Saturday, May 26, 2001

The Natchez Democrat

VIDALIA, La. – Service Zone officials will visit Vidalia and

five other prospective call center sites in Louisiana during the

next few weeks, Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland confirmed.

&uot;I don’t know exactly when yet, but they’ll be here,&uot;&160;Copeland

said Friday. &uot;We’re encouraged that they’re still looking

at us as a possible site.&uot;

If the Florida-based company, whose centers answer customer

service calls for computer companies, chooses to locate in Concordia

Parish, it would probably be housed first in a Ferriday building.

&uot;We’d probably put them temporarily in the former (Ferriday)

Kindergarten Center on Highway 15,&uot; Copeland said.

The call center would then be moved to a building that would

be built next to Alcoa’s Vidalia Works in the Vidalia Industrial

Park, he said.

Neither John Bray, executive vice president for Service Zone,

nor state Sen. Noble Ellington, who has worked to attract the

company to Louisiana, could be reached for comment.

The capital outlay bill now before the Louisiana Legislature

includes $7.5 million for building call centers.

Service Zone confirmed earlier this year that it was looking

for locations for three or four customer service centers.

Now, Service Zone has said it will build two such centers in

Louisiana, Copeland said.

The company was considering Vidalia, Bastrop, Winnsboro and

Jena, La., and cities in Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Kentucky,

Virginia, Oregon and North Dakota as locations.

But earlier this year, Service Zone announced that it will

locate centers in Andalusia, Hamilton and Winfield, Ala., each

employing more than 600 people.