Thread: FL-Long odds for applicants vying to build FPL solar plant

Pretty long odds for applicants vying to build FPL solar plant
By Eve Samples

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The odds are better than picking all five Powerball numbers - but still pretty slim.

Of the 8,000 or so job-hunters that flooded tiny Indiantown in April with hopes of landing work building a solar-power plant, about 50 to 100 could get offers in July.

That's when Lauren Engineers & Constructors - the contractor overseeing construction of Florida Power & Light Co.'s solar-thermal plant - expects to need the first batch of employees, mostly concrete helpers and finishers.

The July start date is tentative and depends on when supplies are delivered to the Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center west of Indiantown, said Toyanna Platt, Martin County branch manager for Workforce Solutions, the Treasure Coast workforce group that coordinated the job fair.

It's not clear when a second batch of workers will be needed - or how many will be hired, she said.

Workforce Solutions screened most of the 8,000 applications for Lauren.

Applicants who don't have the right stuff for the solar plant still might get a call from the workforce board - to offer training or a position at another project, Platt said.

Abeline, Texas-based Lauren expects to hire about 1,000 workers over the course of the two-year construction project.

For skilled trade workers, the pay is expected to start at $20 an hour. Lower-skill positions will start at $9 an hour.


More than three years after Hurricane Wilma tore the roof off Island Water Sports' building in downtown Jensen Beach, the 27-year-old surf shop is celebrating its reopening.

The owners are restocking kayaks, surfboards and skim boards - and slowly watching their customers return to their old location on the shore of the Indian River Lagoon.

"It was very hard," said co-owner Chris Cea. "We lost a lot of the following."

In the years since Wilma struck in October 2005, the business has moved to four locations.

The moves drained the resources of the owners, who didn't get any assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the U.S. Small Business Administration, said Kristen Nielander, who co-owns the shop with Cea and her husband, Ted.

"We got turned down completely," Kristen said.

And the owner of their 1,400-square-foot building, LeAnn Slafter, encountered time-consuming hurdles as she applied for Martin County permits to rebuild the 1901 structure.

Now, the shop intends to stay put.

"This is where it started in 1982, and this is where we'll continue to be, God willing," Kristen Nielander said.

The grand reopening is Saturday.

Eve Samples covers Treasure Coast business. Contact her at The Palm Beach Post, 2101 S. Kanner Highway, Stuart, Fla. 34994; (772) 223-3559; or eve_samples@pbpost.com.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/busines...scol_0525.html

I am so ashame of country's elected officials.

The odds are better than picking all five Powerball numbers - but still pretty slim.

Of the 8,000 or so job-hunters that flooded tiny Indiantown in April with hopes of landing work building a solar-power plant, about 50 to 100 could get offers in July.