Recruiting of professionals hampered by housing shortage

McCOOK, Neb. -- When it comes to taking a new job and finding a home, Bill Dietzen speaks from experience.

After living in or near big cities for many years, Bill's life and that of his family changed dramatically six months ago when he accepted the plant manager's job at the Parker-Hannifin plant in McCook.

"It's a move we're glad we made," Dietzen said, calling the people of McCook "the friendliest I've ever met." But getting here was not easy, as the Dietzens moved halfway across the country to a town with precious few available places to rent or buy.

In fact, available housing was so scarce in McCook early this year that Bill lived in the Horse Creek Inn for five weeks while looking for the right place for his family to live. The search came to a successful conclusion, as Bill and Erika and their children, Shelby and Royce, are now settled in a home they purchased and remodeled.

The Dietzen family's story is told because it illustrates two of the most important challenges the McCook community is facing. The challenges are inter-twined because, on one hand, McCook needs to fill a wide range of job openings, but, in order to do so, the community must find comfortable and affordable places for the workers and their families to live.

Dietzen and McCook's other major employment leaders know that well. The need for housing became apparent this summer in talks with the town's top employers, who unanimously agree that housing holds the key to the community's future.

Russ DeLong, manager of Valmont Industries' manufacturing plant in McCook, summed it up, saying straight out: "If McCook is going to grow, we have to have places for people to live."

Dietzen, the Parker-Hannifin plant manager, agrees. So do Jim Ulrich, president and CEO of Community Hospital; Grant Norgaard, McCook's superintendent of schools; Aaron Thompson, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; and Andy Long, vice president of the McCook Community College campus.

Together, the six administrative leaders are responsible for more than 1,100 employees, accounting for nearly 20 percent of Red Willow County's current labor force.

Statistics tell part of the story, helping show why it's so difficult for the community to balance the need for workers and the need for housing.

The town's top employers are advertising regionally, state-wide and nationally in search of such highly specialized positions as an archeologist at the Bureau of Reclamation; a process engineering manager at Parker-Hannifin; skilled welders at Valmont Industries; and instructors at McCook Community College and McCook Public Schools. There are also current openings in McCook for electrical engineers, civil engineers; budget analysts and health care professionals, as well as 125 job postings with the Nebraska Department of Labor for Red Willow County.

It's tough now -- and it has been for the past few years -- to fill job openings locally because Red Willow County's unemployment numbers are among the lowest in the nation. According to Kelsey Miller, regional manager for the Nebraska Department of Labor, Red Willow County now has a labor force of 6,303 persons. Of this total, 6,124 have jobs and 179 are unemployed, putting the county's unemployment percentage at 2.9 percent, far below the national unemployment rate of 5.3 percent.

So, if the town and the surrounding area are going to grow, the medical, educational and manufacturing leaders are going to have to intensify their state and national recruitment efforts. That's where housing comes into play in a big way.

"It's a major issue," said DeLong, pointing out that Valmont has lost welders who decided not to move here because they couldn't find places to live. And, at the hospital, the Bureau and the schools, job searches are turning up fewer applicants than was the case several years ago.

The lack of housing is also a concern at Parker-Hannifin, where Plant Manager Dietzen and Human Resources Director Jeff Crick are trying to recruit five key salaried positions. "One of the problems is Realtor.com and Rent.com," Dietzen said. "Potential applicants look there first, and when they see so few houses for sale here, they look elsewhere."

To remedy this, Dietzen, DeLong and other employment leaders offered several suggestions, including working together to publicize the housing options now available in McCook and finding ways, going forward, to accelerate housing construction in the community.

Anticipating the housing crunch, the McCook Economic Development Corporation commissioned a comprehensive housing study for McCook in 2013. The study, done by the Hanna-Keelan planning firm, concluded McCook would need 279 new housing units by the year 2023. Of these, the planners said, 132 need to be rental units and 147 need to be owner-occupied.

Steps are being taken in the direction of the goal, with East Ward Village and Clary Village counting towards the rental total, and new homes around the golf course, North Pointe and at scattered spots around town chipping away at the owner-occupied need.

"We're on the right track, but more needs to be done," said Jim Ulrich, the Community Hospital CEO and the president of the McCook Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors. "Housing and jobs are closely linked, and, together, they hold the key to our community's future."

By the numbers:

Red Willow County Labor Force -- 6,303

Employed: 6,124

Unemployed: 179

Local Unemployment rate: 2.83%

National Unemployment rate: 5.3%

Source: Nebraska Department of Labor

Number of rental united needed by 2023: 132

Number of owner occupied housing units needed by 2023: 147

Total housing united needed by 2023: 279

According to 2013 housing study done by Hanna-Keelan