Officials from IBM are in Dubuque today to mark the opening of the company’s newest “delivery center” that will eventually employ over 1,200.

Mike Daniels, senior vice president of IBM’s Global Technology Services, is among those on hand for this morning’s ceremonial ribbon cutting.

“We’re up and running as of today. That’s why we’re here,” Daniels says. “We’ve already hired hundreds of employees. By the end of the year we expect that number to be 600. We’re right on schedule and by the end of 2010 we’ll be fully operational with almost 1,300 people on board.”

In January of 2008, IBM announced it would make a $100 million investment in Dubuque and signed a 10-year lease with the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, promising to help renovate the historic Roshek Building in downtown Dubuque for its delivery center. The Roshek Brother’s Department Store opened in 1932, but the 10-story downtown structure became an office building about four decades ago and now it’s been upgraded with “green” technology to make it far more energy efficient.

“Our newest delivery center here in Dubuque will be one of 80 we have globally. We provide advanced information processing services to large businesses around the world,” Daniels says. “This center will serve primarily customers in the United States.”

The State of Iowa gave IBM a package of incentives, including a $12 million forgivable loan. Officials estimate state and local incentives for the project total more than $50 million. The IBM executive says his company also was attracted to northeast Iowa because of the supply of “top talent” graduating from universities in the region.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about having the talent pool and being able to provide these services at a competitive rate,” Daniels says. “So we appreciate all the work that the state and the city have done in working with us to make Dubuque a part of our delivery service.”

Daniels, along with Iowa’s governor, Dubuque’s mayor and a handful of other officials held a ribbon cutting in downtown Dubuque at 9:45 this morning. An outdoor reception was held in nearby Washington Park, as IBM officials say “public tours inside the facility cannot be accommodated” since the center is “operational.”

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is getting another four years at the helm of the nation’s central bank, a move Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s going to “be positive” about, despite some apprehensions. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, says he can’t really rate Bernanke’s performance so far.

“We won’t know for a year if he’s done a good job so far because he shoveled money out of an airplane to save banks and the financial system, and he’s done that,” Grassley says, “but shoveling money out the airplane to solve problems can be very inflationary, in fact, in this case hyper-inflationary.”

He says Bernanke needs to start “mopping up some of the money that’s out there” in a timely manner, or the inflation crunch will be worse than it was in 1980-81. Still, Grassley says President Obama’s decision to retain Bernanke is likely a wise one. “I would suggest that right now when everybody’s nervous about the economy, that you don’t change horses in the middle of a stream,” Grassley says, “and consequently, it would be probably detrimental not to have him reappointed.”

He says it would be a bad idea to further aggravate the situation with the lack of consumer confidence during this time of recession. Bernanke’s nomination to a second four-year term is subject to Senate confirmation.

The parent company of a Lake Mills factory will lay off 400 workers starting in November as part of a restructuring plan. Cummins Filtration says its North American filter assembly operations are being moved to Mexico to keep business competitive. The company may also move operations from a plant in Cookeville, Tennessee.

The company says about 110 jobs will remain in Lake Mills as part of other operations. Cummins spokesman Mark Land says it was a tough decision. He says the Iowa plant has been a part of the company for a long time, and they looked at every option possible before coming to this decision.

“It doesn’t change the fact of what’s happened today, but we are committed to doing whatever we can to help people get through this,” Land says. “We just want folks to know that we understand how difficult this is and this was not something that anyone did lightly.” Lake Mills is about six miles from the Minnesota border in northern Iowa’s Winnebago County. Land says the move of the operations will take place over three months.

He says say the entire filter assembly operation at Lake Mills will be moved to San Luis Potosi, Mexico, starting in November and ending in March of 2010. Land blames the economy and the current lack of demand for the company’s products as the reason the company is consolidating operations.

He says demand is down almost 40% when compared to last year and if the company wants to continue to compete in North America, they need to reduce their manufacturing costs.

Cummins, formerly known as Fleetguard, is a leading worldwide designer and manufacturer of filtration products for heavy-duty diesel-powered equipment.

Story contributed by Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City