MULLAN - Many in the Silver Valley still are absorbing the blow of the just announced one-year closure of the Lucky Friday silver mine.

Federal safety regulators want the walls of the primary shaft in and out of the mine cleaned before production can resume. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration's decision to close the mine shaft will have devastating consequences, those in the valley said Thursday.

"It's going to kill this valley," said Chuck Reitz, a Mullan City Councilman.

"It's a disaster in the long term," said Mike Dotson, owner of Bitterroot Coffee House in Mullan. "I think it's going to be really tough when both wage earners work there. Everybody is just trying to absorb the shock."

He said the community has weathered tough times in the past.

Ted Drake, a Mullan resident who was out walking his dogs Thursday, said, "The guy in the bar told me it's going to impact them big time."

Mullan doesn't have more than a small handful of businesses.

For the community and the greater valley, Drake said, "It's devastating, and going to cause a chain reaction. It's going to put a major damper on Mullan. But it's going to hit everybody."

He said he has talked to laid off miners who said they'll be heading out of state to find work.

The closure means 185 of Hecla Mining Co.'s workers at Lucky Friday have been laid off, along with up to 100 workers employed by contractors that do work at the mine.

MSHA wants loose material, including sand and concrete, removed from the main shaft's walls before it's reopened.

Last year was a bad one for Lucky Friday as three serious accidents, all unrelated, occurred at the mine. Two people died there in 2011, following a span of 25 years without a fatal accident.

Don Kotschevar, a teacher in Mullan, said the news was devastating.

"Not just for the mothers and fathers that lost their jobs," he said. "Sometimes it's worse for the kids."

Instability at home affects student performance, he said.

"When things aren't good at home, children bring those problems to school," he said.

The interruptions or instability can be significant.

If one parent is a miner and has to leave the area to provide for their family, that might leave the other parent raising the kids alone back in the valley, he said.

It's more than single-parent households, though.

A laid off miner, who is used to making $100,000 per year or more, will have to work many more hours than he has underground in a new minimum wage job to make a living. More hours at work means less time at home with the kids, Kotschevar said.

Reitz, the Mullan City Councilman, said, "Our school district will be hurt more than anything."

The silver pulled from the mine and sold is taxed and money from that tax goes to the school district, accounting for a significant portion of its funding, Reitz said.

"It's going to fall on the backs of Mullan residents to pick up the slack," Reitz said.

He said his reaction to the closure was pure anger.

"I know what was causing it," he said. He blames "environmentalists."

Sara Lamson, supervisor at the Kellogg office of the Idaho Department of Labor, said, "We're just trying anything we can to get (the Lucky Friday miners) back to work."

The Kellogg office was bustling last Friday and on Monday with laid off miners filing for unemployment, she said.

"They just want to go back to work," she said.

Many of them have not filed for unemployment before. It was hard on them.

"They have a lot of pride," she said.

Many have discussed leaving Idaho for states like Colorado, Montana, Nevada and Alaska, among others, to find work in mining.

There is a potential for 40 to 50 of the laid off Hecla miners to be given work at one of the company's other operations.

Some might try their hand at work outside mining.

"Some are looking at heading to the oil fields in North Dakota for work," Lamson said.

Leaving will be tough, with many being natives to the valley, with strong family ties.

"They want to come back" when Lucky Friday re-opens, she said.

Margie Todd, a broker at Ridge River Realty in Wallace, who handles properties in the valley, said she hopes other mines rumored to be coming on line soon can absorb some of the laid off miners. That would keep them in the valley.

Still, she said, "We might lose some of our people for a while to keep dinner on the table in their homes."

But she also believes they'll be back, because they love the area.

She said local business owners will continue emphasizing their motto of "stay local, shop local," to help each other during this rough time.

"We've seen it before and we recovered," Todd said. "We have to take care of each other."

It's not all gloom and doom, she emphasized.

The miners she knows are trying to remain as positive as possible, hoping the mine can re-open before 2013, she said.

"This is heavy for us," Todd said, speaking of the closure. "But this is not the first time" the community has had to face adversity because of its dependence on mining.

Resource fair

n A job resource fair for laid off Hecla Mining Co. workers and subcontractors is 2:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19 at Wallace High School