By Holly Sweat

The Caterpillar plant is offering the Athens area so much more than revenue. For Dillon Nelson its a new sense of security.

“I had been looking for a couple of months after I lost my previous job, and when I found out I was going to be hired at Caterpillar, I was VERY excited,” Nelson said.

Amelia Uriegas is also breathing a sigh of relief with the opening of the plant.

“I was actually laid off from General Motors back in 2009.And I know when I get up in the morning, I have a job to go to,” she told Newsource.

Caterpillar is offering more than a paycheck to its employees according to Nelson.

“There’s a lot of jobs that you can find, but there’s not a lot of careers. Caterpillar is probably best career you can find in this area, especially as a young person absolutely,” Nelson explained. “Especially for myself coming out of the technical college system, you really don’t get the opportunity to get into a startup like this very often.”

Uriegas believes the entire state will benefit from the fourteen hundred employment opportunities that Caterpillar will offer.

“Bringing jobs back to Georgia is a great opportunity for a lot of us….who have lost our jobs or have been on unemployment.”

This is her first steady job since 2009. She’s willing to drive all the way from Gwinnett County for it. She will be driving over an hour every day for the job.

Mayor Nancy Denson did say she has one concern about all the new Caterpillar employees coming to the area – all of their yellow and black could override our red and black.