MILFORD, De. - It seems like business as usual in the city of Milford. But city employees are currently being stretched thin due to a number of open job positions, and a lack of interested candidates.
"We're struggling across almost every department at this point, every department is looking for an employee, including our customer service. And so anything that we can do to help alleviate the stress and workload, that's very helpful," explained Sara Pletcher, Economic Development and Community Engagement Administrator for the city.
The city is looking to hire around 20 positions, including electrical technicians, a customer service clerk, and a building code clerk among other roles. The city says getting electric technicians on board is a huge priority, considering a large outage could be difficult to manage with a depleted workforce. Public Works director Mike Svaby says it's difficult to compete with some of the bigger employers when it comes to attracting potential candidates.
"We recently took measures to increase pay scales to try and compete a little more. We've instituted a retention bonus of $1,000 a month for every existing employee until all the positions are filled we also have a $6000 sign on bonus for people that come on and do join employment with us," explained Svaby.
Milford is also in desperate need of solid waste collectors. It's gotten to the point now where he is having to move around resources within the department to get the job done.
"We pull people from other areas of public works, they have to leave their job behind, and there's expectations of them that then get put on hold to clamor and help to do solid waste collection for the day. Sounds like a small thing, but it's an absolutely unforgivable standard by residents standards, understandably. We need to do whatever it takes everyday to put people at least in four positions - usually we throw two extras in there from other areas of public works to make it happen," Svaby told WBOC.
Pletcher added that it's been frustrating to try and find interested candidates to fill all these vacancies. "I've only been in public service three months at this point, but our city manager has been in it for 40 years, and he sad he's never seen anything of this caliber. To the point of, you have these vacancies but your not even necessarily getting the applications you used to be getting," Pletcher said, adding the police department is also looking for applicants.
Both Svaby and Pletcher said they hope the customers will have some patience and understanding when it comes to the delays they may see in their trash collection and other services until they can get fully staffed. Some of the jobs posted to the city's website have been sitting vacant for months, and Pletcher said they are hoping to get them filled soon. For a full list of positions and qualifications, click here.