Apr. 13—Cass County residents looking for employment have a new resource to help their job search.
"There is plenty of work available," said Deb Spencer, president of Cass County Staffing Solutions (CCSS). "We have more positions right now than we have employees."
CCSS, at 908 W. Broadway, is a new organization focused on helping Cass County residents find work. They officially opened Wednesday morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Logansport Mayor Chris Martin, Logansport Cass County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bill Cuppy and business leaders from around the area.
Spencer is a familiar face to them. She has been helping locals find employment for 29 years, first at Numbers and Words, where she went from administrative assistant to vice president of operations.
When the owner of Numbers and Words decided to retire, Spencer took it as a sign to go out on her own.
Spencer draws on her previous work experience and relationships in the community to help find others work. She's already finding satisfied customers.
"It was fantastic to work with Deb," said Nikki Ellington, banking center manager at Horizon Bank, during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. "She screened the applicants for the ones she felt would be the best fit for us and we took it from there. (Horizon's recent hire) came on as a temp, and she did such a great job that she is now full time."
Spencer said CCSS works with businesses in the clerical and manufacturing fields.
"Our goal is to get them hired by clients," she said. "We do both temporary and permanent placement. Some are just strictly temporary to cover vacations, maternity leaves. But ideally we would like to get them hired by our client as a permanent employee."
Spencer said the biggest challenge she has faced so far was finding enough employees to fill the many job openings in the area.
CCSS is currently hiring for positions such as factory and production, assembly, machine operators and warehouse workers. All shifts are available.
Those looking for work may call the CCSS office at 574-398-4694 or stop in from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Mayor Chris Martin said during the ribbon-cutting that CCSS is another example of the Logansport community stepping up to care for the community.
"We have people in this community who surround each other with support and it's amazing to see," he said. "We're not seeing big box stores take over our community anymore. It's now our locals. I'm so happy and so proud of this community because there is so much pride here — why do we want to leave?"