ANNA LOOKS TO UNCOVER JOB SECURITY FOR CITIZENS

ANNA, Ill. -- For the past year, this small Southern Illinois town has been job hunting as it attempts to climb out of the economic hole of losing two major employers.

City and civic leaders are more optimistic these days, largely because of a new state prison that's going to be built at Tamms, about 17 miles from the Anna-Jonesboro area.

The 500-bed, super maximum prison and a 200-bed work camp will employ about 500 people, said newspaper publisher Jerry Reppert, president of the Union County Economic Development Corp. -- a group formed last year in the wake of the closing of the Bunny Bread Bakery and Florsheim Shoe Co. plants.

The work camp is slated to open in April 1995 and the prison by the middle of 1996.

"We see this as a tremendous thing for Pulaski, Alexander and Union counties," said Reppert. "Not all of those guards are going to sit right outside the gates. We will hopefully see our share of the $12 million annual payroll."

Local contractors should also benefit from the $60 million project, said Reppert.

The closing of the two plants early last year resulted in the loss of about 475 jobs or about 40 percent of the town's manufacturing jobs, taking away about a $6 million annual payroll.

"For a small town like us, when you lose this many jobs it's a terrible blow," Mayor Ken Kohler said last February.

A year later, Anna, population 4,800, is surviving. "I think we are holding our own pretty well as far as a community this size is concerned," said Kohler.

The prison will be a big boost for the whole Southern Illinois area, including Anna, Kohler said.

Last year the city had to cut its workforce, eliminating two police positions and five or six jobs in the utility department.

But Kohler said the city's sales tax revenue has fallen off very little over the past year.

Many Anna area residents, who lost their jobs as a result of the plants closings, have managed to find employment elsewhere, he said.

While the prison will be situated in Alexander County, Kohler said the credit for bringing it to the area rests with the Union County Economic Development Corp. Housed in a donated building in Anna, the development office has been operating through the efforts of local officials and civic leaders, who have volunteered countless hours toward the job-hunting task.

Lee Roy Rendleman, Union County commissioner and chairman of the economic development group, said the effort began about a year ago "when we woke up and started wondering what was happening and started worrying about economic development."

"We've got about seven or eight different committees," explained Rendleman. One of them is the prison committee, another is the business retention and expansion committee.

"We have done an entire survey of all the businesses in the county," said Rendleman. "We have worked with I don't know how many businesses."

In addition to the prison, there's some more good economic news for Anna. A state veterans home is scheduled to open this spring. It will provide about 90 new jobs.

"I think the potential of Wal-Mart expanding to a Supercenter is still on, too. That could be an additional 100 or 200 employees," he said.

The shoe factory has been purchased by Kel-Tech for a sheltered-workshop type operation, employing 60 people. The company will use only part of the space and hopes to lease the rest of the plant.

"They are making it very attractive for other businesses to join them out there," said Reppert.

Rendleman said the development group is also trying to assist Transcraft in expanding its workforce.

The company, which makes truck trailers, employs about 200 people in its Anna plant.

Rendleman said the economic development group is seeking to help the company secure low-interest grants and loans that would fund construction of a separate facility across the street from Transcraft's current plant. The expansion would create about 150 new jobs, he said.

Rendleman said the development group needs to have a regular source of funding to move ahead with its economic efforts. To that end, the group hopes to obtain funding from the Anna-Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce, Union County and local governments.

When it comes to Anna's economic future, no one is more optimistic than Rendleman. "Of course, I am optimistic; I never saw a pessimist accomplish anything in their life."