"It’s not a good thing to have a factory with no people (working there)," said Sam Brown, president and CEO of Knight & Carver Yacht Center, a San Diego company that added a wind blade division 10 years ago. "We would like (workers) sooner than later and not have to hire people out of San Diego that should be hired out of South Dakota. It creates a delay in letting us get started. We’re bringing in some people from San Diego to handle the work, but we need a lot more."
Brown and Randy Parry of Miner County Community Revitalization met with state officials Wednesday, then spoke by telephone Thursday with Rounds, who vowed to look into the matter and offer the state’s assistance. Parry said that help isn’t in the form of funds, but in advice and marketing.
"The governor suggested ... assigning people to work with Knight and Carver," said Parry, of Howard.
Parry said Rounds wants to discuss possible improvements to the Dakota Roots Program, a state initiative to convince former South Dakota residents to move back and work in their home state. Parry said the governor wants to "see what needs to be improved and how it can be advanced."
The Dakota Roots Program has been specifically mentioned, both by state officials and Brown. The program was formed to "link South Dakota career opportunities with former South Dakotans looking to come home," according a Dakota Roots television commercial found at dakotaroots.com.
Dakota Roots needs to be tweaked, however, according to Brown.
"They have a good program, but it’s a chicken and egg thing," he said. "People aren’t going to be able to look at it as a great source for jobs if there aren’t a lot of jobs on there. But if there aren’t many people registered (on the Web site), employers won’t be looking to go there. You need jobs posted on there to get more people, and also the other way around."
Brown said Knight and Carver is "trying to hire people here in South Dakota." He said meetings with state officials this week were "very encouraging, but we’ll wait and see."
Unemployment in South Dakota, according to statistics from March, is 3.1 percent. The national average is 4.4 percent.
The Knight and Carver Wind Blade Division specializes in the construction and repair of wind-turbine blades. The company got its start in 1972, specializing in the construction of custom yachts.
As the wind industry grows in the Midwest, Knight and Carver is expanding to South Dakota in an effort to be closer to the wind blades it repairs.
In a 2006 story in The Daily Republic, Gary Kanaby, manager of the Knight and Carver Wind Blade Division, said the company chose Howard because "I got talked into it."
"Those guys in Howard are very aggressive," he said at the time. "They made us some proposals that we couldn’t beat."
Economic incentives were provided by the state and Miner County Community Revitalization. Knight and Carver was given the opportunity to lease and operate the new wind blade repair and manufacturing facility, with an opportunity to purchase the facility and expand. Rounds even mentioned Knight and Carver during his 2007 State of the State address.
Parry said he doesn’t feel the situation will hinder efforts to recruit other businesses in the future.
He said MCCR’s efforts to bring industry to the region have been fruitful, including Knight and Carver, the wind energy company Energy Maintenance Service and also Dakota Beef, the United States’ largest organic beef processing plant.
"Pretty soon, your dynamic changes," he said. "You have so many people that are working now in these jobs that you need more people, either commuting or people that will come here and live, which is our goal."
The key to filling the openings at Knight and Carver is to market, Parry said.
"We need to market in any way we can and the governor’s office is saying they will help us market," he said. "I think this is going to be a test and with the state’s help, it will be a good test. What we need to look at is a regional collaboration and not just Miner County."
Brown said he is pleased with progress this week.
"We’ve asked the state to get behind us and help us. They are willing to step up and do something. We had to bring it to their attention," he said.
Brown said the state is willing to work at getting all of the jobs available into the "central data base," and also see that information is given to technical schools. As for Dakota Roots, he said it’s a good idea, but "has some growing pains."
Richard Benda, cabinet secretary of the South Dakota Department of Tourism and State Development, said he doesn’t see the situation in Howard as dire.
"Is it a situation of having trouble or is that we haven’t yet hit all the avenues that we could?" he said. "It’s a more complex answer than just saying they’re having trouble finding labor there."
Benda said the state would help other companies and communities, too, if they call. The solution to labor shortages, he said, sometimes are simple, such as being more specific in the job descriptions and the salary range and also by contacting regional career centers.
Knight and Carver’s open positions at present entail some travel and pay around $10.25 per hour with benefits, Brown said. People who fill the positions likely will work with fiberglass, including grinding and sanding.
