Task force 'back on track'

Community members discuss new employees for area businesses

COLUMBIA BASIN - Members of the operations task force renewed their purpose last week.

During a meeting Friday morning, about 17 people gathered at Big Bend Community College's ATEC Building.

"We've got a lot of work to do, because we haven't even scratched the surface on coming to find new employees for businesses around here," college Dean of Professional and Technical Education Clyde Rasmussen told the audience.

He encouraged those not in attendance to recommit to the efforts of the task force to help solve the issues and problems at hand.

Former marketing committee chair Jeffrey Wiberg has accepted a new position in Yakima, community college Center for Business and Industry Services Director Allan Peterson said, so Bill Chambers and Dave Cooper are taking over in his efforts.

During a marketing update discussion, regarding recruiting employees from those companies elsewhere which are experiencing layoffs, Worksource Business Services representative Dustan Knauss said REC Silicon successfully recruited several employees from a Holland, Mich.-based plant closure with relative skill sets.

"The problem we found is it's difficult to leave an area for people sometimes with a family," Knauss said, noting some people cannot imagine living anywhere but in Grant County. "When you have that kind of feeling about your home and family, and there's a $24 an hour job at REC, it isn't necessarily an automatic."

College President Bill Bonaudi agreed, noting the college has experienced a similar situation, and suggested capitalizing upon the people who have already successfully moved into the area.

There was difficulty in getting people to commit to volunteering time to a booth to market the area at regional job fairs and the like. Knauss said there needed to be coordination with the companies looking for employees.

There are employee shortages in all businesses, and Chambers noted companies have begun to "steal" workers from one another.

"The only way we're going to get these people is bring them in or steal from each other," he said. "Stealing from each other doesn't work."

The community college has begun in-house training for food processing employees, Rasmussen said.

The Grant County Economic Development Council provided an update on a Web site set up to allow companies to advertise position availability and potential employees to post resumes, and the community college debuted a proposed Web site which would share potential student and graduate availability and contact information with prospective employers.

College Professional Technical Outreach Advising/Tech Prep Director Mary Shannon delivered a presentation about an opportunity for a grant of up to $90,000 in funding. The task force elected to further pursue the grant, which has a deadline in early October.

Chambers presented information compiled by Communications and Research Manager Jon Smith forecasting new jobs in Grant County from 2006 to 2011.

According to the data, the jobs created by such construction projects including REC Silicon, Washington Ethanol, Microsoft and the like can result in 743 to 1,280 direct new jobs, with a mid-range of 950, while indirect jobs can range from 1,224 to 1,952, with a mid-range of 1,515. Total jobs can range from 1,967 to 3,232, with a mid-range of 2,465.

The forecasted population growth in Grant County can go from 2006's 80,733 to as low as 94,504, or growth by 17.06 percent, to 97,013, or growth by 20.16 percent. Mid-level range would reach 95,492, or about 18.28 percent growth.

Chambers said the numbers show the need for the task force's efforts. Chambers advised the group appears to have lost most of its industry representatives, and needs to expand back into the whole of Grant County instead of focusing upon Moses Lake.

"We're back on track to start," Chambers said following the meeting. "We're going to have an opportunity to get some concrete plans started and go long-term, because we need to plan for the opportunity of our young people and our returning work force, (which) is going to start coming back to Grant County, because work is here."

Chambers believes more participation will come as the task force progresses.

"We've had previous participation from all the businesses," he said. "They don't want to come in and dominate, they want to come in and join. And they will. They're all willing to, it's just time and opportunity. Some of us make time, and they will when they see the effort."

"We continue with the ideas we had last spring, and we have action items. The action items have been coordinated between subcommittees so we have synergy of actions," Peterson agreed. "We need more participation, but now I think we can start, we're getting closer to where everybody should know what kind of systems we need to put in place to provide what we're trying to do, which is supply work force for expected growth."

The next task force meeting is Oct. 26.