Local News - April 2003

Salem tries service industry

Lawn cutting offered

By JEREMY ASHTON, LTN Staff Writer

It may not sound like a lot, but a $500 donation is going to create jobs for disabled workers in Lincoln County.

Wal-Mart of Lincolnton has given that amount of money to Salem Industries for the purchase of a lawn mower that will be used as the basis for a new lawn service.

Ed Campbell, Salem Industries’ production/enclave manager, expects the business to begin slowly and hopefully expand from there.

“We’re going to start with our own property …, and we’re going to go into the immediate community with home lawns and residential lawns and just see where we can go from there,” Campbell said.

Salem Industries provides “vocational rehabilitation” for adults with disabilities, supplying 65 people with work.

Traditionally, the organization has placed its workers in manufacturing jobs. It currently has enclaves of about 20 workers established at Alpharma USPD and The Timken Company, where they do a variety of jobs, including assembly, packaging and bulk mailing.

But the downturn in the economy has made finding manufacturing jobs increasingly difficult for Campbell and Salem Industries.

“I’m having a terrible struggle getting work for people,” Campbell said.

As a result, Campbell said Salem Industries is trying to find and create new jobs for its workers in the service industry.

The lawn service will be the beginning of the push into that sector. Salem Industries has “several people who are capable of doing this type of work” to cut grass and do landscaping work, according to Campbell.

The organization is also in the process of developing a cleaning service — anything to find jobs for its workers.

 “We have never turned down a job, and we’re proud of that,” Campbell said.

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Staff Writer Jeremy Ashton can be reached at 704-735-3031 or jashton@ltnews.com.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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