The mill closed last December and, just like an early morning fog trapped between Lookout and Sand mountains, disappointment and despair hang heavy over this small town hard up against Alabama and Tennessee.
Neighbors empty closets and cupboards for those in need. Homes go dark. The unemployed line up early outside the library for a chance at one of the 14 computers inside and, maybe, an online job posting.
Blame the usual suspects: the home-building bust; consumers' preference for wood floors; the lousy economy.
"It's happening all over the world," says library manager Gayla Brewer. "We're just one community touched by it."
Trenton, though, might be different. Everybody — from the mayor to the middle schooler — has hitched Dade County's economic survival to an out-of-state, out-of-country carmaker.
Volkswagen raised a ceremonial wall Thursday at its factory in eastern Chattanooga, a 30-minute drive from Trenton. The German manufacturer, set to open in early 2011, promises 2,000 jobs at the plant and another 9,500 supplier jobs scattered around the South.
Trentonians hope they'll get some of the work. They're also pushing hard to land an auto-supplier factory in Dade County — even pitching Shaw Industries Plant No. 76 that sits empty and forlorn along Main Street.
The company that built the Beetle offers economic salvation for one hurting North Georgia community.
"I wouldn't call Volkswagen our savior — Jesus Christ is my savior — but it would be a real shot in the arm for our community," says Trenton Mayor Barton Harris.
Volkswagen is the latest foreign carmaker to transform the South into the new Detroit. BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Hyundai and Nissan have set up shop from South Carolina to Mississippi. Georgia landed Kia in 2006.
But the worst economy in decades, and dismal auto sales, cripple the industry. General Motors announced Friday the closing of an additional 1,100 dealerships nationwide. Bankrupt Chrysler said Thursday it will shutter one-fourth of its showrooms, including a handful in metro Atlanta.
Auto sales nationwide dropped 34 percent in April from a year earlier. Foreign carmakers share the pain. Work on Toyota's Mississippi plant, for example, is suspended.
"Is VW going to go full-bore ahead on building the plant, equipping it and starting to build vehicles at the rate they said they would?" asks Kim Hill, an economist with the Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan-based firm.
Volkswagen, responds Frank Fischer, who'll run the Chattanooga plant, is "absolutely confident the markets will pick up again.
"We don't just look at the next two, three years," he continues. "The market will be much different by (then) and there is a lot of potential to grow."
At an industrial park in Chattanooga, where the Army used to make TNT, VW executives reaffirmed their Tennessee commitment Thursday. More than 2,000 workers will build Passat-like, environmentally friendly sedans .
The $1 billion factory will roll out 150,000 cars annually at first, with the capacity to build another 100,000 vehicles. Volkswagen hopes to triple U.S. sales by 2018.
Tennessee shelled out a whopping $577 million in economic incentives to win Volkswagen. Georgia, a distant competitor for the prized manufacturing plant, gave Kia $258 million.
But Georgia officials jumped on the Tennessee bandwagon once Volkswagen narrowed its site-selection list that included Alabama and Michigan.
"We will benefit with the site in Tennessee just 12 miles from our state line," says Ken Stewart, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. "We have a lot of prime locations available for suppliers in Northwest Georgia, whether that be Trenton, Dalton or Rome."
Eyes on the suppliers
Landing a carmaker is the chest-thumping recruitment prize that governors and development officials hang their careers on. But auto-parts suppliers generate more jobs, taxes and economic well-being.
Volkswagen expects suppliers will create nearly 10,000 jobs across the region.
The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) reports that makers of seats, axles, bumpers and exhaust systems typically locate within 50 miles of the car factory. Engine, tire and transmission manufacturers set up within 300 miles, or a day's drive.
Trenton is 30 interstate miles from Volkswagen.
"I don't see why we can't pick up two or three manufacturers and two or three warehouses and feed materials to Volkswagen from here," Mayor Harris says.
It's questionable, though, whether all 9,500 jobs will ever be created. Volkswagen is strategically sandwiched between the Mercedes and BMW plants — and those German automakers' nearby suppliers — in Alabama and South Carolina, respectively.
An existing parts supplier would expand production and add jobs if selected by VW. But it wouldn't necessarily build a new factory and hire hundreds of new workers near Chattanooga.
Last month, a Manchester, Tenn., supplier of interior door panels won a $147 million contract with VW. While final assembly, and 20 new jobs, will head to Chattanooga, most of the work will remain in Manchester, 80 miles away.
"We expect to share some of the suppliers" with BMW and Mercedes, Fischer said. "But there should be no doubt that Georgia will benefit. One of our main focuses is to get suppliers to be based as close as possible."
It's Ken Stewart's job to lure them south.
Stewart traveled to Europe last month to pitch Georgia to auto part makers and attended a supplier conference in Hanover, Germany. He says Georgia is focusing on so-called Tier 2 suppliers who make brake pads, window motors and wiring. The big-guy, Tier 1 suppliers typically set up shop alongside the auto factory to be able to quickly deliver parts.
Easy access to the ports of Savannah and Brunswick, and a competitive incentive package, should lead to a "forthcoming" announcement from a supplier coming to Georgia, Stewart says.
"Most of the manufacturers have been very smart to locate facilities close to state lines," he adds. "That causes states to compete against each other. But we're in the sweet spot for German auto manufacturers. That makes (Georgia) an easy sell."
Longing for jobs
Kia picked West Point near the Alabama line. Three-fourths of the 43,000 applicants for jobs hailed from Georgia. But Kia spokeswoman Joanne Mabrey couldn't say how many of the 600 employees are Georgians.
Most of the two-dozen suppliers have set up shop in Alabama, Mabrey adds, due largely to contracts with Hyundai, Kia's "sister" plant in Montgomery.
Folks in Trenton envy West Point, two hundred miles to the south. Unemployment in Dade County stood at 10.5 percent in March — double the rate a year ago. Neighboring counties like Chattooga, Walker and Whitfield log jobless rates above 13 percent. Shaw alone added 444 people to the unemployment rolls, including Phyllis Powell.
She worked almost 33 years at the mill, a machine operator pulling 12-hour shifts until last fall.
"It was just heart-breaking," says Powell who now works only a few hours each week in the elementary school cafeteria. "You think to yourself, 'Where are you going to go in a community this small and with times this hard?' "
To Chattanooga. Maybe.
Volkswagen hasn't begun hiring production workers. Powell wishes they'd hurry up. Her after-tax $241 unemployment check runs out any week now.
"If there's any jobs at VW — not white-collar jobs, I didn't go on to college after high school — I'll apply for them, even sweeping floors," Powell says.
Cody Henderson may join her in Chattanooga one day. He's an eighth-grader at Dade Middle School. Cody, along with hundreds of other students, worked on VW-themed projects this year.
They designed and built a moveable baby seat, costumed bumpers and a sensor that alerts deaf drivers to emergency vehicles. Cody created a solar-powered fan to cool car interiors. VW officials viewed the projects at a Chattanooga science fair last month. The students, along with teachers, local officials and parents hope VW takes further notice of, or pity on, Trenton.
"We're all happy Volkswagen is here because it's bringing a bunch of jobs and the factory will be open by the time we graduate," Cody says.
