A big deal

It's official: the Shoals has landed the biggest current industrial prospect in Alabama with Wednesday's signing of a contract between state and local officials and National Alabama Corp.

What that means for our community is 1,800 direct jobs and thousands more during construction of the gigantic railcar manufacturing facility and support jobs.

It's the biggest single new employer to open its doors in the Shoals in more than 40 years.

The year-long saga that culminated this week included what Gov. Bob Riley described as some of the toughest negotiations he has been involved in with company CEO Greg Aziz.

Construction on the $350 million mile-long, 450-feet-wide facility is expected to begin in a few weeks. The plant should be operational by early 2009. About 60 to 80 railcars a day will be made in the facility. Employees will be paid $15 to $18 per hour, company officials said.

The effort to bring Hamilton, Ontario-based National Steel Car to the Shoals began in May 2006, when company officials made inquiries about land in Barton Riverfront Industrial Park. Dozens of people, from Washington, D.C., to the Shoals, have been involved in making the deal happen.

One of the keys to the successful effort was bringing together Colbert and Lauderdale counties to enact a half-cent sales tax that is being used to sustain an economic development incentive. The two county commissions adopted resolutions asking the legislative delegation to approve the tax.

And the fact that local governments in the two counties worked so closely on the project was not lost on state and federal officials. The Shoals had been divided in many respects in the past, competing with itself for scarce jobs all-important retail business that supply the sales tax dollars that fund local government. The groundwork for that cooperation was laid four years ago when the cities and counties entered a partnership with the Retirement Systems of Alabama to build a pair of Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail courses and a Marriott hotel and conference center. The local contribution was in the form of a 2 cents per gallon fuel tax to repay bonds.

David Bronner, CEO of RSA, arranged the state's portion of the incentive package that helped lure National Steel Car.

The arrival of the railcar plant is truly a big deal. It will provide the sort of manufacturing jobs -- at good wages -- many in the community have wanted since other heavy manufacturers began scaling back or closing 20 years ago.

It's also a big deal because the once fractious Shoals community have proved it can work for the common good. And that's gotten the attention of a lot of people in a lot of places.