West Point Kia Offers Jobs, Hope

Published Nov. 16, 2009 at 7:59 a.m.

(WSB Radio)  80 miles southwest of Atlanta, along Interstate 85, near the border with Alabama, a resurgence is underway.  A resurgence of jobs and of hope.

West Point, Georgia, was once known around the world for its textile industry.  People who drive into Alabama along I-85 can still see the West Point-Stevens plant, but it still vacant.  The textile industry abandoned West Point years ago.  When the  manufacturing jobs vanished, West Point almost disappeared, as well.

 

Then came Kia.

"Did we ever dream that it would be this big?  No.  There's no way that you can," says Drew Ferguson IV, the mayor of West Point.

He remembers a time when the city was in despair and on the verge of ruin.

"We lost our manufacturing backbone when the textile industry went overseas," he says.

Aileen Love, another West Point resident, say the lost of that industry was devastating to the area.

"Every textile mill close, and moved to Mexico or out of the country somewhere," she says.  "And we had all of these people out of a job."

The downtown area turned into a ghost town.  Homes were abandoned, then left to deteriorate.  And West Point's young people, the future of the city, started moving away, looking for opportunities that their city could no longer offer.

Then the miracle occurred and Kia chose to build their new assembly plant in West Point.  That meant jobs for the city of 3500.  Lots and lots of jobs.

"The first round of hiring has been completed at Kia itself," says Ferguson.  "They have hired their first 1200 hourly workers.  They have begun interviewing for their next 1200.  So, on the first line, they will have approximately 2500 workers in place."

Then there are the companies that will supply the Kia plant.

"The suppliers will add approximately 7500 more jobs," the mayor says.  "So you're close to somewhere between 9000 and 10,000 manufacturing jobs that have either been created or will be created between now and 2012."

And the job creation doesn't stop there.  Ferguson says the multiplier jobs will provide even more of an economic boost to the city.

"Those are the businesses and the jobs that are needed to support those manufacturing jobs," he says.  "That number is close to 20,000 and we think that's a conservative number."

Overall, it's estimated the Kia plant will have an economic impact on the area of about $6.5 billion by 2012.

But, while Kia has created jobs and cash, it's also restored hope to a city that was badly in need of something to look forward to.

"The most important thing that it does, besides a paycheck, is it gives people in this area a sense of worth," Ferguson says. 

Others see a future that didn't seem possible not long ago.

"The people around here see the vision for the future," says Eddie Striblin, owner of the Downtown Diner, in West Point.  "That's the difference.  We have the hope.  You've got to have faith, you've got to have hope.  And everything that we see is just simply heading that way."

The downtown, which was once vacant, is booming again, as businesses have come back, hoping to cash in on all the new jobs, and paychecks, from Kia.

"You ride by here now and you see lights on in these stores instead of lights closed," says Striblin, who remembers when the sight of a car in downtown West Point was rare.  "Now you look out there and the town is full and people are looking for places to park."

The Kia plant has brought in some businesses that you might not expect to see in West Point.  Some have surprised even Mayor Ferguson.

"Probably the most interesting is a very good sushi restaurant in downtown West Point, which is something I never thought I'd see," he says.  As you drive into West Point from I-85, you also see Youngs Gardens, another Asian restaurant, and the Korean BBQ.  A Kia was parked in its lot and its four occupants inside the restaurant having lunch.

Kia has also brought higher education to West Point, as Columbus State University, looking to cash in on the influx of new residents, flush with cash, has opened a satellite campus in town. 

The decision by Columbus State to open in West Point reflects on the future of the city.  The younger residents who moved away when the mills closed are returning, and Kia is also bringing in a new generation of young talent.  That, says Ferguson, bodes well for his city.

"If you don't have really good, talented people moving into the area, who are willing to continually move the community forward, that's when you begin to see neighborhoods decline and then, ultimately, entire cities decline," he says.

Striblin, who watched the exodus of young talent out of West Point, has now seen that trend reverse.

"There are people, not only what I call strangers from out of town who are hearing about our area, but people who have moved off in the past who are moving back into town," he says.  "And that's great."

"The future is so bright for the community," Mayor Ferguson says.  "And it's not just about the economic impact, but it is, truly, about growing a healthy community."

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