By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – From the time he began campaigning to win election as Slidell’s mayor it has been a top goal for Greg Cromer to bring the best businesses to the city that would offer high-paying jobs.
Cromer always spoke about bringing tech companies here since many of them have career jobs that “would allow our children to come home to get a job and raise their family here.”
Cromer has already made good on his promise for recruiting the right businesses to Slidell with a host of new companies, particularly the biggest announcement so far when it was recently revealed that Amazon will be building a distribution center on Old Spanish Trail with starting pay at $15 an hour, plus great benefits. Cromer said construction is already underway with a goal of being open and operating in the first quarter of next year.
Now Cromer confirmed work that is underway to build a “fiber ring around the city” that will allow any companies in or close to Slidell to easily access high speed Internet.
“That means a lot of companies would find it attractive to relocate here,” Cromer said. “There are many small hi-tech companies that currently operate out of Stennis or Michoud, but they could see that we might have a better situation for them to be in Slidell.
“These are the kinds of companies that offer good jobs, the chance to move up and make really good money,” he said. “I call them career jobs for our local families.”
The city has contracted with Camellia Fiber, a local IT company that was already hired by the city to manage IT resources, including software updates and any other computer or Internet related issues the city has.
Cromer said that before he directed the city to focus on upgrading its tech capabilities, “the city didn’t have Wi-Fi for our employees, and we had servers that were so old we couldn’t load new software on them.”
Cromer said some of the city servers were as old as 2003, so in his first term the mayor has already directed monies to upgrade city computers and servers, purchasing most laptops that will be mobile for workers, especially during storm situations.
“Now we finally have high tech computers for the city and when we get this fiber ring completed around the city we will also have Wi-Fi available for our folks when they are in city parks. If there is a hurricane and you lose service at home you can drive up to a park and get on the Internet,” he said.
Cromer said he is continuing to reach out to potential businesses that may move here, and is especially looking at other distribution centers like Amazon.
“Distribution centers are such clean businesses to bring in,” he said. “I’m in discussions with several companies about that, and also actively engaged with some tech companies.”
Cromer has taken it all a step further so the city would be ready as he recently took a trip to Hattiesburg for a meeting with a company that builds distribution center buildings.
“If we had a couple already built and ready to be used here it would make us even more attractive to draw some of those companies,” he added.
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