Lt. Governor visits Santa Rosa business
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com
Gulf Breeze resident Rodney Gargus doesn't mind driving to East Milton every day for work, he says the 30 mile trip is worth it. He is one of a group of 35 people who recently began training at the new Clearwire Wireless Broadband Technical Service Center in Milton.

Kottkamp

"I've driven up to one hour for work before," said Gargus, 24. "If you enjoy the job, it's worth it, there's more money here and more potential to move up."

Much of the work at the service center will focus on wireless modem technical support, customer setup, troubleshooting, and billing. The new service center is expected to employ over 400 people with higher than average wages within the next year. Florida Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp was on hand for the grand opening ceremonies at the Milton Industrial Park on April 19.

"This is the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people. It's just so exciting to have this effort, this hard work, all come to fruition for the opening of this great facility in this great community, Kottkamp said. "This is something that we try to do all over Florida, trying to improve the economic climate, not just for today but for tomorrow. A big part of that is making sure that we provide job opportunities for the future. We're very focused on bringing great companies like Clearwire to this state and to communities like this one."

County Commissioner John Broxson of Gulf Breeze commented on the countywide economic impacts of the industrial parks' newest arrival.

"Santa Rosa County is a great place for industry," Broxson said. "Whatever is good for Santa Rosa County is good for Gulf Breeze, Jay, Pace, Milton and all the smaller communities… Jobs are going to be here because we have the availability of land."

Clearwire management expects the facility to be taking calls by the end of April. Clearwire is a wireless highspeed Internet access provider offering Internet solutions to residential and small business customers. The company currently operates in 37 markets, covering more than 350cities in 12 states and four countries.