Cleveland Leaders Talk About Cashing In on Volkswagen Plant

GARY FARLOW: "I think as Trevor Hamilton said it, its like winning the superbowl."

If Chattanooga has won the Superbowl, Cleveland has won the Rose Bowl. There has been a lot of talk about V-W's "ripple effect": 2000 automotive jobs creating up to 14-thousand supporting jobs. Gary Farlow and the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce expect to play a big part in the economic spill over.

GARY FARLOW: "from a location standpoint, we're probably as close to enterprise south as a lot of other parts of Chattanooga. We're only 15-20 minutes away." "It's puts us in a very good position not only from an employment stand point in Bradley County, but hopefully as a potential location for their suppliers."

Thousands of parts go into automobiles and Volkswagen won't make them all. Cleveland is banking on auto suppliers moving in and setting up shop in the next two years.

GARY DAVIS: "I think it's going to be a rippling effect of other industries that are maybe providing services and parts for this, hopefully some of them will move here to Bradley County."

County Mayor Gary Davis says there are plenty of supporting sites for smaller manufacturers. Before shutting down in 2005, Honeywell made Brake Pads in this Cleveland Factory. Davis says companies like that can come back and assist Volkswagen.

GARY DAVIS: "even though we can't say it's bradley county, even if you're moving to bradley county, which we think is the greatest place in the world to live, by the way there's another opportunity for employment right down the road."

People are already showing interest in signing up for work at V-W. Many of those new employees will no doubt come from Cleveland, or move there and commute. From Cleveland, Jason Law WDEF NEWS 12.