County OKs $87K contract to help with layoffs, training

Local official calls work ‘critically important’ for community.


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Clark County commissioners approved a more than $87,000 contract with the Greater Springfield Community Improvement Corporation.

Commissioners were asked by the Department of Job and Family Services to extend the contract for the Workforce Investment Act Adult Program and the Workforce Investment Act Dislocated Worker Program for an additional year through Dec. 31, 2016.

Commissioners John Detrick, Rick Lohnes and David Herier voted 3-0 in support of the contract.

“It’s important because we have a private sector liaison dealing with business individuals, and it’s better communication than having a government bureaucrat in there,” Detrick said.

Horton Hobbs, vice president of economic development for the CIC, said the contract funds an employment services staffer who works in conjunction with DJFS, the One Stop, OhioMeansJobs Clark County to place workers after a layoff from their jobs.

The individual also identifies the needs of businesses and works to place potential workers in training programs.

Hobbs said the funding was “critically” important.

He said the individual in the employment services “coordinates the Rapid Response when unfortunately we have downsizings of companies, so she’s working very closely with Department of Job and Family Services, with Moyno, Thirty-One Gifts and Target as well.”

Officials at National Oilwell Varco Inc. announced earlier this year they would close their Springfield site by the end of the year, affecting at least 150 employees.

Locally, the company was most recently known as Moyno Inc., a subsidiary of Robbins & Myers Inc. That firm was purchased in 2012 by Varco, a drilling equipment company based in Houston, Texas.

Thirty-One Gifts, which pledged four years ago to bring as many as 500 jobs to the area, announced in October it will close its Springfield facility in January.

The closing will affect 74 employees at the company as well as an undisclosed number of workers at Exel Logistics, a local subcontractor.

Target announced earlier this month that it will close its Springfield location in late January 2016, becoming the latest in a string of major retail chains to shut its doors in the community this year. The closure will impact the store’s 103 workers.

Hobbs said officials have been trying to get feedback from Target officials.

He said it’s unlikely that Target will reverse the decision.

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