POWERGRAMS

17 screens as micronized copper azole saturates the wood. Afterward, they bore holes into the boards to randomly sample each cylinder load. If the thin cores don't meet Great Southern quality standards, the wood stacks are returned to the cylinders. The operators keep detailed records that are periodically audited by an independent company that also performs random testing for quality assurance. "Some of our competitors don't have the same investments in this kind of equipment or processes," Carter says. After treatment, the wood is stacked on a "drip pad" to remove surface moisture and then moved into the warehouse where millions of board feet of lumber is ready for shipment. The office sales team communicates with customers regarding needs; they generate orders and work with logistics to meet customer commitments. Orders are transmitted to the production team, trucks are loaded and their "dedicated group of drivers" makes deliveries. "Our service is what matters day in and day out," Carter says of the Abbeville plant that will deliver more than 100 million board feet of lumber in 2021. A POSITIVE ATTA-TUDE GOES FAR Susie Ezzell Atta was a trailblazer, a local girl who became the first woman to earn a master's degree in math from the University of Alabama. She worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. Now her trust fund is helping build a unique facility. "There is nothing like this in a 100-mile radius, easy," says Executive Director Kate Killebrew, "but then, I'm not sure Atlanta has anything like what this is going to be." Housed in the 7,000-square-foot former Ezzell's department store, the ATTA Library of STEM and History is the fruition of Atta's dream of inspiring people to reach their potential; encouraging science, technology, engineering, math and history as a way to solve problems; and recognizing people from the region who have made a difference in their communities, state and nation. "Challenges make life interesting and overcoming them makes life meaningful," was Atta's motto. Her great-niece Killebrew left a successful entertainment design career in Dallas, Texas, to return to her hometown for "a special opportunity" to make Atta's vision a reality seven years after her death. "The ATTA is not a museum: This is an interactive library," says Killebrew, owner of Killebrew Design in Abbeville. "While traditional libraries contain books for loan, the ATTA Library tells stories through video and hands-on interactives. The ATTA speaks in today's language, engages visitors and creates experiences." Since 2017, designers, subcontractors, exhibit builders and experts from universities and technology companies around the world have joined forces with volunteer workers, advisers and local general contractor Brent Strickland to bring the ATTA to the point where visitors will begin touring it late in 2021 or early 2022. On a pre-grand-opening tour, Killebrew previews one area to the next, as 20 LG widescreen monitors have been hung on walls, new red oak meeting room tables have arrived and long-awaited segments of the library are becoming reality. Killebrew notes how an introduction video will greet guests to the donations-only ATTA, with curtains opening to History Hall, where a 110- inch touchscreen table will feature an interactive timeline from a 100-mile radius of Abbeville. Across the room, an interactive touchscreen will display world timelines. Another wall of ADA- accessible monitors will show "Citizens of Inspiration," such as Alice Coachman (1923- 2014), who was a track star at Tuskegee Institute and the first Black female Olympic gold medal winner. "This will show kids that just because you're from a small area, you can still achieve big things in life," says Killebrew, a 2012 Auburn Abbeville's Great Southern Wood treating plant employs more than 100 workers. The billion-dollar corporation began operations in 1970 (inset). Killebrew and Exhibits Director Lacey Phillips at front of ATTA. PHOTOS COURTESY GREAT SOUTHERN WOOD PRESERVING PHOTO BY MEG McKINNEY

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