Asbury Park Officials To Seek Partnerships To Create Jobs

Carol Williams/Patch Staff

Asbury Park, NJ - Officials pledged to put together an implementation plan for the new workforce development strategy unveiled this week that seeks to turn the city into a year-round economic destination, requires efforts that can support and grow local businesses and increases work opportunities in certain growth industries such as health care and professional services. But the key - agree both the experts who prepared the report and the officials who must now find a way to make it work - is to create partnerships, particularly with Monmouth County and with the local school system. It remains critical that job creation begins with a trained workforce and a trained workforce must be trained, either in centers such as the state unemployment office maintains in Neptune and Tinton Falls or in traditional classrooms.

"With the high unemployment rate here, it can actually be an opportunity,"said Tony Waterson, director of Workforce Development for the Indianapolis-based Thomas P. Miller Associates which began preparing the plan in February. By that, he suggested there was a workforce that could be tapped here and now the needs and obstacles that keep people from gaining employment must be addressed. In areas of low unemployment, the people, the labor force, is not plentiful and therefore cannot be recruited into training programs, he said.

But that is just one obstacle keeping Asbury Park from evolving into the economic destination it needs to be to develop jobs that pay a livable wage. And the residents of Asbury Park seem keenly aware of the obstacle, another planning expert said.

"We kept hearing East Side, West Side and we really thought there needs to be one city where all businesses thrive and all people are able to support their families" through meaningful local employment, said Brittany Dougherty, project consultant for the firm which consulted 70 stakeholders who advised on the strategy's possible direction and the challenges and barriers the city faces to its effort to increase employment. Thus, the central theme of the report became "One Asbury Park" because economic growth requires unifying this diverse community, she said. Opinions were solicited during three public sessions and five input sessions, she said. "One Asbury Park: A Community Workforce Strategy" is the resulting document and it is meant to evolve and change over time as it seeks to guide Asbury Park's future workforce, officials said.

Residents got their first glimpse of the proposed plan Tuesday at the City Council's work session and some were positive, others hesitant but united in their determination not to see the report or the proposals therein sit on a shelf somewhere and gather dust.

"As a community, we have to make sure we think of One Asbury Park," said resident Felicia Simmons of Sewall Avenue. "People are excited about being able to live and work in Asbury Park."

Mayor John B, Moor seemed confident that work would begin on implementation shortly after the new year. He earlier had called it an "actionable plan." City Manager Michael Capabianco will be the point person which he said demonstrated the city's commitment. If the top City Hall employee is in charge, it will be treated seriously, officials agreed.

The report, which is nearly 100 pages long, was commissioned to develop a viable workforce strategy that would be unique to Asbury Park's needs and dynamics. Consultants for months have been working on preparing a report whose goal would seem to be simple but which has proven to be complex for other administrations: to improve meaningful employment opportunities in the city for city residents.

Asbury Park's iconic boardwalk. If the jobs plan is right, the city will develop into a year-round economic destination. Photograph by Seth Wenig/Associated Press