CORDOVA – The City of Cordova will celebrate a successful summer work program with a dinner on Monday for the students who participated.
Cordova mayor Jeremy Pate praised the work ethic and commitment shown by the students.
“I thought it was a huge success, not just the work we got done but the work that we got done within them,” he Pate said. “It was a growing experience for us all and hopefully we’re all better for it.”
With the help of a grant from the Walker Area Community Foundation, Cordova was able to hire 23 students, 15 males and eight females, from Cordova High School for the summer work program, compared to just eight during the program’s first season a year ago. The grant also allowed the city to be able to bump the hourly pay from $8 per hour to $10.
The females worked with the children’s summer program at the Cordova Community Center and the males worked with the city public works department.
“There’s a couple of these young men that came in and they didn’t hardly know anything,” councilman Larry Sides said during Tuesday’s meeting. “But they weren’t quitters and they paid attention. They wanted to learn and they did learn.”
Sides said he has gotten a lot of positive comments about the work that was done from the work program.
Every student that started in June completed the eight-week program, working 20-to-30 hours per week. Pate said that he is proud of the the kids for sticking it out.
“We’re going to have a celebratory dinner for them Monday night,” Pate said. “We’re going to hand out a few awards and have some high profile people of influence coming into town to visit with them. Hopefully it will be memorable for them and they will be ready to get started next year.”
