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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2000)
Page 4 The INDEPENDENT, December 6, 2000 Business Notes_____________________________ _______________ Oregon employers still have difficulty finding qualified employees one occupational group. Sur vey respondents indicated they had the most difficulty filling regular, year-round manage ment, professional, production, construction and agricultural job openings. Sales, service, ployers. Two-thirds of all pri computer-related and clerical vate-sector employers (almost job openings were somewhat 60,000) tried to hire employees easier to fill. during the 12 months prior to This hiring difficulty was sim the survey. Over one-third of these recently-hiring employ ilar across all reaions of the ers reported having a high lev state, but varied somewhat by Computer-related el of difficulty filling either regu industry. lar, year-round openings or jobs were mentioned as hard to seasonal openings in at least fill by a larger share of survey Many private-sector employ ers in Oregon have had difficul ty filling openings during the past year, according to a recent Oregon Employment Depart ment survey of Oregon em respondents in the manufactur ing industry and in the finance, insurance and real estate in dustry than in other industries. Responses indicating that pro fessional jobs were hard to fill were concentrated in the serv ices industry. Sales jobs re ceived more frequent mentions as hard to fill by employers in the wholesale and retail trade industry. Production jobs were mentioned most frequently by respondents in the manufactur ing industry. Over half of private-sector respondents feel that the “na- W est Oregon juggles power supply costs, options By Jim Buxton Congress in 1936 created an agency known as the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), to provide loans to bring electric power to rural areas, and in 1946 to bring tele phones to rural America. The Agency is presently known as Rural Utilities Service (RUS). It was difficult for private companies to bring power to rural areas due to the miles of line that had to be built to sup ply few customers. People in companies to locate in urban areas to do business. Until now, WOEC’s focus has been electric power. Now, it is studying the possibility of History is repeating itself getting involved in high-speed with the coming of the Internet. telecommunications. This is Private companies find it much worth watching. Manager Rus more profitable to provide high sell Green has written an arti speed Internet access to popu cle on this subject in the up lated areas. High-speed ac coming Ruralite magazine. In November Board action, cess to the Internet has be come important because more the directors decided to wait and more commerce is con until after the December 12 ducted over the Internet. No Bonneville Power Administra longer is it necessary for many tion (BPA) meeting to see what rate structures are being pro posed. WOEC is a member of Pacific Northwest Generating The first meeting will be held Cooperative (PNGC), which December 6 from 7:00 to 8:30 means it can either purchase pm at Camp 18 Restaurant, lo power directly from BPA or re cated on Highway 26 at Mile ceive a “slice” of a block of post 18. A second meeting is power purchased by PNGC planned for December 7 in from BPA. It is generally antici Seaside at the Pig ‘N Pancake pated that a larger purchase Restaurant, 323 Broadway. would command a better price, That meeting begins at 8:30 but PNGC is wondering how BPA will treat the “Slicers.” a.m. The tunnel will be limited to Slicers may be treated fairly, one lane during the majority of but costs may be higher. The the work with traffic controlled first “Off Ramp," or opportunity by flaggers. Full closure of the for WOEC to back out of the tunnel is expected for approxi “slice” deal comes during the mately four nights between 30 days after the BPA meeting. If BPA actually meets on 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. schedule, the deadline will be January 12. this area enjoy electric power since the formation of West Oregon Electric Cooperative (WOEC) in 1944. Sunset tunnel repairs scheduled Motorists headed to the coast should anticipate lane re strictions and some overnight closures on U.S. 26 beginning next month as crews perform additional structural repairs to the Sunset Tunnel. The approximately $150,000 project is expected to begin in mid-December and be com pleted by no later than January 15. The Oregon Department of Transportation will hold two public meetings to explain the repair work, provide construc tion schedules and discuss po tential traffic impacts. Rabies clinic at Hum ane Society A low cost rabies clinic will be held in St. Helens at the Hu mane Society/County Animal Control Shelter at 2084 Oregon Street on Saturday, December 9, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Shots will be given by Dr. John Evans of Midway Veterinary Hospital. A second clinic will be Satur day, January 27 and a third is scheduled February 24 (same hours, price, location). The cost is $6.00 for rabies shots. Most other shots are available. Mi crochips will also be available for your pets. All dogs must be on leashes and under their owners’ control; cats must be suitably con tained. For more information, call Columbia Humane Society at 1-503-397-4353. New ttdhq Two people needed for Fair Board seats Two positions on the Colum bia County Fair Board will be open in January 2001. Anyone interested in becoming a mem ber, please call the Fair office at 503-543-4231. The next Fair Board meeting is December 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the 4-H Building at the fairgrounds. Complete Food Service • Poker Machines - TV r I J with 3 months rent at time of hook-up. (Non-Refundable) QUALITY TV PROGRAMMING O u td o o r Life, CNBC, Discovery, Lifetim e, C-Span, History, WGN, WTBS, CMT,TNT, A&E, CNN, The Learning Channel, W eather Channel PORTLAND CHANNELS AT NO EXTRA COST 2-KATU • 6-KOIN • 8-KGW • 10-OPB • FOX 49- KPDX No additional charge for extra TV Every TV can watch a different channel Local - No out-of-state billing hassles Real people to talk to and w ork with No rain delays No equipm ent to rent or buy No repairs to make No fine print No early cancellation penalties No com plicated equipm ent to run Gall 503-429-5103 -ep 1 Specializing in H unan & Szechuan Cuisine A m erican Food Available • Dine In or Take O ut for more information and sign up today! Offer ends December 31,2000 LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED Tu-Thu 11:30-9 • Fri 11:30-9:30 • Sa-Su 12-9:30 669 Mist Drive, Vernonia 5 0 3 -4 2 9 -5 0 6 2 FREE 1st MONTH RENT HOOK-UP BLAZER VISION HBO & Cinem ax also available B J increase understanding of the specific work force issues they face. During this period of rela tively low unemployment rates in parts of Oregon and contin ued industrial transition in other parts, the survey sought to go beyond the “hard data” to find out what employers are strug gling with, what skills their em ployees are lacking, and what they want from the work force development system. The findings above, and many more, are included in a report that is now available in electronic format and in print. The electronic format docu ment is available through the OLMIS Web site: <www.olmis. org/Publications/> in both Acro bat Reader (PDF) and HTML formats. The printed version of the report is available by con tacting Curtis Thrapp at 503- 947-1204 or 1-800-327-3710, ext. 71204; by fax at 503-947- 1210 or by e-mail at Curtis.M. Thrapp@state.or.us. Basic Cable (21 Channels) $22.75 per m o n th Expanded Basic (11 m ore Channels) add $12.60 per m o n th Resfatirabf BEER & WINE BAR NOW OPEN ture of the work” is a main fac tor making it difficult for them to find qualified applicants for their most difficult-to-fill occu pations. Low pay, lack of bene fits, few career opportunities and lack of full-time work are somewhat less commonly cited factors. Location was men tioned more frequently as a main factor by respondents in several rural regions. One-third or more of private- sector respondents said that difficulty finding qualified work ers had lowered productivity, increased cost of recruitment, reduced product or service quality, lowered minimum qual ifications for applicants or re duced output or sales; howev er, almost one-third of respon dents said difficulty finding qualified workers had not no ticeably affected their organiza tions. The Employment Depart ment undertook the survey of Oregon employers in order to Bartender Andy Mattus VERNONIA C.A.T.V., INC.
