The project will relocate Albany’s bus station from its current home on the 300 block of Oglethorpe Boulevard to a 3.4-acre site, currently a parking lot, between Roosevelt and Flint avenues.

“GDOT’s become real serious with looking at things other than roads and bridges,” said Erik Steavens, an Albany native and the new director of GDOT’s intermodal division. “We’re going to be working hard with communities to develop transit and intermodal connectivity as part of our great road network.”

The project will relocate Albany’s bus station from its current home on the 300 block of Oglethorpe Boulevard to a 3.4-acre site, currently a parking lot, between Roosevelt and Flint avenues.

Public hearings held in July drew criticism for the proposed move’s impact on neighboring businesses at both sites. Transit board member Charles Gillespie was skeptical that the intermodal center’s “modes” would one day include commuter rail.

The task Friday, however, was not to debate the project’s wisdom but rather ensure it was “moving forward,” Albany-Dougherty Transit Director Nedra Woodyatt said at an organizational conference.

Woodyatt reviewed the project’s history at the meeting. The project’s architectural and engineering services have gone out for bid three times in the last two years, according to a timeline she provided.

Most recently, a request for proposals issued in January 2008 was canceled when the Federal Transit Administration advised that an environmental assessment had to be completed.

That assessment, of which the public hearings were a part, was mailed to GDOT in September for review and a revised draft was sent Jan. 12, the timeline said.

The project’s first phase, to be funded by FTA, GDOT and local funds, was priced at $2.7 million when it went out for bid in December 2007. Woodyatt said the figure likely would be higher now.

The project’s second phase includes the addition of a Greyhound bus terminal, with the expectation that the company will locate there.

Steavens stated that the project’s chances of receiving the “best and brightest” of bidders would improve if its plans included sustainable-energy and environmentally-safe features.

Commissioner Rick Muggridge said the board was “appreciative of the service” of the current rec authority board, but that the commission no longer wanted to govern activities at Grand Island and other county facilities “at arm’s length.”

Muggridge motioned to appoint county commissioners Bill Williams, Dennis Roland, Ed Duffy and Betty Johnson to the parks and recreation authority; Johnson motioned to appoint Muggridge. All the appointments passed.

Responding to Albany YMCA Executive Director Dave Wallace’s request that the board “make some decisions” on a matter that had been “debated about three months,” the board also voted to leave youth soccer in Lee County under management by the Y.

Last year, a proposal for a Lee County Youth Soccer Club stated “there is currently no local supervision of the soccer in Lee County,” cited a need for player development and offered to add a field maintenance charge to registration fees.

In response, the YMCA in a summary its 505 registered players during 2008, its criminal background checks and its emphasis on an inclusive, rather than competitive soccer program.

The board agreed 4-1 to continue its 18-year history with the Y.

“I don’t think you’re that far apart,” Muggridge said. “There is a lot of common ground.”

The dissenting vote came from Roland, who said “at the end of the day, my responsibility is to the taxpayers.”

Replacing all the rec authority’s board members with commissioners, the commission next contemplated ending the intergovernmental agreement with the authority.

The authority will remain in existence, but all its assets and liabilities will return to the commission in 60 days, county attorney Jimmy Skipper said.

Muggridge’s motion to do away with the agreement received no second.

About a year after the commission disregarded a consultant’s advice to sell Grand Island Golf Course, the board on Tuesday authorized another study of the course’s viability.

“We gave Grand Island a year,” Roland said. “According to the professional audit, it lost $160,000.”

A government auditor, Williams said Lee’s classification of intergovernmental transfers as loans made the course appear to turn a profit last year.

After some debate, the board agreed to a new $27,400 study that examines the possibility of developing “everything but multifamily housing” at the golf course site, which adjoins Ledo Road and borders Dougherty County.

In other business, the board appointed Duffy and reappointed Troy Golden, Philip Husain and Frank Richter to the Lee County Utilities Authority.

The commission also named Clay Griffith, Brian Wetherald and Jesse Batten to two-year terms and Tom Heldenberg and Scott Johnson to four-year terms on the Leesburg-Smithville-Lee County Planning Commission.

The board rejected a proposal to implement Code Red, a reverse-911 service in use in Dougherty County. No money was budgeted for it, Roland said.

Read the online version of this story here.

“It’s going to last longer, and it’s going to be felt deeper here than at the state or national level,” said Humphreys, who spoke at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business Southwest Georgia Economic Outlook luncheon.

Albany’s situation will be worsened most by the closing of Cooper Tire over the next 11 months, he said.

The elimination of Cooper’s 1,333 manufacturing jobs is a “game-changer” for the metro Albany economy, leading to the eventual loss of some 2,400 jobs, including around 800 employees working as contractors for Cooper, due to the multiplier effect associated with tire manufacturing jobs, Humphreys said.

“That’s about 4 percent of all the jobs that exist in (metro) Albany,” he said.

Also likely to prolong Albany’s economic woes are its slow, 4 percent population growth, which will delay the local housing market’s recovery, he said.

By the time they bottom out later this year, housing permits will have fallen 66 percent in three years, Humphreys said.

Home prices, however, rose 1 percent in 2008, when they dropped 16 percent in Florida.

Humphreys said homes across the metro area actually were undervalued by about 7.2 percent.

“Unfortunately, that price stability didn’t prevent local consumers from sitting on their wallets,” he said.

“The kind of stuff that people go to major retailers to buy is exactly the kind of stuff that you postpone when you’re pulling back.”

As a regional retail hub, Albany will take “a deeper hit” in retail than other Georgia cities, he said.

“But the rebound will come, around mid-2010, and it will reward the survivors, who will benefit from the rebound and fill in the gaps left by those that went bankrupt and closed up shop.”

Metro Albany’s strengths are as a regional health care center, hub for government jobs and retirees, and as a college town, he said.

The 65-plus population grew four times faster than the population as a whole from 2000-2008.

“Homebuilders, developers that focus on that segment, are going to do much better than those who focus on other groups,” Humphreys said.

An aging population and consumers’ tendency to continue spending make the outlook for health care promising, he said.

“It may be the only industry left standing, in terms of growth, when it’s all said and done,” he said.

One in four metro Albany jobs is with state, federal or local government, he said.

Albany State University creates about 1,600 jobs, and Darton College provides 1,400.

“It’s like having two Cooper Tires here that are going to stay here,” he said.

Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at Terry College, did not mention Albany Technical College, where approximately 300 faculty and staff are employed.

Statewide, the situation also is dire, said David Sumichrast, dean of Terry College.

“The big news today is that we are approaching a turning point,” he said. “It’s not too early to be getting ready for an upturn in the economy.”

“Dreadful” conditions will remain until the third quarter of 2009, when job growth will increase slightly, though not enough to keep up with growth of the labor force.

Statewide unemployment will peak near 10 percent in early 2010 before it begins making a gradual improvement, he said.

The downturn, lasting 18 months, is the nation’s longest since the Great Depression, he said.

The good news is that during 2009, credit markets are thawing, oil prices will likely be lower than 2008 and the cycle of wealth destruction will end, Sumichrast said.

New Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission Executive Director Ted Clem called the forecast “sobering,” but said he was encouraged by the downturn’s predicted end.

“These are the first that I’ve heard say publicly this is the light at the end of the tunnel,” Clem said.

The EDC, meanwhile, will maintain its focus on surviving the downturn and preparing for the rebound, he said.

“Trying to determine and analyze which areas will be the first to recover will be our challenge,” he said. “It’s no better time than today for someone to start a new business.”

The agriculture industry, a major regional driving force, will be shelling 2008 peanuts through the end of 2009, said Mark Masters, director of the Flint River Water Planning and Policy Center in Albany.

Half of U.S. peanuts come from this area, and consumption is likely to suffer because of the nationwide salmonella outbreak linked to peanut products made in Blakely, he said.

The industry is also coping with lower commodity prices while it learns to exist with new farm bill regulations, Masters said.

Approximately 160 attended the luncheon, sponsored by the Municipal Electric Association of Georgia. Other sponsors included The Albany Herald, Georgia Trend magazine, Atlanta Business Chronicle and FHLBank.

An $819 billion package drafted by House Democrats and President Obama’s economic team includes some $51 billion in aid for the poor and unemployed, $150 billion for health care, $159 billion for education and $150 billion for infrastructure projects, such as roads and mass transit projects.

“I think we need an economic stimulus package,” said Jeff Humpreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at UGA’s Terry College of Business.

“A lot of it’s politics, but if you want to spend money that has the biggest impact on production, that is, gross domestic product, the biggest multiplier in terms of actual production, not just spending, you would spend it on infrastructure. All of it.”

Every dollar spent on infrastructure has a multiplier effect of 1.7, injecting $1.70 into the economy, he said.

The problem with infrastructure is both the improvements and benefits take a long time to realize, and it’s hard to quickly compile a list of $800 billion in good projects, Humphreys said.

“Your second choice would be to give money to the states, and the income-type programs — grants to states for Medicaid matching and all that … Their multiplier is 1.3-1.4. The money that gets spent, gets spent domestically,” he said.

Least appealing to Humphreys were the plan’s tax cuts and direct payments.

“The worst thing to do is just hand people a check, and they don’t have to do anything to get that check,” he said. “People are just going to sit on that money. If you’re lucky, you will get a multiplier of just .6, and the spending goes to the producing countries overseas.”

Cutting taxes, he said, can be done rapidly, and “you get a more immediate political thank you or payback for doing that. But it’s really the worst thing you can do in terms of GDP.”

Georgia and metro Albany’s economies probably won’t begin to improve until the second quarter of 2010, Humphreys and Robert Sumichrast, dean of Terry College, said at a Wednesday Southwest Georgia Economic Outlook luncheon.

Sumichrast’s predictions took the $900 billion stimulus plan into account, he said.

The immediate impact of tax relief, which comprises about a third of the proposal, will be “pretty limited,” while long-term infrastructure improvements may take years to get started, Sumichrast said.

ALBANY — In a move to counter the worsening economy and skyrocketing paper costs, Triple Crown Media Inc. announced Wednesday a companywide work force reduction of 5 percent. TCM operates seven Georgia newspapers — six daily newspapers, including The Albany Herald, and one weekly.

“We believe our organization will be properly sized to meet the difficult challenges confronting us.”

Retired educators such as Frankie Houston were wowed by renovations at the former Twin Oaks Elementary, a 54-year-old cluster of buildings that served as Lee’s K-12 campus for black students before desegregation.

“This is high-class, y’all,” said Houston, touring a remodeled wing of classrooms and offices in what became Lee County High School Ninth Grade Campus over the summer.

New carpet, tile and paint have been added throughout, and new windows “have changed the look of the campus completely,” Principal Jamie Horne said.

As students changed classes and went outside for lunch, the campus remained somewhat of a construction zone Tuesday.

The new windows and adult-sized furniture changed dramatically the classroom where Sarah Harris once taught.

“When I came here, that was before schools were integrated,” said Harris, who was with the system for 30 years. “It has improved — it’s like a new place. I’m just so proud to have worked with this school system.”

Besides easing crowding at LCHS, the ninth grade campus sets freshmen off to themselves to adjust to high school life.

Compared with the same period last year, when 61 percent of ninth-graders passed all their first semester courses, some 85 percent — all of them first-time freshmen — passed their classes, and attendance meetings were down to just one.

The new campus helps students get established with the credit system, which now requires they complete 23 over four years, Lee Superintendent of Schools Larry Walters said.

Lee’s graduation rate of 80 percent is 10 points higher than the state average and the highest in the region, “but we want to be higher,” Walters said. Twenty percent did not graduate, and “we think we can cut that number down,” he said.

Students have just one chance to pass ninth grade at the campus, however.

“They come here for one year. We want to keep this as pure as possible as far as the 14- and 15-year-old students,” Walters said.

Lee County’s other goals for its entire student body include increasing the achievement level among the subgroups measured by No Child Left Behind.

The groups used to be something “we’d kind of whisper about,” Walters said. Now, “that’s all changed. It’s in the newspaper. The two subgroups that we’re targeting as far as pulling up achievement, and they both do well, we just want them to do better.”

Enrollment in Lee’s seven schools reached 6,200 this year, including 1,400 at the county’s only middle school. Of 932 employees of Lee County’s largest employer, 461 are certified teachers, 66 percent of whom have advanced degrees, Walters said.

The system’s 36 percent of students eligible for free or reduced price lunches in suburban Lee is “relatively low” compared to other Southwest Georgia counties, he said.

“This is the way it is in Lee County,” he said. “People move here because of the schools.”

Lee schools’ annual enrollment growth of 3 percent means the system has added more than 500 students every three years, he said.

But migration into Lee also “keeps the bar higher,” Walters said.

Also growing is Lee’s population of students from homes where English is a second language. That group, the largest subset of whom speak Asian and Indian languages at home, has grown from 15 to 60 students in just a couple of years, he said.

Recommendations made during Lee’s accreditation renewal were that the system increase the presence of nonwhite personnel, and that it increase “vertical articulation” between schools as students advance to higher grade levels, Walters said.

Jan Duke, who also oversees federal funding programs such as Title 1, guided guests through Lee County Pre-Kindergarten, where 200 slots typically have a waiting list.

Lee and Kinchafoonee primary school teachers often report “that they can tell a difference in the students who have come through our program versus those who have come through other programs,” Duke said.

Pre-K ensures students are ready to learn to read, to count, to follow directions and other skills necessary for the classroom, she said.

At Lee County Primary, brown construction paper and crayons had been put to heavy use in art projects prior to last week’s inauguration and birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

There, principal Jeannie Johnson and assistant principal Mary O’Hearn are teaching children of the children they taught when both came to Lee in 1977. Music teacher Suzanne Unger was Lee’s system-wide teacher of the year last year.

Most impressive to two visitors on the tour was Lee County’s earning Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind for five years in a row, one of only three counties in the state to do so.

“I think that’s real positive,” said Bob Alexander, Planning and Engineering Director for Lee County.

“I can see why people would want to move here, to have that type of environment.”

Lee County Sheriff’s Investigator Chris Owens said he was proud to visit his alma mater.

“It’s great what they’re doing with the school system,” said Owens, noting “a lot” of changes since he graduated. “It’s wonderful to see that the school system made AYP for five consecutive years. That’s one of the things I remember — the school of excellence.”

Georgia School Board Member Elizabeth Ragsdale said the system’s use of data-driven decisions was working.

“We know that Lee County is certainly a star in the state, in terms of the performance of the students,” she said. “I was particularly impressed that they were working with the English language learners. They are determined that no child will be left behind.”

The tour ended Tuesday with lunch at Lee’s newest school, Twin Oaks Elementary, which opened in August.

“Our investigation was able to rule out arson, electrical problems and weather as causes of the fire,” Oxendine said in a statement. “We believe acetylene cutting torches used in the warehouse the day before the fire may have sparked the blaze.”

Investigators believe the fire started on the third flood of a peanut warehouse, where welders had been working on the building, he said.

“Folks had left the building unattended when they went into town to get new fuel,” Oxendine said. “They thought they had extinguished any sparks.”

But “one little spark” left behind wreaked havoc on what turned out to be at least 2,300 tons of dry peanuts stored at the warehouse, he said.

“This is a serious economic loss for this community,” Oxendine said.

The insurance commissioner estimated the fire caused $3.5 million in losses, including $2 million in structural damage and $1.5 million in contents.

Fire insurance typically covers losses of merchandise stored at the warehouse. If the welding company is determined to have been negligent “their insurance would kick in as well,” Oxendine said.

State fire investigators were unable to investigate the blaze until firefighters put it out, which took most of last week, and reached their determination Monday, he said.

The fire, which was first reported around 7 p.m. Jan. 20, drew firefighting agencies from several counties and Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany. Firefighters from Worth, Tift, Turner, Colquitt, Lee and Lowndes counties arrived through the night and the morning of Jan. 21 to help.

“The suppression efforts were wonderful, but when you have something like a warehouse full of dry peanuts, once it starts, it’s almost impossible to put it out,” Oxendine said.

The insurance commissioner was in Albany Monday to educate school children about the safe use of space heaters.

Also on Jan. 20, one of the coldest days of the year, 81-year-old James Richardson had to be taken to the Augusta Burn Center with serious injuries after leaving a space heater unattended while he took a shower.

“Officer Farley’s wound appears to have come from his own weapon as he and Lewis struggled, with Farley’s arm around (Lewis’) neck,” Dougherty Police Chief Don Cheek confirmed Friday.

Cheek, chairman of the inter-agency drug unit’s review board, read from a synopsis provided by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation at a Friday news conference that followed a closed-door meeting of the ADDU board.

“Eleven spent hulls from Officer Farley’s weapon are recovered from the vehicle,” Cheek said. “Autopsy results reveal Lewis is hit eight times.”

The GBI’s preliminary assessment of the events leading to Lewis’ death revealed that, responding to “numerous” tips about his drug-dealing activity at the Dollar Inn on North Slappey Boulevard, Farley pulled over Lewis’ black Chrysler 300 near the eastbound Liberty Expressway on-ramp at Slappey, Cheek said.

Farley “gets Lewis’ ID, while a second ADDU agent arrives and gets the white male, later identified as Michael Kielbania, out of the vehicle,” said Cheek, who previously stated that Kielbania, a passenger in the Chrysler, had fled.

Asked to get out of the car, Lewis, whose street name was “Ian,” refused, and “as officers reach in to get keys, a struggle ensued. Farley gets in the back seat to help, and as he enters, Lewis gets the vehicle in drive and rapidly pulls away, running over Officer (Vy) Chu’s foot. The video in the ADDU vehicle confirms this,” he said.

As Lewis pulled up the ramp onto Liberty Expressway, “with Farley having his arm around Lewis’ neck from the back seat and telling him to stop, Lewis pulls a .45-caliber hi-point automatic (pistol) from the console between the seats,” Cheek continued.

“Farley fires a series of shots, then Lewis attempts to bring the weapon back up. Farley fires a second series,” he said.

With Lewis no longer in control of the vehicle, Farley steered it from the back seat into a guard rail on Liberty, then a responding ADDU vehicle wedged it in, bringing the Chrysler to a stop, he said.

Lewis’ weapon, which showed “no indication” of being fired, was recovered from the median, “where apparently Lewis dropped it out, or intentionally threw it out, during the incident,” Cheek said.

Cheek did not say whether or not the gun was loaded, but a loaded clip of ammunition was found in the Chrysler’s console, where the gun had been, he said. No narcotics were found in the vehicle, he said.

The gun was recovered approximately a half-mile from where the Chrysler came to rest near the Jefferson Street exit on Liberty Expressway, Cheek said. The distance between the Slappey and Jefferson exits is about 1.5 miles.

In response to an open-records request filed by the Albany Herald to view surveillance video filmed by Lewis’ on-board video camera, Cheek said ADDU did not have the tape.

“This is the first indication of what actually appeared on the tape, and that’s from the GBI’s examination,” he said.

“It’s still in their custody, and we have not seen it.”

When Lewis drove away, Farley’s vehicle was unoccupied, and once another agent got in the car and caught up with the Chrysler, the chase was nearly over, he said.

The video “does not show that vehicle coming back into sight until it was in proximity of the Jefferson Street overpass,” Cheek said.

Kielbania, who contacted the Herald Friday from the Dollar Inn, stated in a voice mail that he had not fled as was previously reported and that the statement needed to be corrected before “it gets me killed.”

“The GBI interviewed (Kielbania) and released him without any charges,” Cheek said.

The GBI is awaiting toxicology findings and an official autopsy report, which may take several months, but expects to have a completed report for the District Attorney’s office in about two weeks, Cheek said.

“In my opinion, the officers handled themselves as well as they possibly could be expected through training,” he added. The officers were “professional” and “followed protocols,” he said.

District Attorney Greg Edwards said he plans to consult with Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker about bringing in an independent prosecutor to review the report because he serves on the ADDU review board and the Dougherty Judicial Circuit had pending charges against Lewis.

Andy Exum, ADDU captain who is serving as the agency’s interim commander, said Farley and Chu were recovering from their injuries.

Chu sustained bruising on his foot, and has returned to work on administrative duties until the ADDU board clears him to return to work, while Farley continues to receive medical care for his gunshot would and has not yet returned to work, Exum said.

“All the officers involved suffered a traumatic experience,” he said. “People tend to forget that they’re human, too.”

ADDU, which is starting its 20th year, is an inter-agency unit staffed with 12 Albany Police Department officers, six Dougherty Police officers and six officers from the Dougherty Sheriff’s Office.

Farley, a sheriff’s deputy, had been with ADDU for about a year, Exum said.

“I fully expect Mark to come back,” he said. “He’s a good officer, an honest person and I think he will.”

“We didn’t want, for one minute, to go into the new year for you to wonder about what resources the state has,” said Rep. Winfred Dukes, D-Albany.

Cooper Tire announced Dec. 19 it would shutter its Albany plant within 12 months, leaving some 1,300 Cooper employees and another 800 contract workers out of work.

“It’s not your fault,” Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said. “Those of you who’ve been there 5, 10, 15 years, you did everything you were asked to do.”

Since deploying a rapid response team to Albany Dec. 19, the labor department has Cooper’s approval to set up a transition center at the plant, open five days a week, Thurmond said.

Laid-off Cooper workers can receive up to 26 weeks of unemployment compensation from the state’s $1 billion unemployment insurance fund, and more if TAA assistance is approved, he said.

Cooper’s announcement was “devastating to all of us,” remarked Rep. Sanford Bishop, Second District Congressman for 16 years.

Under the Trade Adjustment Act of 2002, employees whose jobs are lost due to increased foreign imports or shifts in production overseas are eligible for increased benefits, such as a job search allowance, relocation allowance, 26 weeks of occupational training, income supplements and tax credits for health benefits, Bishop said.

Cooper employee Lloyd Westerman asked if workers had to apply for the benefits themselves.

The Georgia Department of Labor is filing an application for TAA assistance on behalf of Cooper workers, Bishop said.

Many in the audience had questions about returning to school.

“It’s a great time to be thinking about going back to school,” said Robert Watts, Chief Operating Officer for the Board of Regents. “It’s the one thing, besides religion, you can do that can change your life.”

And the state’s 33 technical colleges stand ready to educate, said Ray Perrin, assistant commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia.

Georgia ranks number one in workforce development, Perrin said. “If you have to go through a difficult time, Georgia’s the place to do it.”

Employee Mandy Hollingsworth asked how she could fit the computer degree program she wanted to take into her swing-shift schedule with Cooper.

Albany Technical College President Anthony Parker said the college offers 33 online degrees, including Computer Information Systems. Darton College President Peter Sireno said his college had 39 such programs.

“The important thing is you develop a plan,” Thurmond said. “Sit down with a counselor, and look at the big picture.”

Cooper’s announcement Dec. 19 does give employees the benefit of time, he said. “The sooner we get about the business of our lives, the better.” But, he added, “the big thing is the health care.”

Albany-Dougherty Chamber President Catherine Glover said Georgia’s Work-Ready Assessment, which workers can complete online, provides a document that employees can take with them to employers, that also qualifies them for free training.

Cooper team leader Tim Dean asked if workers will be eligible for anything before they actually lose their jobs.

“Have the work done,” such as completing applications for school, said District Labor Department Director Mikell Fryer. When the benefits kick in, they “will pick you up where you are.”

A 55-year-old man who’d worked at Cooper for 15 years asked if he too was eligible for assistance, and an Americus woman asked if she could get help at schools in Americus. Yes, officials said.

Another employee asked what Albany was doing to bring more jobs to the area.

“There are no Fortune 500 companies that are looking at Albany, Ga., as we speak,” Mayor Willie Adams said.

When he, Dougherty Commissioner Jeff Sinyard and other local and state officials visited Cooper headquarters in Findlay, Ohio last month, they were confident.

“When we left Ohio, we thought we were on top,” Adams said. “We did everything that we possibly could have done, legally.”

Benefits in a $31-32 million incentive package offered by Albany included a $5 million cash bond and discounts on utilities, he said.

No one was injured, including any of some 150 firefighters from Worth, Turner, Tift, Lee and Colquitt counties and Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany agencies who, bringing tankers of water, fought the blaze through the night in shifts, Assistant Sylvester Fire Chief Chris Duncan said.

And no nearby buildings, including a 100-year-old veterinary clinic, several residences and the Farm Commodities business office, sustained damage, Duncan said.

Crisp County Fire Chief Ray Lunsford said he hadn’t encountered such a difficult blaze since 2007 wildfires near Waycross.

“It’s overtaxing,” Lunsford said, arriving in Sylvester Wednesday morning with Crisp firefighters and tankers of water. “It takes a lot of people; it takes a lot of equipment.”

Hahira and Lowndes County agencies also responded to the scene Wednesday, joining a growing list of paid and volunteer personnel from Ashburn, Camilla, Sumner, Ty Ty, Poulan, Isabella, Norman Park, Georgia Mutual Aid, Worth County E-911, Phoebe Worth Medical Center, Sylvester Water, Gas & Light, Moultrie Technical College, Doerun, Moultrie, Berlin, Georgia Department of Transportation and elsewhere, Duncan said.

Southwest Georgia Red Cross responded to the scene Tuesday night, said Arthur Shipley, chair of Disaster Services for the Albany-based chapter.

“Right now, we’re supporting the workers,” Shipley said. “We didn’t end up having to evacuate anyone.”

The Red Cross set up shop in Sylvester Animal Hospital’s grooming center, which provided space for firefighters to grab snacks, water and coffee, use restrooms and even dry wet clothes.

“We’re fortunate that Worth County works very well with the Red Cross,” Shipley said.

At approximately 7 p.m. Tuesday, veterinary assistant Maria Hughes received a call that the warehouse was burning.

“I was scared-you-know-what,” Hughes said. “We had all those customers’ dogs in there.”

Terrified by the lights, flames, sirens and smoke, “the dogs were howling, the cats flew out of their cages when we opened them,” Hughes said.

Twelve dogs and eight cats were removed to workers’ vehicles until the area was deemed safe, she said.

Winds continued to blow a large cloud of smoke south, away from the hospital Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, it was “fire and ice,” Hughes said, as water sprayed on the fire froze on crumbled pieces of the warehouse.

The blaze drew volunteer firefighters out of the woodwork. Worth County-Sylvester Chamber of Commerce Director Hollie Jones donned her gear and scrambled over to help Tuesday night. A server at Ed’s Truck Stop held a hose on the blaze for two hours.

A state fire marshal inspector will be able to visit the scene once the fire is out, said Wayne Whitaker, spokesman for the office of Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine.

“We’ll be issuing something through this office when we get it,” Whitaker said.

Eleven months ago, Shepard’s Funeral Home burned to the ground just a block from Farm Commodities. No one has been charged in that blaze, which the fire marshal’s office deemed arson.

Later Wednesday, firefighters spread out what was left of the buying point’s peanuts to help dissipate the fire.

Greg Sellars, Economic Development Authority President for Worth County, said he was just beginning to assess the local impact of the destruction of one of Sylvester’s largest businesses. Farm Commodities owner Donnie Ford serves on the EDA board.

“This is history being made here,” said Robert Bowman, who teaches social studies at Jackson Heights Elementary School in Albany. “It’s been 220 years since we had our first president, and now we have our first African American president. These students are eight, nine and ten years old, and it’s going to be an issue for the rest of their lives.”

Bowman’s group — a same-gender class of boys, all of them black — watched with intense interest as Bowman talked them through their first presidential inauguration Tuesday.

“I feel very proud that we have our first black president, and we’re making history,” said nine-year-old Stantavious Strain, watching on the classroom’s wide screen television.

Observing the Obama daughters — Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, be seated behind their father, Justin Perry, 10, said he thought the girls would enjoy their time in the White House.

“I think they feel pretty good, because their Daddy’s making history,” Perry said.

After Obama’s inaugural address, nine-year-old Jalen Johnson said “he told the truth.”

“He was going to make a change, and he wanted all of America to believe him,” Johnson said.

Travis Green, whose father serves in the U.S. Army, said Obama’s mention of U.S. armed forces in his speech made him proud.

Jackson Heights Principal LaZoria Brown, like several at the East Albany school, was moved by Obama’s address.

“I felt that everything that President Obama said was very sincere,” Brown said. “I feel that as a nation, we will be able to move forward, and I think the time has really come where, when it comes to race, that we are all one, serving under one God and one country. I’m just optimistic for what this can do for our nation, especially for our young people,” she said.

Many Dougherty schools — Radium Springs Elementary, Lake Park Elementary, Merry Acres Middle School, Live Oak Elementary, Sherwood Forest Elementary and others — incorporated the inauguration into their lesson plans, system spokesperson R.D. Harter said.

Last month’s unemployment claims rose 175 percent over December 2007 state-wide, 182 percent in metro Albany and 309 percent in Lee County, but metro Albany bears a resemblance to the three metro areas — Augusta, Hinesville and Macon — that had the lowest increase in initial claims, Lightsey said.

Albany possesses the same “common assets” — a health care center, military base, university and river — that are shared by the three metro areas with the lowest gains, he said.

Macon’s loss a few years ago of tobacco manufacturer Brown and Williamson cost it 5 percent of its tax base, Lightsey said, but as a result the community “looked inward,” and citizens raised some $2.1 million to get those jobs back, eventually forming a marketing consortium with Savannah, Columbus and Augusta to attract large industries.

A recent accomplishment was the arrival of Kumo Tire in Macon, he said.

Albany looked inward in 1873, when a cotton worm infestation threatened its role as a buying point and retail hub, Lightsey said.

Told by a salesman the English sparrow preyed on the worms, a group of Albany merchants purchased 75 pair of the birds, which immediately flew away, he said.

A writer depicting the events said the birds returned two years later with a vengeance, devouring crops and seeds, crashing church towers and fearing nothing, “except, perhaps, the cotton worm,” Lightsey said.

“When this community was facing a problem that affected the local economy was they turned inward. I think that’s exactly what you’re going to have to do today.”

Andrew Young, former Atlanta mayor and United Nations Ambassador, told Lightsey he believed Albany could become the Atlanta of South Georgia, because of its climate and the workforce moving from farms into a growing manufacturing base, he said.

“I invite you to take a look at these assets,” Lightsey said. Albany Technical College is educating workers for Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany; Darton College and Albany State University are graduating health care professionals; Darton recently broke ground on its first on-campus housing, he said.

“Studies have shown that students who reside on campus have a greater emotional involvement in a school and the community they reside in,” Lightsey said. “They are more likely to stay in that community, and they make better grades.”

But the city is not without its weaknesses, and Lightsey offered one suggestion.

An Albany entrepreneur seeking a business license from the city office recently detailed to Lightsey the “less-than-enthusiastic” clerks she encountered, the six-week delays and the struggles she had with permitting and licensing departments, he said.

It was a sharp contrast to the City of Valdosta’s policy, a guarantee that new business owners may sit down every Thursday with a staff member from every permitting, licensing and utility department and get the necessary licenses within 10 days, Lightsey said.

A group of wealthy Savannah investors gather weekly to decide which of the city’s business start-ups they’ll invest in, he added.

Dougherty’s strength, however, lies in its “pull factor,” second only to Lowndes’ in the state, for attracting residents from outside the county to its retail outlets, he said.

Jim Wilcox, general manager for WALB who’d known Lightsey since he came to Albany to work for Channel 10, asked the business writer about the issue of leadership.

“The old racial wars, the old turf wars, the old ‘what’s in it for me,’ line of thought — it’s hard to get everybody on the same page,” Lightsey said.

Improving leadership, however, “has to come from the ground up,” he said. “People have to be shown how it’s not performing, and that’s kind of subjective.”

Journalists who might assist in that role become less inclined to do so, as media outlets owned by conglomerates grow “less concerned about the well being of the community than the well being of the bottom line,” he said.

Catherine Glover, new Albany-Area Chamber of Commerce President said the arrival Friday of Albany-Dougherty Economic Development President Ted Clem marked the start of enhanced support for businesses and economic development change for the better.

“We do need to do some streamlining,” Glover said.

“We’ve been waiting for an EDC President to come in, and it’s been months. We’re going to transition and now, it’s time we can cement our initiatives.”

“Economic development can make a difference in people’s lives. That’s why I’m here in Albany today,” Clem said Friday, his first day as president of the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission.

Clem, who led the Bay County, Fla., economic development alliance for nine years, said he was excited about “pulling the team together” in Albany.

“This is a great community, and I think sometimes you may forget that,” he said at a Friday reception. “This is a great community, a great Southern town, with great values and traditions and a remarkable quality of life.”

In the weeks ahead, Clem said, he will be working closely with Albany’s existing companies, “doing everything possible to make them feel welcome.”

Jeff Sinyard, chair of the Dougherty County Commission, said Clem had classical training in economic development and years of experience in the field, but also met another important criterion. “Having someone want to be in this community, that’s the biggie,” Sinyard said.

Albany Mayor Willie Adams said he’d grown up in a Florida county that adjoins Bay.

“Ted, you have joined a new championship team,” Adams said, adding Clem will be at quarterback for the EDC. “We don’t expect you to score a touchdown on every play, but we certainly expect you to move us down the field toward economic success.”

Working alongside the EDC is the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, also housed at 225 W. Broad Ave.

“Even though we are separate and distinct, we are very, very close in our synergies and our purposes,” Chamber President Catherine Glover said.

Since the resignation last April of Tim Martin, president of both the chamber and EDC, the two entities separated and recruited individual leaders.

Clem, an Alabama native, said after the reception that he’d been attracted to the level of commitment to change he observed in government and business leaders.

“That’s the first step toward helping turn around the current situation, a commitment to task. As an outsider, I see that, and I’m very excited to be a part of that level of commitment.”

After nine years in Panama City, the Bay county seat, Clem said he viewed coming to Albany as a new challenge.

“I was ready for a career change and new challenges, and the first thing as an economic developer I look for is a community that’s up for the task, and I believe Albany is.”

The biggest current challenge faced by Albany and other communities now is staying on task, Clem said.

“We had one setback (the pending closing of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.), and that’s just one setback among thousands around the country,” he said. “We have a lot of things that are very attractive to Albany, just like MillerCoors is very happy with their investment here. We need to be sure that all our companies are very happy with their investment.”

Thursday, MillerCoors announced an expansion at its Albany brewery and the addition of 25 jobs.

MillerCoors, like many Albany industries and businesses, attracts workers and customers from around Southwest Georgia.

“Regionalism is not just a buzz word with me, it’s an important strategy,” Clem said.

“With the economic situation like it is, we didn’t know what to expect,” Armond Morris, chair of the Georgia Peanut Commision, said at the 33rd annual Georgia Peanut Farm Show. “But there’s been a lot of farmers here, and that’s important.”

One of them, Mark Griffin of Alapaha, won a free season’s use of a six-row Kelley peanut combine in an afternoon drawing that kept many growers at the show all day.

U.S. Department of Agriculture research engineer Samir Trabelsi demonstrated the latest in peanut technology, a device that conveniently measures kernel moisture using weak microwaves.

For the farmer and the regulator, such as the farm service inspector, the device saves time and money by instantly measuring the moisture content, which is used to determine quality and price of peanuts still in their shells, Trabelsi said.

While agriculture is faring better than many industries in the economic downturn, growers have faced higher costs for fuel, freight and seed, which is up 30 percent, Morris said.

Any outbreak of foodborne illness can be devastating to growers, such as during a salmonella outbreak last year. Initially linked to tomatoes, it eventually was traced to Mexican-grown crops, he said. “It didn’t have anything to do with the tomato farmers in Georgia,” Morris said.

The Peanut Commission maintains a focus on quality, from the ground up, he said.

“We’ve got too many good attributes of peanuts,” Morris said. “Bread and peanut butter, along with a glass of milk, you can have all the vitamins and minerals you need.”

Thursday, The Associated Press reported that peanut butter made at a Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely showed signs of possible contamination.

PCA has recalled 21 lots of peanut butter made at the plant since July 1 because of possible salmonella contamination, and Kellogg Co. gets some of its peanut paste from the company.

“We do not have a positive confirmation for salmonella,” Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said in a statement. “However, results of two tests completed so far mean that we cannot eliminate salmonella as a possibility.”

Kellogg asked stores late Wednesday to stop selling some of its peanut butter sandwich crackers until the company can ensure the paste is OK for people to eat.

The products being removed include Austin and Keebler toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers, peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers, cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers and peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers.

PCA has said none of its recalled peanut butter is sold through retail stores, but is distributed to institutions, food service industries and private label food companies. It is sold under the brand name Parnell’s Pride and by the King Nut Co. as King Nut.

PCA said in a statement that it was working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to identify customers and recall the product as part of this ongoing investigation.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

“We’re proud to say that we’re happy to stay in Albany, and we’re going to strengthen our partnerships with the community,” said Chris Thelen, manager of MillerCoors’ Albany plant.

The partnerships include a training plan signed Thursday by Thelen, Albany Technical College President Anthony Parker and Georgia Quick Start Executive Director Marla Lowe.

“By using the Georgia Quick Start program through Albany Technical College to help us bring in qualified workers, as well as train our workforce, we can ensure we have people with the technical skills to support our business goals,” Thelen said.

SABMiller combined forces last summer with Molson Coors Brewing Company.

MillerCoors already has hired the 25 workers, but expects more jobs to become available as a number of employees retire when they reach their 30-year mark, Thelen said.

The brewery will complete the addition of Coors and Keystone production lines in about six months, she said.

“We are committed to training the work force needed for this venture, and look forward to meeting the needs of MillerCoors as it expands its product line,” Parker said. “During this economy, whenever we have good news like that certainly is a good thing.”

The news comes on the heels of Cooper Tire’s announcement last month that its Albany plant will close within a year, leaving 1,300 Cooper employees without jobs.

Albany Mayor Willie Adams said Albanians may not have put enough Cooper tires on the vehicles, but they could drink some beer.

“We are going to make darn sure that the companies we have are happy,” Adams said.

Georgia Commissioner of Economic Development Ken Stewart said he could tell from employee attitudes and plant operations that the Albany brewery was thriving.

“From our state’s perspective, there’s nothing more important than existing companies,” Stewart said. “It’s our job to make sure that we have a good business environment.”

Visiting from Atlanta, Stewart added that the MillerCoors announcement was “progress that we’re going to see a lot more of here in Albany.

“This community is going to continue to grow, continue to heal and repair itself. This represents what’s been going on for many, many years,” he said.

The Albany brewery has 600 employees and a payroll of more than $45 million. It paid more than $19 million in state and local taxes in 2006, including nearly $17 million in state beer excise taxes, and purchased more than $345 million in goods and services from Georgia businesses, according to a statement.

“We have suspended all peanut butter production,” said Sammy Lightsey, operations manager at PCA’s Blakely plant. “We are in the midst of a recall.”

PCA, which also has peanut processing plants in Suffolk, Va., and Plainview, Texas, makes its peanut butter in Blakely, Lightsey said.

Blakely is a peanut town, approximately 70 miles west of Sylvester, where a February 2007 recall prompted ConAgra to idle its Peter Pan Peanut Butter plant there for six months.

Health officials confirmed Tuesday that three deaths have been associated with a national salmonella outbreak associated with King Nut peanut butter.

The peanut butter King Nut distributed was manufactured by PCA, based in Lynchburg. In a Monday e-mail, PCA President Stewart Parnell said the company was working with federal authorities.

King Nut Companies on Sunday asked its customers to stop using peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell’s Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral “8.”

However, company president and chief executive Martin Kanan argued that King Nut could not be the sole source of the nationwide salmonella outbreak because the company distributes only to Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire.

Those states account for 141 of the 410 salmonella cases confirmed as of Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

All the illnesses began between Sept. 15 and Jan. 7, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.

The recalled peanut butter was distributed to establishments such as care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants. No other King Nut products have been voluntarily recalled. The recall involved about 1,000 cases of peanut butter.

King Nut said it has canceled all orders with Peanut Corporation of America.“We have suspended all peanut butter production,” said Sammy Lightsey, operations manager at PCA’s Blakely plant. “We are in the midst of a recall.”

PCA, which also has peanut processing plants in Suffolk, Va., and Plainview, Texas, makes its peanut butter in Blakely, Lightsey said.

But Campbell, a Mitchell County farmer, found a sturdy niche as a founding member of First United Ethanol LLC, or FUEL, a 100-million-gallon corn ethanol refinery that went online last year in Camilla.

He made his first appearance on Georgia Trend’s list of 100 “Most Influential Georgians” last week.

A “pioneer in Georgia’s nascent biofuels industry,” Campbell, now CEO at FUEL, was a founding member of the Mitchell County research group that developed plans for the facility, the magazine said.

Staff at FUEL were as delighted to see Campbell on the list as Campbell was surprised, spokesperson Alicia Shirah said.

“We’re pretty tickled to have his name on there,” she said.

Campbell joins the likes of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital CEO Joel Wernick and U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, both regulars on the list, and newcomer Jerry Vereen, CEO of Moultrie’s Riverside Manufacturing.

The magazine named Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Moultrie, as its Georgian of the Year.

Campbell, 53, credited FUEL staff and its many local investors for the recognition.

“While I am truly honored to be nominated, I must say that First United Ethanol LLC is a product of an awful lot of hard work from a dedicated group of people,” he said. “This honor belongs to all of us at FUEL.”

Wernick, one of only two Albanians to make the list, said the honor was Phoebe Putney’s.

“I think that I work with a great organization, and whatever accolades I might receive are a reflection of the organization and the people that work here,” said Wernick, 54.

Georgia Trend noted Wernick’s 20 years at the helm of Phoebe Putney Health System, “which has an economic impact of almost $1 billion and some 3,800 employees,” and the organization’s recent reach into Americus, where it will lease and manage Sumter County’s new hospital, set to open in 2011. A tornado destroyed the community’s 150-bed facility almost two years ago.

Vereen, 68, is CEO of Riverside Manufacturing, a company founded by his great-grandfather, and chairs the nuclear oversight committee of the board of Georgia Power, Georgia Trend said.

Riverside makes employee uniforms for companies such as Budweiser, MillerCoors, Georgia Power, Krispy Kreme, Orkin, Pepsi and Waffle House, it said.

Bishop, 61, “helped implement the 2008 Farm Bill, which authorized $280 billion in support programs,” and authored a transitional health care bill that provides 180 days of health care services for active military who join the reserves, the magazine stated.

He also served as co-chair of President-elect Barack Obama’s Georgia campaign.

Georgia Trend selected Chambliss as its “Georgian of the Year” for the senator’s hard-won election to a second senate term in November.

First elected to the U.S. House in 1994, Chambliss was re-elected to the House three more times before challenging Max Cleland for the U.S. Senate in 2002.

He put together the “Gang of 10” with Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., last year to work on the U.S. energy crisis and chaired the Senate Agriculture Committee for two years until Democrats won control of the senate in 2006, Georgia Trend editor Susan Percy noted.

A close friend of President George Bush who hunts with Vice President Dick Cheney, Chambliss has been married to Moultrie native Julianne Chambliss for 42 years.

Added to Georgia Trend’s “Most Influential Georgians Hall of Fame” was Edison native Spurgeon Richardson, 67. Richardson retired last month after heading the Atlanta Convention and Visitors’ Bureau for 17 years.

He was “never shy about gushing on Atlanta’s behalf,” the magazine said.

Though Georgians living in metro Atlanta dominated the list, Southwest Georgia was better represented than several other regions of the state.

Metro Columbus had two on the list, Savannah had five, the Brunswick area had three, metro Augusta had two and Macon just one.

The magazine’s January edition also spotlights Thomasville’s 90-year-old Flowers Foods, which had $2.04 billion in sales in 2007 and employs 8,800 people across the United States.

“Luckily, no one was injured,” said Alicia Shirah, director of communications at FUEL, the state’s first corn ethanol refinery. “There was no emission of any sort, except for steam.”

The 100 million-gallon refinery was running at full speed when a valve connected to an evaporator ruptured, damaging a large adjoining pipe and releasing a large amount of steam, Shirah said.

The evaporator system, used to dry the fermented corn material, sustained moderate damage, she said.

FUEL shut down the facility completely Tuesday to analyze why the valve ruptured and to make repairs, Shirah said.

Repairs and an investigation are expected to take a week.

Georgia’s first corn ethanol plant officially opened last month along U.S. 19 between Camilla and Pelham, and CEO Murray Campbell recently made Georgia Trend magazine’s 2009 list of 100 most influential Georgians.

At full capacity, the $196 million plant grinds 90,000-100,000 bushels of corn, most delivered by rail from the midwest, into almost 300,000 gallons of ethanol every day. Employing 50, the plant also generated daily some 900 tons of dried distiller’s grains, a byproduct sold as livestock feed.

“Palmyra is delighted it has been granted the CON to provide obstetrical services for mothers-to-be in our service area,” Daugherty said.

“We believe competition and choice in this important health care service will improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care for area residents.”

Since hospitals replaced the home deliveries that were often performed by midwives, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital has been the only place where they could be performed in Albany.

Palmyra had applied for a Certificate of Need three times previously. All were opposed by Phoebe, and all were eventually denied by DCH.

“It’s very exciting news,” Palmyra Marketing Director Eric Riggle said.

The hospital received a copy of its new CON Friday, ahead of the Jan. 24 decision deadline.

Palmyra’s CON application, filed in July, contained design information for the hospital’s new birthing center, which will contain seven labor and delivery suites, a suite for C-sections and a nursery with 10 newborn bassinets.

Palmyra will offer Level 1 obstetrical services, which means basic inpatient care for pregnant women and newborns without complications.

“Palmyra’s goal is to provide the best-designed center, which ultimately will provide the highest quality, safest outcomes and the best experience for our mothers and their newborns,” Daugherty said.

Officials at the 248-bed hospital say they hope to have its $6.9 million birthing center open within 12 months and expect some 500 deliveries during the first year of operation, officials have said.

Not in Albany to receive the good news was former Palmyra CEO Bud Wethington, who led the hospital for three years but departed to become CEO of another HCA-owned facility in November.

Wethington’s name was on the July application and on an antitrust lawsuit filed by Palmyra against Phoebe a few days later. That litigation is laboring through the federal court system, with Phoebe most recently filing motions to quash subpoenas filed by Palmyra during the discovery process.

Day-to-day operations at Palmyra are currently overseen by Interim CEO Hugh Wilson, a retired executive with another HCA hospital in Columbus, Riggle said.

“We’re happy to have him in the interim while the search is ongoing,” he said.

Phoebe’s notice of opposition to Palmyra’s obstetrical CON application was accompanied by 301 pages of documentation, according to Marsha Hopkins, executive director for health planning at DCH.

Sumter Regional Hospital, which recently partnered with Phoebe to rebuild a facility nearly destroyed by a 2007 tornado, also filed a notice of opposition to Palmyra’s application.

Its 12 pages of supporting documentation include a letter from Americus obstetrician Schley Gatewood Jr., who says allowing Palmyra to offer Level 1 care poses several threats to Sumter Regional, which offered Level 2 care up until the tornado.

“An additional obstetric facility competitive with Sumter Regional,” Gatewood said, would divert paying patients away from the hospital, make critical clinical personnel harder to find and cut into clinical experience opportunities for Americus’ two nursing schools.

“In this time of economic upheaval and health care system fragility, we must avoid measures that so clearly threaten the hospitals which are required to provide medical care to the least fortunate members of our society,” Gatewood wrote.

Phoebe maintains its opposition to Palmyra’s application and will appeal DCH’s determination, Senior Vice President Dr. Doug Patten said at a Friday news conference.

“The dilution of that key service in this community will not offer any community benefit and may actually detract from the quality of care,” Patten said.

Patten said the potential loss of Level 1 deliveries may cut into revenues used to pay for services for high-risk mothers and the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

The hospital, which averages some 3,000 annual deliveries, will begin marketing itself to mothers and physicians as the superior site for deliveries, he said, stressing the importance of having an on-site neonatal intensive care unit when emergencies arise during a delivery.

Phoebe was not surprised by the news, after legislators removed the “need” requirement for obstetrical care from DCH regulations last year, Patten said.

He said he did not think Palmyra’s CON would impact Phoebe’s plans in Americus, where the Sumter-Phoebe hospital is expected to open on U.S. 19 South in 2011.

Judge Denise Marshall, saying she “struggled desperately” to understand how Shondarious could be injured so severely, sentenced Soilberry Thursday to life in prison plus 40 years, to serve consecutively.

“How could that much injury be inflicted on such a small body?” Marshall said. “It’s very frightening to the court.”

Thirty-five pound Shondarious was found May 2 in a bathtub, lying in a few inches of water, leading paramedics initially to suspect a drowning.

But at the hospital, the extent of his internal injuries started to become clear.

Testifying Wednesday, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Medical Examiner Lora Darrisaw likened Shondarious’ injuries to those sustained in a high-speed automobile crash, saying the boy died shortly after a “severe beating,” done with feet, fists and other objects.

The child probably bled to death in less than an hour from a severed liver, the worst injury of its kind that she’d ever seen, Darrisaw said.

At the recommendation of Chief Assistant District Attorney Chris Cohilas, Marshall sentenced Soilberry to life for murder, 20 years for cruelty to children and 20 years for aggravated battery.

Shaquita Bell, Shondarious’ mother, sobbed quietly throughout the sentencing hearing, during which Soilberry’s older brother, Harry Payton, described growing up with a single mother. She died 13 months ago, he said.

“We didn’t have a father in our life,” Payton said.

Payton said Soilberry, 18, and Shondarious had been inseparable. “It was like it was his little boy,” he said.

“I know he did wrong,” Payton said. “He might have just slipped up and had a little rage.”

Cohilas said that Soilberry had an extensive juvenile record that included several violent offenses.

“This was a murder of the worst kind,” Cohilas said. “You need to send a message.”

Soilberry had lied to police repeatedly during the hours after Shondarious was killed, his lawyer Troy Golden told jurors during closing arguments. “He thought he could outsmart the police,” Golden said.

Soilberry initially said Shondarious “could have slipped,” then that he’d hit him with a belt. Later, he said he’d forcefully opened a door behind which Shondarious was hiding.

Testifying on his own behalf Wednesday, Soilberry claimed four other people — a crack dealer named “Black” and three drug addicts — had beaten both him and Shondarious after he sold them fake crack cocaine.

“He’s guilty of endangering a child, and selling fake drugs,” Golden said. “The lies don’t match up with the evidence.”

“Eight or nine months later, this is the best we had,” said Cohilas, in his closing. “He’s not willing to pin this on the guy?”

The alleged beating left no marks on Soilberry, who testified that he’d lost conciousness.

“He’s a proficient and pathological liar,” Cohilas said. “This was an orgy of violence.”

After deliberating from about 12:45 p.m. to 1:05 p.m., the jury found Soilberry guilty of malice murder, felony murder, two counts of first degree cruelty to children, aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated battery.

“I feel that justice has been served. He’s been made an example,” said Quinetta Moore, Shondarious’ aunt.

“He was a sweet little boy, no trouble at all,” Moore said of Shondarious.

Bell’s sobs increased after court was dismissed.

“I hope she gets better,” said Dewain Roney, a first cousin. “The Roney family’s heart goes out to her.”

The bodies of Tommy Lee Lamar Jr., 27, and Anthony Scott Hutzell, 18, were taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab in Atlanta Monday for autopsies, Albany Police Department spokesperson Phyllis Banks said.

Responding to a 12:56 p.m. 911 call Sunday about a shooting, officers found Lamar and Hutzell near the cash register area, both with gunshot wounds from a single handgun.

Witnesses told police that Lamar shot Hutzell, then turned the gun on himself, according to incident reports.

Monday, Banks said APD was not seeking to charge anyone else in connection with the shooting, and that APD had no new information to report about the case.

“We have no confirmation on how they knew each other exactly,” Banks said. “The case remains active and still under investigation.”

Albany Police interviewed 17 people about the events, including the deli manager, assistant bakery manager, market manager, a seafood clerk, a deli clerk and seven other Piggly Wiggly personnel, according to an incident report. Others interviewed were a Westover High School student, an Albany man and three members of a Lee County family.

The two men, one white and one black, appeared to have little in common.

After graduating this year from Bowdon High School, near Carrollton, Hutzell moved to Lee County several months ago to begin work with Pratt Industries in Albany.

Pratt, a box manufacturer, offered counseling for employees affected by Hutzell’s death, a spokesperson said Monday. Hutzell’s father is maintenance manager at the Albany facility, she said.

Lamar did not work at Pratt, she said.

Meadows Funeral Home, which is handling arrangements for Lamar, an Albany native, did not know Monday when services would be held.

Hutzell’s obituary says his services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday. It suggests that memorials be made to the American Cancer Society or to To Write Love on Her Arms, a suicide prevention group.

“I got along with Shon well,” Soilberry told defense attorney Karen Brown.

Soilberry, 18, is charged with murder, felony murder, cruelty to children, aggravated assault and aggravated battery in the May 2 death of Shondarious Roney.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation physician Lora Darrisaw, a medical examiner who performed an autopsy on the boy, characterized Shondarious’ injuries as consistent with “a severe beating, with multiple things used … maybe feet, fists, other objects.”

Their extent was revealed in graphic photographs presented to jurors on an overhead projector by Chief Assistant District Attorney Chris Cohilas.

They showed “a child that’s been severely beaten over a short course of time,” Darrisaw said.

In addition to clusters of bruises on the boy’s arms and legs, the photos revealed internal injuries, including hemorrhaging of thymus tissue around the boy’s heart, typical of “a severe blow” that occurs in a motor vehicle collision, she said.

Shondarious also had eight fractured ribs and bleeding in his scalp tissue, likely from impact with a hard, flat object, Darrisaw said.

But the most significant injury was the boy’s “very severely lacerated” liver, caused by a beating, and unlike anything Darrisaw said she’d seen outside of automobile or train wrecks, or falls from great heights.

“This is the most severe liver injury that I’ve had,” said the forensic medical examiner, who specializes in child abuse murder cases.

All of Shondarious’ injuries occurred within a short time frame, and internal bleeding from the liver injury likely caused him to go into shock and die within an hour, she said.

Soilberry, who initially reported he’d found the child unconscious in the tub, then that he’d struck him a few times, said Wednesday that he had nothing to do with Shondarious’ injuries.

He and the boy’s mother, Shaquita Bell, had moved in together about a month before and he’d recently starting selling crack cocaine to make money, Soilberry said.

Calm as he testified for more than an hour, Soilberry said he’d gotten up at 6:50 a.m. May 2 and taken Shondarious with him to an area near North Jackson Street and Tift Avenue to try to sell some fake crack.

After making a sale, Soilberry said four individuals — a drug dealer called “Black” and three “junkies” — returned and beat him up for several minutes, during which time he lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he grabbed Shondarious and drove back to the 2216 S. Jackson St. apartment he shared with Bell, he said.

At home, “I put him in the tub and walked out,” Soilberry said.

The version of events is different from what he told police initially and during several subsequent interviews, he said.

“All these little details were not true?” Brown said.

“No ma’am,” he said.

A subsequent explanation, that he’d struck Shondarious after a potty-training incident, had actually happened on an earlier date, and Bell was present, he said.

“She cleaned him up, and I whupped him,” Soilberry said.

“You’re a liar, aren’t you?” Cohilas exclaimed at the start of his cross-examination.

Family and friends of Bell, seated on the prosecution’s side of the courtroom would occasionally giggle as Cohilas questioned Soilberry about his new version of events.

“Who is ‘Black’?” Cohilas said. “We can go get the real killer.”

Soilberry uttered a name.

Cohilas asked why, despite being beaten “by Black and three unknown junkies,” Soilberry had no bruises on his body.

“I’ve been jumped on by seven or eight people and come out unmarked,” Soilberry said.

Lastly, Cohilas had Soilberry hold a white curtain rod found at the scene.

“Do you see the feces on there?” Cohilas said.

On Wednesday, Judge Denise Marshall banned three members of Soilberry’s family — Harry Payton, Stephanie Payton and Charlotta Soilberry — from the Dougherty Judicial Building for the duration of the trial for making harassing and intimidating comments in the presence of Bell.

Closing arguments in the case are expected to start this morning.

Published Jan. 8, 2009 in The Albany Herald.

Downtown Albany, bounded by Front Street, Madison Street, Highland Avenue and Residence Avenue, currently contains 247 businesses, 14 attractions, 16 churches and 16 nonprofit agencies, Buie said at an ADICA board meeting.

Several of them are new: Eclipse Night Club, Expressations, Georgia Home Medical, Ken’s Tax Service, Monique’s Beauty Salon, Second Chance Car Wash and Detail, the Veterans Administration clinic, Urban Pulse Magazine and Totally Hair.

The 2008 additions mean eight new storefronts, one second-floor conversion and the influx of 25 jobs and $94,000 in commercial improvements, Buie said.

Dining “staples” such as the Cookie Shoppe and Jimmie’s Hot Dogs keep traffic coming, but what is missing downtown is residential living, he said.

“We need to concentrate on that residential living part,” Buie said.

Nightclubs will increase foot traffic after hours, but for the most part, downtown shuts down at 5 p.m., he said.

Incoming downtown businesses such as Dollar Square and Alltel, however, utilize “a business model that practices hours outside of closing at 5 o’clock,” Buie said.

The year, Buie’s first, was overall a “banner year,” with ADICA getting “back in the driver’s seat” after contracting with Albany Tomorrow Inc. for several years. With ATI’s impending dissolution, “we’re fully in charge,” he told board members.

Besides an “aggressive” focus on residential development, ADICA needs to actively pursue becoming an Urban Main Street community in 2009 and connect with “quality developers,” he said.

ADICA said farewell to board member Mark Lane, CEO of Security Bank, because the authority is finalizing a bond issue through Security Bank this month, Buie said.

ADICA no longer has a physical office and should likely focus on obtaining space, possibly in a second-floor conversion somewhere on Broad Avenue, Buie said.

“I think you have a record to be proud of,” ADICA Board Chair Jane Willson said.

The board also re-elected James Griffin to its at-large post.

Joining the hospital’s board next month are former Masterfoods plant manager Ullic Young, Turner Job Corps Director Steven Belk and Security Bank CEO Mark Lane.

They replace Steve Allen, Anthony Parker and Will Sims. Parker and Sims have been named directors with Phoebe Putney Health Systems.

Arriving three weeks ago from New Orleans to become senior vice president for physician practices is Robert LaGesse.

LaGesse, who comes from a position with hospital company HCA, said he’ll “develop and push forward the physician group model that we have here at Phoebe.”

Working with a physician vice president, he’ll focus on a “physician-centric” model that integrates doctors, inpatient services and outpatient services, he said.

Also new this year is Joe Mehta, who was recently elected chief of staff and replaces Hasan Rizvi.

Mehta has “set a tone right off” of patient care issues, Rizvi said.

Phoebe is naming the hematology and oncology center that occupies two floors of its new Tower 2 for oncologist Phillip Roberts.

“Roberts Pavilion,” the fourth home of Phoebe’s cancer center, will be dedicated Feb. 5.

An “outbreak of wellness” that drove patient volumes down in October and November subsided in December, Chief Financial Officer Kerry Loudermilk said.

The hospital, despite a national trend toward “frugality,” is currently very busy, CEO Joel Wernick said.

“The years of experience, the credentials — he was very professional in the interview process,” John McDuffie, incoming Albany Area Chamber of Commerce chair, said of Clem. “I think he’ll be a good match for our community.”

Clem was ready to resign his Bay County post and begin work in Albany Jan. 16, Interim EDC President Bobby McKinney said.

“I couldn’t be more excited about him starting quickly,” McDuffie said. “It’s an important time for us to have professional leadership for our EDC, and I think we’ve found a really good man.”

Vince Falcione, who served on the search committee, was confident in the choice of Clem.

“Someone of his caliber, with experience in economic development — I think he can take care of business, and I’m really excited,” Falcione said. “This is an important step.”

Clem’s resume says he managed all local economic development programs for the Bay County Alliance, including business recruitment, retention and expansion, international trade, marketing and research. Bay County’s population was 163,500 in 2006, according to the Census Bureau.

Since 1999, he’s helped add more than 4,000 new basic-sector (nonlocal) jobs and helped stabilize Bay County’s year-round employment, the resume states.

Clem also led the effort to relocate Panama City’s airport to the West Bay area, forming coalitions to support the 75,000-acre West Bay Sector Plan, a land use plan anchoring the new airport, it says.

A 1988 journalism graduate of Troy University, Clem was executive director of the Conecuh County, Ala., EDA from 1990-1991 and the Covington County, Ala., EDA from 1991-1995, then served as vice president of business development for the Pensacola, Fla.-Area Chamber of Commerce from 1995-1999, it says.

At Troy, Clem played on the 1984 and 1987 national championship football teams, and he later received a master’s degree in economic development from the University of Southern Mississippi, EDC officials said in a statement released Monday.

Born in Georgiana, Ala., Clem is married to the former Stacey Clark and has three children: Annalise, Alaina and Andrew, the statement said.

“Economic development experience, effective communication, government relations, leadership and business acumen are some of the skill sets the search committee identified as important for the new president to possess,” Albany City Manager and committee member Al Lott said in the news release.

“Ted’s interview with the search committee, response to the application and glowing references indicated to everyone involved that he has these skill sets and more.”

Also on the committee were Dougherty Administrator Richard Crowdis, Albany Technical College President Anthony Parker, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital CEO Joel Wernick, former Dougherty Superintendent of Schools John Culbreath, Albany Commissioner Morris Gurr and area civic and business leaders Len Dorminey, Brian Graczyk, Judy Randle, Jay Smith and Brenda Hodges-Tiller.

Of 14 who completed an extensive application process, Clem was one of four finalists named by the committee last month.

Other finalists were former Halifax County, Va., Industrial Development Authority Director Mike Eades, Mississippi mixed-use real estate developer Carl Espy and Fulton County Business Development Manager Robert Simmons.

McKinney, an EDA board member who has a property appraisal business, has served as interim president since Martin’s resignation.

“Working with the staff we have has been great,” McKinney said. “They’re energetic, and it’s been a wonderful opportunity for me to watch them in action. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

The offer approved by the board Monday includes a salary of $120,000, with annual raises, based on performance indicators, of up to 3 percent.

It also includes a $600 monthly vehicle allowance, Doublegate Country Club membership and up to $10,000 in moving expenses. Clem must become a permanent resident of Dougherty County within 120 days.

As many as three videotaped interviews of Soilberry’s statements to police will be shown to jurors when his trial for murder and felony murder begins today.

In the first of three interviews, reviewed and allowed into evidence Monday by Superior Court Judge Denise Marshall, Dougherty Police Lt. J.C. Phillips and Albany Police Investigator Denise Barnes, both members of the county’s child death investigation team, met with Soilberry at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.

Soilberry, 18, called 911 around 10 a.m. to report he found the toddler in the tub unconscious, in 2-3 inches of water.

“Shon,” Soilberry told investigators at the hospital, “doesn’t really cry.”

He and the boy’s mother had been together for five months and rented the 217 S. Jackson St. apartment about six weeks earlier.

The investigators asked Soilberry to walk them through the apartment and describe the events in a second videotaped interview. This time, he mentioned the boy had had an accident.

In a third interview, investigators read Soilberry his rights and questioned him about the bruising found on the boy’s back, chin and stomach at the hospital.

“Nobody’s saying you’re a bad person,” Barnes said.

“I know the frustration of being a parent,” Phillips said.

Soilberry opened up. “I didn’t whup him that hard,” he said.

The child had told him he was scared and started backing away when Soilberry pulled off his belt, he said. When he ran into his room and shut the door, Soilberry threw the door open and Shonadarious fell back.

“I hit him hard,” Soilberry said. “I was in a rage.”

After that, Soilberry said he threw the boy in the bathroom.

“When I went in the bathroom, he had just collapsed,” Soilberry said.

Soilberry’s attorney, Troy Golden, asked Marshall to exclude the videotaped evidence because Soilberry hadn’t been read his rights until the third video.

Prosecutor Chris Cohilas said police “went above and beyond” to be friendly with Soilberry while gathering voluntary information about the death and didn’t charge him with murder until autopsy results revealed Shondarious died from internal injuries.

Prosecutors hope to begin opening statements this morning after completing jury selection in the case, Cohilas said.

When Prinda Ford opened the card Wednesday, she discovered a white powder and threatening message.

The card said, “You will humble yourself, you back-stabbing, low-down dirty dog,” and “You’ve just hurt yourself,” according to Dougherty County Police.

Police and the Albany Fire Department’s hazardous materials team shut down the 110 block of Honeysuckle Drive for more than an hour to collect the materials.

Ford hasn’t displayed any health problems, but investigators have not been able to identify the suspicious powder, Dougherty Cpl. Chad Kirkpatrick said Thursday.

The hazmat team sent the powder to a crime lab to be identified, he said.

Regardless of whether or not the substance is harmful, the sender faces charges for making terroristic threats, Kirkpatrick said.

Police have suspects in mind in the case, he said.

Anyone with information about the card should call Dougherty County Police at (229) 430-6600 or Crime Stoppers at (229) 436-TIPS.

Our president, Dr. (Anthony) Parker, has waived the application fees for all Cooper Tire employees,” said Pamela Heglar, vice president of student services at Albany Technical College.

Registration for winter quarter courses at Albany Tech, South Georgia Tech in Americus and Cordele and other area technical colleges begins next week.

Cooper employees packed an information session Tuesday at Albany Tech, and many had questions about restarting their education before the tire company issues its first pink slips.

Albany Tech has worked with Cooper over the years to provide specialized training for workers and contract workers, said Matt Trice, Vice President for Economic Development.

With an eye on the growth plans of area industries, Albany Tech counselors now can sit down with Cooper employees to help them decide what career direction to take, Trice said.

“Our role is helping individuals evaluate where they are, where their strengths are — whether they’re in the same field or in a different career field,” he said.

A good first step is Georgia’s free, Work-Ready assessment, a four-part test of reading for information, locating information, applied math and work ethics, he said. The test can give job searchers a document they can present to potential employers, or qualify them for free gap training in one of the four areas.

Cooper employees such as Tim Dean, who attended the info session Tuesday, said despite his 20 years in manufacturing, it may be time to take a different career path.

“I’ve been in the factory business for 20 years now and it’s a dying breed,” he said.

Dean was with Flint River Textiles for 10 years, then came to Cooper almost 10 years ago. Cooper’s announcement put a damper on the budget for his daughter’s upcoming wedding, he said.

For people like Dean, the options are “anything,” Trice said.

“That sounds wide open, but now’s not the time for somebody to limit themselves from what they want to do,” he said.

Albany Tech’s computer, technical and health care grads are in high demand locally; the college also offers accounting, marketing and even short-term certification programs in entrepreneurship to help small businesses grow, he said.

Georgia residents can get Hope grants for technical college certification and degree programs and 98 percent of its students qualify for federal Pell grants, Trice said.

Though classes start Monday and enrollment already is high at all the area’s educational institutions, “we’re not full,” Trice said. “We’ve got room for plenty, plenty more.”

Since announcing Dec. 19 that the Albany plant would close within 12 months, Cooper promised to give all its 1,300-plus employees at least 60 days notice. The employees return to work Friday after an annual holiday break.

The plant closing also impacts some 800 employed by contractors such as PPM Construction, KAN Staffing and DiverseCo, which perform maintenance, custodial and other work at the plant.

Georgia also will seek help for laid-off Cooper workers through the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, which provides additional benefits to workers whose jobs are lost due to increased imports, a decline in sales or shifts in production to countries with whom the United States has free trade agreements.

“I don’t think in my life that I knew of a time people are more afraid for their jobs and more scared about the future than they are now,” Rep. Winfred Dukes, D-Albany, said at the gathering in front of Albany’s idle Cooper Tire plant.

Cooper workers are on holiday break this week after learning on Dec. 17 of Findlay, Ohio-based Cooper’s plan to shutter the Albany plant within 12 months. Cooper hasn’t released details of how the layoffs will go, but informed its 1,300 workers that all will receive 60 days’ notice. Another 800 people work in various skilled trades at the plant through staffing agencies.

“Many people are going to have to be retrained to enhance their skill sets,” Dukes said. “Some might even fall to a point where they need to go to the Department of Human Resources.”

Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, Department of Technical and Adult Education Commissioner Ron Jackson, DHR Commissioner B.J. Walker and ranking officials with the Georgia Board of Regents and Student Finance Commission — which provides HOPE scholarships — will participate in the 6 p.m. Tuesday “listening session,” Dukes said.

The agency chiefs will present information about resources available to displaced workers, and will listen to feedback from Cooper employees about what they need.

“There are many individuals that want to remain in Southwest Georgia,” said Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Albany. “They have strong family values that we portray here, and they do not want to leave.”

Sims said the delegation was taking a lead in helping them find work.

“What we can do is find creative ways of working together to market this region,” she said. “We have the intellectual power to do it (with three institutions of higher learning in Albany). We’re going to have to become self-sufficient and help each other in this region.”

Rep. Ed Rynders, R-Leesburg, said the Southwest Georgia economy was in “uncharted waters,” as was much of the United States. “The people of Cooper are hurting,” Rynders said. “It is appropriate to let them know what resources are available.”

Soon-to-be displaced Cooper workers reside in Dougherty, Lee, Worth and Colquitt counties; others commute longer distances for the high-wage manufacturing jobs.

The delegation is working together now and will represent the region’s needs during the upcoming legislative session, said Rep.-elect Carol Fullerton, D-Albany.

New Albany-Dougherty Chamber of Commerce President Catherine Glover offered the resources of the chamber, and a “reminder to the community at large, of the importance of diversity in our business base and the opportunities that lie ahead.”

“I’m honored to be a part of this group because we truly are a team,” she said. “We’re all serving alongside one another, we’re all looking forward to the future and we’re all here to help our fellow man.”

New District 5 Dougherty County Commissioner Gloria Gaines said she was taking office “at both a time of opportunity, and a time of stress for this community.”

While help is becoming available at the local and state levels, Gaines said President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus package warranted close attention.

“This county and this region need to be poised and ready to take advantage of whatever is available,” Gaines said. “I believe that this county will be in a position to make a good case to be a beneficiary of whatever is in that package.”

A goal of the evolving plan is to create 2.5 million jobs through road, school, hospital and other infrastructure improvement work. Another aspect of the plan is short-term reductions in income taxes.

“This not only hurts Cooper employees, but it hurts our own families, the places they shop, the things they do,” said Dougherty Commissioner Muarlean Edwards.

The multiplier effect of a manufacturing industry shutdown of Cooper’s size is likely to cost metro Albany an eventual 5,000-6,000 jobs.

“This is a bipartisan approach,” Dukes said. “There is no room for division at this point in time in our community to address the problems that we have.”

Rynders’ district includes Lee, Dougherty, Worth and Colquitt counties. No other officials from surrounding counties or development agencies attended the conference.

Dukes, Sims, Dougherty Commission Chairman Jeff Sinyard, Albany Mayor Willie Adams and Dougherty and state development officials traveled to Findlay last month to make the case for the Albany plant to remain open.

Despite their offer of nearly $32 million in incentives, including breaks on taxes and utilities, bond financing and cash for the creation of new jobs, Cooper announced that Albany was the loser in a four-way contest between the company’s U.S. plants.

The “multiplier effect” means the eventual loss of nearly 6,000 area jobs from Cooper Tire’s closing.

ALBANY — The unemployment rate held steady last month at 7.1 percent in metro Albany as it crept upward across most of Georgia.

Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond issued a Christmas wish that Georgians “remember the true meaning of the holiday season,” accompanying news that Georgia’s jobless rate reached 7.5 percent, a level unseen since 1983.

A year ago, unemployment was at 4.7 percent in metro Albany and 4.5 percent statewide.

“During this unprecedented economic crisis, we should remember to give the gift of love and encouragement to unemployed family members and friends,” with the assurance that expensive gifts are not expected or needed, Thurmond said.

Rep. Winfred Dukes, D-Albany, and other members of the area’s legislative delegation will meet at Cooper Tire today to announce the Labor Department’s commitment to helping Cooper employees. Cooper announced last week that the plant would shut down within 12 months.

“One of the reasons we’re moving on it now is so they won’t get into the new year without knowing what resources the state has,” Dukes said.

Thurmond and representatives of Georgia’s Department of Technical and Adult Education, Department of Human Resources and University System will hold a meeting for all Cooper employees to explain the resources available at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Albany Technical College’s Kirkland Conference Center, Dukes said.

November typically brings a hiring spike as metro Albany retailers add extra staff. This year the area’s gain of 100 retail jobs was offset by losses in state government, private services and transportation, trade and utilities jobs, according to labor department data.

To metro Albany’s current employment base of 64,000 jobs, Cooper’s elimination of 2,100 Cooper and contract jobs is a significant loss, said Dr. Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business.

“That’s a big hit,” Dhawan said. “Then you factor in the multiplier effect. The rule of thumb in manufacturing — very high-paying jobs — is the higher they are, the bigger the loss of income and employment.”

Because approximately 800 of the Cooper job losses are in-house contract jobs, the multiplier is approximately 2.5.

“That’s anywhere from 5,000 to 6,000 jobs being lost in 2-3 years” in manufacturing and associated retail, health care and other sectors, he said.

Cities may suffer another consequence of plant closings, said Roger Tutterow, professor of economics at Mercer University.

“That leads to out-migration of the workers, because they don’t see comparably compensated positions locally,” Tutterow said. “We’ve seen that before, when major manufacturing industries went down in cities of Albany’s size.”

The head of a local career center, however, was reassured by the very large turnout at a weekend job fair. Some 1,560 registered to apply for 120 jobs at Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany.

“What made my heart feel good about it is people did not give up hope, even though they saw how long the line was,” said Drenda Davis-Jackson, manager of Goodwill Southern Rivers’ Albany career center.

Goodwill conducted a Friday job fair for workers interested in one of 120 jobs with AECOM, a contractor that supplies workers for the Marine Corps’ Maintenance Center housed at MCLB-Albany.

The career center saw so many applicants Friday, AECOM drew the line and canceled a Saturday session. Like the Georgia Department of Labor, Goodwill connects applicants with job leads and provides the resources — telephone, computer, fax machine and resume help.

A tip for job-seekers is to tailor their resume to fit the job they’re seeking, Davis-Jackson said.

Officials with the Census Bureau are conducting regular testing sessions at the Goodwill center on North Slappey Boulevard for workers interested in jobs with the 2010 census, she said.

Census workers start off at $12.25 an hour, plus 50.5 cents a mile if they drive their own vehicles, she said.