Lenoir Data Center Featured in Western North Carolina Magazine

Western North Carolina magazine featured the Lenoir data center in its March/April edition. Writer Jess Clarke interviewed individuals from the community, Google and Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute to craft the article, "The Package Deal: How Lenoir landed a second career."

You can read the article here.

A New Hope With a New Industry

Over the past 26 years in Lenoir and Caldwell County, Paul Bowman has witnessed a transformation.

An economy once tied directly to the furniture industry struggled for years with one of the highest unemployment rates in North Carolina after manufacturing jobs moved elsewhere.

Paul, whose parents grew up in Lenoir, was laid off not once, but twice from manufacturing jobs in the area.

“Just a little more than a year ago it looked like the job market was all but drying up and no new industry would come to the area,” says Paul. “I was looking at a two-hour commute each way to find a job.”

Then came Google’s announcement that it would build a $600 million data center in Lenoir and Caldwell County and with it came a new belief that manufacturing was not the only industry for this can-do community. Paul had been interested in electronics since he was just a boy and Google’s presence in the community reinvigorated his old desires.

“We are witnessing the Google announcement jumpstart this community, as more and more 21st century businesses are taking a second look at us,” says Paul. “Folks are going to school to learn the skills needed so they can compete for these new high-tech jobs. Enthusiastic competition fueled by new industry, that’s something we haven’t seen in awhile.”

For Paul, wife, Tonya, four children and 11 pets, Lenoir is home and while it may have been easier to find a job elsewhere, they never considered leaving. After hearing Google’s announcement, Paul decided to return to school and enrolled in Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute’s inaugural IT Institute where he found the work challenging, but excelled to the top of his class. He has joined Google’s Lenoir Data Center team as a Data Technician Assistant.

Mother Returns to Workforce at the Lenoir Data Center

For Jennifer Crump, Google’s Lenoir, N.C. data center is the most recent in a long list of blessings and hard decisions that helped keep her family in the town they call home.

A lifelong Morganton resident, Jennifer grew up in a close knit community so typical of Western North Carolina. A community she never once considered leaving, even when times were tight.

Jennifer says she counts herself lucky as plant closings, a lack of opportunities and decrease in morale had little affect on her husband, Eric, and two young children. “Many friends and family members faced layoffs at local plants, but our faith helped guide us through tough times,” says Jennifer.

As a stay at home mom, Jennifer dedicated herself to the development of her sons, Aaron, 13, and Daniel, 9, but made the promise to herself that as soon as her youngest son entered school, she would find a job to help support her family.

“The same day I took my youngest son to school, I went to Western Piedmont Community College and enrolled in the Internet Technologies program,” says Jennifer. “The summer I graduated from the program was the same time rumors began circulating about Google coming to Lenoir. Of course, this made me very excited, especially since the skills I had learned were perfect for Google.”

Jennifer made it her personal goal to be one of the first employees to work at the Lenoir data center.

She enrolled in the Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute’s inaugural IT Institute and earned her position today as a Google Data Technician Assistant.