Staff Photo by Tim Barber Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Ga, right, meets with Jeff King, interim president of Northwestern Technical College, and Dr. Craig McDaniel, president of Coosa Valley Technical College near the site of the new Catoosa Technical College to be built near Dietz and Cloud Springs Roads.

Georgia officials say Chattanooga's Volkswagen plant and a pending merger between two regional technical colleges helps them justify spending $3 million to start a new technical college campus in Catoosa County.

"We were able to build a real strong case from an economic development standpoint," said Dr. Craig McDaniel, president of Coosa Valley Technical College.

On July 1, Coosa Valley and Northwestern Technical College in Rock Springs, Ga., are merging and the new campus will be a satellite for the newly named Georgia Northwestern Technical College. Dr. McDaniel will be president of the new school.

Despite cuts in departments across Georgia, the $3 million to start preparing the Catoosa County site for the satellite campus was in the budget signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue last week. The governor had used his line-item veto to cut the funding out of a previous year's budget, officials said.

"It's gone through various stages of planning," said Jeff King, interim president at Northwestern Technical College. He said the plans for the satellite campus have been in the works for eight or nine years.

Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, said the merger is moving along "splendidly" and said the savings from the consolidation helped get funding for the coming campus, located at Dietz and Cloud Springs roads.

"We've been pushing for this and the time is right," Sen. Mullis said.

Mike Light, a spokesman for the Technical College System of Georgia, called the money "well spent" and he considered it a wise investment in the work force of the future.

"We can't just stop spending money or we won't get anywhere," he said.

Dr. McDaniel said he hoped the new campus would open in 2011 or 2012 with an initial capacity of 500 to 700 students. He said enrollment might eventually grow to 1,000 with the campus' main focus on "mechatronics" and preparing workers for high-tech jobs at Volkswagen.

"This plays a critical role in preparing our area for jobs," Sen. Mullis said.

Dustin Scott, who teaches a forefather to mechatronics called industrial systems technology at the Walker County campus, said the college is wise to plan the programs.

"If you're going to have Volkswagen or any of the other plants, you've got to have technicians to work on all of those electronics and robots," he said.

He said the curriculum, which likely will be similar to his class, would probably include the basics of electrical systems and also include programming.

"The computers and the electronics -- that's the future but you've got to know a lot of the old stuff, too," he said.

Mr. Scott said many of his students come from Catoosa County and the satellite campus would be an easier trip for them and potential students in Whitfield County.

"I don't think enrollment will ever be a problem," Dr. McDaniel said. "I think we'll reach a point fairly quickly where we see it full."