DeKalb County leaders are pushing to generate 2,000 jobs in the area in 14 months. The Stone Mountain-Tucker Community Improvement District wants to see more manufacturing jobs.
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At Dixie Industrial Finishing, workers put finishings on products such as car parts and lawn care equipment to make them last longer. There are currently 60 workers at the DeKalb facility, but there is hope that number could grow.
"When you become more profitable, then you can hire more people, it's just that simple," Dixie Industrial's Dave Boyce told Channel 2's Erica Byfield.
To create growth, the Stone Mountain CID is on a mission to defeat a proposed tax on the utilities sold to manufacturers and to lay the groundwork to put 2,000 people to work by the end of 2013.
"We want business here instead of Alabama or China. We want it right here in the heart of DeKalb," said Emory Morsberger, of the Stone Mountain CID.
To make it happen, the CID has created a three-pronged plan. First, they want infrastructure upgrades, such as improved streets. They also want to work with county leaders to hash out permitting and licensing issues, and develop a marketing plan.
So far, the CID's plan has led to new jobs at area businesses such as an alcohol distribution center. The CID president hopes that will have a trickle-down effect.
"Each new manufacturing job created leads to eight to 10 additional jobs with suppliers and all kinds of support people," Morsberger said.
Boyce wants Dixie Industrial Finishing to be the next business to announce that it is hiring.
"Everybody knows what's happened to manufacturing in our country. We've lost millions and millions of jobs to companies locating overseas, so anything we can do to increase our profitability to get better faster more efficient equipment, that's where the hiring would come from," Boyce said.
So far about 300 jobs have been created.