The four-year job-growth plan for the city slated to kick off next year has garnered $6.4 million of its $9.25 million goal so far, officials said Thursday.
“It will keep building on the momentum,” said Tom White, a Unum Group executive and one of four chairmen of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce effort.
The plan, dubbed “Chattanooga Can Do: Building Tomorrow Today,” is designed to create 15,000 jobs from mid-2011 to 2015.
Frank Schriner, First Tennessee Bank president in Chattanooga, said the public-private partnership that the Chamber has forged is key to economic development. The city and Hamilton County are expected to provide $3.6 million over the four years to the program.
“The city and county are mainstays,” Schriner said.
Patsy Hazlewood, retired AT&T chief in Chattanooga, cited the recruitment of Volkswagen’s assembly plant, Alstom’s turbine facility and the city’s small business incubator.
“We’ve got a platform we can grow on,” she said.
Zan Guerry, Chattem’s chief executive, said that “nothing is more fun than being part of a winning team.” But there’s a long way to go in terms of growing jobs in the city, he said.
Mayor Ron Littlefield told a group of officials in companies investing in the plan that he sees the city becoming twice its current size.
“We need to keep the wave moving we’re already riding,” he said.
County Mayor Claude Ramsey lauded the “united effort” to gain jobs. He urged more work in educating the area’s work force.
Economic development officials said they will focus job-growth efforts in the auto and power generation sectors, existing companies, and small businesses.
Chamber CEO Tom Edd Wilson also said the group wants to help craft an initiative for a 35- to 50-year sustainable growth plan for the county.