The Shadow
In observance of the Easter Holiday weekend, I’m taking a little time off to be with family and friends. However, I’m leaving you in good hands with The Shadow’s article by Buck Rumpf for a small trip down memory lane. See you next week!
[March 29, 2010] Buck Rumpf, aka The original Shadow, writes:
We will start off this week with a rumor that I think is true.
I understand that Sonoco Products, now housed in the former Jane Colby factory building in Cliftondale Park, will be moving to the warehouse building in Low Moor. Sonoco makes the cardboard tubing that rolls of paper are rolled on for the MeadWestvaco paper mill in Covington and also some material for the converting plant at Low Moor.
I also understand that Sonoco and MeadWestvaco have signed a new three-year contract. One local contractor told me that Sonoco has asked for bids to make some changes in the warehouse.
I understand that the warehouse at Low Moor is larger than the Jane Colby building and one important factor is that the material that they produce is much closer to the Covington mill, which with the cost of gas can make it add up to a large saving over time.
The warehouse became available when MeadWetvaco moved its warehousing to Augusta County and made it a regional warehouse for the company to ship paper out of.
You will remember at the time that MeadWestvaco said it would create 70 new jobs and a $20 million tax base when the building was built. The area had several chances to get the regional warehouse but didn’t, mostly because of the complaint of local residents who said “Not in my backyard.”
The first place MeadWestvaco looked at was the Marshall farm above Covington, but CSX refused to build a spur into the property off the main line. The second place was some land off of Nicelytown Road, but there again residents said they did not want the plant built in the area and at least one landowner refused to sell some needed land.
The third spot that MeadWestvaco looked at was an industrial park in Buena Vista. It was a closed deal there with the Buena Vista Council shaking hands on the deal. I will say it was a closed deal until some residents in a subdivision just across the road from the industrial park complained about the high volume of trucks entering and leaving the warehouse every 24 hours. They had so much influence on the Council that the Council backed out of the deal.
MeadWestvaco took the city of Buena Vista to court and after many months of court talk, the judge told MeadWestvaco to show him the signed agreement and of course the company did not have a signed agreement and Buena Vista won the case but lost a valuable tax base and 70 jobs.
If the vote on whether to let MeadWestvaco have the Buena Vista land today, I believe it would pass with a big margin of yes votes. From what I am reading about Buena Vista, they are really hurting financial wise.
Talking about the regional warehouse, if the same vote came up today in Alleghany County, I believe it would pass and the reason I say that is when Alleghany County advertised for a person to work on the trash truck, the county got over 60 applications for the job that pays between $7.50 and $11.50 an hour. In normal times when the county advertised for a new worker on the trash truck, it would get one or two applications.
Someone asked why so many applications were submitted because the pay is not that great, and it was pointed out that state benefits are one reason so many to applied. That is an indication that times are hard and will get worse before they get better.
Now that we know that Sonoco is moving to Low Moor, that leaves one more building for David Kleppinger and the Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Corporation to market for a company that wants to move to the Highlands. The structure was built for Jane Colby and for many years provided jobs for women to make Jane Colby’s line of women’s clothes. It closed some time ago. Just like all the clothing manufacturers in this country, they either went south to Mexico or to the far east, like China, Japan and India, or just about any of the Far East Countries that have cheap labor cost plus no environmental costs whatsoever.
I would say that Kleppinger would be hard pressed to get a clothing manufacturing company to move into the Jane Colby plant in Cliftondale Park but I am sure he will keep trying to fill the building with something.
The good times really rolled here in the 1940s, 50s and 60s in the Highlands with sewing plants for women to bring in an extra pay envelope each week that really helped out. We had the Halmode plant in Covington, White Swan and Jane Colby here in Clifton Forge and even Buchanan had a sewing plant.
I want to thank Dave Price, supervisor from Boiling Springs, for helping me out on the finance issue of the county, and I will admit that I am no finance person, (my checkbook never balances) but when I read that the auditor reported that Alleghany County had about $18 million I felt good until County Administrator John Strutner said the auditors advised the county to have a 10 percent fund balance in reserve which comes to about $11 million of the $18 million. If I am reading that right, it leaves about $7 million and even with my limited financial knowledge, I know that with the cuts made to balance the budget, that $7 million is just a drop in the bucket to bring in a balanced budget with no cuts or higher taxes. I would say that the supervisors will have some hard choices when budget work sessions begin.
Let’s face it, Richmond is trying to put as much back on the localities as possible. To make things even worse, it is my understanding that the county will have to absorb more for constitutional offices in the wake of the recent General Assembly session.
I have been told that the state is cutting funds to the county treasurer’s office by 19 percent and the commissioner of the revenue by 15 percent. The sheriff and commonwealth’s attorney will take 4 percent cuts and the clerk of the circuit court a 1 percent cut. These cuts are in addition to money the state has already taken away from these offices.
If the county does not agree to make up the difference like they have in the past, the constitutional officers will have no choice but to make cutbacks in their officers. As I told you in a column several weeks ago, there is a movement afoot in Richmond to make the localities solely responsible for the offices of local treasurer and commissioner of the revenue. As you can see from the recent action by the General Assembly, this is happening right before our eyes.
I will leave you with his statement by County Administrator John Strutner, that he made in the March 2, Supervisors meeting and reported in the Wednesday, March 3, Virginian Review: “Strutner told the supervisors that dipping into the county’s $18 million fund balance is not the answer to solving its upcoming budget predicaments. `You got a healthy fund balance, but we’ve got to batten down the hatches to get through the next couple of years’.”
One more quote, from Price, in a letter to the editor: “As a collaborative group, the Board of Supervisor members have a tremendous background of management and fiscal experience and will do the best they can.” Any way you look at it, all the local government bodies have their work cut out for them and will earn their money in the budget sessions coming up to bring in new budgets. We all have financial problems at home just as the supervisors and councils have too.
As I close this week, I will remind you that next Sunday, April 4, 2010, is Easter Sunday and for most Christians, it means that Jesus rose from the grave and is alive after dying on the cross for our sins. Many churches have sunrise services and special services Easter weekend. Don’t forget The Announcers gospel sing next Saturday night, April 3, at Alleghany High School, 7 p. m.
Out of space, time and coffee, see you next week…
