Calhoun County Economic Development Council works to help former Lee Brass employees

ANNISTON, Ala. (WIAT) — Lee Brass, an over 100-year-old company in Anniston, has closed its doors. No details about what led to the closure have been announced.

Don Hopper, the Executive Director of the Calhoun County Economic Development Council, calls the closure of the Lee Brass Manufacturing plant shocking. He says the decision has left 145 people unemployed.

“Every one of those jobs represents families, and they all have kids who are going back to school,” said Hopper.

Hopper says the Calhoun County Economic Development Council learned of Lee Brass’s closure Tuesday night.

“We keep in touch with management teams with all our industries,” Hopper said. “They have been a little harder to reach and things like that.”

Organizers of a job fair in Anniston explained that a third of the people in attendance Wednesday were former Lee Brass employees.

“They seemed very eager to find new employment and a little shocked about what had happened,” remarked Mark Hansel, a managing partner of staffing company Nexstaff.

The city of Anniston and the Economic Development Council are focusing on getting everyone who worked at the plant back to work.

“We’ve had expansions and announcements over the last several years. Those companies are still hiring,” added Hopper.

Hopper says he has been in contact with the state. Next week, a rapid response team will arrive in Anniston to assist those who lost their jobs.

“We talk about unemployment rates, and we talk about their number of employees and things like that. If it doesn’t really matter if you lose your job, your unemployment rate to 100%, and so we want to help that individual. We want to help everyone get those jobs,” said Hopper.

The Economic Development Council is working on a job fair specifically for those who were affected by the closure. Information will be posted to the council’s Facebook page.

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