Team Clarke County notches a win

By Staff
Oct. 5, 2003
When the Burlington textile plant in Stonewall closed in 2002, throwing more than 800 people out of work, Clarke County immediately felt the economic impact. Its jobless rate, for a time, skyrocketed to more than 20 percent and was, for a time, the highest in the state.
With their county socked by manufacturing job losses, Clarke County supervisors could have given up. Instead, they buckled up and took to the road to sell their county's attributes in driving trips across the South. They stayed in modest motels, sometimes four men to a room, their travel funded in part by a grant from the Mississippi Development Authority.
Last week, their time on the road paid off. An industry recruitment trip to Spartanburg, S.C., in October 2002 resulted in contacts with a North Carolina company that announced it will locate in Shubuta. That business, Magnolia Spinning, signed a contract with the Clarke County Board of Supervisors to lease a county-owned building on Highway 45. Plans call for the employment of 45 people during the first six months of operation and 80 by the second year.
It's a solid start on reconstructing Clarke County's manufacturing base and goes to show what can be done when all members of a team pull together.