FORT MORGAN, Colo. The city of Fort Morgan is preparing its 2027 budget without Cargill, as the beef processing plant lockout threatens city services and jobs.The decision was announced during Tuesday's city council meeting, wh en City Manager Brent Nation advised council members that departments should plan to cut their budgets by 15% due to the ongoing lockout. WATCH: Cargill lockout forces Fort Morgan to prepare for 'generational' budget hit Cargill lockout forces Fort Morgan to prepare for 'generational' budget hitAs city leaders prepare for potential budget impacts, local Fort Morgan businesses say they're feeling it, too."It is a family business," said Nayzeth Avalos, who has worked at her family's restaurant, El Jacal Mexican Grill, since she was just a kid."It's a cool environment to work in. It's fun," Avalos said.But it's an environment she's seen change in the nearly two months since the lockout at Cargill started."It has affected the town quite a bit," Avalos said.READ MORE: Cargill Meat Solutions workers rally after company initiates 'lockout'The plant sat quiet and empty on Thursday two days after Fort Morgan City Manager Nation alerted the council to the potential changes."We're basically preparing the 2027 budgets as though Cargill will not be open in 2027," Nation said. "From our best estimates, it's about a decrease of about $15 million to our budget.""We are a $100 million budget on average, so real simple math, 15% loss, and so that's now the direction my departments are going," he added.Nation says Cargill is the city's largest electric and water user, which means Fort Morgan isn't seeing any of that revenue during the lockout."The term that I've been using with my employees is this is a generational event," Nation said.The revenue loss could also lead to layoffs across city departments, according to Nation."You look at our police budget, and almost 90% of the police budget is just tied up in salaries and benefits, and so in order for them to make a 15% decrease, they're one of the budgets that is definitely going to have to look at laying off employees, and that's where this becomes so difficult, but in order for us to have Fort Morgan in a position for what may be a new normal, not having that revenue from Cargill, we will have to make those adjustments, and we will have to look at the potential layoffs and how it affects those budgets," Nation said.Typically, the City of Fort Morgan employs about 160 to 170 people, so leaders could be looking to lay off between 20 and 25 employees, according to Nation.Nation made it clear the city hasn't gotten there quite yet."We will present the budgets throughout the next several months; our budget process takes us into November before we ratify the budget, but I'm telling everybody at this point we will continue to aim for the 15% reductions," Nation said. " We will go ahead and wait as we go through the process and not do any of the layoffs until the last possible moment in the year."The impact felt throughout the city is not lost on those leading one side of the battle."Our heart goes out to the whole Fort Morgan community, especially our members that are locked out," said Chris Suazo, the business agent for Teamsters Local 455.Teamsters Local 455 represents the 1,700 union members locked out of Cargill, a majority of whom call Fort Morgan home."I think it's going to have a lasting effect on the entire community," Suazo said. "This is 1,700 people and their lives, and livelihood, and families are at stake, and we're just trying to set them up for the best."Denver7 reached out to Cargill regarding the ongoing lockout, a spokesperson provided the following statement: <i>We understand this situation is difficult for employees, their families and the broader Fort Morgan community. A lockout was not the outcome Cargill wanted, but after months of bargaining and continued uncertainty around the union's threatened work stoppage, we made the difficult decision to help ensure facility, employee and food safety.</i> <i>We remain committed to reaching an agreement that supports employees and protects the long-term future of the Fort Morgan facility. We are open to continued discussions on the different ways to structure the overall economic package and resume operations as soon as possible.</i> ...read more read less