Covington Casket will more than double its space and bring new equipment online, thanks in part to an agreement the Andalusia City Council approved on Tuesday.

Covington Casket, which has operated on North Cotton Street in downtown Andalusia since 1924, will move its operation to the Andalusia Industrial Park, leasing a building owned by the City of Andalusia and most recently occupied by Green Structures. Under the terms of the agreement, the city will become the owner of Covington Casket’s current 24,000 square-foot facility as soon as the company occupies their new building. The building is being expanded to provide 56,000 square feet of space, which Covington Casket will acquire in a 20-year, lease-to-own agreement valued at $1.25 million. 

“We have been working to put this agreement together for several months,” Mayor Earl Johnson said. “We are excited to work with Covington Casket as they expand in Andalusia.”

The company currently has 38 full-time and four part-time employees. With the expansion, they expect to add an additional six employees. 

Covington Casket owner Alan Williamson said that early in 2019, he was approached by a casket manufacturer in Georgia who was looking to sell his equipment. 

“That was a phone call I was totally not expecting,” Williamson said. “I had to give it some thought, but I looked at the numbers and decided to take a leap of faith and pull the trigger on it.”

Williamson had to find a place to store the four 18-wheeler loads of equipment. Then he began to look for a place to install it. 

“Basically, I bought a factory with nowhere to store it and nowhere to start another factory,” he said. “I made a few phone calls and reached out to Mayor (Earl) Johnson and John Thompson about any potential buildings. That’s when this building was brought to my attention.”

The city’s spec building is currently 40,000 square feet, and a 16,000 square-foot expansion is in the works. 

“That will more than double our current space,” Williamson said. “We’ll have 4,000 square feet of office space and 10,000 square-feet of warehouse space. We’re going from one loading dock to six loading docks. We’ll also have a selection room where when we have funeral directors come from out of town, they can see our products.”

Williamson told the council Tuesday that the company has in the past had to decline requests to have mortuary students tour the facility. The new building will include a large showroom that will allow that to happen. 

The new facility also will allow Covington Casket to expand its powder-coating business, he said.

Downtown, Covington Casket manufactures 30 to 35 caskets a day. In the new facility, Williamson said, that number can easily double. 

Covington Casket has warehouses in Albany, Ga., in Hattiesburg, Miss., and Hammond, La.

Williamson and his brother, Eddie Williamson, worked in the business with their father, Johnny, until his death. Afterward, Eddie Williamson managed manufacturing and Alan Williamson was on the road selling. In 2018, Eddie Williamson sold his interest to his brother and retired. 

Alan Williamson’s son, Andrew, then joined him in the business, taking over his father’s former sales role. The new facility, Alan Williamson said, will give them room to grow the company.  

“My daddy’d be proud of me,” Williamson said. “Once we get the facility built, we’re going to have a ribbon cutting with all of our former employees. They’re all part of it.”

Six City of Andalusia Utilities employees are headed to Chattanooga Tuesday morning to assist with restoring power in that city after more than 60,000 residences and businesses experienced outages as a result of damages from a severe storm system and an EF-3 tornado battered the area on Sunday night. 

Mayor Earl Johnson said the City of Andalusia has an agreement with Electric Cities of Alabama, which has reciprocal agreements with other states, to assist other utilities in times of crises. 

“I’d rather send help than need help,” the mayor said. “But it’s good to know that, through this association, we could get help if we needed it.”

The city’s utilities department will be paid for the use of its equipment and its employees’ time, the mayor said.

A foreman, two lead linemen, an apprentice lineman, and two groundsmen are headed to Chattanooga with two bucket trucks, a digger/derrick truck and a pole trailer. 

At least two people died and 21 were hospitalized in Chattanooga as a result of the storm. The EF-3 storm had wind speeds that reached 145 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Hundreds of structures were damaged.

In the first full month of the 2020 Census, only 44.9 percent of Covington County residents have taken time to respond, according to the Census Bureau’s estimate of the population. 

But in some parts of the county, residents are more engaged than others. 

For instance, in Carolina, a whopping 58.5 percent of the estimated population has completed the Census. 

Andalusia’s current participation rate is 47.1 percent. 

Opp has a 52.8 percent participation rate. 

In Florala, only 39.3 percent of the estimated population has self reported, to date. 

On Thursday, Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson recorded a two-minute video encouraging participation. 

“Based on our 2010 count, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated Andalusia’s population was 9,015,” the mayor said. “That’s just under the threshold of 10,000 residents that we need to make Andalusia an attractive location for many businesses. 

“But we also know that our official population count was low, because the U.S. Census Bureau has determined that Andalusia and Covington County have areas of undercounted population,” Johnson said. “It is our goal to make sure every Andalusia resident – young or old, rich or poor, and regardless of skin color or ethnicity – be counted this year.”

Completing the Census only takes six minutes, he said, adding that residents may use the paper form, participate online, or call the U.S. Census Bureau to participate. Every man, woman and child in a residence should be included in the numbers reported to the Census Bureau. 

“We understand the fear some feel in counting every member of their households,” Johnson said. “But your privacy is protected. It is against the law for the Census Bureau to publicly release your responses in any way that could identify you or your household, and that information is legally sealed for 72 years. The goal of the Census is to count every single person living in the United States. In Andalusia, we are aiming for 100 percent participation.”

The 2020 Census will dictate the distribution of more than $675 billion in federal funding to local and state governments. This funding supports schools, healthcare, infrastructure, community assistance and more. And its impact can last for decades to come in more ways than one. It is estimated that in 2016, more than $13 billion was allocated to the state of Alabama from programs affected by the previous census.  

The census, which dates all the way back to 1790, counts every person – both adults and children – living in the United States. This information gathered is then used to monitor changes in communities, identify and address public service needs such as health care, education, public safety, housing, food, and rural access to broadband. The Census Bureau also uses the data to determine the number of seats each state has.in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Beginning last month, each Alabama household received a notification in the mail from the U.S. Census Bureau. It contained instructions for how to complete the census. Residents can respond online, by phone or via traditional paper form. The survey takes less than six minutes to complete. Each participant’s information is protected by law. 

More information is available at www.alabama2020census.com. 

To participate online, visit https://2020census.gov.

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