Wilmington will not become a ghost town, the mayor said Monday following another devastating announcement from the parent corporation of DHL.

“People have said to us, ‘Hey, mayor, you’re going to have a ghost town.’ Well, I’m going on the record right now and I’ve gone before. We’re not going to have a ghost town. This is a great community. There’s wonderful people that live here, and we’re all going to pull together to try to make something work,” said Raizk in a noon press conference at Wilmington City Hall.

“Will we have some hard times? Yes, I believe we will. But I think with the spirit of this community and our foundation of community involvement by all the citizens, we can make this work,” he added.

The announcement DHL is withdrawing from the domestic U.S. shipping market did not catch him entirely off guard, Raizk said. Recent developments and recent news reports had suggested DHL’s action could be a dramatic one.

Accompanying the announcement is a swift execution of the business plan. Jan. 30 will be the last day for DHL’s domestic air and ground freight operations.

The accelerated timetable will make matters “a little more difficult,” said Raizk. But he thinks things should be OK “because we got some of that [safety net and retraining] stuff rolling early,” he added.

In that connection, Raizk mentioned getting pre-approved for a National Emergency Grant, and getting approved by the Economic Development Administration.

Normally, that’s not the way it works, he said.

“I think we’re ahead of the game a little bit, but we’re going to need every bit of that because of this expedited timetable,” said Raizk.

“… I think the current economic climate and the global economic crisis have hastened what we thought might be a more orderly reduction here, and certainly the decision to pull out of the domestic market inhibits our chances of putting together some kind of package with our current air carriers, ASTAR Air Cargo and ABX Air,” acknowledged the mayor.

The announcement has a little bit of hope, he said, in that DHL said it will continue with its express freight business to and from the United States.

“We certainly would encourage them and we’re hopeful that we would retain at least that international portion here with DHL,” said Raizk.

He said he’s looking ahead to the community obtaining control of the Wilmington Air Park, redeveloping it and “encouraging some diversification of new jobs.”

But he doesn’t kid himself.

“It’s going to be very, very difficult for these people. And we’re going to do everything we can to help them and get them over this hump. … It’s going to be tough and we’re going to do everything we can, with God’s help, to help them through this tough time,” said Raizk.

“I think people want to stay here, if they can. It’s our job to make sure we can find a good job for them so they can stay in their home and raise their kids here and continue to have their families here,” said the mayor.

“One of the pieces that we’ve been asking for and I will continue to ask for is some way to provide a pool of health insurance for these displaced workers. Kind of novel, but when you have this many workers, if we can provide them adequate health care to get them through this period, then that’s not money that they have to worry about when they’re out looking for a job or retraining for a job or going to school or whatever.

“So, we think that that’s an important piece and we’re looking for some help from DHL to help us make that a reality,” he said.

Clinton County Commissioner Randy Riley also took part in the press conference, which was attended by broadcast and print journalists from Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, and the statewide Ohio News Network (ONN).

“Well, we’ve been waiting for the shoe to drop since the May 28 announcement, and I think it hit the ground today,” Riley said.