GILBERT, MN-Twin Cities-based Delta Dental Plan of Minnesota recently opened a customer service center on the Iron Range region that will employ more than 100 local workers. The office is temporarily located here, but the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board says it will work with the local community and Delta to finance and construct a 10,000-sf permanent customer service facility in the East Range/Quad City.

The IRRRB provided a solution to Minnesota's tight and competitive labor market, says Michael Walsh, president and CEO of Delta Dental Plan of Minnesota. The IRRRB can help companies such as Delta, who often need “to move out of state to fulfill employmentneeds,” says John Swift, a commissioner of the IRRRB.

Eagan, MN-based Delta Dental is an independently operated, nonprofit dental services company that administers prepaid dental service plans serving more than 1.3 million Minnesotans and more than 1 million other members in other states. Delta also serves more than 8,700 purchasing groups and is the largest administrator of dental benefits in the state of Minnesota's three public health care programs.