Mar 11, 2021

150 jobs gone as Salina bus manufacturer will close

Posted Mar 11, 2021 4:00 AM

SALINA —Less than a year after purchasing El Dorado National in Salina, Forest River Inc., notified its Salina employees and the State of Kansas that it is closing. The Indiana based firm is a manufacturer of RVs, pontoon boats, busses and cargo trailers.

According to the KansasWorks website, Forest River, Inc. filed a WARN Notice on Monday for its facility at 1655 Wall Street in Salina. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act is a federal law that requires employers to provide advanced notification to workers when faced with a plant closing or mass layoff.

The move will affect 146 employees, according to the WARN notice. The closure is expected to occur in mid-May. Forest River purchased the former El Dorado bus facility from the REV Group in mid-May of 2020.

Attempts to reach Forest River have not been successful.