VIDALIA, La. – Florida-based Service Zone did not announce Monday whether it would locate a 600-job computer customer service center in Concordia Parish.

&uot;We haven’t heard anything today, but I&160;would expect that we would by the latter part of this week,&uot;&160;Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said Monday afternoon.

Service Zone &uot;hasn’t told us anything today. Maybe they will Tuesday,&uot; said state Sen. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro, who has worked with other local and state officials for almost one year to attract the company to the area.

John Bray, an executive vice president with Homosassa Springs, Fla.-based Service Zone, could not be reached for comment Monday. The company is considering opening three or four new computer service centers employing about 600 people each.

On Thursday, Bray confirmed that the company is considering locating in or near Vidalia, Bastrop, Winnsboro and/or Jena. It is also looking at the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia, Oregon and North Dakota. Service Zone trains its workers to answer customer questions for computer companies.

If Service Zone does decide to locate a customer service center in Concordia Parish, it would be located at the former Ferriday Kindergarten Center building until a facility could be built in the Vidalia Industrial Park.

A $1.2 million training center could also be established at the former kindergarten building for Service Zone – if the company decides to locate in Concordia, and if the parish receives a grant for the project.

Parish leaders have been working for two months to apply for a $1.2 million state grant that could fund any program using technology to fight poverty.

That could be used to staff and equip a facility to train Service Zone employees, said grant consultant Oliver Schultz. The grant application must be postmarked on or before Wednesday, &uot;so really we need to hear about Service Zone Tuesday,&uot;&160;he said.

If the company does not decide by Wednesday, the grant will be used to equip mobile computer training centers that would be used to teach computer skills to small children, the elderly and those in single-parent homes, Schultz said.

Local and state officials have met with Service Zone officials in recent weeks to pitch northeast Louisiana as the perfect site for the center and to offer the company incentives.

For example, the state has offered to pay $3 million per building to build facilities for Service Zone. The towns in which Service Zone located would pay an additional $500,000.