Fall River is hiring: Municipal jobs up for grabs at career fair, from cops to CDL drivers

FALL RIVER — Over the years, Government Center has hosted many job fairs that have attracted hundreds of job seekers for local business and public institutions. The city held another on Wednesday, this time with a full focus on people looking to work for the city of Fall River.

There are currently about 20 job openings in almost all areas of city government, and the administration said it was pleased by the response from job-seekers.

The School Department also attended the job fair with an extensive list of openings.

Human Resources Director Nick Macolini said about 85 people attended the event.

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“Then, just from word of mouth and advertising the job fair, I’ve gotten a ton more applications, resumes and cover letters. So we definitely got interest from all walks of life looking for jobs from laborers to management positions,” said Macolini.

Fall River also looking for police officers and firefighters

The Human Resources Department doesn’t take applications for the police and fire departments, because those jobs are civil service positions, a testing process controlled by the state. But there was interest from applicants in joining those departments.

“We are trying to help them through the process,” said Macolini. “The fire testing year is this year. The deadline was Tuesday, but for an extra $50 they’ll let you apply all the way to next week.”

Next year, he said, is the police civil service exam.

Like many police departments across the country, FRPD has struggled with recruitment and retention, but City Administrator Seth Aitken said recruitment is improving.

“In terms of actual staffing, there are openings. But in terms of the last academy, we started full with about 11 candidates, but we had a couple drop out. So, we are getting full to close to full classes,” said Aitken, adding there is a waiting list for spots on the fire department.

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Calling on CDL drivers

Macolini said the Department of Community Maintenance is understaffed, and needs workers with commercial drivers licenses to drive trucks and operate heavy equipment.

But the city is starting a new program to encourage existing workers and new hires to obtain CDLs with some help.

“We’re going to be rolling out a program that is similar to the one started with the Police Department, where we pay for the academy and pay for the equipment in a loan that converts to a grant,” said Aitken. “The same with the CDL drivers; we’ll pay for the license.”

Finding workers with the required licenses and credentials has also been a challenge in the water and sewer departments.

“There are all these licenses that are hard to get, but we will invest in employees if we have the right people,” said Macolini.

Openings in those departments that include director of water distribution and maintenance, a management position, and a water treatment operator.

The city is also looking for a part-time worker to drive the city’s new bookmobile, which is expected to be delivered in the fall.

In the city auditor’s office, they are looking for a financial specialist, a non-union management position.

For a full list of employment opportunities for the city of Fall River, contact Human Resources at 508-324-2661 or humanresources@fallriverma.org. Available positions can also be found at www.fallriverma.org/job-postings.

A full list of jobs available at the Fall River School Department can be viewed at https://fallriverschools.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspx.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Municipal jobs available: Fall River has career fair for city workers