HANCEVILLE — For weeks, Hanceville officials had been scurrying — giving land to the city’s ID board; approving a series of tax abatements; collaborating with Cullman city and county economic development leaders on a recruiting package. They wouldn’t say exactly why, but their excitement indicated that something good was on the way.

Monday, it arrived. The city announced a new tenant at the Hanceville industrial park, one officials said will bring good jobs as part of a major private capital investment.

Kennedy Galvanizing, Inc., a Morris, Ala.-based metallurgical company, will locate a new plant on 24 acres of industrial property in a $2.75 million dollar project that, in its first phase of operation, will create as many as 30 local jobs — many of them skilled positions that will draw on what company officials said was a very attractive local work force.

“Some of this is skilled — there’s a lot of labor involved in some positions, but there are positions where you can learn the metallurgy; the chemical aspect of it, and we will definitely promote the folks who are motivated to learn the business,” said plant manager and sales director James Kennedy.

The new 30-000 square-foot plant will replace the company’s current facility in north Jefferson County, a move secretary Stacie McCay said would enable Kennedy Galvanizing to keep up with an ever-growing customer demand for their products.

“We had to grow somewhere — we are having to turn down customers because there’s so much business going on. It’s unreal,” said Stacie McCay, the company’s secretary and treasurer. “James [Kennedy] worked hard on the whole process of getting the ball rolling, coming up here to talk with all the people who’ve worked with us to locate here. And everybody up here is nice — just nice, nice people. We’re very excited.”

Originally started in 1988 as a division of Reno Refractory, Kennedy Galvanizing was built by the efforts of Laurence Kennedy and later purchased by the late Gilbert Davis, Sr. and current company president Dollie Davis.

The company now employs between 15 and 20 people, as labor demands dictate, from its present facility in Morris, Ala. When the new facility opens at Hanceville, it will operate in two shifts, employing from 20 to 30 people. The plant’s operations involve coating raw steel with a galvanized layer, yielding a rust-resistant product useful in diverse manufacturing applications.

“Galvanizing is the process of putting that shiny, silver metal on top of standard steel. It’s not merely a coating process — it’s a metallurgical process,” explained Tim Coker, president of Construction Program Management, LLC. “The steel comes into the plant with a coating of rust, or a coating of shop paint, and it’s dipped in a kettle of molten material in a molten state. It leaves the plant as the shiny, silver material you see going down the highway on the back of an 18-wheeler.”

Hanceville mayor Kenneth Nail said the project not only will benefit the local economy, but will represent a long-term investment in the community from a roster of community-minded company owners and managers.

“Several months ago, we met with these folks [the Kennedys]...and I want to tell the people in Cullman County and Hanceville: we’re not just gaining a business — we’re gaining friends,” said Nail. “These people are taking stock in the community. What makes me so proud is that this is a family business, and I felt that we had a connection from the day that we first met. They’re that kind of people.”

In addition to Hanceville industrial officials and council members, Nail thanked economic development officials from Cullman County and the City of Cullman in working to recruit an industry that, while located in Hanceville, will benefit the wider economy.

“I called on the City of Cullman’s economic development team: Peggy [Smith]; Dale [Greer], and everyone up there — and they were just as willing to help Hanceville — and I believe they worked just as hard for Hanceville — as they would have for the City of Cullman,” he said. “It’s great, because we have people who recognize that we’re all in this together. What benefits one of us is good for us all.”



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.