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I was just reading the story about RSA bailing out Wise Alloys. Boo Hoo....Poor Wise Alloys....NOT!

I want to know why Wise Alloys has reneged on the promises it made to folks like my father who were offered and took the full retirement packages when Wise bought out Reynolds. My father and many more like him were promised free health insurance coverage for life but suddenly, without warning, my father's retirement checks are now $300 short because Wise is now charging him for health insurance coverage. This is a 70 year old man who has survived lung cancer due to asbestosis he contracted while working at that plant and now something underhanded and dirty like this is done to him by this company. I'm sure he isn't the only one in the Shoals but nobody seems to be broadcasting this. I'm sure Wise definitely wants it hushed up. Wise should take some of their new found wealth from RSA and pay off on their promises and stop charging my father and others like him for the FREE health insurance coverage they were promised.

If this is the way Wise does business, they deserve whatever happens to them and I'm not surprised they are having difficulties. What goes around, comes around. Although, I'm sure the executives of the company, like CEO David D'Addario and CFO Ken Stastny, aren't hurting in the least. They'll still get their fat bonuses and stock options while people like my father struggle to make ends meet on increasingly smaller retirement checks. SHAME ON WISE ALLOYS! With friends like Wise, the the Shoals area doesn't need enemies.
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AS FOR RSA BAILING OUT WISE: THE ONLY PHRASE THAT COMES TO MIND IS "BIRDS OF A FEATHER". WHAT HASN'T BEEN REPORTED: AND WON'T THANK YOU VERY MUCH INVESTIGATIVE TD STAFF lol: WISE HAS CHANGED OWNERSHIP 5 TIMES SINCE BEING IN THIS AREA. BOBBY IRONS WAS SEEN AS A SAVIOR FOR GETTING THEM HERE, WITH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF INCENTIVES I MIGHT ADD, AND NOW THAT THE TRUTH IS FINALLY COMING OUT, THIS AREA AND THE FORMER REYNOLDS EMPLOYEES WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH BETTER OFF IF THE ALCOA DEAL HAD BEEN ALLOWED TO GO THROUGH. WISE'S DAYS ARE NUMBERED AND WHAT ARE OUR LOCAL LEADERS DOING? BUILDING GOLF COURSES AND POURING MORE MONEY INTO THE BOTTOMLESS PIT KNOWN AS SEDA
I am a Shoals native...was born there and raised there for 22 years before departing for other parts of the U.S. and I love the area. It's beautiful. What I can't understand is why everyone seems to think the area can be miraculously turned into some big money-making tourist attraction with the addition of a couple of golf courses and now this hair brained scheme of the Bass Pro Shop. The Tower was the biggest joke when I was in high school and college...no folks, the Hollywood phrase "If you build it, they will come!" does NOT apply to the Shoals. We don't have the scenic mountains like up in Tennessee or the white sandy beaches like the Gulf Coast. Just putting in a new hotel isn't going to make people want to rush to spend their vacations in the Shoals. Money should be spent trying to attract viable industry and jobs, not trying to turn the area into a retirement haven for snow birds. If rich Northerners have the money to leave the ice and snow, they are going to have enough money to bypass the Shoals altogether and keep going down to the Gulf Coast or Florida. North Alabama still gets too cold (the Shoals DOES get snow and ice) for a successful retirement haven. Until the politicians and old money families wake up and smell what they are shoveling the Shoals will continue to founder and gasp for life.
Dixie in So Cal: It is a shame, but only logical that people like you have left this area. I too left for almost 20 years but was forced to move back 10 years ago when my father died and came back to help my mother. My advice is stay put where you are. I grew up in a time of prosperity in the Shoals area, you wouldn't recognize the place now. Oh yeah, there are still the old money families (well the Rogers have left for the most part) and the Anderson's are exploiting the work force from far away in Knoxville, but as for good paying industrial jobs? NONE! Dollar General Stores and chain restaurants everywhere and it is rare to see someone out that is not under 30 or over 60. It was said by the last administration in Florence that they were trying to make this a retirement community, well they did in a backdoor way. The only people left are those who are stuck as I am, college students and LOCAL retirees. ONCE AGAIN (And sorry I just like the cap lock sometime, makes my point) as I have said before, keep building those golf courses, gonna make great cemetary space someday!
"We don't have the scenic mountains like up in Tennessee or the white sandy beaches like the Gulf Coast. North Alabama still gets too cold (the Shoals DOES get snow and ice) for a successful retirement haven."
- DixieGalinSoCal, Posted 29 November 2006. 04:22 PM


For quite some time, I've posted statistics on the average temperatures, rainfall, snowfall, etc., for the Shoals. There have been a few times when frozen precipitation fell, and a few in which the same accumulated.

However, for the exceedingly vast part, neither snow nor extreme temperatures affect the Shoals.




Here is one of my original posts (from the old forum) about climatology in the Shoals. According to my records, it was reposted on or about September 2, 2006.


Here's the breakdown from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service - which has a weather forecasting, global hydrology and climate research facility in nearby Huntsville, on the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus, in the NSSTC (National Space Science and Technology Center) Building.
http://www.nsstc.uah.edu/

Normal high and low temperatures respectively for the Shoals in January range from 51 to 30. And this past December we - in the Shoals area - did not have any snow.

Most folk who live here already know that. But, of course, folk who live elsewhere don't know that, or haven't bothered to research the data.

But, (and that's a BIG but -insert laughter here-) I have!

For the years 1971-2000 the snow normals (again, according to the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Huntsville here's the url http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hun/climate/snowclimo.php) the snow normal for October is 0.00, for November is "Trace," and for December the average snowfall is 0.2 inch (that's TWO TENTHs of an inch), while the norm for January is 1.0, February has 0.9, March 0.3 and April "Trace."

Yep, that's a whopping snowfall, alright. Gitcher snomobiles out, bubba!

Now... if you wanna' look at the extremes, look at the url.
Big Town Dreams with Small Town Attitude's

This may seem a little off suject from Wise, but I am responding to the Bass Pro Shop input and how human traffic is formed for businesses..I grew up here, but as an individual I travel the Southeast in my business. So I get to see how a lot of cities have developed their areas...

The Shoals has one major barrier the people seem to have difficulty overcoming...They want industry, high paying jobs, etc...but they can't seem to realize that in order to achieve that, you have to have laws in place that are favorable for businesses to want to build in your community...just one case in point is Colbert County...they want fine restaurants on their side of the river, but at the same time, pass a law that prevents food establishments from selling alcohol on Sundays, when their next door sister city, Florence, 10 minutes away allows it...ignoring the economics that Food establishments make just as much money off of alcohol as they do food, and sometimes even more.So if you were in the food business and wanted to open a business...where you put yours...in a community that had laws that gave you a better chance to make a profit or one that restricts your ability to achieve a profit and keep the doors open..?
That is why the Florence Food establishments then get most of the eating out activity, and not just on Sundays...why?...Humans are creatures of habit...get them going to a certain restaurant, and you just made it certain they are going to go back to the location on days other than Sunday...now when they finish eating, and need merchandise..plants...gas..tools..etc..are they going to go to the next door mall or drive back to colbert county and purchase?...Most will purchase next door...NOW! they have another reason to come to that local area to shop...why..because we are creatures of habit...good deals...decent discounts and pricing...quality merchandise...more variety of close businesses to shop brings them back..time after time...
You can have the best widget....best food...etc...but if you don't have the people traffic you will fold...that is why merchants in Tuscumbia, and Sheffield are struggling...
They have good service, good quality, good food...but lack people traffic...People are brought into an area with entertainment, variety of Food establishments, and a large variety of shops...
Retail shops are a by product which is produced from the foot traffic.
Do I think the Bass Pro Shop is a good idea?
It has its merits...but needs to be built by the Company...not the Citizens of the Area...Politicians are not very good judges of what businesses will go or fail...nor as the record deficits of many local governments show, not real good business people...
Personally, I think it would fail over a period of time...the areas wages is not conducive to achieve success at their standards...

Will The Bass Pro Shop bring traffic...which will generate more tax funds for other surrounding businesses? The answer is yes...
But public land should not be used or given to the Bass Pro Shop People....that is an unfair advantage to other companies...


Now About Wise...
I realize the promise was made to your dad about his health insurance...Nothings remains the same...economic pressures change daily... if a company is trying to stay afloat...and the economics are not there to achieve that goal...what would you do?
Continue to bleed losses until you closed? or would you attempt to reduce cost...in an attempt to buy time...to turn things around?

Yes! your dad got hit with a 300 dollar insurance bill monthly...but what if he got hit with a zero check monthly because the company went completely financially broke?
Now! given the choice which would you take?

Sorry for the long diatribe here ...but had to get some of this off of my chest..
I agree trader. I don't think that bass pro should be given land, tax incentives yes but property no. A couple of years Bass Pro was courting Selma (I think it was Selma) right off of 20 on the way to Vandiver and as I remember it was a long drawn out deal and I never heard if it did or didnt happen. I would love to have a bass pro, but like you dont think that they would last. You see many of them off of Interstates and I doubt that the Floence traffic would support their bottom line. In my opinion Florence needs to supply the traffic and Bass Pro needs to make them stop. I travel also and our area is kind of screwed up to get in and out of, I dont think anyone will head east off of 65 to buy some new camo. I doubt bass pro would bring any real boom to the community probably a couple of 100K jobs, a few 70K and a lot of 20K (bulk of the people couldnt live off of the wage) I am all for it but dont think it will last.
I perceive these issues are more of ethics and morals than anything else.

There once was a time in our nation's history when a promise was made by a company to their employees which was kept for life.

Life...

Their word was their bond.

And, better yet, there was often no contract needed because the value of human life was high among the leaders as it was among the employees.

IBM was one of those companies.

Slowly but surely, the leadership of American companies was replaced with a care-less (uncaring) cadre of social Darwinists whom felt that human life was capital, that human blood could fertilize their fields of dreams, that the children born to their employees would in turn be their customers, whose parents once worked in their factories or offices, and whom now must scratch for the pensions once promised them.

They have been robbed from, they are the victims!

Calling such actions as expediency and matters of corporate survival, they forgot the most important part of any organization are the people whom make it great.

Using careless and unproven methods of accounting, and imagining themselves as modern-day barons, they fenagled, twisted and mis-managed monies until they had warped and morphed what they wanted into greater profits for them, while legally eliminating any obligations they may once have had to anyone other than their executive leadership.

By using 'derivatives' and inventing and assessing value to mutual and index funds filled with speculatives rather than physicals they created virtual houses of cards, managed only by the elite, thereby eliminating the average person from understanding the fundamentals of investing, such as capitalization, costs of production and market value.

Interestingly enough, the estranged group of "free marketers" still use those terms to describe and justify eliminating any laws that would or could potentially damage their reputations or fiduciary futures, if they are perceived as helping the consumer, whom are ultimately their customers.

However, they have forgotten to whom they owe their being... the customers whom are their employees.

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