It was the elephant in the room —something that was on everyone’s mind but no one in power seemed to want to talk much about.

That was the feeling we got at the annual Eggs and Issues breakfast about the impending closure of International Paper’s Franklin mill.

Of course, the eventuality of more deep cuts to the state budget is weighing heavily on lawmakers’ minds as they head to the General Assembly session next week.

Still, jobs and economic recovery should be tops on the list, too, especially when Western Tidewater is losing 1,100 good-paying positions.

Lawmakers did speak briefly about feeling sympathy for the plight we are about to be in.

Maybe our expectations are too high, but we are hoping for more than lip service when it comes to how our legislators are going to involve the state to help us recover from this major blow.

“The whole idea is to get people back to work,” Sen. Fred Quayle told the audience about the new governor’s mandate.

Amen, to that. Hopefully, he’s talking about workers here.