Coast Professionals Sparing Some Geneseo Employees From Layoffs

GENESEO – Coast Professionals Inc. hit a rough patch following the U.S. Department of Education’s unexpected termination of a large contract, but now has sent a letter to the Village of Geneseo saying that their outlook is not as bad as originally thought.

Coast, a national-scale student loan collection agency, said in letters to the Village of Geneseo in March that the contract termination, an action for which Coast sued the Department of Education, would ‘affect’ 172 employees in Geneseo, but sent an update to their plan on June 18.

“Coast has been updating us often,” said Geneseo Mayor Richard Hatheway at Monday’s Village Board of Trustees meeting. “They have informed us with this note that they will not be terminating 112 of their Geneseo employees, and that those people will in fact be staying employed there.”

Coast said in their letter that the extra employees were retained “Due to business needs and a result of fluctuating account inventories.”

In March, Coast said that the termination of the contract by the U.S. Department of Education would result in 362 layoffs nationwide, 264 of whom live in New York. Their June update says that they have laid off 190 employees nationwide, 152 in New York State, and have ‘postponed’ all further employee terminations.

Coast closed their Henrietta location as a result of the loss of the Department of Education.