Andalusia OKs land surplus for Conecuh Sausage

The Andalusia City Council voted Tuesday to surplus 15 acres of property surplus and providing that land to Conecuh Sausage for an employee housing project.

The vote to provide the property to Conecuh Sausage came after a first reading at a prior meeting and the second reading at Tuesday’s meeting. The property being provided to Conecuh Sausage is situated at the corner of Progress Drive and Sutton Road within the city’s industrial park, across from where the plant will be located.

City officials said the housing project will include two buildings consisting of 10 two- and  three-bedroom apartments in each structure. Those apartments will be utilized by about 20 training personnel during the early phases of the plant’s operation and other employees. In addition to the 20 trainers, Conecuh Sausage has said it will hire 110 workers for the plant.

Two people voiced concerns regarding the project and the donation of property. Jacob Irwin said providing the property at no cost hurt the residents of Andalusia and Covington County and could be unlawful.

“In regard to the donation of 15 acres, on top of the 70 acres already given to them, Section 94 of the Alabama Constitution states that there is to be no expenditure of public funds in aid of private individuals and corporations,” Erwin said. “There is an exception to this rule for industrial development called ‘public purpose’ and you must be able to explain how this appropriation benefits some significant portion of the public. From your description, we will allegedly make money on the backend through taxes, yet you had no projections. That response is in violation of Section 94 that states ‘the courts have held as a matter of law that the creation of tax revenues does not serve a public purpose.”

Mayor Pro Tem Terry Powell, as well as City Attorney Mark Christensen, said that the city had followed state law in all matters involving the Conecuh Sausage plant.

“This project does serve a public purpose in that it provides jobs for our community. We have done our due diligence and followed every aspect of the law. We have followed exactly what the law says we should do,” Powell said.

Regarding the housing development, resident Rod Sylvester said he is concerns for local schools, including that the property being provided is within the county school district, not the Andalusia City Schools district.

“Conecuh Sausage is going to bring in workers, but if there are any children there they will likely be going to Straughn. They can hire who they want, but if they do hire non-English speaking employees and those families’ children do not speak English, that will lead to increased costs for the county school system in order to bring in paraprofessionals to help teach these children. Will there be enough tax revenue to offset those costs? If they are building three-bedroom apartments, I’m assuming those will be for families,” Sylvester said.

Powell said the county schools will benefit from tax revenues, which cannot be abated.

In other action action:

• the council approved to renew a contract with Emerald Coast Utilities for handling recyclable waste at $60 per ton.
• an ABC on-premise beer license was approved for Pizza Hut.
• the council approved renewing a contract with the City of Opp for taking in stray cats. Opp will pay Andalusia $3,000 to take in up to 100 cats with a fee of $50 per cat over 100.

The next council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 3, with a workshop at 5:30 p.m. followed by the regular meeting at 6 p.m.