Fairfield salutes its manufacturing sector

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce showed its gratitude to local industry at the Manufacturers Appreciation Luncheon Wednesday, Oct. 19.

The event was held at the Fairfield Golf & Country Club, and served as an opportunity for the chamber and the community to show their appreciation for the city’s manufacturing sector.

This year’s guest speaker was Krista Tedrow, Executive Director of South Central Iowa Workforce Development Board. Tedrow stressed the importance of educating young people about the jobs available to them locally, and noted that a recent survey of juniors and seniors showed that many did not realize the classes and occupations that they had access to.

Tedrow spoke about the various groups of people that her office seeks to integrate into the workforce, including youth, people with disabilities, the unemployed, veterans, those re-entering the workforce and “new Americans,” a term for immigrants.

After Tedrow’s PowerPoint presentation, local industry leaders took turns speaking about their business, and their successes and challenges during the past year. Some of the common themes that emerged were that nearly all businesses are struggling to find workers. However, a few representatives remarked that the labor shortage had gotten somewhat better the last couple of months.

Some business owners spoke about how their business was negatively affected by supply-chair disruptions, and how it was hurt by the COVID pandemic. They also talked about the new products their company was offering, or about new initiatives it had undertaken. For instance, Nate Weaton of Weaton Companies talked about an “externship” his company offered to FHS art teacher David Kraemer, where Kraemer was an employee over the summer, who then took some new skills he learned back to his classroom.