Land rush in McDavid? Landowners in the McDavid area are sitting pretty these days, waiting for a call from Gulf Power Co. that could lead to big bucks. The Pensacola-based company is quietly buying up huge tracts of property for a future power-generating plant site.
The company’s most recent purchase are two tracts off Cox Road totaling 336 acres. Total sale price for the land was $1 million, or about $2,976 an acre. Late last year, Gulf Power bought just more than 100 acres off Roach Road for $400,000. Gulf Power spokesperson Sandy Sims said the utility wants to acquire the 2,000-plus acres, or about 3 square miles, needed for a power generating plant site.
The company also is buying large tracts near DeFuniak Springs, and speculation is that one or both of the sites could one day be the site of a nuclear power generating plant. Jobs saved Six weeks ago Sandy Sansing was forced to walk into a room and tell 38 people at his Chrysler dealership that their jobs were gone. Sansing had just learned that Chrysler had terminated his Pensacola dealership, along with several hundred others in the United States. “These were great people, and my goal was to find a way to keep them,” Sansing said. And he did.
On Thursday, Sansing held the grand opening of his newly relocated Sandy Sansing Mazda on Pensacola Boulevard in the space once occupied by his Chrysler dealership. And the good news: The move saved 35 of the original 38 Chrysler employees. With the extra space, there’s more room for workers.
Scott Bowden, a service adviser, is one of the former Chrysler employees who made the transition to Mazda. He said he never looked for another job during the interim. “My hope all along was to stay with Mr. Sansing,” Bowden. “He really takes care of his employees.
” Unemployment comes back Many were hopeful last month when area unemployment figures dropped from 9.2 percent to 8.8 percent, seeing it as a sign the recent waves of layoffs were receding.
But the jobless number popped back up to 9.1 percent in May, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Nearly 20,000 people in the Pensacola area are out of work.
That’s a far cry from April 2006 when unemployment was a miniscule 2.7 percent, and only 5,519 people were looking for work. Mark O’Brien is on vacation. His column will return on July 8.
Esteemed opinion article: link
