Fri Jul 30 2010
Mayor Drew Ferguson IV is a man that I can really admire. He has seen his share of ups and downs. Flooding of the town in 2003 from the Chattahoochee River from rain and the locks not working, the leaving of the textile mills over the last ten years, and the decay of downtown because everyone was moving to get jobs.
There was pressure to do something as the economy expanded elsewhere and there were those that wanted to let things go or retreat everything back constantly trying to repeat the past. This mayor was focused though. He had a vision of luring someone there and keep focused on moving ahead.
Being clear over on the western side of Georgia (next to Alabama) and in the middle of a poverty stricken area among great areas of prosperity, he had his job cut out from him. He did have a little used railroad and plenty of empty textile mills but little else. The main thing would be to keep focused and not let everything slip back into time in this now sleepy little town of 3,300.
West Point (formerly known as Franklin), Ga., just announced with KIA Motors America that the new KIA plant was going to open sometime in the next week. What? A Korean car manufacturer in America. Like Honda, and other overseas car manufacturers, they have seen there is value in building, assembling, and working in and with Americans.
The call for workers brought 47,000 people looking for 1,200 jobs. The average pay is to be between $17 and $24 per hour. Once operational, the plant will be hiring an additional 3,000 people. The economy of West Point and Harris County has been revived along with many areas in eastern (and poor) Alabama.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? This is why I ran for mayor in the first place and for several years it looked like we were digging out of the old times when everything was in the hands of a few companies. Now that hard times are upon us, pressure is being put out there in the name of economics. In the name of watching the budget, the hands of time are to be turned back. In some respects we do have to cut back. In some cases we don't. It is just a matter of "control" under the guise of economics.
I hope, like Mayor Ferguson, we will keep our eye on the future and not retreat into the past. The textile mills have gone forever. It's time to move on to a different and brighter future. We won't be around forever so let's leave something with hopes and dreams to those that follow.
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