I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is a Sunday story where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story.

Today we're starting in a small town in western Michigan called Green Charter Township.

It's a rural community surrounded by lush farmlands and forest.

It's the place Jim Chapman called home.

Jim wore lots of hats in the community. He was a police

officer for decades, a Boy Scout troop leader, an EMT, and a volunteer firefighter. And then in his

retirement, Jim became the township supervisor, basically the mayor, which wasn't easy. The township sits in one of the poorest

counties in Michigan. It's been losing jobs for decades. And Jim had seen a whole generation

of young people leave in search of greener economic pastures. I watched the people I knew

struggle trying to recruit companies. I saw other companies that were here close up and leave.

I watched our downtown struggle to stay viable.

And it's horrendous.

But a few years ago, in the summer of 2022, Jim got word of an intriguing new economic opportunity. A major international battery

manufacturer wanted to build a brand new factory in his town, an estimated $2.4 billion investment.

The company expected it to create over 2,000 well-paying jobs. To Jim, the newly resurgent American dream of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.

seemed like a miracle arriving in his tiny corner of Western Michigan.

This was a once-in-generation opportunity.

This community hasn't seen anything like this since they put dams across the Muskegon River

and started building furniture for the Grand Rapids Market.

In other words, this was big.

So Jim got to work doing everything he could to help make it a reality.

But rather than creating growth, this project turned into something that tore the town apart.

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