Hit with the unexpected loss of 330 workers and about $400,000 of annual income tax revenue, West Carrollton’s economic development director wants to talk with leaders of Appleton Papers Inc. about acquiring company property along Interstate 75.

Appleton said Thursday it will shut down the paper-making operation at its plant at 1030 W. Alex Bell Road, leaving 100 employees to run a thermal paper coating operation. Appleton has 35 to 40 acres fronting southbound I-75, said Bill Covell, West Carrollton economic development director.

“That’s prime real estate,” Covell said Friday. Appleton might “clean it up and then give it to us.”

Bill Van Den Brandt, an Appleton spokesman, called the question “legitimate,” but said it was “premature and speculative” to talk at this point about how company property would be dealt with.

The company said Thursday it will expand a base paper-supply agreement with Canadian firm Domtar, already a longtime supplier of uncoated paper to Appleton

That would eliminat e the need to make paper at the West Carrollton plant and the need for 330 employees.

In recent years, West Carrollton has lost robotics producer Motoman to the new Austin Boulevard interchange at I-75 and medical services firm Valued Relationships Inc. to Franklin.

That, coupled with state cuts to inheritance and personal property taxes, is creating a budget crunch, Covell said. The city’s general fund budget is just under $6 million, he said.

“It’s getting kind of dicey,” he said.

Shutting down the West Carrollton paper-making operations means eliminating more than 170,000 tons of paper-making capacity, company officials said in a conference call with investors Friday.

While they would not give a precise number, the agreement with Domtar will supply Appleton with more than 200,000 tons annually.

Domtar can supply the base paper at a lower cost than “we can do it ourselves,” Van Den Brandt said. The West Carrollton plant is more expensive because it is not integrated, meaning the plant cannot make pulp from logs and wood chips, Appleton said.

Employee-owned Appleton has more than 1,900 employees nationally. If the job cuts go forward, the company would be left with about 100 local employees.

Appleton officials said the company will buy ownership shares from laid-off workers. Van Den Brandt could not say what the cost of that stock purchase would be, but shares would be repurchased over a five-year period.

Jim Allen, president of United Steelworkers Local 266, which represents local Appleton workers, could not be reached for comment.