WALLINGFORD — For anyone who has ever thought about working for the town, here’s your opportunity.
The town of Wallingford, in partnership with HUBCAP and the Workforce Alliance, will hold its first municipal job fair Sept. 27 at HUBCAP, with information about jobs in law enforcement; fire and EMS services; Public Works; utilities, including electric, water and the Water Pollution Control Authority; and office and clerical support.
The town is not immune to the widespread shortage of staff and the inability to find people to fill positions, former HUBCAP chairman Joe Mirra said.
“Municipalities all over the state have been finding it hard to find people like any other business,” Mirra said. “So you have to try to do something a little bit different, and this is what we came up with.”
“We” includes Town Council Chairman Vincent Cervoni, who came to Mirra with the problem.
“This was a discussion we had had,” Mirra said. “Vinny was looking for a solution and we pulled these two organizations together and personnel came down and we brainstormed and we came up with this project for the end of the month.”
They reached out to HUBCAP and Workforce Alliance to get involved and contribute ideas. HUBCAP agreed to host the event and publicize it, HUBCAP Chairwoman Patty Powers said.
“It’s really to bring awareness to the opportunities that are available within the town,” Powers said.
HUBCAP has run job fairs before, but never for the town, she said.
“This is the first time it’s exclusively municipal jobs,” she said. “We have done job fairs before, but it was for the public sector. This is the first time we’re doing one for municipal jobs.”
Mirra said job seekers may not think of working for a municipality when conducting job searches, but they should.
“We want to get the message out about the municipal jobs. They have good benefits, stable jobs, so it’s something worth promoting and recruiting,” he said.
“We were concerned about the shortage of some staff and we thought we would try to do something rather than just talk about the problem,” he said.
The municipal job night takes place from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at HUBCAP Wallingford, 128 Center St. To register or for more information contact Angelica Lozano-Gomez by email at Alozano-gomez@workforcealliance.biz.