Walker Machinery Company announced Thursday that 77 employees will be laid off.
The company, which employs about 500 people and deals Caterpillar equipment, has eight facilities throughout West Virginia, including locations in Belle and Nitro.
"We did know it was coming," said Belle Mayor Glen Chestnut. "But that was just a rumor from one of the employees."
Chestnut hadn't heard of any layoffs in the Belle location yet, but he said that if there were, it could be devastating to the town's economy.
"It'd be awful," Chestnut said. "That's one of our biggest B&O companies, that's what we help run our town on."
The reason for the mass layoffs was the deteriorating state of the coal industry in West Virginia, according to a press release the company issued.
"Due to slow economic conditions, deterioration in market conditions, and no signs of future improvement for some time in West Virginia and the coal industry, Walker Machinery has had to make the difficult decision to right size its branches affected by these conditions," the press release says.
Prior to the decision, the company offered employees jobs in other areas of the company's territory, including relocation packages.
Walker Machinery's decision to downsize is an aftershock of the decline of the coal industry.
As coal struggles, the companies that provide equipment to the mines and plants and transport the coal will begin to struggle as well.
County and state government are facing shortfalls as a result. Kanawha County is facing a $600,000 budget deficit, almost half of which is a loss from Alpha Natural Resources filing bankruptcy.
The state is seeing a major budget shortfall as well, largely a result of the coal severance tax being $24.95 million below projections.
With the decline of the coal severance tax, county government and schools are increasingly reliant on property taxes, which could be in jeopardy as ancillary coal businesses fold.