A crane lifted a prebuilt wall, put it in place and fastened it to the frame of the $1 billion Volkswagen manufacturing plant’s paint shop here today as a crowd watched and cheered.
“Twenty years ago a wall came down in my country,” said Klaus Scharioth, German ambassador to the United States. “Today I helped put up a wall, so that’s new to me.”
Volkswagen officials also said this afternoon that construction of the company’s $1 billion manufacturing plant at the Enterprise South industrial park is ahead of schedule.
“This has a lot to do with the big support of the city and county here,” said Dr. Jochem Heizmann, a member of the board of management of Volkswagen AG. “I’m convinced we will be very successful here in Chattanooga.”
His comments came at a news conference before the ceremonial wall raising.
Dr. Heizmann also said he welcomed the ongoing merger of VW and Porsche.
“We will now have everything it takes to be a champion ... without comparison,” he said.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
Or login with:
New Account