The assembly lines of the Corvette plant are still.

Silence reigns over 175,000 square feet of machinery where every Corvette and XLR in the world made since 1981 was crafted.

Bowling Green’s treasure boasts in its brochure: “No other sports car has carried the dreams of a nation like the Corvette. No other car has had a richer or more fascinating history, and none has a brighter future.”

But the plant hasn’t escaped the effects of national economic recession.

Production is down 50-60 percent since last year according to the Corporate Scheduling Committee.

Of 730 employees, 130 were laid off indefinitely in March and the number is expected to reach 240 by 2010.

Grant Wilson of Smiths Grove, who takes an English class at Western, took a buyout from the plant in April and isn’t looking back.

“I wanted to work for myself and almost eight years there set me up for life,” Wilson said.

He said the buyout will help him build a contracting company, but he realized most of his co-workers feel differently.

“A lot of people lose their job and don’t get nothing, I feel fortunate,” Wilson said.

“My co-workers were almost in tears.”

Like most fathers, he worries about providing for his wife and two small children, and recently purchased life insurance.

“It’s scary, it puts a lot on my shoulders,” Wilson said.

The manufacturing level has gone from 18.5 cars per hour to 11 and the plant will cease production of the Cadillac XLR this month.

The plant, which used to operate 50 hours a week in 10-hour shifts, is amid a series of shutdowns. After closing in late December 2008, the plant reopened and has been back in operation for five weeks.

“We have a unique plant, we have a unique product,” said Andrea Hales, communications director. “I would hate to see a Bowling Green or a Kentucky without the Corvette.”

No Corvette is made until it is specifically ordered and designed, said Kayla Fugate, a Franklin junior who works at the Corvette Museum next to the plant.

Just inside the museum is a line of glistening Corvettes waiting for their owners to drive them off the showcase floor.

“We call this the nursery,” Fugate said. “If the buyer chooses the $490 option they get a special tour and are treated like princes and princesses for the day.”

The number of people who chose the option has decreased; her hours have been cut.

“They expect us to pay for our coffee now,” she said.

The Corvette Museum is filed as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, funded by patrons and donations. Every car in the museum is donated or loaned, including the only Corvette made in 1983, when the plant came here from St. Louis, Mo.

“Like other attractions across the U.S., tourism is down, but we feel good about having a lot of folks visiting the Museum,” said Bobbie Jo Lee, museum marketing and communications manager.

More than 130,000 people from around the world visit each year.

Bowling Green senior, Ashley Gabbard, is an intern at the Corvette plant who gives tours and writes for the newsletter among other things. Her workload has reduced since the layoffs.

“I clean a lot of storage closets lately and file a lot of papers,” she said.

Despite the drop in sales of the Corvette, the company’s market shares are rising and Hales said community leaders understand, beyond raw numbers, how important the Corvette is to this area.

Wilson said the economy suffers in part from a lack of support for American cars.

“People need to realize when they purchase an automobile, they are affecting a lot of American jobs,” he said.

Kohl Threlkeld contributed to this story.