Initiative could nourish tech jobs
Published 12:00 am Friday, May 31, 2002
The 2002 farm bill may have been massive &045; at nearly $75 billion &045; and controversial, but it also contained a relatively minor provision that may benefit Albert Lea and the surrounding area: the Rural Telework Initiative.
The proposal sets aside $30 million over six years for projects that help develop links between high-tech employers and the rural workforce. Telework programs would use telecommunications to allow workers in rural areas to take jobs with employers who are located miles away.
&uot;Basically it allows technology companies in the Twin Cities, who are in need of highly skilled and motivated workers, to tap the highly skilled and motivated workforce already in place in greater Minnesota,&uot; said Tom Lapic, policy liaison for Sen. Paul Wellstone’s office. Right now companies like Northwest Airlines, Honeywell and 3M feel they have to look for those workers outside the state, and often outside the country, he said.
&uot;This has the potential of allowing people in Greater Minnesota to stay there, reaping the benefits of a high-tech career and life in a smaller community,&uot; said Lapic.
$5 million of the funds budgeted by Congress would be for a proposed National Rural Telework Institute, which would promote and coordinate telework projects in rural areas across the country. The rest would be used to fund regional telework initiatives.
Albert Lea is vying to become home to a rural telework center &045; a workplace where employees for the technology employers could gather to perform their daily tasks.
Three other communities &045; Granite Falls, Crookston and Hibbing &045; are also trying to establish regional telework centers, with statewide efforts to be coordinated by Technology Plus in Mankato, which is working on becoming the National Rural Telework Institute.
&uot;We are excited to be one of these four communities,&uot; said Pam Bishop of Greater Jobs, who will be responsible for the Albert Lea portion of the grant application.
If Greater Jobs became part of the project, they would gain access to $5 million over the life of the grant.
&uot;The intention would be to start out by locating a telework center in the business incubator and then expand it beyond Albert Lea to other areas,&uot; said Bishop.
The business incubator, called the Albert Lea Business Development Center, is a recently opened facility in Albert Lea that plays host to startup businesses until they can make it on their own.
According to Layne Hopkins, president of Technology Plus, organizations in Minnesota feel confident of their chances and already have their proposals ready, and are now waiting for information on how the grant process will proceed.
Technology Plus started the coordinating this morning in Mankato at a celebration of the progress made toward building a telework infrastructure in greater Minnesota, with representatives of all four communities and Wellstone.
While the celebration is not out of line, there are still some things that are uncertain. For one, an exact timeline is hard to pin down, say supporters from Wellstone’s office all the way down to the local level. It all depends on how long it takes the Department of Agriculture to issue the rules for grant proposals.
&uot;We also will need to find out what the community responsibility will be, in matching the gift with our own resources,&uot; said Bishop.
The Rural Telework Initiative was included in the Farm Bill at the insistence of Wellstone D-Minn., and kept there with the help of other legislators, including Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn. and Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn., said Josh Syrjamaki, a staff member for Wellstone. Syrjamaki credits a grassroots effort by many Minnesotans in keeping the initiative alive.
&uot;The key thing to remember is that we in Minnesota &045; from Albert Lea to Crookston &045; are out in the front with this, and we want to stay there. My hope is that we have some funding in place to help with planning no later than this September so that we can really get moving on this,&uot; said Hopkins.