By Mike Gordon, Daily Nexus, June 21, 1972
The expansion of industry and business into the Santa Barbara-Goleta area continued earlier this month as a subsidiary of General Motors, Delco Electronics, announced plans to transfer over 400 employees and their families from Milwaukee to a Santa Barbara plant.
Local Delco manager Camille Shaar announced June 6 [1972] that the Milwaukee workers would move here to work on guidance systems for Boeing 747 jetliners and Apollo spacecraft.
REHIRED
He emphasized that some 80 local residents who had lost their jobs at Delco a year and a half ago, when work on the Apollo lunar rover vehicle ended, would be rehired — if they were qualified for the positions open.
At present, the 266,000-square-foot Delco plant, at 6767 Hollister, occupies a lot of 102 acres. Shaar said that no enlargement of the physical plant was expected to accommodate the new workers, since the GM-owned operation is presently operating far below capacity.
Delco’s Santa Barbara payroll is expected to triple as a result of the employee transfer, Shaar noted. No mention was made of the environmental consequences of moving over 400 new families into the Santa Barbara area, however.
The Delco announcement came hard on the heels of a decision by Allstate Insurance earlier this spring [1972] to build a $5 million office building in the Goleta Valley. Allstate’s plan later was approved unanimously by the County Board of Supervisors despite ardent opposition from local no-growth forces.
