Port Authority director encourages job talk on holiday

• Available jobs: computer programmers, information technology, electrical engineers, skilled trades.
• Chromocare, in Heath, and Jeyes, in New Albany, are two companies looking to fill positions.

NEWARK - If discussions about sports, politics and religion become heated family arguments at the Thanksgiving dinner table, parents might consider talking to visiting children about moving back to live and work in Licking County.

Rick Platt, executive director of the Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority, suggests parents take advantage of the holiday opportunity to let their sons and daughters know about the many job opportunities in the area, possibly bringing them back home.

"I call it activating the mom network," Platt said. "Steer the conversation to all the things happening here and jobs available. There's hard-to-fill jobs that maybe the mom network can help fill. Homesick people, if they learn about an opportunity, we have a chance to reverse that brain drain."

Windy Murphy, supervisor of business services for OhioMeansJobs/Licking County, said opportunities here include positions for computer programmers, information technology professionals, electrical engineers and skilled trades workers. She encourages checking out ohiomeansjobs.com for the latest information.

Amazon announced last week it plans to build a distribution center in Etna Township, in southwest Licking County next to Interstate 70, where it will employ as many as 1,500 people. Amazon subsidiary Vadata plans to construct a data center in the Licking County section of New Albany, as well as in Hilliard and Dublin.

Southgate Corporation and the Port Authority continue to build speculative buildings in the James Parkway-Kaiser Drive area, where xperion, Mistras and Aerial Corporation have located and two new spec buildings are near completion.

New Albany-based Chromocare and Canadian company Firefly Diagnostics have leased the Port Authority's Horton Building clean room at Heath's Central Ohio Aerospace and Technology Center, where Chromocare will employ molecular biologists, geneticists and clinical chemists to perform genetic testing for drug compatibility.

Chromocare President Jeff Garshon said the company will need accessioners to process samples, genetic counselors to answer doctors' questions about interpreting the tests and lab technicians with specialized education background.

"I think it's brilliant," Garshon said of Platt's idea. "It's sort of every parent's dream to have (children) living or working close to home after they graduate.

"I've spoken to a lot of people who moved away from Columbus, or Ohio, and thought the grass was greener (elsewhere) and found out it's not, so they came back home," Garshon said.

Chromocare performs a genetic assisted prescribing test to determine how an individual will respond to 300 drugs so doctors will know how a medication they prescribe will work, without any adverse reaction, based on a patient's DNA.

Garshon has said the company's long-term plans are to have up to 100 working in the Horton Building. Chromocare leases the 1,000-square-foot clean room, and it plans to use space available inside the Horton Building for three additional clean rooms.

The International Personal Care and Beauty Campus, located north of the Ohio 161-Beech Road interchange in New Albany, has grown to employ almost 3,000 people at 15 companies, with more expansions coming.

One of the beauty campus employers is Jeyes, a manufacturer specializing in home and personal fragrances, working with Bath and Body Works. Jeyes employs 300 people and has openings for 90 production associates, starting at $10 an hour, and 25 professional positions, with salaries ranging from $50,000 to $110,000, according to Anna Cameron, vice president of human resources.

The professional positions include maintenance technicians, process technicians, industrial engineers, quality engineers and maintenance managers. The company employs about 150 people, and another 150 are employed through temporary agencies.

"There's something for everyone because we are growing," Cameron said. "There are a variety of positions open."

As the unemployment rate declines and more baby boomers retire, filling jobs will become the challenge instead of finding jobs, Platt has said. The key, Platt said, is to let people know what's available here.

"The Thanksgiving dinner table is the best place to get the word out," Platt said. "I don't care where you are, it's hard to recruit geneticists."

kmallett@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8545

Twitter: @kmallett1958