April 25, 2002
DECA Quarterly Meeting Minutes

• Vernon Jones (DeKalb County CEO):

Can you update us on ACOD (Airport Compatibility Overlay District)?

It is not even being discussed and was never an agenda item for a Commission meeting (may have been on the Planning Commission agenda; he will apologize if he is wrong about that); there will have to be a number of public hearings before it goes any further.

The airport brings in over $3 million/year, much of which goes to the schools and City of Chamblee.

The Commissioners will NOT vote to expand the airport.

Planes coming in after the volunteer curfew (11 pm) is a federal issue; planes over 75,000 pounds have to call in for permission to land.

Why were these employees so generously compensated? One word– UNIONS. If it were not for the courageous and valiant efforts of American unions, American workers would have a reduced standard of living–A WAL-MART STANDARD OF LIVING.

Fortune 500 companies loathe unions, and for good reason. Paying workers higher salaries may reduce top management’s salaries a million or two a year.

Republicans tend to be anti-union, and workers are being shafted in the process. American workers can essentially kiss their pensions goodbye. If you’re counting on a pension, let’s just say you better be clipping more coupons out of the newspaper.

General Motors, the company itself, really deserves bankruptcy. What company deserves to stay in business when they’ve been hatching out ugly cars for over a decade, and the quality is mediocre at best?

I’ve got two suggestions with the demise of the GM plant:

1. Tear the plant down and add an additional 10 lanes to I-285. Exiting Peachtree Industrial Blvd. on to I-285 is a nightmare, and a lot of the conjestion would be eliminated with 20 lanes.

2. Wal-Mart can build a super store at the plant site. Former GM employees would be on cloud nine working for Wal-Mart. Excellent salaries–$50,000 to $75,000 range and superior health insurance benefits. Cough! Cough! It’s very unfortunate that a Wal-Mart super store is currently being built on Ashford-Dunwoody, because the GM plant in Doraville would have saved Wal-Mart millions of dollars. More money in the Walton’s bank accounts would be supporting the anti-union movement. So sad!!!!!!

Chad

Doraville’s mayor has apparently been talking about getting a Japanese auto maker in the Doraville facility. Personally, I don’t see this happening, because the land (and wages) costs so much now.

I agree with DG that an Atlantic Station-type development would be the most beneficial for the city (or at least for my property values), but it’ll take a lot to get something like that off the ground. I’m not certain that the city/county leaders are up to it.

The workers will be the losers however. The County needs to help get these folks trained for other jobs.

I don’t know what’s going to happen when the plant closes, but this is potentially a big opportunity for the city & for North Dekalb county. The land it sits on has been largely industrial for half a century. At this point, though, I am not convinced that an industrial plant is the best use of the land: it is at an important junction of several freeways and highways and also sits adjacent to a MARTA station. I hope that Doraville & Dekalb county don’t blow this!