The sluggish economy has now begun to hurt people in Chilton County hard especially in the Town of Maplesville. Last week, South Coast Paper decided to lay off one-third of its workforce at the plant in the town. What makes this difficult is that most of the workers at South Coast Paper live in Maplesville.

We hate to see anyone lose his or her job, and this layoff is going to have an immediate impact on everything in Maplesville. You’re going to have fewer people in the town being able to spend money for a while. We hope those of you who lost your jobs will be able to find new ones quickly.

However, this occurrence is not the only one. Others who work outside the county have been laid off, and smaller businesses have had to lay off people as well. That is why our jobless rate is higher than it has been in many years.

We do believe that our economy needs a stimulus package, but whatever stimulus packages that are proposed must focus on creating jobs. Any other projects that will not stimulate job growth won’t help our economy in the long run.