State, North Slope Borough Approve Joint Venture For One-Stop Job Center In Barrow
Dec. 16, 2003
No. 04-21
BARROW – Officials from the state labor department and the North Slope Borough have agreed to open a one-stop job center providing state-of-the-art job placement services for employers and job seekers through the Alaska Job Center Network.
Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development Greg O’Claray said the joint venture achieves “the next step toward two practical goals: good jobs for Alaskans and providing employers with skilled workers to meet the governor’s goal of 90 percent or more Alaskan hire.”
Governor Frank Murkowski launched an Alaska hire initiative in November, calling on employers to pledge to increase resident hire to 90 percent or more of their workforce.
The Barrow job center is scheduled to begin operations in January, with a formal grand opening date to be determined in the spring.
The center agreement was signed by North Slope Borough Chief Administrative Officer Dennis O. Packer on behalf of Mayor George N. Ahmaogak. Tom Nelson, director of the Division of Employment Security in the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, signed the contract for the state.
The labor department Division of Business Partnerships has an oversight role through the Alaska Workforce Investment Board. Division Director Katherine Farnham said the Barrow job center could not have become a reality without broad local support.
Farnham added that job center supporters include education, workforce and economic development representatives from the borough, the borough school district and the City of Barrow. Support is also provided by the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Ilisagvik Community College, the Adult Basic Education/GED program, Native Vocational Rehabilitation and Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital.
Nelson said the agreement was finalized during the labor division’s quarterly Workforce Development Council meeting, however, “It became a reality only after many hours of hard work and attention to details.”
“All of the borough and state participants should be proud of making this endeavor a reality,” Nelson added. “They’ve been meeting for more than a year, in the process achieving a close and supportive working relationship.”
The Barrow center is the twenty-third employment services unit in the labor department’s Alaska Job Center Network, including four Anchorage offices serving the Midtown, Eagle River, Muldoon and Gambell areas.
Other centers are located in Dillingham, serving the Bristol Bay region; Delta Junction, Fairbanks, Glennallen, Homer, Juneau, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Kotzebue, Wasilla, serving the Mat-Su area; Nome, Kenai, serving the Kenai Peninsula; Petersburg, Seward, Sitka, Tok, Valdez and the Bethel center serving the Yukon-Kuskokwin Delta.
Members of the North Slope Borough Workforce Development Council gather for a group photo following the recent signing of a joint venture agreement by the North Slope Borough and the Division of Employment Security in the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The agreement establishes Barrow’s one-stop job center in the Alaska Job Center Network. Left to right, front row: Lori Henry, Employment Security Division Director Tom Nelson; second row: Division of Business Partnership Director Katherine Farnham, Vera Williams, Ann McMurrough, Edna MacLean, Barbara Struble, Jeanne Gortz, Harry Mawson, Karen Burnell, Deborah Lynn, Gigi Danner; back row: Becky Crabtree, Brad Weyiouanna, North Slope Borough Chief Administrative Officer Dennis O. Packer, Scott Danner, Andy Baker, Mary Ellen Keeter, Lisa Spurrell, Vanni Prichard.
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