Dothan Says Good Bye To Another Business

Rickey Stokes

Viewed: 6475

Posted by: RStokes
thehoustonnewspaper@yahoo.com
334-790-1729
Date: Nov 15 2009 7:53 PM

DOTHAN:    It started in 1887….Tri – State Plant Foods on East Burdeshaw Street. Also known as acid plant hill.

On Friday, all employees were sent home. The recession has caused it to close it’s doors .

This has been all to common in Alabama. 

Under the Governor Bob Riley administration, there has been a loss of thousands of Alabama jobs.

Currently Alabama has the tenth highest unemployment rate and the third highest unemployment growth rate in the country. ( This fact comes from the longest serving elected Republican Houston County office holder – Houston County Commission Chairman Mark Culver).

At a recent Dothan City Commission Meeting, District 5 Commissioner Taylor Barbaree urged the people of the wiregrass to put the 2010 Governor on the spot…what are your promises to help the wiregrass. Commissioner Barbaree said the wiregrass has suffered from no help from Montgomery. Barbaree comments were echoed by Dothan Mayor Mike Schmitz by saying “here here”.

Dothan has lost the corporate offices of Movie Gallery. Recently Dothan’s G.E. Plant announced it’s closure in 2010. They have given employee’s a chance to come up with ideas of how to stay open.

Dothan’s Pemco has temporary laid 100 employees off this past week awaiting two planes to arrive for work.  Some of Pemco’s work will be in the air during the holiday season so work will be slim. Come January 2010 workers will go back to full steam ahead.

We are thankful for what we have. But we have had no help from Alabama Governor Bob Riley. This comes as a surprise because some of Riley’s top donors have come from here in Dothan.

Some who beat the drum for Riley have recently told me, off the record, they wished they had never supported him. In private, the leaders have told me he has not helped this area and has been a waste.

With the loss of jobs, we sing the song…where oh where is Bob today…why did he leave us here all alone…we have searched the state over…and you have not been found in the wiregrass.

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