Published: May 17, 2008 10:10 pm            

TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORAL: Jobs announcement positive sign for city

It won’t solve our economic problems, but it’s a good step

TERRE HAUTE — The decision by Alorica to locate a 600-employee operation in Terre Haute can be a step toward economic recovery for the community. More will be needed, though.

The California-based customer service firm announced on Thursday its plans to open a center in a previously empty retail building at Plaza North. Alorica begins its hiring process this week. By summer, its largely full-time workforce will be fielding in-bound customer calls for a yet undisclosed major client. Most of the jobs start at $9 per hour, with “usual and customary” benefits, said Jeffrey Sopko, vice president of human relations.

Hundreds of Terre Haute area residents need jobs. With layoffs at Great Dane and the plant closure at International Paper last year, coupled with last Tuesday’s announcement that Pfizer will cease local production in 2009, more than 1,100 people have lost jobs. Of course, Alorica alone can’t fill that void. These are not high-paying jobs. Alorica does, however, give a segment of the population an opportunity to work.

The company’s explanation for choosing Terre Haute also illuminates qualities that could attract more new employers.

Sopko visited the city late in 2007 and spent three days talking with economic development staffers, business owners, college employees and local people. He returned to the company headquarters in Chino, Calif., and told the CEO that Terre Haute was the right place. “I really got a sense of the passion that folks here in Terre Haute have for the community,” Sopko said.

His local tour included stops in the “break rooms at the college campuses.” The college-town status can help Terre Haute — with three four-year colleges, a community college and a business school — lure a variety of employers. In Alorica’s case, Indiana State University, as well as Ivy Tech, made a difference, said Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.

“We’ve had a string of these kind of facilities choosing Indiana lately,” Daniels said, “and I know they tend to go at least near our university towns. So there’s an advantage that Vigo County has that isn’t everywhere.”

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and its pairing with ISU in the Terre Haute Business Innovation Alliance, an incubator for cutting-edge businesses, has the potential to draw engineering-based firms. St. Mary-of-the-Woods College can also add to the local talent pool. The community must secure employers to entice as many of those college graduates as possible to live and work here.

Alorica’s decision is a positive sign, especially because no local or state incentives or tax abatements were used to draw the company. We anxiously await more businesses recognizing the value of locating in Terre Haute.

        

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