VIDALIA, La. – State officials hope to know next week whether a computer service center will locate in Vidalia, state Sen. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro, said Thursday. John Bray, an executive vice president with Homosassa Springs, Fla.-based Service Zone, confirmed that the company is considering locating in or near Vidalia, Bastrop, Winnsboro and/or Jena. It is also looking at the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia, Oregon and North Dakota.

The company is considering opening three or four new computer service centers employing about 600 people each. &uot;I can’t promise we’ll make a decision by next week, but we’re working as fast as we can,&uot; Bray added.

If Service Zone does decide to locate a call center in the parish, it would occupy the former Ferriday Kindergarten Center building on Louisiana 15 in Ferriday, said Ferriday Mayor Glen McGlothin.

The Concordia Parish School Board, which owns the kindergarten building now, is set to vote in its Feb. 6 meeting on leasing the building to the Town of Ferriday, McGlothin added.

Service Zone would then move to a permanent building that would be built in the Vidalia Industrial Park next to Alcoa, according to Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland.

&uot;To have them here would have an economic impact on the entire region,&uot;&160;Copeland said. &uot;We’re excited about the possibility of their locating here.&uot;

The opening of a 44,000-square-foot Service Zone center in Vidalia &uot;would be especially great for (the Miss-Lou), considering what’s happening with the paper mill and the tire plant,&uot;&160;Ellington said. He was referring to International Paper, which is seeking a buyer for its Natchez mill, and Titan Tire of Natchez, which has laid off at least 50 people in the last month.

Service Zone trains its workers to answer customer questions for computer hardware and software companies. &uot;Our clients are top-tier personal computer manufacturers, but we can’t name them due to confidentiality agreements,&uot; Bray said.

Ellington and state Rep. Bryant Hammett, D-Ferriday, whose districts include Concordia Parish, along with other lawmakers and Commissioner of Administration Mark Drennen, have met with Service Zone officials in recent weeks.

Vidalia and Ferriday officials are also working with the company to accommodate their needs.

The State of Louisiana has offered to pay $3 million per building to build facilities for Service Zone.

&uot;So if the company decided to build all four centers here in Louisiana, that state would pay $12 million,&uot;&160;Ellington said.

The towns in which Service Zone located would pay an additional $500,000, he added.

In addition to economic incentives and job training programs, the availability and quality of a &uot;client friendly&uot; workforce and the availability of airports within a two-hour drive makes the Louisiana Delta attractive to Service Zone, Bray said.

&uot;There’s a pretty long list of positives, actually, too many to name them all now,&uot;&160;he said.

The company has been researching the area for several months now.

To find out whether the area had enough qualified people, the Ferriday-based Macon Ridge Economic Development Region ran a newspaper advertisement in early June asking interested people to list their education and computer experience.

They received about 200 responses.

It also checked with local employment agencies to find potential employees and compiled demographic information to the company.

Government and economic development officials throughout the Miss-Lou said Thursday that the economic impact of such a facility could not be overstated.

&uot;It would be a tremendous shot in the arm for us if (Service Zone) would locate here,&uot;&160;said Vidalia Mayor Pro-Tem Ricky Knapp.

&uot;It would be great – and we’re going to do whatever it takes to get them here,&uot;&160;McGlothin said.

Andrew Ketchings, executive director of the Natchez-Adams County Economic and Community Development Authority, said the attraction of such an industry would benefit the entire region.

&uot;Any time someone comes in with 400 to 600 jobs, it’s a great thing for the whole Miss-Lou,&uot;&160;Ketchings said. &uot;These days, we’ve got to think about regional economic development. People from over here work (in Concordia Parish), and vice versa.&uot;