CAVE CITY Employees at Tekno Inc.s Cave City plant have dwindled to a precious few, and the companys future appears uncertain. A person who answered the phone at the companys office Thursday said they could not give out any information on the companys plans. Cave City Mayor Bob Hunt said he has not heard anything official from the company which manufactures parts for industrial conveyor belts but said that workers at the factory have apparently been laid off. Theyve cut back considerably and I think theyre down to about 25 or 30 people up there, maybe less, Hunt said. As far as what their final plans are, I have no clue. The payroll taxes paid by the company to Cave City have decreased considerably over the past few years, he said. Were not getting nearly as much revenue from them now as we were a few years ago, Hunt said. Barren County Judge-Executive Davie Greer said rumors in the county were that the company was keeping only a skeleton crew of employees on long enough to finish filling existing orders. Ive heard that a lot of people were getting their pink slips, Greer said. I dont have any official word, though, just what Ive heard through the rumor mill. Tekno opened in 1988 and has employed as many as 150 people at a time. The company was included in Inc. Magazines list of the nations fastest-growing private companies from 1994 to 1996, with sales peaking at over $11 million in 1996.A possible contributor to the layoffs at the facility may be a lawsuit filed in October in Barren Circuit Court by two shareholders in the company against the companys former president and CEO and his two sons. The lawsuit, filed by shareholders John Cullens of Rancho Mirage, Calif., and Ben Arnold of Columbia, alleges that former Tekno President and CEO Robert T. Tom Clopton of Magnolia and his sons, Troy Clopton of Hodgenville and Vincent Trevor Clopton of Magnolia, improperly closed the company and are preparing to dispose of its assets. The suit states that the Cloptons are attempting to liquidate the company, despite controlling only 50 percent of the stock. It asks the court to either place the company in receivership or order the state master commissioner to take control of it. According to the suit, Tom Clopton also diverted large amounts of funds from the company to himself in the form of bonuses during his service as CEO from 1988 to 2002.When the plaintiffs offered in 2001 to buy out the shares owned by Gordon Kelsay Jr. of Glasgow, the company was offered first refusal on the stock due to a stock restriction agreement dated Feb. 4, 1997, according to the suit. The company twice offered to buy Kelsays stock, but failed to go through with the purchase, and Arnold and Cullens completed their purchase in February 2002.Later, the plaintiffs found that the Cloptons had taken more than their authorized compensation from the company for several years and asked for a full reporting of all financial agreements between the Cloptons and Tekno and repayment of any excess compensation, according to the suit. The suit further alleges that the Cloptons failed to provide the request documents and that Tom Clopton has not repaid excess funds to the company as per an earlier agreement.