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Mayor: ‘Closing was not a surprise’

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@theCitizenNews.com

Mayor Steve Brown said Monday he wasn’t surprised by the news Photocircuits Corp. will be greatly reducing its Peachtree City workforce in the coming months.

“To say it’s kind of unexpected, well, we really can’t say that,” Brown said. “I was really surprised they stayed as long as they did.”

Similar high-tech companies have moved their operations overseas, attracted by cheaper labor, Brown said.

“The industry they’re in is such a cut-throat industry,” Brown said, suggesting that the U.S. can’t compete with Mexico, China and Asia on labor costs.

Brown believes most of the job losses for Peachtree City will be in management positions, and he is hopeful those employees will be able to find work quickly.

And while the loss will also hurt tax revenues, “it’s nothing we can’t overcome,” Brown said. Photocircuits will pay nearly $414,000 in property taxes this year, according to Fayette County tax records. Peachtree City is scheduled to get about $63,000 in revenue from that.

While the timing of the announcement just before Christmas is unfortunate, Brown said that, too, wasn’t unexpected because such decisions are usually made near the end of the calendar year.

Brown said he has appreciated the cooperation from Photocircuits management over the years.

A chemical release at the facility several years ago was among the catalysts for Brown to enter politics. Writing many letters to The Citizen, he pushed the issue with city officials until the company agreed to pay half the cost of a computerized system that can call residents in a specific geographical area to warn them of any hazardous chemical release.

Brown lives in Planterra Ridge, which is adjacent to the city’s industrial park where Photocircuits has been located since 1982.