In what could be a prolonged economic downturn because of COVID-19, it is hard for some to imagine turning down economic development opportunities under the current conditions. However, according to State Sen. Andrew Jones (R-Centre) and some Etowah County residents, you have to draw the line somewhere.
Jones is in the middle of a dispute between opponents of a proposed Pilgrim’s Pride poultry rendering plant just to the southwest of Gadsden’s Northeast Alabama Regional Airport and city officials who support the construction of the facility.
The freshman state senator appeared on FM Talk 106.5’s “The Jeff Poor Show” in Mobile and explained why he and other residents have concerns.
“I think I would characterize it as less of an environmental concern and more of an economic concern,” he said. “It’s a really rare issue in politics where you have a project that comes in that benefits one group and extremely does harm to another group.”
“Basically, what is going is we’ve got a project in Gadsden, and Gadsden kind of has a bubble that comes into Rainbow City, Attalla and Etowah County,” Jones explained. “And there’s going to be a poultry rendering plant, at least that is what is proposed — and that rendering plant would have probably 90% of the effects outside the city of Gadsden has a benefit. And those effects would be extreme odor, loss of property values to the businesses that are already there. It’s just one of those situations where it seems like one step forward and three or four steps backward because I feel like it is going to cost our community jobs in the long run. It’s going to keep other industry from coming in because it’s such an unwanted industry, and it’s in the wrong area.”
According to Jones, the municipal water infrastructure, which includes improvements made possible by the aid of grants from the state of Alabama, was what lured Pilgrim’s Pride to the city of Gadsden.
“They’re putting it right in the middle of an area where there are businesses, schools, daycares,” he said. “There is a Church of the Highlands campus — a mega-church kind of facility, all within a mile or two radius. It just kind of baffles the mind why a project like this would be going there instead of going out in the middle of nowhere.”
Jones estimated a total of 1.2 billion pounds of chicken “parts” rendered annually at the facility, which could make the quality of life unpleasant under certain hot weather conditions.
“It’s something you just could not imagine being in a Class 4 municipality,” he said.
“This thing kind of coming in through the dead of night,” Jones added. “They were talking about breaking ground February 1 in the Pilgrim’s Pride plans. This thing was kind of primed to move, fell through, and people just found out about this about two weeks ago. The businesses in the area were unaware.”
The Cherokee County Republican lawmaker explained the project would offer 90 new jobs but added there were already 200 existing job vacancies near the site for the proposed facility. Jones also said the Gadsden location could have been chosen because of actions taken by the state of Alabama and the potential for Pilgrim’s Pride as a customer of the city Gadsden.
“There have been rumors that the state of Alabama and the Commerce Department have been trying to find a home for one of these things in north Alabama,” he said. “And I’ve heard through another legislator that this thing has been kind of batted around a little bit. To what extent that is true — because of confidentiality clauses and non-disclosure agreements and all this kind of stuff, I guess we’ll never know the full story. But it really comes down to one, and to me, that’s money. It’s not about the jobs. The city of Gadsden will be able to provide 1 million gallons of water a day. And then all of the sewage, wastewater that comes off you would presume would be about a million gallons coming back out, which is really where they’re going to make the big bucks. So you know, pardon the pun, but the whole thing stinks.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
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