WILTON — When Patty Ladd arrived for work at 6:30 a.m. Monday at the Wilton Career Center there was a line of potential job seekers forming outside the door despite the icy, slick roads.

Monday was the first day of a three-day hiring process for the new Wilton Tractor Supply Store preparing to open on Route 2, across from Bryant Road, by mid-March, said the new store Manager Peter Castonguay of Wayne.

“We hope to have a team in place next week,” he said.

Six other store managers were there helping him hold 15-minute interviews from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to fill the six or seven full-time and eight to nine part-time positions.

By 11 a.m., just over 100 job-seekers had signed up and were waiting for their turn to interview. Some lucky job seekers were waiting for a second interview.

“It’s going to be tough,” Castonguay said about choosing the top candidates to fill the positions. “There’s a lot of people and some awesome candidates but we’ll pick the best fit.”

After taking two and a half hours to drive 55 miles home in poor weather Sunday night from residential-life work in Lisbon, Larry Blodgett of Carthage was one job seeker who waited outside 40-minutes Monday only to get inside to sit and wait.

“It’s time for a career change. I’m pretty mechanically minded and well … it’s a guy thing,” he said of the potential work at the Tractor Store. After working 30 years for G.H. Bass, he went back to school when they closed then worked five years for a Rumford group home before being laid off again.

Cindy Greer and Robert Dunham of Jay were also waiting patiently for what had already been a four-hour event. A carpenter with an interest in farming, Dunham said the prospects for work as a carpenter, over an 80-mile radius, are pretty slim.

“No one is hiring or buying. Nice $400,000 houses I worked on in 2005 in Rangeley are still vacant,” he said.

The pair recounted the lost jobs in the area remembering the shoe shops, Norwalk in North Jay, Bass in Wilton and Bennett Shoe in Farmington as well as Forster Manufacturing.

“That’s a thousand jobs lost within 10 miles,” he said, remarking on the number of people seeking the few positions at Tractor Supply Store Monday.

Looking to go back to work after three years, Roxanne Grant of Farmington had also invested four hours in waiting. She came to the Center at 7:30 a.m.

“You got to do what you got to do,” she said. “It’s hard to believe how many are out of work but seeing so many people here …,” brought the fact home for her.

The interviews will continue again on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Castonguay, the new manager, began working for the company in June of 2009. The company is growing by “leaps and bounds,” he said. With over 900 stores they want to develop into 1,800 stores within the next five to 10 years, 20-plus of those here in Maine, he said.

As an employer, they offer great benefits and a huge opportunity for growth within the company, he added.

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Looking for employment with the new Wilton Tractor Supply Store Monday,  Larry Blodgett of Carthage said “it was time for another career change” as he and many others waited patiently at the Wilton Career Center for an interview for the potential seven full and up to nine part-time positions at the new store opening in mid-March.

Looking for employment with the new Wilton Tractor Supply Store
Monday, Roxanne Grant of Farmington was “doing what you have to do” as she and many others waited patiently at the Wilton
Career Center for an interview for the potential seven full-time and up to
nine part-time positions at the new store opening in mid-March. Sitting next to Grant is Jessie Webster of East Dixfield, Cindy Greer and behind her, Robert Dunham, both of Jay.

Looking for employment with the new Wilton Tractor Supply Store
Monday, Roxanne Grant of Farmington was “doing what you have to do” as
she and many others waited patiently at the Wilton
Career Center for an interview for the potential seven full-time and up
to
nine part-time positions at the new store opening in mid-March. Sitting
next to Grant is Jessie Webster of East Dixfield, Cindy Greer and
behind her, Robert Dunham, both of Jay.

Looking for employment with the new Wilton Tractor Supply Store
Monday,  Larry Blodgett of Carthage said “it was time for another
career change” as he and many others waited patiently at the Wilton
Career Center for an interview for the potential seven full and up to
nine part-time positions at the new store opening mid-March.