Job Fair

I could not resist a visit to the job fair at SJC on Wednesday. There were 39 employers represented, an excellent turnout because the original goal was to have at least 24. At the halfway point 75 job applicants had attended but only about 20% were SJC employees or former employees.

I enjoyed talking to the people representing the companies. I learned that the Flying J station at exit 201 plans to close down at the end of summer, level their site, and rebuild it. The construction is expected to take about 100 days.

Urban Forest Products is located near the Newton County Landfill and uses methane from the landfill. I had always heard that they made egg cartons but was told that they made egg flats and the cardboard cup holders that McDonalds uses but no cartons.

Omni Forge south of Remington makes auto parts. Dupont in Remington (formerly Solae)  makes things from soybeans but does not use locally grown soybeans. The soybean oil they use comes from facilities in Illinois or Ohio. Vanguard in Monon pulls in workers from a wide area, with some commuting from Illinois. Fair Life was there and I learned that the only product they make locally is Greek yogurt.

I hope the event was successful enough so that more job fairs will be held in the future.

As I arrived I saw a Pepsi truck loading up the soft drink dispensers that were used in the cafeteria and another company loading up the ATM machine that was in Halleck. As I left I noticed workers removing air conditioners from Merlini Hall.

This morning Town and Country paving was finishing up the paving of Grace Street.

A little later in the day the same company but a different machine was paving the parking lot of the new O'Reilly Auto Parts Store.

The fence around the high water treatment plant was finished today. Below is a picture of it a few hours before it was finished.

After SJC announced that it was suspending operations, a group of concerned citizens was organized by the extension office. They met again on Wednesday afternoon. There was not a lot of new information available from the group, though one person said to expect an announcement soon about a new person overseeing the restructuring operation. About twenty employees will be staying on past June, some to the end of August.

The facilitator for the meeting brought a printout of a lengthy powerpoint presentation prepared by the Purdue Center for Regional Development. It had some interesting statistics, though I wonder about the accuracy of some of the numbers. In 2014 there were 11,479 people employed in Jasper County. 47% of them lived in Jasper County and 53% lived outside the County. There were 15981 people living in Jasper County who were employed. Only 33.8% of them were employed in the County and 66.2% were employed outside the County. A lot of people commute significant distances.

I forgot to mention on my post on the last City Council meeting that Amtrak will continue service to Rensselaer for at least the next two years. The State Legislature allocated $3 million for each of the next two years to subsidize the service of the Hoosier State line that runs from Indianapolis to Chicago four days a week. (The other three days we are served by the Cardinal.)