This is no glass-half-full/glass-half-empty column.
What it will be is a semi-Pollyannaish push to get Carson City readers thinking the glass is fairly full despite dubious analysts who think we’re drinking from the dregs. We’ll do it partly by utilizing the passion of Lynn Ellis, Carson City Health & Human Services WorkForce Program case manager.
Ellis, who used to have a six-figure-salary job in the private sector in Southern California, now spends her time at considerably less remuneration trying to match employers with prospective employees here. She does it by training those out of work to get back on a payroll, and ramrods job fairs.
Last week, she had nearly 50 employers signed up for the next job fair, which is being sponsored by her department, the city’s Chamber of Commerce and JOIN Inc. (Job Opportunities in Nevada). It will be at the community center gymnasium June 14, a Friday, from 2-5 p.m.
Ellis and her colleagues, in other words, are chipping away at Carson City’s unemployment problem by acting instead of theorizing. Work in the trenches is always worth watching or doing.
Now for that spurned half-full/half-empty stuff. Sure, it’s a bummer to see unemployment here at about 10 percent, which is higher than elsewhere. But there is enough Pollyanna on board, at least in this space, to see the other part of the parcel; 90 percent employed and life in the best place this scrivener ever lived.
The angst-ridden period just past will become a bad memory turned better by the likes of Ellis and others like her who come here, despite problems. There is no place without problems; there are only places to solve them.
So, June 14 job fair date aside, let’s move on to dates earlier in June and reasons the glass is even more full than the above contemplates. “June is bustin’ out all over” isn’t just a song lyric in Carson City and environs; it’s an early, idyllic reality this late May, no matter what the calendar says.
We’re talking, for example, fun in the sun on this Memorial Day weekend, which kicks off summer in many a mindset if not in official scientific parlance. It’s a great outdoor opportunity to, say, take a ride this opening V&T weekend on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad to Virginia City. Or whatever you have planned.
When June actually debuts next Saturday, wining and walking may well lure those of us who stride and imbibe. What could be better than the monthly wine walk downtown on the first day of June?
If you’re into trails more than wine, that same day you can celebrate Nationals Trails Days with folks from Muscle Powered Carson City, who plan to work on the Ash Canyon Trail that same June 1 Saturday.
If you prefer the romantic past, the outdoors and are drawn toward Lake Tahoe, hit the Valhalla Renaissance Faire June 1-2 or June 8-9 at South Lake Tahoe’s Camp Richardson.
A job fair down here, a renaissance faire up there; a pretty fair place to work or play any day.
John Barrette covers Carson City government and business. He can be reached at jbarrette@nevadaappeal.com.