Spokesman Review
November 8, 2001
Colville lands new call center
Struggling community to get 30 jobs at new business
Tom Sowa - Staff writer

Spokane—Thirty call-center jobs are coming to Colville, thanks to a full-court press by area groups to upgrade the community's technology infrastructure.

Washington Dental Service, based in Seattle, will establish a call center in downtown Colville, hoping to build the operation to 60 jobs by 2003.

The announcement on Wednesday lifted spirits in Colville and Stevens County, where poor timber prices and the closure of Alcoa's magnesium smelter in Addy have lifted the jobless rate to more than 7.5 percent.

The call center will be the first in rural Washington established under the state's Rural Telework Project, managed by Washington State University.

Washington Dental has looked to expand its state operations for more than a year. It has about 250 customer service employees in the Seattle area.

Washington Dental Service selected Colville after reviewing three state communities, said Vice President Craig Gowdey.

"This was a business decision. What sold us was the solid work ethic in Colville and the business-like approach taken by the groups in Colville, who thought out all the concerns we had," Gowdey said. A key step was the agreement by Qwest Communications to build redundant data and phone lines between Spokane and Colville, said Marty Wold, director of the Tri-County Economic Development District serving Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties.

The decision also reflected Washington Dental's recognition that adding more jobs in the Seattle area would be more expensive than locating them in an area like Colville, said Wold.

The WSU Rural Telework Project looks for ways to diversify the economies of three rural areas in the state: the three northeast counties, the Forks area along the coast and Okanogan County. Wold and WSU learned that federal job-retraining money will be used to help prepare workers for the Colville jobs.

Most of the jobs involve basic computer skills and data-tracking. The first 30 jobs will pay between $8 and $12 per hour, said Wold. The training will be provided by WSU and the Community Colleges of Spokane.

Training will start in January, with the workload formally starting in February, said Gowdey. Washington Dental Service handles about 5,000 claims and customer requests per day. Those calls come from all over the country, with 85 percent originating in Washington, said Gowdey.

This is also the first call center based in Colville, said Wold. Washington Dental Service will use about 8,000 square feet within the downtown Colville business incubator building.

Wold said his goal at Tri-County EDC is helping Ferry and Pend Oreille counties diversify their economies.

Monica Babine, a spokeswoman with WSU's Rural Telework Project, said call-center jobs provide a key entry for smaller communities into the tech market.

"They provide information-based jobs and open the door for other possibilities in diversifying rural economies," said Babine. All job applications will be handled by the state Employment Security Department, said Wold.