HILLSBOROUGH: State Labor Commissioner expected in town Thursday

    State Department of Labor Commissioner Harold J. Wirths is expected to visit Hurricane Sandy damage tour sites in Hillsborough today, Thursday.
    He will look at places cleaned up with manpower provided by the state government and paid for by a federal grant.
    Mr. Wirths is slated to arrive at 1:30 p.m., and Township Administrator Anthony Ferrera will lead a tour of areas within the township.
    He said Tuesday night that he expected to take the commissioner to the township dump yard to see piles of debris brought by DPW workers and private citizens. He also wanted to him to see and greet workers helping private senior citizens who are unable to handle storm damage on their own properties without help.
    News reports said utilities estimated the storm downed more than 100,000 trees in New Jersey. Hillsborough had its share, and Mr. Ferrera, who came to his job in August after a post in the state Department of Labor, reached to his state connections and background for help.
   He said he asked the governor’s office that Somerset County be included on a list of counties eligible to receive federal disaster unemployment assistance as a result of the hurricane. The National Emergency Grant program is open to people who were unemployed as a direct result of the storm and also were long-term unemployed and no longer receiving benefits.
    The employees would be temporary, and the federal government is paying a maximum of $12,000 for up to six months.
    The connections were key to getting 12 temporary workers for the township Public Works and parks departments.
    Those jobs were supposed to go to people who are out of work because of the storm or are long-term unemployed whose benefits have expired.
    Mr. Ferrera, a former state labor department administrator, helped the county-level Greater Raritan Workforce Investment Board make connections within state government.
    Mr. Ferrera also helped arrange for a New Jersey Youth Corps team of 16- to 25-year-olds to work in the township in December.
    Department of Public Works Director Buck Sixt created a list of more than 60 senior citizens and disabled who had asked for help in repair and cleanup tasks from the hurricane, Mr. Ferrera said. The young workers helped pare down that list.
    The township also benefited by a team of FEMA-funded national forest land workers from Arizona, who traveled here to help clear trees from public land.