Guadalupe County salutes its manufacturers

Guadalupe County salutes its manufacturers Main Photo

25 Sep 2020


Manufacturing, Guadalupe County

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

 

(Seguin) – If there was ever a year to celebrate Manufacturing Day, it would be this year. In hopes of suppling the San Antonio Manufacturers Association (SAMA) with a video and a virtual message in time for its virtual manufacturing tour on Oct. 2, Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher felt equipped maybe more than ever to shine a light on manufacturing a few days earlier and especially during a time when the industry has proven to hold strong.

On Tuesday, the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court recognized the importance of manufacturing in a community. Thanking the court for its support was Josh Schneuker, the executive director for the Seguin Economic Development Corporation (SEDC).

“There’s still some perception out there that manufacturing is a dark and dirty job that doesn’t pay well and that’s definitely quite the opposite. It’s very high-tech. These are skilled positions. A lot of times, these positions don’t either require a college degree. You have the opportunity to enter the career field with little college debt and really advance your career into a well playing and really secure position and I think that is something that we definitely saw just in terms of job security during the pandemic — when you see a lot of retail and hospitality jobs furloughed or laid permanently – laid off. Manufacturing is an essential industry and it’s so important to our country and many of the folks, I really want to thank them. They are essential workers and they kept our country and county’s economy going,” said Schneuker.

Kutscher, again, says his message about manufacturing is more important this year as the county witnessed the results of having invested in such partners throughout the years. He says each have demonstrated its role and importance during a pandemic.

“So many times the public and people just in general, human nature, we want the shops and the restaurants and all that stuff and it will come but when we have such a strong manufacturing sector within our county and within our state, it opens up so many doors to have all those rooftops that you talked about (recently) on the radio and the retail follows rooftops and all those jobs and all those things go together but the big start for us has been manufacturing. That’s the reason we are financially strong. That’s the reason we were insulated by all those economic factors that so many other communities were hit with during the pandemic,” said Kutscher.

More importantly, Kutscher says this year’s message is directed to the youth of the county.

“But I want young people to really look closer. Commissioner Wolverton and I were talking just before court typically young people want to go out and conquer the world. They want to move away and go see stuff and that’s great. Go do that but don’t discount the real careers that are here in our own community. You don’t have to go off. It’s not grandpa’s manufacturing facility. It’s not the old dirty job (but) highly skilled, highly technical, CAD system, software programs, robotics – I mean all these things are implemented in just about every manufacturing facility within our community and if you commit yourself to one of those jobs and stay for a longtime, the opportunities are endless. You don’t have to move around nine times trying to make an extra $2 an hour. You can start right here in Seguin and Schertz and Cibolo and Guadalupe County somewhere and work and be proud and have a purpose and make things that are used around the world. So I hope young people see that, witness that and give it a chance because there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity here,” said Kutscher.

Each year, Seguin and Guadalupe County is on the SAMA’s list to host a large group tour of its facilities. Again, the pandemic has forced the group to offer a virtual tour of the San Antonio region’s manufacturing plants.

 

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