|
Local economy looks to its larger employers
By Patrick Graham
The Paris News
Published November 14, 2009
I had the opportunity to have lunch the other day with the leaders of several of the major employers here in our community.
At the table were Chris Dux of Paris Regional Medical Center, Tom Glasscock of Turner Industries, Joe Machetta of Sara Lee, Philip Senn of Kimberly-Clark and Mike Winkler of Campbell Soup.
Combined, these companies literally employee thousands of your family, friends and neighbors locally. And it’s a diverse group: a health care provider, pipe welders, pastry makers, diaper manufactures and soup and juice producers.
I appreciate Sims Norment of Norment & Landers Insurance coordinating the lunch effort and Glen Bawcum of Toyota of Paris for joining us.
I also appreciate getting to know all these folks better as they shared a little bit about their backgrounds, their business and what they see happening at their respective operations moving forward. While I wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing specifics of what was clearly an “off the record” gathering, all seemed confident in where things currently stand relative to their business and where they see things headed in the future.
This is good news for Paris and Lamar County because industry here is important in so many ways, from the tax base it provides local governments, to the jobs it provides local residents, to the contributions it provides local charities. Don’t forget, the Industry Division alone surpassed this year’s total United Way goal of $475,000, generating $488,000 of the $628,000 the campaign raised.
Our local industry, combined with the hard work of local retailers and small businesses here in town, are why the economy in Paris — while it can always be better — has not experienced the type of dramatic downturn other parts of the country have been battling during the downturn.
I had the opportunity to see one of our local industries up close on Thursday as part of my Leadership Lamar County class. It was incredibly impressive to see how efficient the operation at Kimberly-Clark was as untold diaper after diaper was produced, packaged and shipped. If you ever have the opportunity to take a tour of the plant, do it. You will be glad you did.
Paris and Lamar County got some more good industry-related news on Friday when Daisy Farms officially announced it had reached a memorandum of understanding with local officials and would be moving forward with plans to construct a state-of-the-art dairy locally, bringing even more jobs to the county.
From what I saw at Friday’s announcement, I think the Sokolskys, father David and son Ben, will be good additions to the local business community.
My dad always said “there are very few problems a job can’t help solve,” and as long as our major employers continue to have success and maintain relatively stable staff levels and as new industry comes in providing even more jobs, I think you will see the wisdom of my dad’s philosophy in terms of the local economic impact.
Patrick Graham is the publisher of The Paris News.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print |
Letter
|
|
 |
|
|
