TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Tallahassee city leaders outlined their vision for the future on Wednesday at the annual City Commission Retreat.
The city has described it as "healthy," "growing" and "thriving," but commissioners admit there's a lot of work to do to make sure everyone who lives and works here is benefiting from that.
As of July 2018, the city has had 34 straight months of job growth. However, commissioners noted a "workforce shortage" in the community.
Commissioner Curtis Richardson said jobs need to be filled in construction, utility work, plumbing and roofing.
The commission agreed to launch a jobs program working with the county and school district to strengthen training talent here.
"Those that are doing the job now, they're aging, and they're nearing retirement, but we don't have a trained pool of workers to replace them," said Richardson. "The situation has been exacerbated now by the damage that has been caused by Hurricane Michael, and lots of our workers have headed west to Panama City and Mexico Beach to take jobs in that area."
Mayor John Dailey said he'd like the program to get going by the summer.
It would give people hands-on training using public works equipment that the city already owns.
