Existing industries could add as many as 503 employees to the local workforce in 2011, a survey indicates.
Tucson Roberts, president and CEO of the Covington County EDC and Business Development Center, said the CCEDC surveyed 19 manufacturing industries throughout Covington County in December. The industries, located in Andalusia, Opp, The South Alabama Regional Airport and Florala, currently employ 2,452.
The survey indicated that they will add an additional 503 employees in 2011 Roberts said.
“Currently, the workforce in Covington County is approximately 16,360,” he said. “If all these industries reached their employment projections, they would add 503 employees and reduce our unemployment rate by approximately 3 percent by year end.
“This does not include new employees that would be added by additional retail, service businesses, or unsurveyed manufacturing industries or additional lay-offs.
“All in all, this is very good news for the Covington County economy,” Roberts said. “As of Nov. 30, 2010, Covington County’s unemployment rate was 8.8 percent (the State of Alabama rate was 9.1 percent),” Roberts said. “Given these projections, we should see a year-end rate in 2011 around 6 percent, obviously a vast improvement over the past two years!”
The Andalusia City Council on Tuesday voted to name the new industrial access road.
In an unanimous vote, council members named the new portion of the industrial access road, which is located to the west of Sutton Road, West Progress Drive, and renamed the existing portion East Progress Drive.
Mayor Earl Johnson said the new road should be complete in the next couple weeks.
“It’s a tremendous asset to the city,” he said. “We started this six years ago in my last term. It’s been a long, hard project. We’ve had some delays, but we’ve stuck to it.”
Johnson said he felt the name of the industrial access road was a proper name.
In other business the council:
• passed two human resource policy changes.
One to bring employees’ life insurance and health insurance inline with city’s policies, and the other to approve leisure services job description realignments for job four positions to coincide with the evolving responsibilities.
Published 12:00am Thursday, December 30, 2010
By Michele Gerlach
Andalusia Star News
Ingram Construction, the general contractor for the renovation of the Church Street School, has begun work on the historic building, which is being modernized for use as a cultural arts center.
The City of Andalusia and the Andalusia Ballet are partnering for the project, in which the ballet will contribute $500,000 for the restoration project and will be the managing tenant once the project is done.
The Andalusia Ballet is continuing to raise money for the project and has an opportunity to earn matching funds this week from Modern Woodmen of America.
Modern Woodmen has made a commitment to match up to $2,500 in contributions to the Andalusia Ballet for engraved bricks and cornerstones sold by Dec. 31.
The engraveable bricks are $100 and cornerstones are $500. Checks should be made to Andalusia Ballet Association, Inc. and are tax deductible. Forms may be picked up at Andalusia Ballet, City Hall and the Andalusia Star-News for designation of the wording to be engraved.
Published 12:00am Saturday, January 1, 2011
By Michele Gerlach
Andalusia Star News
Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson used one of his favorite phrases when talking about what the new year holds.
“It is my firm belief that 2011 will be a red-letter year for Andalusia,” he said.
“We will have a large amount of public and private investment in this community in 2011 that will bring a lot of economic activity to the community and will create new jobs, many of which will be high-paying.”
For examples, he pointed to the new oncology center at Andalusia Regional Hospital; the new medical complex across the street from the hospital; 150 new high-end apartments on Debro Hill that should be renting, if not completed, by the end of 2011.
And there are countless other projects.
“The Church Street Cultural Arts Center will be completed,” he said. “River Falls Street will be competed. The new Chamber offices and adjacent industrial park will be completed. We will dedicate the new police law enforcement training center which is 99.5 percent complete, but technically will be dedicated in 2011.
“The rehabilitation of two city cemeteries will be completed and we will be a long way toward the completion of the renovation of Johnson Park,” he said.
The new industrial access road connecting Hwy. 29 to the city’s industrial park will be opened to the public, and utilities work to improve the availability of water and sewerage in the park will be done.
“SaeHaeSung will be well into their hiring mode from their expansion,” Johnson said. “At the airport, our new industry Support Systems Associates of Andalusia, we’ll know a lot more in 2011 of the scope of what that will be.”
In addition, an expansion of Vector Aerospace that will bring new jobs will be completed. The state plans to resurface a major portion of the bypass, and the city will look at paving projects, too.
“We may have a resurfacing project in 2011, but we’ll certainly be putting together a resurfacing project, even though it might not be executed until 2012,” he said.
“We’ll be well into development of the Springdale facility and the development of Central Park for Andalusia,” he said. “We should have our first real public events there in the spring or summer, and by late spring, facility should be open for rentals for special events.”
All in all, there are enormous infrastructure changes in the works, many of which provide immediate jobs during the construction and development phase.
That’s a full plate, but Johnson said as those projects near completion, he’ll be looking for new ones.
“Of course, we’re always looking at what the next big area should be,” he said.
Housing will be high on that list, he said, adding that it continues to be an issue in attracting companies to the area. At present, there aren’t enough of the kinds of houses available that are attractive to young families.
“The new apartment complex will go a long way in relieving that, but we’ve got to take the next step,” he said.
And some old things are new again.
“We’ve got a number of old issues to deal with,” he said, “like taking care of old, abandoned run-down buildings in city. We hope to make progress on that in 2011, and address in a permanent way.”
What else, sports fans?
“Oh, the new athletic facility at the high school will be completed,” he said.
“Auburn will the national championship and the Andalusia Bulldogs will win more than one state championship,” Johnson predicted.
Published 12:04am Wednesday, December 22, 2010
By Michele Gerlach
Andalusia Star News
Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson stressed this week that River Falls Street is closed to through-traffic, but open to those who live, work, or need to do business there.
A couple of weeks ago, Andalusia Police Chief Wilbur Williams announced his department would ticket drivers who used the yet-to-be-completed street as a through-street. Williams stated at the time that the action would be taken to protect those working on the project designed to improve the street.
But what many people heard was a different message: Simply that the street was closed. And that’s made some River Falls Street business owners complain loudly. One even put an angry message on the sign out front: “Mayor and APD: You are killing business on River Falls Street. Do you care?”
The answer is that they care very much.
“We want to make sure people understand that River Falls Street is closed to through-traffic, not to people who work there, live there or are doing business there.
“If you’re going to Ophelia’s and eat dinner and you get stopped, tell the police officer why,” Johnson said. “If you tell an obvious lie about that, you may get called on it.
“The point is we don’t want to shut those businesses there,” Johnson said. “We ask drivers to be careful, aware and cognizant of workers out there,” he said. “What has happened is, because a pretty good portion of the street is done, people think they can get on there and go. That’s not permissible.”
Johnson told council members Monday night that the project is at its approximate half-way point.
Long before construction began, announcements about the project included statements about it being a year-long project. Work began last summer.