Navy to triple new hires at Kittery
The Navy plans to add nearly 300 civilian jobs this year at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. The decision comes after the urging of an interstate delegation of New Hampshire and Maine representatives led by Sen. Olympia Snowe.
The Navy plans to increase the number of civilian employees at the base, comprised of engineers, apprentices, and support personnel, to 405 from 125, the level originally planned for 2009, according to a release from Snowe's staff.
Representatives from both states had urged the action back in January to ease workload pressures related to an aging of the workforce at the shipyard, and to offset layoffs in the private sector. During a one-on-one meeting earlier this month with Vice Admiral Kevin McCoy, the head of Naval Sea Systems Command, Snowe urged the admiral to continue an aggressive hiring program at Kittery's Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, a plea that was effective. "As private sector industries within our regional economy continue to suffer from the current downturn, there are far too many hard-working New Englanders who have lost their jobs, despite their extraordinary talents and capabilities," Snowe said in the release. "At the shipyard, there is a wave of retirements and other management challenges that I strongly believe the Navy must address by increasing the ranks of the shipyard team. By tripling the number of new hires in 2009, the Navy is making progress; however, this effort must be sustained in order to be effective."
These jobs are separate from the hundreds of jobs announced in March when the shipyard was awarded $24.5 million from the federal stimulus act to make repairs on berths, piers and to modernize its training facility.
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