It has long been Joe Max Higgins’ modus operandi to retreat from public view when negotiations on a big deal reach the final stages.
So when Higgins, CEO of the Golden Triangle Development LINK, broke his recent silence to speak at the Columbus Rotary Club meeting Tuesday at Lion Hills Center, there was speculation that he would confirm Monday’s report that aluminum manufacturer American Specialty Alloys could be coming to Lowndes County.
Higgins neither confirmed nor denied that report Tuesday.
“Right now, we’re working on a dozen projects, half of them in the metal industry,” Higgins said. “But it is our policy that we do not comment on ongoing projects. You know me. When something is in place, we’ll announce it. We’re not to that point with any projects right now.”
Monday, The Dispatch reported that American Specialty Alloys had issued a media release saying the company plans to construct a $1.2 billion facility in the southeastern United States. The company’s chief marketing officer told The Dispatch the facility’s location “will be announced in the very near future.”
The company, which incorporated in Mississippi in March, has applied to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality for a permit to prepare a site along the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in Lowndes County.
Higgins deflected questions about the subject, choosing instead to update Rotarians on the planned Communiversity, a collaborative job-training project between the LINK, East Mississippi Community College and area industries.
Higgins said $21.5 million of the $38 million needed to build the facility has been secured. He said he expects the balance will be provided through federal grants ($6.5 million) and the state legislature ($10 million).
“We’re working with the state legislature and we expect that money will be appropriated by the end of the next session, probably in late March or early April,” Higgins said. “That will allow us to break ground in August and the facility will open two years after that.”
Higgins said another goal for the LINK is to provide WorkKeys testing in all public and private high schools in the Golden Triangle.
“It used to be that companies wanted to know how many people you had in your area. Now they want to know how many work-qualified people you have in your area and WorkKeys is how we measure that,” Higgins said.
Higgins said the goal is to have every high school student in the area take the WorkKeys test during their junior year of high school and provide an opportunity to those who are interested in joining the workforce after graduating high school a chance to complete basic manufacturing training before the start of their senior year.
“A lot of students will want to go through the Communiversity or on to university,” Higgins said. “But there are a lot of kids who will probably want to go straight to work and this gives them a chance to be qualified for those jobs.”
Higgins said he hoped the cost of testing could be reduced from the current $50 to the $25-range. He said he wasn’t sure if the funds would come from the schools’ budgets, LINK support or other funding sources.
“I think we will probably have to start with the Lowndes County and Columbus Muncipal Schools first,” he said. “Then, we’ll expand the testing to Oktibbeha and Clay counties.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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