Express Personnel Services of Greeley has expanded to Morgan and Logan counties in northeastern Colorado.

Express co-owner Kathy Egan said the expansion is designed to serve a market that has been largely without sophisticated employment services. The

office was scheduled to open May 1.

“It is a new service to the region, from what I can tell,” Egan said.

But not entirely new. The office will be managed by Todd Simon, whose company, Work Force, has offered temporary-employment services to the

area’s industrial market. Work Force specializes in offering customized sewer cleaning in the area and will continue to do so, Egan said.

Patti Lewis, executive director of the Morgan County Economic Development Corp., said the fact that Express has named a local person with

experience in employment services as manager bodes well for the company.

She said she provided Express with a list of Morgan County businesses and that the company has already had success in obtaining new business.

“I think as they’ve canvassed some of those [businesses] they found out that there definitely is a need,” Lewis said.

She added: “We think that they truly are filling a niche and filling a void.”

Morgan and Logan counties constitute what locals have dubbed the “Northeastern Corridor” along Interstate 76. Morgan County’s population grew

8.2 percent from 1990 to 1995, to 23,729, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Logan County’s population edged up 1.7 percent during that

period, to 17,869.

“It’s a growing market,” Egan said. “There’s a range of businesses, from manufacturing to clerical to industrial, so it’s a mixed, well-balanced

market.”

Express offers everything from drug testing to pre-employment physicals to emergency staffing. The company also offers an extensive array of

temporary employment services.

“Certainly we will be addressing the needs of the agricultural community,” Egan said. Express will offer everything from field workers to farm and

ranch managers.

Egan said she was encouraged to enter the northeastern Colorado market by Debbie Kohl, whose Northern Colorado Title Co. maintains offices in

Fort Morgan and Akron, with plans to expand into Sterling.

“About a year ago at the country club, she sat me down and said, ‘We need you É Get your butt out to Morgan,'” Egan said.

Betty Becker, executive vice president and general manager of On Call Employment Services in Loveland, said she looked at the Fort Morgan market

a little over a year ago but decided not to open an office there.

“There is possibly a nice little work force there,” Becker said. “I found that there was not enough to support a separate office for us at that time.”

But Becker praised Egan and her knowledge of the employment industry.

“They’ve been in this industry a very long time, she and her husband, and if they’ve decided that that’s a good market for them, I wouldn’t tell you

otherwise,” she said.