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Anytime city officials announce the prospect of another business being located here in Atmore is always a good thing.

Mayor Jim Staff announced June 29 that the city intends to offer incentives to locate an Alabama farmer-owned agricultural processing facility in Atmore. The facility, if it’s located here, will have a big capital investment of more than $82 million and will create at least 100 new fulltime jobs.

Additionally, it’s anticipated that the average hourly wage, excluding benefits, would be $17.

This is exciting, isn’t it?

Atmore is the perfect spot for this new facility because of its land availability at the industrial park and the railroad access point.

Officials during a small press conference/meeting on Monday pointed out that a transload facility would provide a revenue stream to the city.

That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?

According to a release, the city also intends to apply for grants, which if awarded, will go toward the construction of the adjacent rail transfer yard.

Why not? Atmore is the official railroad welcome of the state.

In fact, the city is working with the state of Alabama on this project.

We commend the city for its months-long effort on this project, and hope that it benefits them.

A special public meeting will be held today, July 1, 2020, at 4 p.m. at city hall to discuss the project, which has a pretty cool name – Project Nautilus.