Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson is on to a new idea for the old Alatex property recently acquired by the city and which the city plans to develop into a light industrial park.

“There’s not another piece of ground in Andalusia that has affected as many lives as that 40 acres,” Johnson said. “There aren’t many people in Andalusia who haven’t worked there or had a family member who did.”

Johnson said he believes the city has an opportunity to create some excitement, and perhaps even some tourists, by developing a monument to the men and women who worked for Alatex in the approximately 50 years they were in business in Andalusia.

“All across this country, we have monuments to veterans,” he said. “We have monuments to politicians. I think we need a monument honoring the working men and women and I’d like to put one at that site to memorialize the dedicated working men and women.

“There were literally thousands who went through there,” Johnson said. “Imagine what those jobs meant in those 50 years.”

Johnson said he hopes the city will see “a lot of new jobs where a lot of old jobs were in the past” as it develops the industrial park.