High-skill, 'niche' industries could be future of manufacturing in DeKalb

DeKALB - Roger Hopkins, who tracks the local economy as head of the DeKalb County Economic Development Corp., can tick off the manufacturers that have closed in recent years, taking hundreds of jobs with them. There's CTS Corp., an electronics components maker that cost the county 240 jobs when it shut down its plant in Sandwich, and DeKalb's Rittenhouse Paper Co., which closed in March 2001, eliminating 37 jobs. Since buying DeKalb Genetics, Monsanto has reduced its employment in the county from about 500 to about 130, Hopkins said. AGCO Corp. closed its tractor-making plant in DeKalb earlier this spring a little more than a year after buying it from Caterpillar. All told, a good portion of the 4,200 positions DeKalb County has lost since