PAPILLION, Neb. — The city of Papillion is adding a new "friend".
The new Facebook Papillion Data Center is up and running after a couple years of construction.
"The construction workers were primarily local contractors, I think they did have to bring in some people from out of state to be able to make sure they stayed on track with their schedule," Governor Pete Ricketts said.
That construction process called for one thousand construction workers, most of them local.
"We pay particular attention from the day we come here to source labor as locally as possible, to source materials for this building as locally as possible," Facebook VP of Infrastructure, Rachel Peterson said.
But the job opportunities don't stop there.
"Facebook is committed to this community and investing in it's long-term viability," Peterson said.
"We'd like to see that relationship develop even further and have maybe more Facebook jobs here in Nebraska," Governor Ricketts said.
Economist Ernest Goss said that because of its brand and size, the number of jobs that Facebook will bring to the area should double.
"It will create job opportunities, for example every one job that's produced or provided by Facebook, there will be an equivalent or another job outside of Facebook," he said.
The facility currently employs 100 employees.
"From running the actual servers and making sure that Facebook is online and serving traffic to running the facility here. You can see here a lot of the facility is pretty technical and pretty complex. We have electricians, mechanical specialists, H VAC specialists," Peterson said. "Security, culinary, everything we have to do to keep the lights on here."
And even though the facility is up and running, construction will continue for the next four years, continuously providing more job opportunities.
"Employing hundreds of construction workers on site each day and then we'll be doing that through 2023. We expect to hire over 200 full-time operational jobs when the facility is completed," Peterson said.
In Dixon County, a wind farm powers 100 percent of the facility. This wind farm creates a whole other plethora of jobs.
"That project alone brought more than 300 jobs and millions of investment to that area,"
The data stored in this new facility are people's memories and stories from all over the world.
And while the new employees take care of your photos and memories, with new jobs, they'll maybe have the chance to create their own.
"It's part of the American dream to be able to send their kids to school go on that family vacation and enjoy their good life here in Nebraska. And it's made possible by job opportunities like Facebook is creating, Governor Ricketts said.
