Lanett Plant Prepares To Close Doors

By: | WRBL News 3
Published: March 20, 2009

After Friday night, close to 130 workers will be without a job in Chambers County.

Just a day after Georgia unemployment tops new numbers, a wood panelling plant in Lanett, Alabama line is closing it's doors indefinitely. It comes in a county that has the second highest unemployment rate in Alabama.

News 3 talked to former Norbord employee Randy Turner as he was driving out of the mill. He told us, “I’ve never been out of a job, had some hard days, but I have never been out of a job.”

Turner is one of many, he's worked with Norbord producing wood panels for homes since the mill opened in 2000.

But now, the company says falling prices and little new construction have slowed production.

Debbie Wood is a realtor in the town next door, Valley, Alabama. She’s also on the Chambers County Commission, “Builders aren't building homes because they can't get loans from lenders any more, they just aren't taking risks that they would normally take.

Wood also says, “Not only have we lost jobs, they were some of our best paying jobs in the county.”

Jobs that some say could send Chambers County back to the top of unemployment in Alabama.

Residents in Lanett say textile mills used to run the town, but they now the old buildings sit silent. Folks say Lanett was just beginning to recover, but now residents have to fight with an 18% unemployment rate for Chambers County. Alabama as a whole only came in at 8%.

Wood says, “We are going be able to replace some of those jobs, but the timing was just horrible.”

It's timing that could spell out some dry summer months ahead, “Our young people are not going be able to get jobs because adults are competing for those jobs.”

Despite the trail of pink slips, Wood and former Norbord employees say Chambers County will bounce back, “We feel like we have a better opportunity to rebound more than anyone else because of what's happening around us with the Kia automotive plant and the plant in Montgomery.”

In the meantime, now jobless mill workers are making the hard turn to unemployment.

Turner says, “Going from making good money all these years to unemployment…. it's a big drop.”

A Norbord spokesperson at the Lanett plant says the company will keep the building in Lanett, in the event that the mill can reopen.