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Posts Tagged ‘Employment’

Fibrowatt in Page County….. 5 years later

February 27th, 2010 Keith Leave a Comment

Almost visible from any part of the county, there is a smoke stack with white smoke fumming out of the top. Steam. It is just steam what the plant officials said 5 years ago when making their presentation to the county. “We will help this county with their job problem” on Fibrowatt official had said. The poultry farmers are estactic because in the back of their minds, the will be able to make money off their litter. They no longer will have to cleanout the poultry houses themselves. Fibrowatt said they will take care of that. Fibrowatt is Page County’s answer to bringing in jobs to Page County the EDA claimed. Bringing in jobs is what it had done…..

The drive from Luray to Stanley now takes about 45 minutes on 340 because of the trucks coming and going out of the Fibrowatt site. Thats on a good day. About twice a month there is an accident involving a litter truck and a car, where the litter truck has to swing wide to get out onto 340. There has only been 2 fatalities in 5 years. The back roads aren’t as fast either because they have truck traffic as well. Dr. Dale reports another case of a Dioxin Cancer, 5th one this year, 3rd one from the technical center, and its only May.The 20 people who had been diagnosed with this cancer in the past 3 years live in a 5 mile radius of the plant. Fibrowatt still maintains it has nothing to do with it and the EPA says they are borderline with the permit.

The data center that PTS built finally has said they want to move because their employees cannot stand the smell of the plant and the paint on their cars are peeling, even on the David Tong’s 2015 Shelby Mustang. After the Fibrowatt plant was built, any businesses that wanted to settle at Project Clover changed their mind after visiting the site. Cardman says he is still under non-discloser of those companies, but the NVDailey online edition had already printed their names. The home owners are still fighting the tax increase on their homes because the property values have dropped and the county increased the taxes to cover the offset. Taxes per year is approaching 1/4 of the home value.

Cattle production for beef has declined 2% in the past 2 years because of some type of contamination. The farmers are asking the county to cap Fibrowatt sale on the ash and the poultry farmers are petitioning Fibrowatt to pay more for the litter. The Inland Gaming and Fisheries has refused to restock our streams for fishing because the last time they did, all but a few had died. They said Page County needs to clean up their streams.The town of Stanley has just finished the upgrades to their sewar system, so Fibrowatt excess waste will not flood the field and streams anymore.

The jobless rate had dropped to 7%. Not because of Fibrowatt, because a group of citizens had gathered and started to undermine the EDA and went to all kinds of businesses and asked them to settle here. The attraction was Walmart. Now 211 is starting to look like the intersection at 522 and I66 in front Royal. Tourism suprisingly dropped only 1% over the past 4 years. Because from the Drive, at Stoneyman Overlook, the Valley floor looks like Los Angeles. The EDA for some reason is still crying we need broadband while the homes in Jewel Hollow are enjoying their 60/mbps download speed from the Verizon 6g network.

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Homes for Foreclosure on the Rise…what to do next…..

February 24th, 2010 Keith Leave a Comment

I live in a small community. Well actually, a rural community. The community itself thrives on tourism to survive. For those of us that want to live here, if you do not iwn a store you have to look for work out of the county, even if you own your own business. The main paper here is a once a week deal. Pretty much everyone knows what is going on before the news hits the stands once a week. Occasionally there is a good story or two that gets printed. What is really bothersome is each week, there is almost a whole page listing homes for forclosure. Homes that would have not been going up for forclosure if the economy had not tanked and these folks were left without work, or have work, but not able to make the mortgage. There was a jdge in the past year that denied a forecloser to a bank because the bank had previously took some bailout money and failed to ealize that when closing out on other homes. Now, homes are being foreclosed upon because the buyers who have less than perfect credit score, have low income are being enticed into homeloans with a next to nothing down payment, low interest and at closing, are hit with the reality and made to believe that they cannot back out of a deal and will lose the down payment if they tried.

The County at the moment is trying feverishly to bring jobs into the county. People living here with no jobs means the county is losing money also. Bringing jobs here is not the answer. Finding jobs is the answer. But where does on look? If you read the news via the internet, the big cities are the same way.

How did all this come about? One could start pointing fingers, but to tell you the truth, it is our own fault. We allowed greed to take over our society. It was all about making the buck and how to make more. It was about if it took 6 people to accomplish a goal, lets see how 4 does and cut their pay if they do not double that goal. It is about the ones that sits in leather seats that cost about an average workers yearly salary. It is about those that recognize someones bankroll and adjust their costs accordingly. It is about those that realized how they could move the profit margin, but forget how much room they really have. Its about not seeing what ripples are created when changes are made. It is about the man on top saying he will work a year without pay but his bonuses are 4 times that and he does not share that with the ones that done the real work.

What can be done about it? Nothing really. Just ride it out. Hopefully, if you owe money to someone, they will be understanding about the situation. We may have to rethink our lifestyle. Live without something that we think we may not need. This may cause a few businesses to lose some money, but it help you out in the long run. What you can do is take advantage of the “time off” and take advantage of some financial assistance and use that to learn a new skill. Research a field that will see job growth. The biggest one will be the medical field, but in irony, they only take so many a year for classs. If you go into the computer field, get a job specific degree. You do not want to get a degree in webdesign to find out that you needed computer science. Due to increase in online transactions, retailers will have a decrease in hiring sales associates.

I watched a show the other night and there was a guy from Kosetstan. He said he came here to live the American Dream. He came to this country with only $50 in his pocket and now he owns his own home and has a car and a job he loves. Are we too blind to see the same thing?

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Jobs: Where Are They Now

December 1st, 2009 Keith Leave a Comment

Everyday, you hear about it on the radio, read about it in the newspaper or on the internet, that jobs are coming back, the unemployment rate is down, or is it? Just because unemployment appears down that does not mean that jobs are returning. Unemployment rate is actually higher than reported because once a person stops receiving the unemployment benefits, that person is considered “employed”.

This economic downturn has showed one thing, that the people are willing to go back to school to learn a new skill. The economic downturn does not affect just the U.S. I have friends in Europe that tells me of late that if you have a job there now, you are lucky. It is rather difficult at the moment to find work.

So, where are all the jobs? Believe it or not, they are everywhere. The reason you may not have been hired is that employers are now looking for individuals that have more knowledge for less pay. Say you apply for a pet store helper. This works usually involves helping with the restock, feeding the animals and checking on the animals when the store is closed. Job that may pay as much as $7 – $8 an hour. Now, the store owner will pay the same, same chores plus you would need to know what the sales clerk will know, like how to install a fish pond, knowledge about reptiles, birds, etc, things out of reach of a helper.

Here are a few pointers that may help you land a job.

Education:
If you are able too, secure a Pell Grant and go back to school. If you had a career job and was unable to go further because of education, now is the time. School is not the only place. You can also learn online with online colleges. Just like the days of correspondence courses, but over the internet.

Think Out Side the Box:
For some, this is hard to do, especially if you know only one type of work for the most of your life. If you have a hobby, look to see if you can turn it into a small cash flow job. Good at bowling?, golf?, billiards? Seek out a tournanment and give it a whirl. Like computers? Taking photographs? Try your hand there.

Odds and Ends:
Remember when you were a kid, you would go around and do chores for other people, mainly the ones that couldn’t do it for themselves? People still needs help. Not only with chores around the house, but repairs, may be a drive to the grocery store, doctor visits, etc.

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