Closing Announced
Going South Of the Border
Although talk of closing had been circulating around the Springs Global plants for months, confimation came last Tuesday in a series of meetings between out-of-town officials and local employees.
The official word is the the Fifth Avenue plant, where accessory components for the textile company are made, will close by May 1.
According to employees, the shipping department will continue to operate at its current location for an unspecified span of time while the sham and bedruffle machinery will be relocated to the 278 plant. Other equipment will be shipped to a plant in Renoso, Mexico.
According to information provided to Mayor Charlie Fagan, 90 employees will be affected by the decision made at the company's home office in Fort Mill, S.C. Twenty-nine positions at the Fifth Avenue plant will be transferred to the 278 location and the employment of 71 other employees hangs in the balance. Fagan said the company spokesperson indicated that Springs will work with all employees who wish to retain employment with the company.
Attempts were made to speak with local officials about the closing but they deferred all inquiries to the office of Ted Matthews, vice president of corporate communications. Matthews did not return phone calls seeking comments by press time, however.
Back in October a merger between Springs Industries and Conteminas, a Brazilian-based textile company, was announced at the Fort Mill headquarters. At the time, local general manager Debbie Miller said they did not anticipate it to have any "impact on the Piedmont plants whatsoever." The merger was completed in January.
Company policy allows for employees with seniority and qualifications to "roll" other employees when cut-backs and lay-offs occur. The decision has brought about immediate changes at the two plants.
An employee of the 278 plant confirmed that new supervisor positions have been assigned and were posted in the plant on Friday.
Another employee decided the idea of moving down the ladder was more than he was willing to accept. He opted to take his severance pay and look for other work.
One secretary moved from her position in the office back to a service person position in the plant to keep working with the company.
Yet another employee faces a change to a second-shift position after 31 years of employment with the company.
Fagan said he was told by the company spokesperson that "the Fifth Avenue plant is available for sale effective immediately."
According to the Charlotte Business Journal, Springs recently closed two plants in Chester County, S.C. and laid off 450 workers in Lancaster County last year. It also reported that Springs told employees in January that wages would be frozen this year.

Lights, camera...
The students of the Digital Video Production class at Piedmont High School are on a mission.
They are out and about town filming restaurants, businesses, industries, and municipal services. Their project is to produce a DVD that the city administration can use in their efforts to recruit businesses into the area.
"Currently," said Mayor Charlie Fagan, "the city does not have anything like this to send to prospective businesses."
The students began their assignment last week and will spend one period a day visiting local establishments until they have covered everything necessary to produce a quality product.
Last Friday they interviewed Craig Russell of the Parks and Recreation Department and filmed the Clyde Pike Civic Center.
During the short interview, the students questioned Russell on Piedmont's growth potential and the services available through the Parks and Recreation Department.
Ann Sneed, teacher of the class, said that the students are responsible for producing all aspects of the DVD.
Once all the filming is complete, the crew will focus on editing their material and adding pertinent information requested by the city administration. The final work can then be burned to DVD and copies supplied to the city as they need them.
Jacob Conaway, Shayla Swain, Allen Cothran, Taylor Ford and Meagan McCain make up the team chosen to highlight the best Piedmont has to offer.
According to school officials the DVDs will be sent to any prospective businesses or people who may be thinking of relocating into the area.
"We plan to show everything in town," said Conaway, "including the schools, parks, and available housing."

Let me tell you what's happening at The Journal
First, this is not the start of a "Strictly Personal" column like Lane Weatherbee did for so many years.  Similar to a great football player's number being retired, that column was retired with Lane.
This is my chance to speak directly to you as readers of the new Piedmont Journal and fill you in on a little of my background relating to my position at the paper and the changes that are happening. 
As anyone who knows me personally will verify, I can talk too much at times.  But bear with me to the end because there is some important information included in this piece.
Shortly after moving to Piedmont in 1984 I was introduced to Lane and Carol Weatherbee through my employer.  Over the next 21 years I was, like many of you, a loyal reader of The Piedmont Journal-Independent and relied on the paper to keep me informed about the events in the Piedmont area. 
As a mother of three girls who grew up in the Piedmont school system, I was proud each time I opened the pages of the paper and saw my child's name or photo.  I also depended on the paper to verify or deny rumors that float around town from time to time.
Last year Lane and I had a discussion about his upcoming retirement and what the future held for our community newspaper.  I expressed to him how important I thought it was that keep the paper alive and thriving regardless of who was publisher or owner. 
Little did I know I would become responsible for reporting the happenings of my hometown.
A little over six months ago when I learned that my job in town would end in a matter of weeks,   I called Lane and asked if he knew of any job openings in town.  After four years of working in Anniston, I did not want to even consider looking for a job out of town. My heart was in Piedmont long before I ever moved here, and I was determined to never loose touch again.
At Lane's suggestion I applied for a job with Consolidated Publishing Co., Inc. to learn the newspaper business under his leadership.  I met with Robert Jackson and someway or another convinced him that, while I had no experience in the business, he would never find anyone more concerned about the future and quality of our community paper.
My lack of experience did not make me Mr. Jackson's first choice for the position, but I got the job anyway.
On Sept. 2, 2005, I walked through the back door of the Piedmont Journal-Independent office for the first time as something other than a nosy resident or paying customer.  I was the trainee whose job it was to learn everything from the MacIntosh computers to photo cropping to page layout. 
It has been an eventful six months and I still have things to learn.  Lane has retired and the paper is now officially back to its original name, The Piedmont Journal, and it is now on my shoulders to fill its pages with news important to all of us. 
As you have noticed, we have made changes already and more are in the works. 
During our transition period, you may see some changes one week and not the next. We will be tweaking some things until we get them just like we want them. 
Please keep an open mind and realize I, as well as my managing editor, Jimmy Creed, and the staff at the Jacksonville News, want this to be a paper we can be proud of.  We do not intend for this paper to become a carbon copy of any other newspaper in the area and with your help, I will fill the pages of each issue with news exclusively related to Piedmont.
I am excited about the changes Jimmy Creed and I have talked about for the future and I think the full-color front page is a great start.
One of the major changes in our weekly routine will be the deadlines.  We don't totally have our system set in stone yet so for now it is imperative that all ads, card of thanks and happy birthday type ads be in our office no later than 10 a.m. on Friday before publication on Wednesday.  The same holds true for the classifieds, legals and capsule news.  Under the new system it will be impossible for me to change the capsule on Monday morning.
While it is impossible for one person to be at every event that happens in town, please feel free to contact Betty Lawler or myself at the office and let us know what?s going on.  I will try to attend events and take photographs as much as possible.  If I cannot attend the event, we will still welcome any photos, you might like to submit or stories written by others for publication.
Also, if you know of someone or something that would make an interesting story in the paper, please contact me.  I know that our community has some unique people worthy of recognition, and I welcome any suggestions.
Many of you may remember the days of Doris Holder's column and the column called This Week?s Happenings in Spring Garden by Grace Savage.  We would like to add such features again and encourage anyone interested in doing a weekly spot to contact our office quickly and get started.
I also encourage every one of our readers to "spout off" about things in our Letters to the Editor section.  Please make sure you sign your name and give your address when you write so we can verify that the letter is real.  Jimmy says I must put my name on my stories and I think it's only fair these letters have an author's name too!  Letters can be written about any subject, but we retain the right to edit them or not publish at all those we deemed unacceptable.
We have made a couple of policy changes that I need to share with you as well. 
Effective immediately it is no longer necessary to have all wedding information into our office within 30 days of the marriage.  We realize that photographers often take more than 30 days to get wedding pictures processed and we will continue to print wedding stories at no charge if they are turned into our office within 90 days. 
For free publication of all social events such as family and class reunions, birth and birthday announcements, sports pictures, club and church news, etc. the policy remains the same.  These must be submitted within 30 days of the event.  If you have photos, please make sure they are quality ones that will reproduce in the paper in a complimentary way.  If in doubt, don't be afraid to ask. 
As a reminder, these free publications are done on a space available basis, but we will make every effort to get them in the paper as soon as possible.
And while I am on the subject of free services, I want to reassure you that our obituary policy has not changed.  In my view, this is an important feature of our paper and they will continue to be done at no charge to the families of the deceased.  Since it continues to be a free service, however, we do retain the right to edit the copy and set limits on length. 
Another change in the works will be a new location for our office.  We do not know the exact date we will be moving but we anticipate it will be near the first of April.  We will fill you in on the details as soon as all of our ducks are in a row. 
Our phone numbers will not change but one of the best things going is that Consolidated is arranging for an additional fax line in the new office. We receive a good many faxes each day, and I know in the past some people have had a difficult time getting through to our office at times.  This change should make things better for all of us. 
For those of you who are Internet friendly, you can continue to use our email address (pjinews@bellsouth.net) for the time being.  That will be changing when we relocate and we will publish the new address as soon as possible.
Betty and I look forward to working with the city administration, the local schools and businesses to keep you, our readers, informed on what's happening in and around Piedmont.