Samsung Scouting North Idaho Site?

Kootenai County’s economic recruiter calls reports of Samsung Co. Ltd. possibly looking at North Idaho to build a computer chip plant “way overblown.”

Bob Potter, president of economic recruitment firm Jobs Plus Inc., said that the consultant working with the South Korean electronics giant has a package of information about Kootenai County.

However, the consultant told Potter that the chances of Kootenai County landing the chip plant are negligible.

Like many international memory chip manufacturers, Samsung is looking to expand in the U.S. The company competes with Boise-based Micron Technology Inc., which had briefly considered North Idaho for it’s huge chip plant. Micron settled on Lehi, Utah.

According to estimates, the plant would have cost more than $1 billion to build and would have employed about 1,000 people.