Judy Wiseman is a member of Ravenswood's city council, a retired teacher...and has a family member who works at Century Aluminum's neighbor, Alcan. While Alcan is not affected by the looming Century shutdown, she says employees there...and residents of the community are concerned about their future.

"Many widows of retired employees from Kaiser, Century and Alcan Aluminum have really been concerned that they are going to lose their pensions and their health benefits," Wiseman says.

Officials from Century's California headquarters will be in Ravenswood Saturday to discuss the situation. One issue is that, while a shutdown might not be the end of the plant, getting it re-started might be costly.

"If they would shut it down, would it ever reopen?," Mayor Lucy Harbert wonders. "Because they said it would take $25 million to start it up again."

While officials from the Governor's Office are optimistic about the progress that's being made, they admit that the biggest situation...aluminum prices in general... is something that could take months to resolve. Currently, those prices are in the 60-cent range.

"I've been told the aluminum price should be at least 80-85 cents a pound," Harbert says. "But with the global economy, the way it is for all the aluminum...I'm going to think positive, and I'm going to believe it can happen."

While the mayor doesn't think Jackson County's two cities will become "ghost towns" without the aluminum plants, they might never be the same again.

Governor Joe Manchin's press secretary, Matthew Turner, says this weekend's corporate meeting is one of the goals Manchin set when he met with plant officials in December.