The city and county work very close together anyway, and our job together is to promote industry in any way we can. This would have been too big of a project for any one department, so it has been a benefit to combine resources.”Cherrie Haney, Director of Cullman County Economic Development
HANCEVILLE – The first pleasant day of the past week was spent for many with the hope of landing a new job with three Cullman area industry leaders Topre, REHAU and Yutaka. Both city and county officials came together, with the help of Wallace State, to fill positions and put more Cullmanites to work.
“It’s been a good day so far,” Cullman Economic Development Agency Director Peggy Smith said.
“All of the companies have been pleased with the quality of applicants today. The facility here at the Wallace Nursing Building has been wonderful, it’s been so easy and there are a lot of rooms for privacy. We have upstairs and downstairs rooms for interviews and the computer lab for those that didn’t pre-register.”
While the number of attendees was a little short, Smith said the turnout was still tremendous and well worth the effort.
“We had far more people to pre-register than we expected, and fewer than expected to walk in,” said Smith.
“The weather hasn’t exactly cooperated, but we still had a steady stream of people coming in and interviewing. The employers have been pleased with the amount of people that pre-registered, so I feel that we as a committee have done a good job of getting the word out.”
Director of Cullman County Economic Development, Cherrie Haney, concurred with Smith that the weather played a role in some applicants’ attendance, but was also happy with the progress made.
“We have interviewed quite a few people today,” Haney said.
“The city and county work very close together anyway, and our job together is to promote industry in any way we can. This would have been too big of a project for any one department, so it has been a benefit to combine resources. Also the industries have come in, and the staffing agencies have come in to help and provided food. It really just all came together.”
The first job fair of this type for Cullman went well and with very few glitches, according to Peggy Smith. With over 800 applicants pre-registered and approximately 140 jobs to fill with more on the horizon, the job fair was a tremendous success.
“I really want to stress that while this fair was for these three companies for the first one, we suspect that we have several more in the future,” Smith said.
“We want people to keep an eye and ear out for those future fairs where they may have another opportunity.”
For more information, contact Cullman Economic Development Agency at 256-739-1891 or Cullman County Economic Development at 256-737-0793.
