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Vitamins for our economy

| March 7, 2014 8:00 PM

It has been a rotten week for joblessness in Kootenai County.

First, Kootenai Health announced its first major patient-centered hospital expansion project in three decades, including facilities for neonatal services that have never been available locally. The best news for local economy watchers is that the $57 million project will require an estimated 400 or more construction workers expected to earn somewhere in the $10 million to $12 million range in a little more than a year of work.

Then the hospital will ramp up its hiring of medical personnel, eventually adding at least 100 good jobs and, over the next five years or so, perhaps significantly more. So short term, the local economy gets a huge construction injection and longer-term, more good-paying jobs with the region's biggest and one of its best employers.

Riding the good-news wave came the story Thursday that Alliance Data is re-opening the former Coldwater Creek call center in Coeur d'Alene. Alliance Data intends to have 200 full-time, fully benefitted employees happily working away by Christmas and, if the company continues its long-term trend of success, could double that number next year.

Nobody should scoff at the starting wage of just more than $11 an hour for Alliance Data customer service reps, either. The company has a great track record of rewarding its best performers, with particular emphasis on promoting from within. Further, The Press did a simple analysis of the company's benefit package, comparing it to benefit studies with public and private entities we've done over the past few years. Alliance Data can't match City of Coeur d'Alene employee benefits, but otherwise, they're on par with the best of the rest.

While Kootenai Health is building an increasingly powerful argument for North Idahoans to never visit Spokane for their medical services again, Alliance Data will reinforce the notion that there is no shame in this area becoming a growing hub for call centers. Would we prefer corporate headquarters with a vast array of six-figure jobs, of high-tech companies moving here and increasing not just the level of affluence but the region's IQ as well? Most certainly. But so would virtually everybody else in America and around the globe. Our region is holding its own in the tempest of fierce economic development competition.

After years of recession and post-recession blues on the jobs front, these positive developments are capable of becoming significant local momentum makers. The Press applauds all the business, community and economic development leaders who are helping Kootenai County forge ahead.