By GAYLE WEBER

gweber@dailynews.net

RUSSELL -- About 100 people gathered here Thursday to hear a proposal for a TeleWork center that could bring jobs to the town.

Jim Beatty, president of NCS International, a corporate site consultant firm, is working on a new initiative to bring corporate support jobs to rural communities.

"It's a new concept, and we're willing to try it," said Cindy Wallace, Russell County Economic Development director.

A TeleWork center would allow individuals to work from home or from a remote office in communities such as Russell. Individuals would be employed by national companies in areas such as customer service, sales, accounting, medical transcription or a host of other jobs.

"I have no guarantees," Beatty said. "I have no companies in my hip pocket that are saying they want to do this right now. I've got to convince people to do it."

Thursday's meeting was intended to gauge the amount of community support for the project, which was more than expected, according to Wallace.

"It shows that there is an interest out there for some other types of jobs," she said.

Beatty also will take into account available sites for office space and potential employees' skillsets in order to market Russell as a potential site for a work center.

Many Russell residents have worked at Contact America in Victoria, and Beatty said skills developed at the telemarketing company could be useful in a TeleWork center.

Russell would be one of the first rural communities to have such a center, if one materializes.

"It could be a year-long or year-and-a-half long process," Wallace said.

TeleWork centers exist in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, where staff is employed by the federal government.

Technical requirements for such a center are high-speed Internet access, computers and phones lines.

Rural Telephone has been in contact with Beatty for more than a year to create jobs in northwest Kansas because all aspects would be available.

Beatty will be working in the next few months to compile the information provided at Thursday's meeting in order to begin marketing Russell to companies in the summer.

"If we even get three, four or five jobs, that's a success," Wallace said. "It would be wonderful to get 30, 40 (or) 50 jobs."

Russell County's unemployment rate is at 4 percent, but Wallace said jobs are needed.

"I know there's an awful lot of people who have to drive," she said. "Some of them want to stay closer to home.

"With the economic situation, I think everybody is either looking to try to better themselves or find a second job to supplement their income."

Beatty said he couldn't determine what job security would be like with the TeleWork center but said he would be looking for companies with experience researching or working with the TeleWork concept to improve chances the center would be committed to Russell.

Rural Telephone is picking up a majority of the consultant fees required by Beatty, with economic development doing most of the leg work for the project.