Clintwood Getting New Business

Clintwood Mayor Donald Baker was "surprised and pleased to hear the news" Tuesday when asked for comment on Virginia Sen. George Allen's announcement that the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has selected SI International of Reston, Va., to establish a call center in his town.

The company provides support services for the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), a retirement savings plan for federal civilian employees.

"We've talked with SI International a couple of times, but we've not been officially notified that they're coming here," Baker said upon being told of the announcement. "If that's so, and I've no reason to doubt it, I'm very happy and pleased that's happening. I was expecting SI International to make an announcement."

Baker said it has been about six weeks since the last talks with the company, and he hadn't heard anything since. During the discussions, company officials had expressed interest in the former Travelocity building as well as other facilities in the area.

According to Allen's announcement, the company will be locating in the former Travelocity facility, which Baker said closed in mid-December. The closure resulted in the loss of approximately 125 jobs. Travelocity had operated in Clintwood for about two and a half years and had a peak employment of about 270 jobs, said Baker.

"I congratulate SI International on winning this bid to establish a Federal Retiree Thrift Investment Board call center in Clintwood, Virginia," said Allen. "This is not only a victory for SI International but also for the hardworking residents of Clintwood who will see new jobs introduced in their community. In addition, the opening of the Clintwood call center will help the Federal Thrift Investment Board better serve its more than 3.4 million TSP participants."

The Clintwood site will work as a complement to the call center located in Cumberland, Md. Initially, the new call center will handle 30 percent of the current TSP call volume, and it is eventually expected to handle 50 percent of the TSP traffic. The centers will provide disaster recovery relief for each other so that callers can continue to receive service in the event a natural disaster disrupts service at either site.

In winning the bid, SI International has signed a one-year contract, with four distinct one-year options renewable at the Federal Thrift Investment Board's discretion. The base price of the contract, plus all four one-year options, totals $18.12 million.

SI International estimates that it will be hiring up to 80 full-time employees as well as several part-time employees when the call center opens for business this fall.

Although employment levels are not expected to equal those of Travelocity's, Baker said all the jobs will be welcome.

"Anything will help. If we can't get 200 jobs, then we'll go for 75 or whatever we can get and maybe something else will come along," said the mayor, who added that he understands from the earlier discussions entry-level pay will be about $8 or $9 per hour.

[imported_Counts]

Not that I am not happy to see Clintwood get this but our area as a whole needs more than just call centers for job opertunitys

[R0cketer]

My honest opinion is Clintwood will never get anything better till there are better roads in there. You want any other kind of business, you have to be able to transport goods in/out of an area with good quality, interstate or near interstate conditions.

You can look at areas that have managed to grow before. Proximity to decent roads is the first thing, then they want their kick backs, then they say well is there people here that can do the job. They know if all the other things are there, they can people there to do the job, even if people from other areas have to move there to take the jobs.

[Merlin]

I think you're right Rock. Excellent roads & transportation system is typically the main draw a location has for manufacturing developments. I actually look to Lee County to begin attracting more things soon with the improvements to US58 all the way to the Cumberland Gap. Dickenson County needs the Coalfield Expressway desperately, but I honestly doubt that much progress will be made on it in any of our lifetimes. That's a real shame.