BAY MINETTE — With the economy at the forefront of news reports and conversation, the North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce welcomed Neal Wade, director of the Alabama Development Office at its quarterly breakfast.

Wade, who was appointed to the position by Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, has been active in a number of the state’s economic initiatives, including the location of ThyssenKrupp to Alabama, National Railcar in the Shoals area and most recently the $40 billion Air Force tanker refueling project awarded to Northrop Grumman Corporation.

"He has his finger on the pulse for our state," chamber director Margo Allen said.

Baldwin’s benefits

Wade said rather than talking at the crowd, he wanted to talk with them about what is going on locally, statewide and around the country.

He said Baldwin County is doing better than many other counties in the state, especially with lower unemployment rates.

"Your numbers are in line with the state," he said of the unemployment rate, of which the state average is 10 percent. Baldwin County's unemployment rate for June was 8.4 percent.

Wade said not only has the unemployment rate reached double digits statewide, it will not rebound any time soon.

"We're looking at double digits for at least two years," he said. "It's not going to be a quick fix on the unemployment side."

Wade said Baldwin County is ahead of the situation in many ways, including its diversity of revenue sources.

"In St. Joe, Florida, tourism was king, queen and jester," Wade said. "Tourism is critical, but only part of what Baldwin County has," he said. "You have to have more knowledge-based jobs."

He said having the appropriate work force and incentives will cause prospective industries to take another look at Alabama.

He said the legislature recently passed an incentive package that would make Alabama more attractive as well.

"They just passed incentive legislation last session and made them available to alternative energy and Green Project companies," he said.

The Green Project is an environmental non-profit in New Orleans, dedicated to reducing waste, recycling, and creative reuse, through support of companies that salvage or deconstruct damaged or collapsed buildings by hand, in a way that saves between 45 and 70 percent of the materials.

Diverse solutions

Wade said the governor has also taken steps toward promoting the Alabama workforce by streamlining the training programs at two-year colleges.

"Training (programs) were spread out among two-year colleges," he said. "Gov. Riley has tried to pull them together. Instead of money going here and there, pool them into one place."

Wade said other breakthroughs in training the workforce are taking place in Mobile and North Alabama.

"There is an aerospace training program in Mobile and a robotics training center in North Alabama," he said. He said the programs begin training students as young as high school 10th graders.

"Through apprentice programs 10th-grade students start working at aerospace companies but continue to get their degree. After they graduate, they move on to the two-year college system where they get a two-year degree, then go straight into aerospace jobs with good pay," he said.

"This state has handled the economic crisis and unemployment better than any other state," Wade said.

Wade said companies and industries are already readying themselves for when the economy does bounce back.

"What's happening in companies, all are beginning to project when the country is going to come out of this and they are looking for sites, looking at how long it will take to build, so they will be ready when we do emerge," he said.

"It's a tough time, but we are seeing activity," he said. Wade said it is very possible Baldwin County will see some of that activity in the form of spin-off companies from ThyssenKrupp and the Northrop Grumman tanker project.

Attracting business

He said incentives for attracting companies are going to change as well, noting that they will now be based on performance.

"You produce the jobs, then we'll provide the incentives," he said of what Alabama is telling potential industries.

Wade said Baldwin County and the surrounding areas have been at the top of industry recruitment.

"In the five or six years I've been in office this has been the hottest area," he said. ThyssenKrupp has been the primary focus this year, and Wade said Baldwin County will definitely benefit when the German company opens next year.

"The carbon side is on track to open as scheduled and that will account for about two-thirds of the open workforce," he said.

According to ThyssenKrupp's USA Web site, the company employed 1,500 temporary construction workers in 2008 and expected that number to rise.

Additionally, the company will create 2,700 permanent jobs once open.

"Baldwin County will feel the ripple effect as a direct result of people here getting jobs there," he said.

Wade said the economy has had an effect on the stainless side of the company.

"The stainless side will be delayed a year. They're going ahead and building the plant but stainless is what's used in cars, washers and other things and that's been hit hard," he said.

Tanker options

Wade said another company that could benefit Baldwin County is Northrop Grumman in Mobile. The company in 2005 was awarded a contract to provide 179 refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force.

"The KC-45 aircraft will replace the KC-135," said James W. McIngvale, director of state and local affairs for the Northrop Grumman KC-45 tanker program.

McIngvale spoke at the April Chamber of Commerce breakfast about the tanker project.

Boeing, which also competed for the bid, protested the contract award and was successful in obtaining a halt to production until the process could be reviewed.

McIngvale said Boeing filed 111 protest items.

"The protests only withstood eight, and none had to do with quality or price," McIngvale said. "They did not like how the Department of Defense posed the questions."

While the case remains in court, promising to drag on for a year or more and requiring another bid process, some legislators have presented the idea of dual procurement.

Dual procurement would split the award between the two companies, allowing both to produce the tankers.

"Currently a group of people in Congress are looking at this pragmatically. This is not a procurement program, it is a political program," McIngvale said.

He said his company is prepared to try for the contract again and will prevail again.

"Northrop Grumman is fully ready with EADS (European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.) to go through the full bid cycle again," he said. "And we will win again."

McIngvale said the company will participate in the dual procurement program, as will Boeing, if necessary, but neither likes the idea.

"Whatever gets the Air Force the aircraft faster, we will do it, even if it means dual procurement," he said. "Boeing is OK with it, they're not as happy as if they won it, just as us, but they will do it."

Wade said during his talk that while some oppose the idea, many are in favor for that reason — it would create more jobs more immediately, and would provide the military with newer, safer aircraft sooner.

"The Secretary of Defense is against that, but it gets us in the tanker service much faster," Wade said.

For that reason, he said Congressman Jo Bonner, R-Alabama, is in favor of the idea.

"It allows for the best tanker at the best price as quick as possible," Wade said.