Mount Holly, South Carolina is the site of one of Google’s new server farms.  And when I say “is,” I mean that construction has already started.

Nonetheless, Dan McCue of the Charlotte Regional Business Journal reports, “In spite of a response from applicants that he described as ‘pleasantly overwhelming,’ Google has yet to hire a single employee for the site, the company’s point man for the development of its new Mt. Holly facility said this morning.”

Now, I’m no director of personnel, but it seems like this could be a problem.  “We’re exited about the opportunities we have for staffing the Mt. Holly facility,” explained Andrew Johnson, Google’s East Coast regional manager for hardware operations, “but given the unique combination of skills we’re looking for, finding exactly the right people has been difficult.”

If Google’s truly exhausted the local talent pool – and Johnson made no sign to the Business Journal that it had – that would be a bad sign for everyone.  After all, similar facilities are being built in North Carolina and Iowa, so comparable shortages could crop up there.  And if Google intends to bring in lots of employees from outside any of those areas, local inhabitants and the people who arranged those tax breaks could become more than a little peeved.

Then again, this may all be a big to-do over nothing.  Johnson “said beginning in October Google will start the phased hiring of a projected 200 employees at the facility,” according to McCue, and it’s only a handful of management positions that he’s currently worried about filling.  I don’t know . . . it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

In the meantime, we can digest the details reported by The Des Moines Register.  Area lawmakers have apparently arranged extensive tax breaks for a “Web search portable business” that would put at least $200 million into the local economy, and these same lawmakers “have said the western Iowa city is being considered for a $600 million data center that could create 100 jobs that would pay between $50,000 and $130,000 annually.”

Sounds like the stars are aligning, right?

Then, “[a]n economic development official who asked not to be identified, but who is familiar with the project, said Friday that Google has told the state that it will build its next server farm in Council Bluffs.”

Bingo.

Of course, if tomorrow afternoon rolls around and there’s been no announcement, expect to see a lot of sad faces in Council Bluffs, and also at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, which is trying to work out a deal beneficial to both Google and its students.  After all, Google offers what many people would define as dream jobs.

But we expect to hear an announcement.  People of Iowa, polish those resumes.