Photo by Evan Bevins From left, Parkersburg residents Carol and Gary Ruff greet Marietta resident Harry Kurtz on Saturday at City Park at the start of the 14th annual Woodmar Plant friends and family picnic. Kurtz worked at the plant — owned by Marbon, Borg Warner, GE and SABIC — for 35 years, while Gary Ruff was there for 30.

Former employees of the Washington, W.Va., plastics plant that operated under the banner of first Marbon, then Borg Warner, then GE Plastics and finally SABIC gathered Saturday at a picnic shelter in City Park for their 14th annual friends and family picnic.

Organizer Sharon Lowe said the event started in 2004 with five people and said this year’s turnout of 85 was the highest yet.

“I (saw) them every day,” said Lowe, who worked in the cafeteria for 34 years. “We all became friends. … They were just like my family.”

And some co-workers were more than “like” family.

Photo by Evan Bevins Jim Gorrell, left, a 20-year employee of GE and SABIC, shares a hug with Sharon Lowe, who worked in the cafeteria of the plant for 34 years at the 14th annual Woodmar Plant friends and family picnic Saturday.

Marietta resident Harry Kurtz was part of the initial crew hired when the plant opened in 1957. His son-in-law, Dan Carr of Belpre, was one of the last employees to leave as SABIC closed down operations in 2015.

“They were making a parking lot of the place when they laid me off,” said Carr, who worked at the plant for 39-and-a-half years. “It was a good ride. It got me right up to retirement, so I can’t complain.”

Marbon became Borg-Warner Chemicals in 1963, and the plant was sold to GE Plastics in the late ’80s. In 2007, the plant was part of a sale to Saudi Basic Industries Corp., aka SABIC.

In November 2013, SABIC announced the impending closure of the plant. Operations would merge with other locations, and the property, not far from the Washington Works facility, was the subject of an initial purchase agreement. The land was later bought by Appalachian Shale Cracker Enterprise LLC (ASCENT) as the possible site for a multibillion-dollar petrochemical complex centered around an ethane cracker plant.

A variety of factors have slowed development of that project and left its status uncertain. But longtime employees of the plant are still optimistic the site where they worked so long can be a hub of activity and employment once again.

Photo by Evan Bevins From left, Williamstown resident Martha McCale, Belpre resident Dan Carr and Parkersburg resident Carland Barker scope out which former co-workers from the Woodmar Plant in Washington Bottom came to Saturday’s picnic at City Park.

“We’re still hoping the grandkids will have a job like we did,” said Gary McMahan, who worked at the plant for 33 years, mostly in the labs.

His wife, Marcie, said she appreciated that the job provided enough income that she could stay home with the couple’s children.

“We lived pretty good,” Gary McMahan said.

Thinking back to when he interviewed for a job at the plant at the former Chancellor Hotel, Kurtz said it’s hard to believe the facility is gone.

“If somebody had told me that plant would be nothing but a bare piece of ground, I would’ve never believed them,” he said.

Photo by Evan Bevins From left, Parkersburg residents Nancy and Gary Williams and Washington Bottom residents Marcie and Gary McMahan visit Saturday during the 14th annual Woodmar Plant friends and family picnic. Gary Williams and Gary McMahan said the plant provided each of them with a good wage and lifestyle over more than 30 years.

At one point, Borg Warner employed close to 1,900 people at multiple locations in Wood County, Kurtz said.

“At one time, Washington Bottom … was the showplace for the world in plastics,” said Don Furler, who worked in maintenance for 30 years at the plant.

In some ways, it was like any other job, he said.

“When you (were) there, you thought it was the worst job in the world, and after you retire and look back at the plant’s accomplishments … you feel proud that you were a part of it,” Furler said.

Washington, W.Va., resident Terri Eaton spent 28 years at the plant and was its last nurse. She said despite the way it ended, she made good friends and has good memories of the plant.

“It’s a great bunch of people. They’re caring and kind,” she said. “Even through the tough times, we stuck together.”