News

The Alabama Department of Commerce released the report for the State of Alabama on new and expanding industry announcements for 2021. Morgan County was ranked sixth in the state for both new and expanding capital investments at $332,389,913, and for new and expanding job announcements at 483.

Morgan County had a total of two new projects and 14 expanding projects in 2021 resulting in 362 jobs with a $279,089,913 investment. Some of those expanding companies include Cerrowire LLC, Daikin America, Polyplex USA, Prudent American Technologies, Valley Rubber, United Lauch Alliance, and Watco Transloading LLC.

On Tuesday, three area professionals were honored by the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce at the annual Small Business Awards Celebration for their leadership, creativity and commitment to our business community.

Keith Jackson, founder and owner of Jackson Plumbing, Heating & Cooling in Decatur, was named the Raymon Baker - John Cook - Ralph Jones Small Business Person of the Year; Jacob Ladner, CEO of Thirdmark Capital in Decatur, was named the Arthur Orr Young Professional of the Year; and Danielle Gibson, President and CEO of Decatur Morgan County Tourism, was named the Lynn C. Fowler Non-Profit Professional of the Year. The luncheon was held at the Doubletree by Hilton Decatur Riverfront.

Decatur was ranked as one of the top ten places "where homebuyers want to live" by Realtor.com! In the first quarter of the year, more than half, 59.7%, of all of the views on the home listings on Realtor.com® came from shoppers based in other metros, according to recent Realtor.com research. 

The Realtor.com economics team analyzed the search traffic on Realtor.com to figure out the areas where people wanted to move to. They used the data to determine the nation’s most sought-after areas from buyers who are looking at homes in a different metro area from where they live. The analysis covered the 300 largest metropolitan areas in the first quarter of 2022.

Decatur, Alabama was listed at No.9 with a 84.9% of listing views from outside of the metro area. Decatur's median home sales price is $268,000.

According to the National Association of Realtors®' quarterly Metropolitan Median Area Prices and Affordability report, Decatur ranked number 5 out of 185 measured metros for the highest year-over-year price gains in existing single-family home prices for the first quarter of 2022. 

According to the report, the first quarter of 2022 saw more markets reach double-digit annual price gains than the previous quarter. Decatur had a median single-family home price of $237,400 with a 28.9 % year-over-year gain for existing single-family home prices. The median home price last year in Decatur was $184,200 which is an increase of $53,000. 

Steel Technologies LLC is expanding its Decatur plant to make items for water heaters, appliances, air conditioner systems and automobiles. The company will spend $19.34 million on a blanking press project that will add 50 new employees within three years.Construction is expected to start this month and take a year to complete. 

According to the Decatur Daily, Steel Technologies will expand its plant at Mallard Fox Drive Northwest to install the new blanking press. Decatur won the project over Steel Technologies plants in Tennessee and Mississippi, and company officials said that could lead to even more projects coming to the city in the near future.  Nucor is part owner of Steel Technologies according to Jeremy Nails, president and CEO of the Morgan County Economic Development Association. 

The City of Decatur’s Fire & Rescue Department has begun a new program to give businesses and community organizations the tools they need to save lives.

“Lend a Hand, Decatur” is Decatur Fire & Rescue’s new citizen-based CPR program that utilizes strictly hands-only techniques to increase bystander empowerment.

“Hands-only CPR can be demonstrated within a few minutes. We’re excited to enable more and more people to have the confidence to make a difference until more trained help arrives,” says Training Chief Christopher Phillips.

The City of Decatur has revamped its interactive Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping system to be an information hub for residents. Upon accessing the site and typing in their address, residents can find their:

• Recycling Collection Days
• Garbage Collection Schedule
• Elected Official Representation
• Police Zone
• School District

Based on past records and candidate understanding of the Chamber's mission and public policy agenda, the Board of Directors of ProsperityPAC voted to endorse and financially support the following candidates in the upcoming statewide primary election on Tuesday, May 24.

• Morgan County Commission - District 2: Randy Vest
• Alabama House - District 4: Patrick Johnson

ProsperityPAC is the political action committee of the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce and is dedicated to the support of candidates who have taken responsible positions on issues involving private enterprise and on significant economic, public affairs, and social issues affecting Decatur and Morgan County.

“These two candidates reached out to the ProsperityPac for support. We endorse both Randy Vest and Patrick Johnson because their values and track record both align with the Chamber’s public policy agenda and represent our mission of economic growth and development,” said Crystal Brown, secretary/treasurer of ProsperityPAC and president/CEO of the Chamber.

The Chamber’s three leadership programs – Excellence, Edge and Equip – each continued their focus on personal and professional development in the new year.

The Chamber’s Excellence in Leadership program’s January meeting was postponed to February 1st where Decatur Baptist Church hosted a poverty simulation exercise facilitated by Leadership Greater Huntsville. Each class member was given a scenario of being in a certain economic situation ranging from a single parent with three children, a disabled veteran, a fully employed single person, an elderly widow and more. Each participant had to interact with leadership volunteers who also had scenarios like someone who owned a check cashing business, a healthcare provider, a parole officer, a childcare center director and so on. Participants had to learn about prioritizing topics like healthcare, childcare, education, rent and other real-world issues for working families. 

In recent years, prices continue to rise in the housing market in Alabama. Stacker used date from ZeroDown to compile real estate market reports in major Alabama cities. The following statistics are for the Decatur, Alabama metro area in the four weeks ending March 20, 2022. Click here to read the full report. 

Median sales price: $232,323
One-year change: +27.2%

Median sales price per square foot: $123
One-year change: +21.3%

Off market in two weeks: 54.8%
One-year change: +2.4%

On March 23, the Chamber welcomed more than 200 members of the business community to the 2022 Annual Meeting - a gathering to celebrate the past year of successes in our community while looking ahead with the transition of our new Executive Committee and Board of Directors on April 1.  

During the event, which was presented by Indorama Ventures, Sonny Craig was recognized as the Chamber's Miss Athelyne C. Banks Citizen of the Year honoree presented by Redstone Federal Credit Union for his faithful commitment and service to the community. Bo Weinman of Peck - Glasgow Agency, Inc. was recognized as the Chamber's 2022 Rosie Hennessy Commodore of the Year honoree, voted on by the Commodores and recognizing an outstanding member of the Chamber's ambassador corps.