I was struck by the headline in The Huntsville Times earlier in the week regarding Tommy Battle's feeling that the incoming BRAC jobs should insulate the city from the effects of the recession.
Mayor Tommy Battle said Wednesday the city should pull out of the economic recession earlier than most communities because of the growth headed here with new BRAC jobs.
Battle predicted that Huntsville's economy will begin to rebound in 2010, when the bulk of military jobs from the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission decisions start arriving in Huntsville.
"Do we have challenges? Yes. But with every challenge is an opportunity, too," Battle told 1,200 business and civic leaders at the Von Braun Center during his first State of the City address.
(added emphasis is mine)
I'm struck by Battle's understatement on the challenges faced by the city and county. There are 2 major problems that immediately leap to my mind regarding the coming influx of people.
The first is the traffic situation and there seems to be little movement in addressing this issue. Anyone who has done any driving around the city in the past few weeks during this holiday season can attest to the gridlock on the streets. Building overpasses on the parkway may help a bit although I continue to be amazed by how inane the construction schedules are, but the parkway is nothing more than a feeder system to the secondary streets and little is being done on these streets to alleviate the traffic although the Governor's Drive project is immensely helpful.
The State of Alabama finds itself in a serious proration situation and the schools are going to suffer immensely yet our school systems are not equipped to handle the influx of new students. I like the idea of consolidation, but question whether or not this is a feasible answer to the problem right now. I have never had children in the Huntsville school system so I'm watching this from the sidelines, but I foresee a lot of problems in this area simply due to the lack of money, not to mention planning.
I have also been struck by the boom in housing construction in the past couple of years in anticipation of the incoming BRAC jobs. If one drives around Huntsville and the surrounding communities there is ample evidence that a lot of new developments were started, but due to the current economic situation are sitting idle with utility connections sticking out of the ground! For some odd reason I have long scanned the foreclosure listings in The Huntsville Times and I have begun to notice a lot of foreclosure of development property. This is not surprising and will probably get worse into 2009 with a lot of local developers going belly up. I would not be surprised to see some of the well-known local companies closing their doors in 2009!
I was also struck by Battle's comments about the scavenging of workers:
Only about 20 percent of displaced BRAC workers, most from northern Virginia, are expected to transfer with the jobs, he said. The remaining 4,000 will be filled with local workers or employees recruited from elsewhere.
He warned businesses of work-force challenges caused by companies raiding each other to replace employees who leave for government jobs created by BRAC.
"As soon as they move over, you have to go to someone else and steal someone, or they may steal from you," he said, stirring chuckles.
I have already seen this begin to happen with at least 2 people I know leaving NASA for the Army and I have some friends hoping for offers from companies doing contract work for the Army.
Amid all of these serious problems the city administration is concerned with decorating trees and shrubs along Cecil Ashburn Drive!
Christmas functions have been particularly challenging, he said, starting with his ban of roadside Christmas tree decorating along busy Cecil Ashburn Drive. "We got called a Grinch on that one," he said.
Grinch indeed!
