Jefferson: NAFTA funds light up future for former millworkers

Ty Taylor is studying business administration.

Shyla Fristoe and Dawn Baril are in pre-nursing.

A Port Hadlock woman is commuting to Bremerton to take a radiology tech program at Olympic College.

Three people are going to truck-driving school in Tacoma, three are taking automotive tech training at Peninsula College, and two more are in the college’s computer course.

“Turning the light bulb back on” is how Shyla Fristoe of the Port Townsend Paper Transition Center describes the process that displaced workers are going through to make new lives for themselves after the Port Townsend Paper Corp. paper-bag plant closed in December.

The transition center on the second floor of the Frontier Bank building on Sims Way in Port Townsend has offered a variety of resources to help laid-off workers re-enter the job market since it opened Dec. 10.

Other workers are busy taking advantage of Trade Adjustment Assistance funds to retrain for new jobs. Those funds came available after the North American Free Trade Agreement-related assistance package was approved for workers around Christmas and only a few days before the bag plant closed.

The rest of this story appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News Jefferson County edition. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.

More in News

On the brink of a federal shutdown, the House passes a 45-day funding plan, sends it to Senate

By Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking and Stephen Groves The Associated Press WASHINGTON… Continue reading

KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Olympic National Park visitor Sandra Schmidt of Leipzig, Germany, right, looks over a map of the park with interpretive ranger Emily Ryan on Friday at the park's visitor center in Port Angeles.
Federal shutdown appears imminent

Coast Guard to work without pay during shutdown

Mount Walker Lookout Road closed again

Olympic National Forest engineers have closed Mount Walker Lookout Road… Continue reading

tsr
Salish Sea on cusp of losing tufted puffins

One nesting pair reported on Protection Island

Work slated to winterize Hurricane Ridge

The plans as of Friday were for American Abatement… Continue reading

Year-round tourism aim for Peninsula

Businesses emphasize winter, shoulder seasons

EYE ON THE PENINSULA: Capital plan, strategic plan before county panels

Government meetings across the North Olympic Peninsula

Leo Wright, 3, of Port Townsend examines an end-of-season sunflower at the Sequim Botanical Garden near the Albert Haller Playfields at the Water Reuse Demonstration Site on Wednesday. The garden features a variety of flowers and plants maintained the city and by local gardening groups. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Close-up look

Leo Wright, 3, of Port Townsend examines an end-of-season sunflower at the… Continue reading

Most Read