The Franklin County Commission approved a tax abatement for G&G Steel and Franklin Manufacturing that will open a door for a two-step expansion project that will include construction of a new facility and more than 50 new jobs.
Commissioners unanimously approved the 10-year abatements at their May 19, 2025, business meeting.
In Alabama, tax abatements, or waivers, are allowed as incentives for industry relocation or expansion. Taxes that may be waived, based on a capital investment, include state and local non-educational portions of sales and use taxes on construction materials and equipment, ad valorem (property) taxes on real and personal property incorporated into an expansion project.
Abatements are generally conditioned on a company achieving certain benchmarks related to completion of planned expansion and addition of an agreed number of new jobs.
Franklin Manufacturing and G&G Steel are housed in the Russellville Industrial Park. As part of the massive expansion project, Franklin Manufacturing will relocate to the 170-acre Mike Green Industrial Park on Alabama 243, where the company will invest at least $6,715,000 in a new facility that will create at least 24 new jobs. The company also agreed to purchase the entirety of the Mike Green Industrial Park property still owned by the Franklin County Industrial Development Board, approximately 110 acres, at a cost of $3,000/acre, according to a source familiar with the project.
The Franklin County Industrial Development Board previously sold approximately 10 acres to the Alabama Department of Transportation the industrial park's other business, Southeastern Commercial Fabricators LLC, owns the land where its facility is located.
Franklin Manufacturing's relocation to the Mike Green Industrial Park will open up the company's building in the Russellville Industrial Park and G&G Steel will expand into that facility, a $5,375,000 capital investment that will create at least 28 new jobs.
The time frame for completion of the G&G project is March 2028. The Franklin Manufacturing expansion has a scheduled completion date of July 2027, according to Sherye Price, Franklin County Development Authority Executive Director.
Price said the Franklin County Industrial Development Board will begin the process of looking for land to develop for a future industrial park once the Mike Green Industrial Park is fully occupied.
In other agenda items at its May 19th meeting, the commission:
--approved the hiring of James Tyler Devaney as Roadway Maintenance Technician III, the resignation of Austin Stafford as Roadway Maintenance Technician III in the Franklin County Highway Department and authorized advertisement for Roadway Maintenance Technician III.
--declared as surplus property a 2020 Titan PowrLiner, a demolition saw and a loader bucket and authorized the sale on GovDeals.
--approved the hiring of Brian Santo and Nicholas Williams as Corrections Officers/Dispatchers, the resignation of Luke Truitt as Deputy, the termination of Dakota Riley as Deputy, declared a vacancy for Deputy and Corrections Officer/Dispatcher after the passing of Corrections Officer/Dispatcher Ovontae Graham.
--accepted a low bid of 3.9% interest on a five-year term loan of $589,623 from Community Spirit Bank. The proceeds will be used for the purchase of garbage trucks in the Solid Waste Department.
--authorized the hiring of Joel Woods as part-time Heavy Equipment Operator, the resignation of Byron Keith Slatton as Commercial Truck Driver, the hiring of Josh James as Heavy Equipment Operator in the Solid Waste Department.
--approved declaring the old scales at the Franklin County Landfill as surplus property and authorized selling them as scrap.
--appointed Linda Graham to the Franklin County Archives and Research Center Board of Advisors.
--authorized the Franklin County Emergency Management Agency to move forward with a Hazard Mitigation Plan to be prepared by the North Alabama Council of Local Governments at a cost of $18,000 for Franklin County. The cost, according to EMA Director Mary Hallman-Glass, will be shared by Franklin County any of the five municipalities in the county who choose to participate in the plan, which must be renewed every five years to maintain eligibility for FEMA assistance.
--approved a resolution honoring Belgreen 7th graders Eli Boyd and Trey Hicks, who won the Junior Division of the BassTactix State Fishing Tournament this month. The team also won the lunker with a 5.93 pound bass caught in the Wheeler Lake tournament. Sonny Boyd was the team's boat captain and Mimi Wood the team faculty sponsor.
