Small community scrambles to prepare for giant Ford plant
The U.S. auto industry is accelerating its move south as car companies pour billions of dollars into new factories in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The shift is creating pockets of frenzied activity— and anxiety—for rural, southern towns bracing for an influx of new workers and residents.
“It’s tremendously overwhelming, just everything that has to be done,” said Allan Sterbinsky, the mayor of Stanton, Tenn., a 400-person town preparing for the opening of a massive, auto-manufacturing complex currently being built by Ford Motor.