When Community Safety, a Minneapolis-based fund-raising company, went looking for a new home, Ironton was quick to lay out the "welcome" mat.

The organization has begun setting up shop on North Second Street and hopes to begin employing as many as a dozen people soon, with dozens more hopefully added throughout the year.

Now in its 15th year, Community Safety performs fund-raising services for non-profit organizations throughout the country. Most of their business is conducted via the telephone with follow-ups utilizing mailings.

Mike Callan, president of the company, said that now that the decision has been made, he can't wait to begin work here.

"We are eager and anxious to get our activity underway in Ironton," Callan said.

Revising numbers that had been previously supplied, Callan said that the office planned to hire approximately 14 to 16 employees out of the gate, then as many as 50 or 60 once the office was fully operational if all goes well.

"It has proximity to the markets we were looking to work in connection with, namely Kentucky and Ohio," Callan said.

"We felt that we would be able to attract employees to work on the program there."

"Also, one of my associates went down there and spoke with city officials and they were eager to assist us, so we felt that the area was a hospitable one, and one that would be very beneficial to our business."

Operations Manager Greg Bryant, an Ironton resident, said he pushed hard to have the business located in his home city but that the property's owners really helped seal the deal.

"Steve Bartram and Guy Spriggs really bent over backwards to make the lease work, because this building it a lot larger than what we need to start out with," Bryant said.

Bryant said that the other major factor in the decision was the welcome that the company received in the city.

"Everywhere you went in Ironton was just like 'We really want the jobs.' The (Community Safety executive) when we were leaving to take him back to the airport, he said he had never seen such pride in a city that wanted to bring a workforce here. So the people of Ironton were really a deciding factor."

Ironton's will be one of seven branches that Community Safety operates throughout the country. Applications are being accepted at the Workforce Development Resource Center, 120 N. Third St.