Vista Metals planning another expansion in Adairsville
The Development Authority of Bartow County has endorsed the issuance of bond financing not to exceed $42.5 million for yet another expansion of the Vista Metals Georgia plant that first landed in Adairsville in 2009.
Melinda Lemmon, executive director of the Cartersville-Bartow County Department of Economic Development, said Vista’s decision to locate in Adairsville in 2009 flew in the face of a recession that was just taking hold across the region.
“That happened at a time when we really needed them,” Lemmon said.
The company is involved with specialty aluminum products for the aerospace industry, however Lemmon said the product line also includes applications in the automotive and other sectors.
Over the last decade, Vista has expanded several times, adding additional employees to a growing workforce. Attorney Boyd Pettit said that the latest expansion is expected to add at least 35 jobs to the existing workforce.
“Each time Vista has expanded, whatever number of jobs they have given us, they have met or exceeded,” Pettit said.
Lemmon said the expansion involves the acquisition of another 162 acre parcel adjacent to the company’s existing footprint off Martin Luther King Drive near Interstate 75.
“We’re very excited about this new expansion,” Lemmon said.
The Vista project comes on the heels of another expansion at the massive Toyo Tire plant north of Cartersville, which Lemmon said is indicative of the importance of taking care of existing industries across the community.
T h e R o m e - b a s e d Northwest Georgia Regional Commission got a clean bill of health in the latest state performance audit, released this month.
Georgia’s 12 regional commissions assist local cities and counties with a wide range of federal and state programs on workforce innovation, aging services, planning and economic development initiatives.
NWGRC was one of three cited with deficiencies during the last audit, in 2014. The report from the state Department of Audits and Accounts found the agency had addressed 19 of the 20 shortfalls noted.
It also scored among the top agencies in the latest assessment, which measured three categories: customer satisfaction, planning staff qualifications and internal business processes related to planning, aging and transportation.
“The number of targets met by a regional commission ranged from nine by Atlanta, Heart of Georgia and Southern Georgia to three ... Northwest Georgia met seven. The average number of measures met or exceeded by the 12 RCs was six,” the report concludes.
NWGRC does not have a transportation program — although the one remaining deficiency from 2014 is a failure to monitor transportation subcontractors as required by the Georgia Department of Human services. Area Agency on Aging clients were receiving rides to and from senior centers in two counties through local programs that should be documented, the audit stated.
The regional commission serves Floyd, Polk, Bartow, Chattooga, Gordon and 10 other counties in the northwest corner of the state, along with 49 of their cities. It takes in an estimated population of 899,110 and covers more than 5,000 square miles.
The local governments gave the NWGRC the highest ratings in the state on the customer satisfaction survey — including a score of 97 percent for the staff. Ironically, the organization took a hit in the “qualifications” section, however, because fewer than the target number of 50 percent of the planners hold master’s degrees.
When Executive Director Lloyd Frasier took the helm in 2013, the organization was struggling with financial reporting problems, partially stemming from the statemandated merger of the 10-county Coosa Regional Development Center and five-county North Georgia RDC.
The 2012 audit was nearly a year late, putting millions of dollars of workforce training and elderly assistance money at risk. An outside consultant was brought in after the finance director resigned, and the subsequent departmental reorganization sparked a labor complaint.