CENTRALIA, Wash. (AP) - Mike Edwards was a year from retirement when the coal mine he worked at for 25 years was shut down suddenly last month, putting him and hundreds of his colleagues out of work.

"I felt the rug pulled out from underneath us," said Edwards, who was making $70,000 as a bulldozer and heavy truck operator at the 35-year-old mine run by TransAlta Corp.

Edwards was one of about 200 people who gathered Monday at Centralia College's Corbet Theater, where Gov. Chris Gregoire came to hear them talk about their concerns while offering hope they will be able to find work without having to relocate.

"I find myself in very unfamiliar territory, and that is unemployed," Ray Due, 57, told Gregoire.

Due, who worked at the mine 33 years, said officials need to make sure high wage jobs are brought to the area.

"When we think about bringing jobs in, we need to bring in something that is going to provide a decent living for the workers," he said, followed by loud applause.

Gregoire said that's what she wants to do.

"My goal is to get good family wage jobs into this community," she said.

The 600 unemployed mine workers will continue to receive pay and benefits through the end of January.

Edwards said he is looking for local work, but is not confident he can find something in Lewis County that will match his salary.

"I've been here for so many years, I'll have a hard time pulling up roots," he said. "At 61 years old, I'm not a desirable commodity. Look at all these guys in their 30s and 40s competing with me. Who would you hire?"

Gregoire told the workers that she does not want see to see them forced out of state to find work.

"It's a challenge," she said. "My priority is to do our dead-level best to get people back to the jobs they want in the locale they want."

TransAlta is one of Canada's biggest private power producers with coal, natural gas and hydroelectric plants in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Australia. The company said the Centralia mine was too expensive to maintain.

TransAlta officials have said they will seek approval for coal mining nearby at a site known as West Field, but that process could take up to five years.

A major generating plant nearby will continue to run with coal from Wyoming. The 225 power plant jobs are not affected by the mine's closure.

Gregoire noted that the effect from the mine closing extends far beyond the mine workers.

"The ripple effect here from the closure of the mine will have a direct impact on a number of fronts here, whether it's a grocery store, a coffee shop, you name it," Gregoire said.

TransAlta Corp. has agreed to give 1,000 acres to the Lewis County Economic Development Council for industrial redevelopment, $200,000 to help with permits and preliminary work and $500,000 to the United Way, said Bill Lotto, the council's executive director.

He said the closing of the mine is the "worst thing we can imagine happening probably at the best time in 30 years" - unemployment in the area was at its lowest in 20 years at 5.7 percent, instead of the normal 8 percent to 12 percent.

"There's healthy growth in our community," Lotto said, and with that growth, and the new industrial redevelopment, he thinks the jobs will come.

"It's better to have some opportunity than none at all," he said.

Gregoire said that in her budget, due to be released Tuesday, she is seeking $6.6 million in state money for local economic development "so that we can, at the grass roots level, take a look at the opportunities that are there."

She said the community can use this as an opportunity to expand economic development in the area.

"I hope the new year brings lemonade out of this lemon," she said. "This community, as hardworking as it is, can stand up to this challenge. Turn this challenge into an opportunity, for both the workers and the community at large."