It would be great to have Verizon locate a mega data center in Laramie. The community should keep its collective fingers crossed that the communications company will do just that. 

According to an article titled, “Verizon considers putting mega data center in Laramie,” that appeared Saturday in The Laramie Boomerang, the data center could bring up to 200 jobs to town. The story claimed that the data center could create 120 computer-programming positions, as well as 80 information technology and maintenance jobs.  

 The data center would be a welcome addition to Laramie, not only for the job growth, but because it would help to diversify the economy of this community. 

The preeminent employer in Laramie is the University of Wyoming; this has been the case for sometime and will remain so long into the future. But if you ask me, the town is too dependent on UW to provide residents with employment. 

That is not to take away from what the campus brings to this community; it’s a source for decent-paying positions that come with good benefits. It’s just that there are too few other employers in town that provide these kinds of jobs and the benefits that come with them.   

If Verizon chooses to locate a data center here, it would simply be another employer that could provide the kind of jobs which pay a respectable wage and accompanying benefits. 

If the center were to be located here, it would almost surely keep some UW students from leaving Laramie after they graduate. The reason for this is simple: the data center would offer good-paying jobs—the kind of jobs most of our graduates have to leave to find.

It would be great to keep some of our best and brightest computer science and information specialist students from LCCC and UW within the community. 

Right now students are spending years living in Laramie, they are having their educations funded by they state and after they graduate they take their talent and education out of Wyoming.

If the center is located here, they would have a reason to stay. 

The center also has the potential to act as catalyst for the creation of smaller, new technology-based companies in the community. 

These jobs could add to the number of small-technology businesses that already exist in town—such as Handel IT, a company that designs database management software, or Thought Equity, a local stock video footage business. 

I would argue that as the data center creates technology jobs it would act as a catalyst to attract other high-tech firms to Laramie and encourage others within the community to start-up their own technology businesses. 

Also, these jobs would help to create other technology-based customer service jobs that vanished when companies such as StarTek and Western Wats left town in the last few years. Not only would the data center help to replace these lost call center jobs, it would create jobs that generally pay more than those older customer service positions.

The fact is if Verizon decides to locate their mega data center here, Laramie would be a better place to live. 

It would create the good-paying, benefited jobs that many locals complain do not currently exist outside of employment at UW. It would keep more of our educated young people in town and in the state. It could help foster the creation of technology-based companies. And, it would bring jobs to town that could make up for others that have been lost due to businesses leaving town. 

So lets all keep our fingers crossed that Verizon locates the data center here.