Returning summer employees leave few openings in Dundee Township
Dundee Township's summer employment picture will not change much from last year. The park district, the township's largest summer employer, will hire a few more people, but many who worked at its swimming pools and on its golf courses last year will return.
"That's good for us because they have been trained by us," said Helen Shumate, the park district's marketing and communications director. "It's not so good for people looking for summer jobs."
With two golf courses, Bonnie Dundee and Randall Oaks; a small water park, Dolphin Cove; an indoor swimming pool at the Rakow Recreation Center and an outdoor pool in Sleepy Hollow, the park district employs 250 people.
The park district offers more jobs as counselors in its various summer camps.
Many of those employees are high school and college students and are paid from $8.25 to $11 an hour to work from May to the end of August when they return to school.
For a list of available summer and year round jobs, visit the Dundee Township Park Districts website at www.dtpd.org.
During the past couple of summers, the job market in Dundee Township has been tight. Instead of working in different jobs every summer, students return to the ones they held in the previous years. If they were good workers, many times they would be hired again whether they worked for the park district or the Dundee Township villages of East and West Dundee, Carpentersville, and Sleepy Hollow.
East Dundee plans to hire four people this summer, the same number it hired last year, said village administrator Robert Skurla.
"Three will work in our public works department and one will work in our marketing office," Skurla said. "The individuals who work for public works will assist in local road projects, striping intersections and on other various projects."
The person hired for the marketing department will answer telephones and assist in various projects, he said. That person will make $8.25 an hour. The other employees will make $11 an hour.
In East Dundee, the summer employees will work 1,000 hours from May until September.
A local summer jobs program is good for a community, Skurla said. It employs college students and enables them to earn money temporarily without disrupting the full-time hiring procedures when they return to their classes.
Students who are hired also perform short-term duties, freeing up full-time employees for long-term projects.
West Dundee officials are calculating their budget for next year and have not determined if it will hire temporary employees, said village manager Joseph Cavallaro.
Last year, West Dundee officials hired five people to work in its public works department. For more information about summer job opportunities call the East Dundee village hall at (847) 426-2822, or the West Dundee village hall at (847) 551-3800.