A Little Cloud Comes to Storey County
Storey County is about to receive a cloud. Not the wandering sky variety, but one owned by Amazon and filled with computers and promises.
The company has begun hiring locally for a new data center at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. A recruiting event on March 9, held at Truckee Meadows Community College, is where citizens gathered to learn how one might earn a living tending the invisible machinery that keeps the modern world blinking.
The jobs include engineers, technicians, and installers, people who know which wire carries the electricity and which one carries the regret.
Officials say the project will bring high-quality jobs and tax revenue for schools, public safety, and infrastructure.
Government officials like that arrangement, since it allows them to announce prosperity immediately and calculate it later.
Hundreds of skilled jobs are expected, with more work for suppliers and contractors, much like prospectors once gathered around a promising hole in the ground, though most of today's gold travels through fiber-optic cable.
Some folks have asked about water and power, which is reasonable when someone proposes filling a desert warehouse with thinking machines. Amazon says the buildings will rely mostly on air cooling, with water coming from supplies already set aside for industrial use.
So, barring any hurricanes or tornadoes, a cloud has settled over Storey County, and it appears to be bringing jobs with it, which is the sort of weather most people don’t mind.
