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Northrop announcement offers region window of opportunity
Approximately 1,800 new jobs will be created with the construction of a $600 million, 600,000- square-foot complex in Mobile. EADS will also be producing 300 commercial cargo planes. "It is not only going to impact Jackson but impact Southwest Alabama, Clarke County especially," said Jackson Mayor Richard Long. "Even though they are going to be assembling the planes down in Mobile, there will be supplier companies throughout Southwest Alabama and Mississippi." It makes the whole area more attractive to business, Long said. Mayor Sam Jones of Mobile attended the Clarke County Voters League meeting Saturday night in Jackson. "He said, 'in the near future, if anybody in Clarke County wants a job and doesn't have one, it's their fault….There are going to be jobs plentiful in Clarke County." "Like TK (the ThyssenKrupp steel plant), the (Northrop) announcement can have a tremendous impact on Clarke County," said Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day. "Our biggest opportunity is making sure we are ready." Day said Thomasville needed to build more spec buildings for prospective business. "People want ready made buildings - ready to move in," he said. There is a window of opportunity for growth that Clarke County has not seen since paper mills moved into the area, Day said. "We've got to seize those opportunities." Day had recently been to Washington, D.C. to visit with members of Congress. Because of the TK and Northrop deals, "the Department of Transportation and other entities are going to have to look at transportation infrastructure in this part of the state to be able to handle the sheer magnitude of the amount of traffic that is going to be created." The economic impact of the Northrop deal will mean $40 billion over 15 years, said Wiley Blankenship, president of the Coastal Gateway Economic Development Agency. "What you are experiencing here is not going on in a lot of places," he said. With these companies deciding to move here, people all over the country are asking Blankenship "what is so great about Alabama?" Blankenship markets five counties, including Clarke County, Choctaw County, Escambia County, Monroe County and Conecuh County, to industrial prospects. The solid leadership of elected officials and the volunteers involved in community development are making Clarke County uniquely attractive to prospective businesses, he said. In addition, Coastal will be focusing hard in the coming months on aviation prospects. Al Etheridge, Region 9 coordinator for Alabama Workforce Development, told Tuesday's breakfast meeting that the time for talk was over. "It's time to do something," he said. State task forces have been established to promote workforce development to students as early as the fourth grade. "We want to keep our educated kids here," not see them move to bigger cities. A task force is also concentrating on high school dropouts or other adults that need to be recaptured and placed in developmental programs. In addition, employees stuck in entry level jobs need to be helped to improve their skills, Etheridge said. "If we educate every unemployed person, we don't have enough" to match the jobs that will become available in the next 20 years. With the TK announcement, there is expected to be 52,000 jobs in the first tier of suppliers, he said. With the Northrop announcement, add another 20,000 to 25,000 in the first tier. Well trained employees will lead to success in Southwest Alabama. "Businesses now go where the smart people go," Etheridge said. "…We need hard working, smart people….The low skill jobs are disappearing." People in Clarke County must prepare for "the new blue collar jobs…highly technical jobs," said Chester Vrocher, organizational development manager with Boise Cascade. Existing industries such as Boise are putting an emphasis on workforce development, he said.
"…If we do not have a workforce that has the requisite skills, we will not be able to run our facilities."
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