WALSENBURG, Colo. (AP) — The private company that runs the Huerfano County Correctional Center in Walsenburg says the prison will officially close April 2.

With 188 workers, the prison is the second-largest employer in the town of about 4,000 people.

Corrections Corporation of America announced in January that other states with about 700 inmates at the prison were removing them. This week, the company announced the prison's official closing date. Officials are still looking for new clients for the prison.

City Administrator Alan Hein says the town could lose up to $300,000 in utility sales to the prison, concessions and sales taxes at a time when the town has a budget shortfall of about $300,000. The town already has laid off 10 people.

(Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)