A Service of The Arrow           Friday December 17, 1999 7:52 PM

By: Jib Bennett

ARROW STAFF

For months, the Gateway West Mall parking lot has been a vacant asphalt wasteland, devoid of all but the movie-going crowd. But, with a large technical support company called Stream International showing interest in building a new branch there, you may want to reserve your own parking space early.

“The open house brought in about 600 people,” said Mert Webb, of Jobs Now, about the recent open house Stream hosted to poll interest in the community. “And add that to the 400 or more people who applied on the Internet, that's a lot of people.

“Stream would probably hire about 500 people, from low-level maintenance to high level management.”

Stream is a technical support business based in Canton, Mass., with a 6,000 person employee base. They deal mainly in Internet and telephone support for major corporations. The company has shown interest in moving into 50,000 square feet of unoccupied space in the mall.

“I'm pro-local business,” said junior Sean Nalty. “But, our local economy has taken a downturn, and with that number of jobs, it could be a good booster for our economy.”

Stream also has a very charitable reputation, and is known for giving back to the community. Every 13 months, when the company updates its hardware, they give all used computers and computer equipment to charitable organizations in the community. Stream is focused on smaller, more isolated communities, so when they train employees, they won't have to worry about them leaving for other jobs which may pay more.

“We've been working with them for the past two months,” said Joe Unterreiner, director of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce. “They seem to be a real class act.”

The Kalispell Planning Economy and Community Development Department has said that if Stream were to move in, the local unemployment rate could drop by one percent. Stream is looking for people with computer experience and the ability to navigate the Internet.

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