By Monique Roth
L’Observateur

RESERVE – First Reserve Tele phone Communications grew out of the office building it had been housed in since 1953, and now it plans to branch its services out of the River Parishes.

Besides recently moving into a new and spacious building in Reserve, RTC has announced it will be extending its network and services into northern Lafourche parish, serving the city of Thibodaux and surrounding areas.

RTC will be offering Internet, telephone, cable television and fiber optic services to residential, small business, industrial, educational and governmental markets in the northern Lafourche area.

“We are pleased to announce this significant capital investment in order to provide the residents and business owners of Lafourche parish another choice for their telecommunication needs,” said RTC’s President and CEO William Ironside. “As a locally owned and managed company, we understand the communities we serve, and we are nimble enough to provide a high level of service at outstanding prices.”

Ironside said plans to expand into the area started nearly a year ago and the exponential growth of subdivisions and a boom in new construction in the Thibodaux area made it an attractive place for RTC to expand.

Construction of RTC’s network will begin in early February and is expected to be substantially complete by August, with services available soon thereafter.

“By the end of June, people of northern Lafourche will see our trucks everywhere,” said Ironside.

RTC will be opening its local sales and customer service office and network distribution center on Leighton Street in Thibodaux in late spring. The building is known in the area as the old Schwann’s ice cream plant. Ironside said RTC plans to hire Lafourche parish locals to help run the center.

“We’re expanding into northern Lafourche, and we’re always looking for new territories to move into,” said Ironside.

“There’s a number of locations on our radar screen.”