Lifeline Communications Plans to Be Tahlequahâ€™s Good Neighbor

Monday, December 20th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

An Oklahoma-based company is celebrating a major expansion. Amerivision, the parent company of Lifeline Communications, announced in October it would expand to Tahlequah. Monday, the new multi-million dollar calling center officially opened for business.

What used to be the old Wal-Mart in Tahlequah is now home to a growing long distance calling center. Lifeline company officials say Tahlequah is the perfect place to help the company meet its potential for growth. "We're very excited about the opportunity to come to the area,â€ said Lifeline Communications spokesman Frank Drobil. â€œWe're looking forward to being involved with the community".

The plan is to recruit customer service workers and other employees by using paging and Internet services. "There is still going to be some people coming in from OKC, mainly customer service area,â€said Drobil. â€œPrimarily we'll be adding on an additional 150 to 200 new jobs in this area.â€

This is great news for Tahlequah city officials who say the city is prime territory for any company to expand. "Tahlequah is now listed as the 55th best small town in America to live in,â€ said chamber of commerce president Allan Pottony. â€œ We have lakes, the Illinois river, and located right in the heart of the Cherokee Nation. I think the word is out that Tahlequah is growing. Weâ€™ve got four new highway lanes under construction and we're expecting a lot of new growth,â€ he continued.

Lifeline is expecting business growth as well. Company officials say they're already the 15th largest telecommunications company in the U-S and they're going to need good people to help them run it. Amerivision Communications currently handles about 70,000 telephone calls each month at it's Oklahoma city and Tahlequah offices. It expects to double that number in the near future.