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Mayor Says Something Must Change After Century Loses Car Plant
March 2, 2009
Century Mayor Freddie McCall knows it won’t be easy to find another company willing to invest millions in his town and provide a 1,000 good jobs.
When LHS EV found out last week that they were not getting a $2.5 million state grant, they promptly announced that they were no longer considering Century for their electric car assembly plant.
Company officials announced that they were still considering an Alabama location for the plant, and that did not surprise McCall.
“We all know that Alabama is more free with money for industry than Florida,” the mayor said. “Something has got to change if Florida is going to compete with Alabama.”
McCall said he is disappointed that the town lost LHS EV and their promised jobs. But taking the roll of the eternal optimist, the first-term mayor is not yet waiving the white flag of defeat.
“We are still willing to work with them (LHS), but I understand if it does not work out,” McCall said. “But we are not going to give up. We are going to look for somebody else to bring jobs to Century.”
While he would not mention specifics, McCall said there was another company considering Century.
“We are going to keep our fingers crossed right now on another company,” he said.
Comments
6 Responses to “Mayor Says Something Must Change After Century Loses Car Plant”
just another hurdle century have to overcome but i think something good will happen for the town crime rate is not an issue don’t understand that comment every town,city has crime related issues but century is not top of the list thank you.
An unproven product , just a golf cart with jeep look alike bodyon it, a couple of guys who can’t pay their taxes. Has Century really lost anything? If their product was so good , cities and towns across America would be bidding to get them. As for the guys, they will probably become cabinet appointees!
Century has 3 major hurdles to jump. The first is appearance….no-one in their right mind would locate a business to that town as it presently appears. The second is crime…..they must take a proactive stance on crime. Encourage neighborhood watch programs and provide incentives for them to maintain themselves. The third is finances…..with the new socialism form of goverment we are enjoying it should not be hard to attain funding for various “feel good ” projects.
With town employees fighting while on the town payroll, do you think any honest business would consider moving there.
Instead of crossing fingers and wishing why don’t the leaders of Century put together a group of the best and brightest to determine a niche, put together a business plan and pursue state and federal funding? Continually looking for relief from outside the community has proven fruitless and just sets the citizens up to be disappointed and deceived by those who would take advantage. I believe Century has the resources (people) who can accomplish this.
What a politician says:
“We all know that Alabama is more free with money for industry than Florida,”
What he means:
Alabama wants industry in their state so they don’t tax them at too high a rate, unlike Florida.