Sidney companies report increase in new hires

As Sidney continues to grow, so do the major businesses that employ the city's residents, new and old.

As a result of the increase in population, Sidney Regional Medical Center has added 15 additional full time positions this year. The hospital has added workers in areas such as rehabilitation service, laboratory, surgery, acute care and the physicians clinic, according to SRMC director of public relations, Evie Parsons.

Dr. Rebecca Allard joined the staff in July, while two additional physicians have signed on for next year, in advance of the completion of the hospital's new facilities. SRMC now employs 340 professionals working three shifts, with four doctors and two physician's assistants on staff, as well as a team of visiting specialists.

Other large employers in the area have been making quite a few new hires lately as well.

"We have been adding more lately," said Sabra Peetz, public relations specialist at Adams Industries.

"We are growing very rapidly," Peetz said.

Adams Industries started out in 1987 as Adams and Sons Trucking and has now grown to encompass various industries. Adams has hired around 40 employees in the Sidney area in the past year, according to Peetz. These hires have been all across the board in many different departments. Adams prefers to hire locals, but does relocate new employees if it must.

The company has hired around 30 locals out of the 40 new hires in the past year. It plans to hire between 25 and 50 more employees in the upcoming year as well, Peetz said.

"We're predicting substantial growth for the foreseeable future," she added.

At the moment Adams is having a hard time keeping up with the amount of growth the company is seeing in all the different industries and is struggling to make new hires at a rate that will keep up with business demands. This is good problem to have, Peetz said.

Of course, Sidney's biggest employer is Cabela's which plans to hire around 80 to 125 employees to work in the city annually in the upcoming years. Cabela's had not returned requests for the number of hires made this year at press time.

The new Bell Pole and Lumber plant is also slated to make new hires this year. This development will bring job creation with a good pay scale to the Sidney area. Under the county sponsored community development block grant contract, Bell Pole and Lumber is supposed to create at least 30 jobs.

Bell originally planned to be open and be operational by summer of this year, but has pushed back its starting date to winter 2013.