PREFERRED VENDOR/PARTNER n Los Alamos County www.losalamosnm.us “It is hard to explain why a big chain restaurant wouldn’t necessarily come up here, or a larger store or retailer. It’s because of our size, not meeting a certain population threshold that might attract such businesses. Even though our incomes are very high, it’s just one of those challenges we have,” Andrus admits. “We’ve been focusing inward to try and see how we can help people start up businesses, and how we can help support existing businesses to be more sustainable.” Going forward,Andrus notes the need to expand the workforce beyond the highly skilled jobs at LANL. “We have the need to diversify in this community and fill basic needs of the workforce that we have been really struggling with,” Andrus maintains. He points out a critical shortage of childcare, with waitlists of several hundred children.Although LANL has recently invested in a childcare facility, more support is needed, both in services and trained childcare professionals. “It’s just a drop in the bucket, but the more that we can move that, it’s just another key element to growth,” Andrus says. 328 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 10
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