Telecommuting combines the best of both worlds for many rural workers

Telecommuting combines the best of both worlds for many rural workers
by Jennifer Click

Telecommuting is gaining popularity in central Nebraska as people search for ways to combine a greater sense of family with big-city salaries.

With high-speed Internet access now widely available through many forms ─ DSL, wireless, cable, and fiber optics ─ central Nebraska has opportunities for workers never seen before. Telecommuters can reap the benefits of a rural lifestyle, including reduced housing costs, better student-teacher ratios, and a more relaxed way of life, without a loss of income.

“These things are available in rural America,” said Mike O’Dell, director of marketing and public relations for Pinpoint Communications. “We not only have a quality of life that is not available in big cities, but we have all the technology too.”

O’Dell, who drives from McCook to Pinpoint’s headquarters in Cambridge, can telecommute from home on days when weather makes driving hazardous. He is also attending grad school at Penn State University by Internet, and routinely sets up business meetings with colleagues in Lincoln, Omaha, Denver and Tennessee via the Internet.

How to choose a connected town
Eileen and Rod Golus, who live in the country north of Holdrege, found telecommuting allowed them to choose where they wanted to live. They moved to Phelps County in June after researching areas with Internet connectivity options. They now live halfway between Rod’s parents in Loup City, and Eileen’s parents in McCook so their two young boys can see grandparents more frequently.

Eileen telecommutes part-time as a contract worker for Active Money Management, a company based out of Phoenix that provides investment and accounting services for clients. Rod works full-time as a solution designer for ACI Worldwide Inc., a company that develops e-payment and electronic funds transfer software.

“I communicate on a daily basis with offices in England and all around the world in many different time zones,” he said. With fewer distractions from being in the office, he says he is more productive and has more time for family. He’s worked for ACI Worldwide since 1997, and when the company offered workers the chance to telecommute, he readily accepted.

The Goluses were still living in Omaha when Rod first began telecommuting, but soon looked into taking the opportunity to move closer to family. They had originally considered moving closer five or six years ago, but at that time a move would have meant changing jobs. Now Rod keeps seniority within his company, and has the added benefit of seeing more of his wife and two sons. And neither he nor the company feel there are any big negatives to the program.

“Virtually, there’s no difference between when I was working in the office connected to the local network there,” he said.

Fiber to the Home
Troy Stickels, marketing manager for Glenwood Communications based out of Blue Hill, said the opportunities for telecommuters are endless as technology expands the offerings for high-speed Internet.

“I don’t even think we’ve scratched the surface of it,” he said.

More companies like Cambridge Telephone Company are bringing the benefits of much higher bandwidth capabilities available from fiber optic cables into homes and businesses. Cambridge Telephone Company is busy this summer and fall with its Fiber to the Home Project, which is replacing aging copper wire with fiber optic cable throughout the town of Cambridge. Plans are for the project to be finished by the end of this year. With the higher speed of fiber optic cable, businesses who require the higher bandwidth can consider relocating to smaller towns such as Cambridge and Funk, which already has fiber to every home.

The best of both worlds
Cara Potter had worked out of an office in Lincoln as the director of state government affairs for the National Association of Chain Drug Stores when her mom, who lived in Friend, got sick. She approached the organization about moving to Friend and telecommuting.

“They were thrilled because it was a huge cost savings for them,” she said.

After working from home and losing her dining room table under a pile of paperwork, Potter opened an office in downtown Friend just minutes from her house. She covers the Association’s activities in Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Alabama and Mississippi, while still being very involved in her community. She flies out of Lincoln, Omaha, or Grand Island, and said the drive to the airport isn’t much longer than fighting traffic across town.

“This is the best of both worlds for me because I get to travel to meet lots of different people, but I can also live in my small town where I can walk out of my 800-square-foot office building downtown, walk across the street to get coffee, and walk home to feed my cat,” she said.

And with a flexible schedule and a background in politics, she can lend her expertise to community service projects in Friend, such as renovations to the town’s opera house.

The potential is huge
For others like Cheri Bromander of rural Eustis, telecommuting was a way to utilize her skills and contacts. After 20 years as a veterinarian technician, rural connectivity allowed her to work directly for Professional Veterinary Products, a veterinary supply company. Now, through a DSL phone line and a fax, she works with veterinarians in Pennsylvania, Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Bromander is close enough to Eustis to get DSL, but others further out in the country are still waiting for the technology to reach them.

“The potential is huge for people out in these areas if we can get better technology,” she said.

When Kelly Kezeor left her lab work with the Red Cross in Omaha to move to Holdrege for her husband’s new job as a doctor with High Plains Clinic, she knew she would miss working for the Red Cross. But an idea they had talked about starting before she left soon morphed into a part-time job that she now completes from home in Holdrege.

Kelly sets up educational training for personnel that work with the Red Cross Blood Bank through the Nebraska Statewide Telehealth Network. In addition to giving presentations through a statewide satellite system from Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney, she develops PowerPoint presentations that participants can use on their own to expand Red Cross educational offerings.

“Being out here and still being able to keep in touch with everyone and work alongside everyone has been great,” she said.

All of these jobs didn’t exist in central Nebraska just a few years ago, but because of burgeoning technology, workers can now bring salaries from the big city back to rural America.

“We think that this gives us an opportunity to reverse the outmigration problem that we have,” O’Dell said.

Jennifer Chick is a regional reporter for the Kearney Hub and takes on freelance assignments for a variety of clients. She is a native of western Kansas, now living with her husband and two young children in Holdrege, Nebraska. You can contact her via email at tjchick@q.com.