By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

PELHAM – U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions visited Entec Services, Inc.’s new headquarters in Pelham to celebrate the company’s open house with city and county leaders on Sept. 28.

Entec specializes in environment air testing through stack testing and pollution control system evaluation. Entec CEO and President J Sutton said he decided to move the company’s main office from Hueytown to Pelham because Jefferson County is not “business friendly,” he said.

When Sutton took his position seven years ago, the company had only 11 employees and one office. Now, Entec boasts 45 employees and five offices located in Pelham, Mobile, Baton Rouge, La., Kannapolis, N.C., and Apex, N.C.

“Entec has had a pretty good growth run,” Sutton said. “We’re now in a much more business-friendly area than we’ve been in in the past.”

Shelby County Manager Alex Dudchock spoke of the importance of small businesses in the county.

“When J first contacted me (about finding a new location for Entec), I emphasized places like Pelham and the 65 cooridor,” Dudchock said. “We’re all about jobs. Small business is what our county grew on, not big box stores. He could have gone anywhere, but we got him, and that’s wonderful. We would not be here today had we not had what J Sutton and others wanted.”

Sessions began an eight to nine county tour by visiting Entec’s open house, said Sessions’ chief of staff, Rick Dearborn.

“We have an interest as a nation in cleaner air and a more healthful environment,” Session said. “This nation has clearly reduced pollution. Birmingham air is so much cleaner than when I was a kid.

“The work people are doing here could be done by New York, Atlanta or even Los Angeles, but the work is being done by an Alabama company, and I’m real proud of that,” he added.”

Sessions presented Sutton with an award from Inc. 5000, recognizing Entec as one of the fastest growing companies in the nation.

“It’s super they selected Pelham,” Pelham Mayor Don Murphy said. “IT speaks well of our community and the quality of living. It makes me really feel good to have people talk that way about Pelham.”