Snowe checks on stimulus impact

HELPING HAND — Sen. Olympia Snowe chats
with job seekers Kayla Hinkley and Douglass
 Cote, of Buckfield, along with their son, Doug Jr.,
during a Tuesday visit to the Career Center, in Paris. 

PARIS — Just hours before President Barack Obama signed a $768 billion dollar stimulus bill into law, Tuesday, Sen. Olympia Snowe was in Paris, surveying how some of that money will be spent.

One of just three Republicans in Congress to vote for the stimulus — along with Maine’s other senator, Susan Collins — Snowe said she expects the federal influx of cash will drive down the local unemployment rate.

During Snowe’s visit to the South Paris Career Center, Bryant Hoffman, executive director of the Workforce Investment Board, said the jobless rate, now above 7 percent in Maine, is higher still, locally.   Career Center director Jim Trundy agreed, saying that since last spring, when two manufactured housing factories folded, nearly 400 people have been put out of work in the Oxford Hills.

During her hour-long visit, Snowe found no shortage of people looking for work. 

“It’s been rough,” said Geoff Twitchell, of Waterford, who lost his job with Oxford Aviation last week. 

“It’s no walk in the park out there,” he added.  “An unemployment check really doesn’t cover as much as if you were working.  It’s, like, half as much, or less, than a regular paycheck.”

Snowe said the stimulus bill includes money for extended unemployment benefits.  Noting that it also covers 65 percent of COBRA health insurance coverage for displaced workers, she asked each job seeker whether or not he or she had health coverage.

Twitchell admitted that he was not covered, even when employed.

“I made $9 an hour,” he said.  “Health insurance was way out of my league.”

Also without insurance was Douglass Cote, of Buckfield, his partner Kayla Hinkley, and their baby, Doug, Jr.  Cote was let go last month from Yvon’s in Lewiston.  Both he and Hinkley were at the Career Center looking for work specifically because they’d heard about the stimulus bill, and hoped that meant help would be available.

“I’m trying to find something in construction, because I know that’s going to be booming,” said Cote.  “I’m hoping, anyway.”

Employing the latest in beltway buzzwords, Snowe told Cote that 44 infrastructure projects in Maine are “shovel-ready,” awaiting only Obama’s signature to set them in motion.

Other money is earmarked for job training.

“This stimulus money will help people get the skills they need to be right on the cusp of current technology,” said Snowe, “so that we can be really competitive with the rest of the world when this thing turns around.  That’s critical.”

According to Trundy, $1.2 million spent on workforce development in Oxford, Franklin and Androscoggin counties includes $220,000 for skills training through the Career Center.  Under Obama’s stimulus package, that amount will increase threefold.

The only problem, said Trundy, is that the South Paris Career Center has just two counselors, each of whom already handle caseloads of 100 job seekers, each.

“The trick is definitely to find a way to speed this [stimulus] money along in the most expeditious way possible,” said Hoffman, “to make sure employers get the people they need on the timeframe in which they need them.”

Trundy has pointed out that he still has  20 slots open to train displaced modular home workers for new careers.  The theory, he said, is that a federal retraining grant awarded last fall arrived  too many months after the factory shutdowns, leaving eligible workers looking elsewhere for help.

“Unemployment is a lagging indicator,” Snowe admitted.  “It doesn’t really paint a picture of the current situation.”

Still, she said, the stimulus bill, despite it  s unpopularity in some quarters, was necessary in light of the deepening recession.

“Everything’s unraveled very quickly,” she said.  “It’s hard to believe.”

Among the people Snowe met Tuesday was Chris Dampien, of Norway.  A custodian and driver for Sodexo, a food service contractor serving the Auburn Tambrands factory, Dampien had lost his job that morning.

Still, he remained upbeat, as he searched a computer database for available jobs.

“If we broke down and got all depressed at every stumbling block, nothing would get done,” he told Snowe.  “We’ve just got to keep our chins up.  The times are tough, so we have to be tough.”

“Well, they can provide everything you need right here,” said Snowe.  “You’re in good hands.”