Jul. 1--State and local government leaders are betting that their aggressive efforts to capture Yahoo!'s new $150 million data center for Niagara County will convince other high-tech firms to consider Western New York, bringing investments and jobs to the struggling region.

"One of the problems we've had in Western New York is getting people to pay attention," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., who was here Tuesday for the announcement of the Internet giant's decision to locate in the Town of Lockport. "This is a beacon. The high-tech world pays attention to what Yahoo! does."

Government officials and Yahoo! executives said the region already has a strong, educated, skilled work force, a cadre of colleges and universities, a diversity of possible sites, a fiber-optic network and appropriate infrastructure, and competitive low-cost hydropower -- all of which played a role in landing Yahoo!.

"Lockport and the Greater Buffalo area have all the resources to build and run a world-class data center operation," said David Dibble, Yahoo! executive vice president of service engineering and operations, and a Chautauqua County native.

"There are literally thousands of factors that go into running a data center operation that supports a half a billion Internet users around the world, and New York state and Greater Buffalo hit the mark on almost all of them."

Now experts say the region has to take advantage of them, and of the cache that Yahoo! is bringing, while following through on promises officials made Tuesday to pursue other companies with the same speed and cooperation as Yahoo!.

"The Yahoo! announcement can serve as a beacon for other high-tech companies. But that depends entirely how the relevant economic development agencies capitalize on that announcement," said Blaine Berger, president of the technology and site selection consulting firm E-Oasis in Longmont, Colo. "Sadly, most agencies do little beyond the initial announcement of a name-brand arrival and expect the press coverage alone to

carry the water."

"We have people and we have power, and we need to take advantage of those. We have these lock, stock and barrel," said U. S. Rep. Chris Lee, RClarence. "We have to focus on the model to make sure we can bring more jobs to Western New York."

State, local and company officials on Tuesday formally announced that Yahoo! has selected a Town of Lockport industrial park for its newest global computer hub, investing $150 million and bringing up to 125 jobs.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based technology firm, the world's No.