New Haven Independent

The East Street factory with the art-deco entrance closed last Aug. 24 after 105 years in business. The company made a valiant effort to keep 116 blue-collar jobs in town in the face of competition from China and downward price pressures from Wal-Mart. (Click here to read about that effort.)

Frank Camera, a manager who came out of retirement to try to save the plant, said Sunday that the company might have a new buyer.

A deal with a previous potential buyer fell through. This latest deal is in the “due diligence” stage, he said. He said he can’t at this point identify the company looking to buy the plant. “We’ll find out in the next 60 days” if the deal will fly, he said. “Maybe we can put 50 to 60 people back to work.”

Meanwhile, Dan Meeker was in the plant parking lot the other day shoveling up debris. He’s part of a four-man skeleton crew left cleaning up the premises, as the machinery has been moved out. Meeker has been working a 45-hour-a-week shift (including Saturday mornings). He expects the work to end within the next two months or so. After that? At 59, he needs to find a new job. Click on the play arrow to watch him talk about the passing of an era.

Meeker said he liked working at Simkins. It’s the only job he has had since returning home from Vietnam 38 years ago. Click on the play arrow to watch him talk about that — and about how he feels as a new generation of soldiers faces home-front opposition to the war they’re fighting.