We don't have enough people to fill jobs here and that is making it even harder for employers. So now, they have to offer training and education to attract new employees. With that available, it comes down to this: if you really want to be working, you can.

Ninety-five percent of the companies signed up for it told us they intend to fill job openings over the next six months. So if you come to the Job Fair, you will talk to people who are going to hire, not just fill up their applicants' files. Getting a job - that's the main function of all this.

The whole purpose of this job fair is getting a job. And in this setting, it gets you a one-on-one meeting between a potential employee and a company that is hiring. That's rare in this day and age.

I guess we'll just wait and watch the dust fly. If it does give some people jobs, we need that because they are having some problems.

We've gotten 11 companies with a total of close to 800 jobs (since 1998). That doesn't include expansions, either. We're making progress. We've got the parks, and I think we're as prepared as a small community like ours can be.

We are very fortunate a lot of our staff are returning. Several others are leaving the jobs they've had in the interim to come back.