CAZENOVIA — On Jan. 13, the Cazenovia Town Board welcomed Donna Schaefer of the Madison County Working Solutions career center to the Gothic Cottage for the latest installment of a new series promoting Madison County services. Schaefer is the youth outreach coordinator for Madison County Working Solutions. According to Supervisor Kyle Reger, who introduced the speaker, Schaefer has been a middle school special education teacher for 30-plus years, she has been helping people earn their high school equivalency diplomas for over 15 years, and she serves on the board of Literacy Outreach for Madison County. Schaefer described a major goal of Working Solutions as “getting people a career without the college expense.” The career center’s numerous services include job search assistance; helping with resume writing; breaking down barriers to employment, including those related to childcare, transportation, disability, and criminal records; providing access to computers, a fax machine, phones, and a printer; holding free computer training to increase employability; funding training for in-demand occupations such as commercial driver’s license jobs, construction, nursing, and manufacturing; and connecting people with employers for on-the-job training (OJT). “Essentially, we want to get people employed in more than just a job; we want them to have a career,” said Schaefer, who later added that the center also tries to get people into jobs with benefits. According to a Working Solutions handout, the center’s OJT funding can reimburse an employer 50 percent of the cost of a new employee’s wages while he/she is being trained to learn the specifics of a new job. The length of training time is dependent on the skill level of the job to be performed. Working Solutions supports Madison County residents ages 18 to 24 through its Out of School Youth Program. “We throw a lot more at those kids than we do the adults because we figure that if we can invest in these young people early, they won’t cost us as much later,” said Schaefer. One of the unique ways the center serves youths ages 18 to 24 is by connecting them to employers willing to provide them with approximately 200 hours of “youth work experience.” The individual is on the Madison County payroll, and Madison County pays for all costs, including any disability, workers’ compensation, etc. After the work experience, the employer can decide whether to hire the individual permanently. “We pay 100 percent of the wages,” said Schaefer. “For instance, I had a young man come to me who wanted to be an electrician — no electrician training other than just what he picked up from family members. We sent him to a two-month pre-apprenticeship training program, we got him a job with a local electrician, and we paid his wages for the [first] 200 hours. They trained him, [and] they felt he needed some more training, [so] we added an on-the-job training section, and he is now employed full-time by that employer. All he did was the two-month training program, [and now] he has a career without the college expense.” Schaefer also said the center offers an income-based Summer Youth Employment Program for ages 14 to 20. Working Solutions follows up with the individuals it serves for one year. It also provides a work incentive through its Out of School Youth Program. “They get a job, they keep it for 30 days, we pat them on the back with a $50 check,” Schaefer said. “They keep it for three months, and we pat them on the back with a $100 check, and so on for up to a year. They can get up to $350 just for being consistent on a job.” Services are also available for businesses. The center advertises open positions for free, utilizes the latest technology to match an employer’s job requirements electronically with qualified job seekers, and provides employers with a space to interview prospective employees. According to Schaefer, the career center tries to hold job fairs once a month at various locations. “One of the things businesses can do [is] sit at the job fairs,” she said. “We have a pretty good turnout of people looking for work. One of the things about Madison County is that it has turned [into] a ‘right-to-work’ county; you can only be on social services for a short period of time before you have to get a job — unless there are extenuating circumstances.” Madison County Working Solutions is located at 133 North Court St., Wampsville. To learn more about the career center, call 315-363-2400, email [email protected], or visit working-solutions.org or the “Madison County Working Solutions” Facebook page. To contact Schaefer, email [email protected] or call 315-367-1368. Draft comprehensive plan update After Schaefer’s presentation, the town board held another public hearing regarding the draft comprehensive plan update 2030. A comprehensive plan review special board prepared the draft update to the “2008 Comprehensive Plan for the Town and Village of Cazenovia” through a lengthy, comprehensive planning process. Community input has been an essential guiding component of the process. Before opening the public hearing, Reger reported that the special board spent a significant amount of time the previous Sunday reviewing, line by line, all the most recent feedback, thoroughly considering each concern, and adjusting the draft plan update where appropriate. He noted that the adjustments included additions to the appendices based on some “great ideas” that had come up. Reger serves on the special board with Bob Ridler, Michael Palmer, Jen Wong, Liz Moran and Kristi Anderson. The supervisor expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to hold public sessions throughout the planning process. “Being able to engage with people and then having [public] hearings at the end [has been great],” he said. “I just am very grateful for all the public feedback we’ve received from the community. It’s been wonderful — a lot of fantastic ideas.” Reger then invited Ridler, Palmer, and Wong to present a summary of the changes made to the draft during the special board’s most recent meeting. The principal changes included adding a summary of accomplishments since the 2008 comprehensive plan; modifying the language on historic structures to reference protection, preservation, and restoration, with adaptive reuse as a final alternative to demolition; adding additional partners to the implementation strategies table; and modifying the discussion surrounding a potential boardwalk project in the northern portion of Cazenovia Lake to reference considerations relating to water quality and ecosystem protection. Wong stressed that the boardwalk idea was put out into the community as a potential project. “There has been no real study of that, but, obviously, if that were to transpire, that would be looked at very carefully,” she said. Palmer commented that one idea the special board discussed during its meeting that did not make it into the summary was that someone should be assigned to “steward through” the comprehensive plan at least once a year. “[That] makes a lot of sense,” he said. “Somebody needs to take ownership of it — it probably should be somebody on this board — to keep track of whether we are moving in the direction that we want to be moving in and not in the wrong direction and keeping track of what we have accomplished and what we have yet to accomplish.” Palmer also commented that some of the suggestions received by the special board were too detailed and too specific to be included in a comprehensive plan, which is “a general view of where we are and where we are going.” Before the board opened the public hearing, Reger announced that the “Draft Plan” posted online at caztownplan2030.org would be updated soon. “We are going to hear additional public feedback tonight, and then we are going to work with [our consultant] EDR,” he said. “The goal is by next Wednesday to have the draft updated for public review.” Mark Braiman and Anne Ferguson spoke during the public hearing. Braiman’s comments focused on recreation, including strategies for enhancing pedestrian safety on East Lake Road, and the potential impact of NYS’s climate plan on the vision for planned residential development. Ferguson commented on what she perceived as the plan’s emphasis on housing development and growth, particularly in the section on the built environment. “[My] comments should underscore why, as in 2007, the policy, strategy, site use, and location mapping for growth and development should be undertaken only jointly with the village and communicated widely to the public before the adoption of the plan,” Ferguson said. “The land use and zoning that resulted from the 2008 comprehensive plan provided assurance to the public that the distinct characters of the village and town would be upheld and maintained. We need to ensure that this updated plan does not intentionally or unknowingly undo what was thoughtfully and deliberately implemented 16 years ago to the benefit of both the village and the town.” After the public hearing was closed, Reger informed the attendees that the town board would not vote on the draft until next month. To learn more about the comprehensive plan review process, visit the Town of Cazenovia Comprehensive Plan 2030 website at caztownplan2030.org. For more information on the Town of Cazenovia, visit towncazenovia.digitaltowpath.org or call the town offices at 315-655-9213.