SHEBOYGAN – Three hundred fifty jobs are leaving Sheboygan. Pentair is closing its plant and moving work to other parts of the U.S. and around the world.

The people who worked at Pentair say people are feeling really down inside the plant. They say the rumors went around for months that the place might close. Now the co-workers will have to compete with each other for other jobs in town.

For the 350 people who show up to work at Pentair, it’s tough news to hear.

“Some of us were pretty touched. I mean you know there's people here that have 32 years, 35 years,” Penny Swope said.

Swope says morale went down when management announced the closing.

TODAY’S TMJ4’s Mick Trevey: “What's the mood like inside?”

“Kinda quiet. It's not like it was,” Swope said.

The plant is set to be closed by this time next year. Pentair does have other Wisconsin plants where a few people could go to work, but they're mostly in the Milwaukee area.

Mick Trevey: “Would you try to go work at one of their other plants in Wisconsin?”

“Probably not. I want to stay in Sheboygan. I don't want to drive an hour or an hour and a half to go work in Brookfield or Glendale or anything like that,” Jeremy Nelson said.

The only silver lining: the plant is on beach front Lake Michigan property. It's in the area where other new developments have sprung up. Now the hope is that something good can come of this site to help the area.

“We have to try to take a bad situation and make it a good situation. From that angle now we're looking to see what's going to actually happen to the building,” Sheboygan Mayor Juan Perez said.

As this comes out, there is some good news for Sheboygan. Wednesday the mayor met with leaders of a start-up company called Morgan Aircraft. He says they plan to build an airplane factory near the county airport, bringing 2,000 new jobs over the next 10 years.