WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Progress at New Prison
Member Center:
Berlin, New Hampshire - June 3, 2009
Educators at the White Mountains Community College in Berlin met with state and federal officials Wednesday to talk about job training. The college will likely play a key role in hiring process for corrections employees.
"We basically design customized training in the area or any business that needs some set of skills that their employees may not have or we respond to requests from other agencies," says Frank Clulow of White Mountains Community College.
The Federal prison is located just north of downtown Berlin. Our cameras were not allowed to videotape construction, but officials say it is about 70 percent complete. When the prison opens in the Fall of 2010 over 300 employees will work within the concrete walls.
"We don't just hire correctional officers. We hire secretaries, and teachers, and cook foremen and warehouse workers supervisors as well. We are much like a small city behind the security of a fence," explains Cathi Litcher of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Berlin's largest employer used to be the pulp plant downtown but that closed several year ago. New Hampshire's North Country has been bleeding jobs-- mostly due to the failing paper industry. Coos County has the highest employment rate in the entire state.
"We will likely need to recruit outside the immediate area, but whoever takes those jobs will leave other jobs that will need to be backfilled so we are hopeful that this will give employment in the area that is needed at a very competitive wage," says Mark Belanger of N.H. Works.
A public forum is being held Wednesday evening to talk about all of the jobs coming to the area. A community desperately in need of them.
Adam Sullivan - WCAX News
