Board members signing documents are seated L-R Danny Cooper, Allen Turner, Sr., and Darrow Jones. Standing L-R are Elzora Fluker, Tennyson Smith, Luther Winn, Ralph Banks, John Zippert and James Morrow.

At its regular meeting on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 the Greene County Industrial Development Board (GCIDB) adopted a resolution to change its structure and become an Industrial Development Authority.
Officers of the IDB – Danny Cooper, Chair; Allen Turner, Vice-Chair, John Zippert, Secretary and Ralph Banks, Treasurer – signed the necessary papers to incorporate as the Greene County Industrial Development Authority. The Greene County Commission, the City of Eutaw, Towns of Forkland, Boligee and Union all passed resolutions in support of reconstituting the structure of the IDB as an Industrial Development Authority.
Phillis Belcher, Executive Director of the IDB said, “ An industrial authority has broader powers and greater flexibility than the IDB format.
The Industrial Development Authority is favored by the State of Alabama as a structure through which counties can do industrial parks and industrial development on a single county or multi-county basis. The new authority will also give us greater flexibility in financing industrial development projects.”
The new Greene County Industrial Development Authority (GCIDA) will have an 11 person Board of Directors with five appointed by the Greene County Commission; one each from Eutaw, Forkland and Boligee; and three appointed by the Authority’s Executive Committee.
Belcher says, “ once the new GCIDA is formally set up, we will transfer the assets and properties of the current IDB, including the land in the Crossroads of America Industrial Park at Boligee to the new structure.”
In other actions, the Greene County IDB and GCIDA are negotiating with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) for return of the former Tire and Wheel Assembly plant and 14 acre site on the south side of Interstate 20/59. The state took possession of this facility when T&WA defaulted on a HUD loan that the State of Alabama had guaranteed. The building is currently leased to Rock-Tenn as a warehouse for the production of its box plant in Eutaw, Alabama.
If the transfer occurs lease payments would come to the new Industrial Development Authority for its budget, maintenance of the building and to create a revolving loan fund for industrial development.
Belcher reported that the IDB staff and Board were working on three prospective projects that had options on much of the useable land in the Crossroads of America Park. Each of these projects would generate a sizable number of new jobs for residents of Greene County.
Due to confidentiality agreements, the staff and Board are not able to publicly discuss the specifics of these projects until they are officially announced by the prospects.
The IDB/IDA has also agreed to set aside about 200 acres in the 1,500 acre Crossroads of America Park as a “wetlands mitigation area” which would allow full use of the rest of the land in the park and may allow the Board to sell wetland mitigation rights to other parties to earn funding for development.
Danny Cooper, IDB/IDA Board Chair said, “The process of industrial development is sometimes excruciatingly slow, especially in rural places like Greene County and in difficult economic times like those we are currently experiencing in our state and nation. But we want to assure the citizens of the county that we are still working to bring jobs and industries – and some big announcements should be coming in 2011!”