With plants shutting down and companies downsizing in recent years, Lawrence County has fallen behind in the economic marathon.

Tuesday, February 06, 2001

With plants shutting down and companies downsizing in recent years, Lawrence County has fallen behind in the economic marathon.

The expansion project of the Liebert Corp., however, has given the county its second wind as it sprints towards job recovery. Once the project is complete, the company will add as many as 200 new jobs. An estimated completion date for the project has not been released, but it has been mentioned it could be as early as May.

The Liebert Corp., city and county officials and the Lawrence Economic Development Corporation are to be commended for devoting the time, effort and funding for this much-needed project.

Hopefully, this is just the first step. It would be nice to see other businesses in the county follow Liebert’s lead and investigate expansion projects of their own. The more jobs our existing businesses can add will help, but it is going to take more than expansion efforts to get the county’s workforce back to where it was five years ago.

Our elected officials and economic development leaders need to attract new businesses to the area, but they cannot do it on their own. They need our help.

Selling the county to potential businesses is a team effort. It is our duty as citizens to show these businesses that Lawrence County is a good place to live, work and go to school. We have to make these companies want to be here.