8 months ago
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Things move at a different speed in McNabb, Arkansas. The grocery store closed years ago. The restaurant is only open on the weekend.
There's no real traffic in or out of here McNabb unless it's headed to or from the John Turk Power Plant. Construction there hasn't slowed a bit. In fact, more than $713 million have already been spent on the project
SWEPCO representatives say they have no intention of stopping work while the courts work through the various permits and certificates of need.
"It's two or three to a car," says Albert Jackson of the traffic in McNabb now. He's lived there all his life. He doesn't care how environmentalists in Little Rock feel about the power plant; he's glad it's there. "They got their living made and they don't care about the other people; they got theirs made. You sit here every evening and you see 150 or 200 workers coming out from here. So it's feeding their families."
Four miles away in Fulton, folks feel the same way. At the Fulton Country Store, business is up. Workers helping build the plant come in often and spend their money.
Lora Bunch works in the store, "I believe it's picked up at the store and stuff. I know they do really good breakfast and lunch time. The store's really busy. The restaurant across the way over here, they have a lot of business."
With another $1.3 billion expected to be spent on construction, folks living in the area say this is the most money ever invested in the area and an opportunity like this will likely never happen again.
According to SWEPCO, 723 people work at the plant site; 400 of them live in Hempstead County. When construction peaks, more than 1,000 people will be working at the construction site.
