Our view: Proactive approach, hard work pay off for Garza County
When a major employer closes its doors in a community of any size, it creates a ripple effect across its economy. People who had jobs suddenly do not. Salaries that would have been spent locally on goods and services are not.
It is a terrible outcome that communities work diligently to avoid. That’s why it was encouraging to see the recent efforts put into keeping the Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility up and running as the largest business employer in Garza County.
A potentially destabilizing blow arrived last February when Federal Bureau of Prisons officials said they would not renew a contract with the facility, bringing an end to what had been a 20-year partnership between the two entities. However, county officials announced this week that a collective effort had worked together to keep the facility and the approximate 240 jobs attached to it intact as the prison returns to its original purpose of a contract county jail available to house inmates from counties across Texas.
“We want to announce today that the Giles W. Dalby Correctional Facility will continue as it began as a county jail,” Garza County Judge Lee Norman said in our story this week. “We are excited to announce this for our employees first, for our citizens of the community next. They’ve hung in there with us and we appreciate them so much.”
Had the approximate 2,000-bed facility in Post closed, the direct impact on Post, Garza County and nearby areas would have been disastrous. The Giles facility has been part of the local landscape since it was commissioned as a county jail in 1999. A year later, it began its partnership with the Bureau of Prisons.
It is no secret that when major employers shut their doors, virtually everyone in the community feels a little bit of the pain in some way. Some West Texas towns know this all too well. There are no good times for this to happen, only bad and worse times, such as now with surging inflation pressuring household budgets and an unpredictable job market.
Remember, too, talking about this in terms of “jobs” doesn’t accurately depict the situation. Each job equates to a person with varied obligations and responsibilities such as supporting families. Those jobs are the means by which the facility’s employees earn a living.
“It would be very difficult for the county (if Dalby closed),” Norman explained. “But it would definitely affect the city as well. We’ve talked about sales tax, water sales, sewer needs that we have out there.”
For now, facility operator Management and Training Corporation and current employees are expected to be retained and retrained as certified state jailers by the South Plains Association of Governments in the months to come. The offices of state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, and state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, have been involved here as well, working to secure grants to offset the costs of retraining employees.
“Rural Texas has its challenges and one of them is to keep jobs here,” Matt Crow, who represents Burrows’ office, said in our story. “We’re trying to do the best we can on the state side to make it as smooth as possible.”
The truth here is Garza County officials and their allies understand that every job matters, and one of the surest ways to protect them when they are threatened is to be proactive, strategic and diligent.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Proactive approach, hard work pay off for Garza County
