MICHAEL SCHWARTZ/Courier-Post
Thomas Jenkins of the Camden County Workforce Investment Board watches as Ann McIntyre works on a computer at the new Business Resource Center.
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By JOSEPH BUSLER
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN
For Ann McIntyre, the new Business Resource Center here is a godsend.
"We were able to meet with our contractors here and to send out faxes. We have been introduced to different government officials whom we need for what we do," said McIntyre, board chairwoman of Building Affordable Communities and Housing in New Jersey Inc., which acquires and rehabilitates abandoned homes in the city's Centerville section.
For Aaron Bocage and George Waters, the principals of EDTEC of 313 Market St., Camden, a management consulting, professional education and information technology company, the services the center offers will be invaluable to the small business owners and entrepreneurial students among their clientele.
The center, the first of 18 across the state, officially opened Monday with a short ceremony attended by state Labor Commissioner Albert G. Kroll. Kroll said 10, including Camden's, will be in operation by June 30 and the remaining eight, by the end of the year.
The Camden center, in a complex of state and county offices, provides virtual office services for small business owners, who can book meeting rooms and use the office equipment.
A coalition of the One Stop Career Center, the Camden County Workforce Investment Board, the Rutgers-Camden School of Business, Camden County College, N.J. Department of Labor and Camden Chamber of Commerce created and supports the center. It offers small businesses services that include job applicant screening, small job fairs, information on customized training for employees and Small Business Administration access.
The Rutgers-Camden Business Incubator also provides office services, including leased space, for fledgling businesses.
"But those are high-tech businesses," said William W. Reynolds Jr., executive director of the William G. Rohrer Center for Management & Entrepreneurship at Rutgers-Camden, which operates the incubator and was also a partner in the development of the Business Resource Center.
"The center is for low-tech businesses. It's for the guy who has a Sheetrock business and works all day, then does the books at night on his kitchen table."