Stimulus funds lead to local employment for some

DILLON — Two Dillon County residents are learning what life is like for Dillon County Sheriff’s deputies through a oncein a life time summer job experience funded by federal stimulus money.

Twenty-four-year-old Daniel le Roman and 21-year-old Anthony Murray are employed as support staff at the Dillon County Sheriff’s Office as part of YouthWorks 2009, a federal work program designed to create jobs in the Pee Dee for residents between the ages of 16 and 24.

YouthWorks is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law in February by President Barack Obama.

The Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments is in charge of administering the funds locally and has contracted several agencies, such as the Paxen Group, to train young residents and find them summer employment.

Murray and Roman were placed at the sheriff’s office by the Paxen Group. Both said the job experience is a good fit for their personalities.

“I was completely speechless for the first time in a long time after I found out I was going to be working here,” Roman said. “It was overwhelming for a minute. I wasn’t expecting it.”

Paxen Group state Program Manager Shelia Suggs said the agency tries hard to place residents in jobs where the employer and the employee will be pleased.

“We try to match them with jobs that are of interest to them,” Suggs said. “It has open their eyes to what the real world is like.”

Dillon Chief Deputy Sheriff Larry Abraham worked with Paxen to place YouthWorks participants at the office.

“The sheriff and I talked, and we thought that it would be an excellent idea to have someone working in administration,” Abraham said.

Murray said working at the sheriff’s office has inspired him to go to school and pursue a higher education.

“After this experience, I’m actually going back to school and majoring in criminal justice,” he said.

Murray and Roman said they perform sheriff’s office clerical duties and work closely with the 4th Circuit Solicitor’s office.

“I’m in the process of editing the policy and procedure manual for the entire sheriff’s department,” Roman said.

Murray said he isn’t the least bit flustered by working around dozens of law enforcement officials.

Roman, however, said it wasn’t easy at first.

“There’s no fear involved, I mean, it takes some getting used to. You’re working around these people with guns and tasers but, it’s no fear,” she said. “ A lot of other kids wanted to be (working) over here. We’ve seen pictures from crime scenes and everybody doesn’t get that chance.”

Murray and Roman are two of more than 60 young residents who have completed a 30-hour-work readiness training course through Paxen before being employed all over the Pee Dee this summer, Paxen Career Specialist Jarriel Jacobs said.

“We’ve taken a lot of people out of the unemployment line,” he said. “We’re putting some of them to work. It’s helping the students to get exposure. It’s giving them something positive to do by keeping them out of the detention center and off the streets.”

Many employers have offered the YouthWorks participants permanent employment, Jacobs said.

Abraham said the sheriff’s would love to keep Murray and Roman on as employees after federal funding runs out, but money in the department is scarce.

“If the sheriff could come up with the money to keep them, he would keep them,” Abraham said. “But I can tell you, we are well pleased with them.”