Gadsden officials unite to promote development
Gadsden County, despite all its travails during the recession, is pushing ahead with an economic development initiative that leaders hope will pay short-term dividends with more jobs and longer term benefits in a wider array of local industries.
“Go Gadsden,” the effort to reinvigorate the economy, has its work cut out for it. The county has one of the highest unemployment rates of any in the area and is still recovering from one of the state’s largest single layoffs at the end of 2008 at Quincy Farms, where 500 workers were let go.
“We’ve got the county commission, all six municipalities and a lot of stakeholders pointed in the right direction,” said David Gardner, executive director of the Gadsden County Chamber of Commerce at Go Gadsden’s meeting last week. “We’re excited.”
Go Gadsden’s objective is to promote the area and draw attention to its business attributes, among them an abundant labor supply, transportation infrastructure and availability of commercial sites and buildings.
“When a prospect comes here, we try to show them the whole picture,” Gardner said.
It was those features and the abundance of raw materials that attracted bioenergy company Adage, a joint venture of Duke Energy Corp. and power plant developer Areva. Adage wants to build a $250 million biomass plant at the industrial park in Gretna.
The plant will use clean, woody biomass from the forestry industry to generate 50 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 40,000 homes. Adage says the plant and its associated fuel operations will have a permanent staff of up to 150, but the construction will require employment of 478 workers. The construction is expected to take 2 1/2 years.
“The bottom line is we need the jobs. We need the tax base to support our hospital. We need great schools. We need roads. A great economy cures a lot,” he added.
Other residents aren’t so sure about the biomass project. They are concerned about the air emissions from the facility, the resulting health effects, and question whether Gretna will gain much in the way of employment opportunities.
