Elaine Harris Spearman Commentary: Goodyear sale, GRACE Academy signs of hope, restoration
It has been a long time coming, but it looks like a change is going to come one way or another. The idled Goodyear Tire & Rubber property looks like it will have new life breathed into it. There appears to be a sale on the horizon.
The announcement as noted in a recent Gadsden Times article was from a candidate for mayor, Craig Ford, on Facebook. A confidentiality agreement that is in place does not permit identification and disclosure of finite details. These confidentiality agreements are common and standard in large business and real estate transactions. This is particularly true when there will ultimately be city government involvement.
The potential for growth and development and new jobs in Gadsden could not be more welcome or needed.
People of all ages and all ethnicities should be filled with a surge of hope and restoration for Gadsden. Our town has long been in need of a jumpstart that suggests vibrancy and viability, rather than aging and decaying. The news could not have come at a better time. The loss of the Goodyear tax revenue is just about to come to a head, according to one official.
The Goodyear property and the old Republic/Gulf States Steel site have long histories in Gadsden and the surrounding communities. I like the old reference as it was when our father toiled at the steel plant.
The sites are prominently placed and easily accessible. People of a certain age have memories of these two local employment giants providing the jobs that made college and home ownership a reality for many people in Northeast Alabama.
Those memories in a different form need to be created for a new generation. Retirements were made possible that kept many people from living in poverty in later years.
The other announcement bodes well for Gadsden, as Superintendent Tony Reddick is seeing a “long-term dream” turn into reality with the Gadsden Readiness and Career Education, or GRACE, Academy. The old Gadsden High School building on South 12th Street is about to get a new life, as reported on the front page of the Gadsden Times. The huge school site has a strange and special memory for those of us who spent our early years walking by it to attend other schools. My sister ultimately graduated from Gadsden High.
It is exciting to see a program that is free and allows students in the high school system, adults who left school with or without a diploma, and home schooled and private school students to be targeted for training in commercial construction, electrical technology and plumbing.
Phase II will offer HVAC and appliance repair. The goal is to recruit and retain local workers and, in the process, make the area attractive to industrial developers and recruiters.
These two announcements complement each other, though made at different times.
The Goodyear site announcement plans suggest bringing “multiple industries” to the site. The Gadsden City Schools’ plan highlights training and retention of workers in areas where there is a gap in available workers and companies.
This training can provide the framework for small business ownership. The times are too numerous that I, along with others, have lamented about the inability to get assistance for residential projects.
There is a sense of hopelessness, and just replace your appliance if you have a problem. It seems as though you can only get service when you are replacing everything.
I could not be more excited about GRACE Academy. The local partnership is fantastic for the areas that the academy is targeting. The partnership is also pursuing grants to add training for forklift drivers and commercial driver’s license training.
If you believe in the familiar refrain of Gadsden being at the crossroads, these announcements surely tip the scales to the upside and illustrate, better than most people can tell you, the importance of good, strong, idea-oriented, able leadership.
“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.” (Thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt, via a childhood friend, Ms. Sylvia Dupree Craig of Gadsden.)
Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., a Gadsden native, is an attorney and is the retired legal advisor to the comptroller of the City of St. Louis. The opinions reflected are her own.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Recent announcements bring surge of hope for Gadsden
