bad,” Callahan said.

By the same token, he said he’s not in a hurry, particularly
with his wife gainfully employed in Emporium.

“We have two children, ages 6 years and 14 months, so I’m
looking forward to spending some time with them as a
house-husband,” Callahan said. “I’ve missed a lot of first steps
and first words because of working out of town, so it will be nice
to be home for a while.”

County leaders haven’t released specifics, but they have
confirmed that at least six companies are interested in relocating
to the Coudersport buildings Time Warner is vacating.

Should the fast-tracked effort to attract employers bear fruit,
many of the 500 displaced employees could find themselves back on
the job, right back where they said their farewells on Monday.