EUGENE Soon, nothing will be cooking at Emerald Valley Kitchen in Eugene. Kettles of the companys spicy salsas and bean dips instead will simmer at a new plant in Kent, Wash.

Monterey Gourmet Foods, Emerald Valley Kitchens corporate parent in Salinas, Calif., said Friday that it will close the Eugene plant on Sept. 4, putting 25 employees out of work.

Monterey CEO Eric Eddings said the decision was made after two years of careful consideration. The company determined that closing the Eugene plant and shifting production to Kent would be the best use of company facilities, and provide customers with more flexible production runs, he said.

Eugene employees were notified in person on Tuesday and Wednesday, Eddings said.

Montereys decision comes as a battered Lane County economy already suffers from a 13 percent unemployment rate.

Were sorry to lose any jobs at this time, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy said. And for the 25 who were employed there, its a hardship.

The move also puts an end to local production of the homegrown, iconic brand, which Mel Bankoff, a Philadelphia transplant, founded in Eugene in 1983.

The best that I can hope for is that they continue to maintain the quality of the food and the organics, and dont, as they say, mess with the thing thats created the success, he said.

Bankoff sold Emerald Valley Kitchen in 2002 to Monterey, then Monterey Pasta Co., for $5.5 million. He stayed on to head Montereys organics division but said he grew disillusioned as top management changed, and didnt exhibit the commitment to organics and employees that he advocated.

Three years later, Bankoff resigned.

Now, as production leaves Eugene, thats the painful part for me, said Bankoff, 58. To see something that I dedicated a good part of my life to it didnt have the level of continuity and future that I had hoped it would have.