The story of Stream's arrival in Watertown actually began six years ago, when the Jefferson County Job Development Corp. began targeting call centers as a primary industry-recruitment strategy. A consulting firm hired by JCJDC had identified "back office" services as a strong candidate for the region. A second consultant, hired to do a more detailed analysis of selected target industries, recommended call centers as the best fit for the community's work force and geographic location.

"We knew call centers were the right fit for us," said James B. Edmonson, executive director of JCJDC. "We started our campaign to attract them in 1995. At the same time, we started doing the things we knew would be needed when centers did look at us. Technology was a key. We knew that if we didn't have high-speed switching capacity, we wouldn't have these prospects."

JCJDC ran advertisements in call center publications, developed promotional materials tailored to call center operators and worked with site selection companies to promote the county to prospective call centers.

At the same time, New York state, through the Strategic Business Division of the Empire State Development Corp., was promoting the entire state to the call center industry. We will probably never know how many brochures, advertisements and phone calls bombarded Stream and other call center operators during this phase, but two years ago, the stars finally lined up for us.

According to Linda Serritella, the director of industry development for the Empire State Development Corp.'s strategic business division in Albany, Stream asked for information on possible New York locations. "We went statewide with this, asking our regional directors to work with local communities and collect the information Stream needed. We got responses from about 20 communities in the state. Stream picked 10 and we started visiting each one."

Much of this was done, by necessity, in secrecy. Most businesses don't want publicity during their search for a site. "The site selectors are clear on this," Mr. Edmonson said. "They don't want their competitors to know what communities they're going into because it gives away their strategic plans."

While our headlines were filled with gloomy news about mill closings and high unemployment, the economic developers had good news that they just couldn't share.

The story picks up with Douglas B. Schelleng, the Empire State Development Economic Program administrator for the north country and the primary coordinator of the Stream effort.

"Sometime in 2000, Linda (Serritella) contacted all the regional offices asking for facts and figures on what our communities could offer. Things like buildings, telecommunications infrastructure, work force demographics, etc," Mr. Schelleng said.

The state's list quickly narrowed to three communities: Watertown, Potsdam and Ogdensburg. "We did a site tour with Stream officials," Mr. Schelleng said. "That resulted in Watertown being short-listed. It was then back and forth, hot and cold with Stream. This summer - they came back and said, "OK. We want to do this seriously.' That began the serious deal-making. Empire zones, incentives, etc."

The years of hard work and investment by local governments began to bear fruit. "They (JCJDC) had done their homework," Ms. Serritella said. "Jefferson County knew they wanted a call center and they knew what they needed. They had the right information on their work force, their technology and the real estate."

Jefferson Community College, through its Center for Community Studies, had completed detailed research into the skills available in Jefferson County, including the vital Fort Drum spouse population. This information, coupled with data provided by the state Department of Labor, let negotiators show Stream that we had a large population of available workers, with a surprisingly widespread level of computer skills.

Our technology infrastructure was also in place. Thanks to the Verizon Diffusion grant, led by the Technology Department at JCC, Watertown had what Stream needed - an advanced telecommunications system called an ATM switch. The presence of Gisco (now Westelcom) as a second telecommunications provider gave Stream additional capacity, as well as a competitive service, helping to keep prices low. The fiber-optic lines provided by Verizon and the Development Authority of the North Country did the same thing with bandwidth, giving Stream competitive choices in the local market.

The real estate piece came together when the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency, JCJDC's financing arm, acquired control of the former Woolworth building in downtown Watertown, identified early on as the best site for Stream. Stream likes to move at a breathtaking pace they call "Stream speed" and they had no patience for protracted negotiations with real estate companies. "They said, "Call us when you get it,"' Mr. Schelleng said, referring to the building. JCJDC got control of the building at Stream speed.

All of this became very public when Stream decided to hold an informational job fair in Watertown, to test the real availability and interest of the work force in the region. Although a job fair sounds like a simple affair, this project turned into an organizational task on the scale of a small war. Before it was over, virtually every public and private element of our community was involved.

Stream officials allowed the job fair plans to be made public only on Jan. 3, with the event scheduled for Jan. 22 and 23, giving economic developers just three weeks to organize and promote the event. If it didn't go well, all the previous work would be for nothing.

"The responsibility for a successful job fair was very much felt," said David J. Mance, regional administrator for the state Department of Labor. "This was a unique opportunity. Companies mostly make their decisions off of economic development packages. Stream, however, wanted to make sure they had an adequate work force before they made a selection. The Department (of Labor) offers job fair services statewide, but usually after a company has decided to locate here. This was the first time we did it as part of an ongoing economic development initiative. This is the largest job fair I have ever been involved with. We amplified every aspect of the program to make it a success."

Mr. Mance credits teamwork by state and local agencies as the key to what we now know was a huge success at the fair. "I have been involved in these community job fairs for 10 years and I have never seen such a strong partnership between the governor's office, state and local agencies and the private sector. There wasn't a bureaucratic bone in anyone's body," he said.

Hundreds of groups and individuals in the community went above and beyond the call of duty to make the event successful. The Department of Labor had ordered a huge banner to hang across the entrance to the fair, but couldn't figure out how to get it strung across a busy city street. "Someone said "Call the mayor,' so I did," Mr. Mance said.

That call To Watertown Mayor Joseph M. Butler not only got the banner hung, but resulted in the city's police force providing extra security and traffic control, while the city bus system added extra runs and extended service to help more residents get to the fair.

Trying to list every agency, group, and individual who helped with the fair would take an entire page of the newspaper, and probably someone would still be left out. Some of the most visible efforts, however, are included below.

The Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce hosted a reception for Stream officials and provided staff to oversee the huge data-entry effort required to keep up with the waves of applicants visiting the fair. In the end, they filled the equivalent of 40 floppy disks with data and e-mailed it to Stream's headquarters.

"We volunteered to do whatever we were needed to do," said Karen K. Delmonico, the Chamber's executive director.

JCC loaned five computers to support the data entry. When the number of applicants became overwhelming, the Board of Cooperative Education Services' Technical Center offered up a complete computer classroom, where 12 people worked well into the night.

Michele P. Gefell, the career counselor at JCC, worked closely with Martin A. Del Signore of the county Department of Employment and Training (The Workplace), to organize training sessions in resume-writing and interview skills. She also set up an informational booth to encourage JCC students to attend the fair and to give them last-minute advice in making a good impression.

Local businessmen Scott A. Gray (also a Jefferson County legislator) and Gary Derouin worked with the Chamber of Commerce to organize a cooperative advertising campaign, funded by dozens of local businesses. The full-page advertisements in the Watertown Daily Times encouraged local citizens and business to support the fair and welcome Stream to town.

I defy anyone to find a downside to all of this. Even if Stream decides not to locate in Watertown this time, Stream or another business like it will be back. We have demonstrated to the world, and to ourselves, that we are a great place to live and do business. Our community and governments can work together and our citizens are smart, skilled and ready to do what it takes to land a good job. State officials have proved their willingness to work with us and bring resources we don't have locally.

During the last few days, I have heard a number of major local employers talk about the impact Stream might have on their own businesses. While they all recognize that they might have to work harder and pay more to attract and retain their own work force, all said they support the Stream effort 100 percent. One city-based employer told me they had encouraged their employees to visit the job fair on their lunch hour. "I don't want to lose them, but this is such an opportunity for us all."

This experience has taught me that economic development can be like watching a volcano. It may appear inactive for long periods, and it is easy to think that nothing is going on. The real activity is out of sight, however, and when it does erupt, it can be small - or spectacular.

As our mills closed and the news appeared ever gloomier, I heard people constantly remark that somebody better do something. That "this place is going down the tubes." Even amid the positive hype leading up to the job fair, I heard people asking one another if north country people would really turn out for the fair. Did we really want those jobs as badly as we said we did?

We did, and someone has been doing something all along. According to Mr. Mance, the turnout was better than he had ever seen before and completely exceeded Stream's expectations.

Although attracting Stream will cost us money in the form of incentives, Stream is a solid company with a bright future and a history of delivering on its economic promises. We taxpayers will get our money's worth.

Now we wait. And hope. Prayer might not be a bad idea either. The Chamber and other agencies are already working on plans to help Stream launch the call center and become part of the local business community. Economic developers at all levels are still at the table hammering out details of the total package. Job-seekers can still complete applications online at Stream's Web site. The work isn't over yet.

If anyone from Stream is reading this, I would like to thank you and your company for giving us an opportunity to shine. If you were impressed with what we have done so far, wait until you see what we can do if you do decide to locate here. Welcome to Northern New York.

Gregory A. Gardner is associate dean of business at Jefferson Community College. His column on business issues in the north country is published monthly in the Sunday Business section.