Local Glen Arbor businesses pivot to find enough summer help
Photo: In past years, Anderson’s Market has employed Jamaican workers on J1 work visas.
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
It’s an issue that has echoed through the pages of the Glen Arbor Sun and throughout Leelanau County for several years now as the number of tourists grows each summer: How can we find enough workers, and where can they live? We featured stories about workers from Jamaica here on J1 work visas in our issues in 2016 and 2017, and before that in 2015 we talked with Brad Anderson of Anderson’s Market in Glen Arbor about finding affordable housing for those workers. The problems remain, and with the COVID pandemic, some local businesses have been forced to find different solutions.
Anderson’s Market is the only employer in town this summer with a crew of workers here on the J1 visa. Brad Anderson joined the program five years ago to get non-immigrant seasonal workers for the summer high season, and it worked well. But it was cancelled due to COVID in 2020. “We couldn’t get enough people to work last summer,” Anderson recalls. “The fear of the pandemic and resulting shortage of help resulted in us struggling with about half the staff we needed.”
This year Anderson applied early in January, but only two places were open to supply workers: Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Europe was closed to the program, so a squad of workers from Croatia like we had in 2019 was blocked. “We used to have an abundance of choices before the J1 program was shut down,” Anderson continues, “so this year it took awhile to get through the logjam, and we got six Jamaicans who are working six days a week. They are happy to be here, and they provide critical infrastructure. We provide employee housing.”
A couple of years ago Anderson collaborated with Bob Sutherland at Cherry Republic, Ranae Ihme at Leelanau Vacation Rentals, and Katy and Matt Wiesen of Coastal and the M-22 store to purchase houses in Maple City and on Trumbull Road to house the seasonal workers. “We are fortunate to have the workers, and it is going to be essential to the business model for those of us in high tourist areas to have foreign workers going forward.”
One local organization Anderson has been working with is the volunteer Sleeping Bear Gateways Council. Mike Rivard, Bill Whittler and several others are focusing on affordable housing as one of the area’s primary issues. Their goal is ‘to address the needs of our area’s Gateway Communities in an inclusive way. Our small towns and villages may differ by geography and by distance from the National Lakeshore boundaries, but the impact of huge seasonal visitor numbers challenge everyone. Our objective is to identify and engage all concerned stakeholders in a planning process for the future of this region in a cooperative and transparent way. We will facilitate discussion related to the region’s future needs to ensure a positive result for all stakeholders, act as a conduit to best practices and successful strategies of other gateway communities and provide a central clearinghouse for information and data needs.’
Anderson intends to “continue working with the J1 program and to evolve that county-wide. We may need to become our own agency and invest some dollars in getting these workers here. The goal is to work with all of the local businesses that have skin in the game to contribute to infrastructure. We’re all in this together to serve the growing number of visitors that come here. In order to be sustainable every summer we need a vibrant foreign worker program in this area.”
Bob and Ranae Ihme at Leelanau Vacation Rentals/Glen Arbor Outdoors shifted their approach when they saw that workers from afar would not be available. When asked if they have enough help this year, Ranae answers with a confident, “We do! We have built flexibility into our system. We pay our housekeepers $125-$250 for each house they clean, and we provide everything. They clean the same house every time, they can fit the work into their family schedule, and they can bring their kids along. We wanted to make it easier for folks to work for us, and now we have moms and teachers and a whole crew of very good people. We are also working toward making as many of our employees as possible year round and full time. By shortening to a three-night-minimum with our condo rentals we can keep them working. It is an ever-changing game, but we asked ourselves ‘what do our workers want?’ They want hours, flexibility, and the ability to bring their kids along so they don’t have to pay for childcare.” LVR now employs 75 housekeepers along with an office staff of 15. They also own a house in Maple City for employees, and they have connected with the Cool Works program that provides college student labor for the summer with housing provided. “These students come with a vehicle, they have good attitudes, and they get a place to stay.” Ranae adds. “We have been super-comfortable working with Brad, with Matt & Katy Wiesen, and with Cherry Republic and on the lodging issue.”
Jason Homa at Cherry Republic concurs. “When there was no sign that borders would open for foreign workers, we had to take a different approach,” he explains. “We sent out a lot of local mailers as part of the ‘Hire Local’ campaign, and we reached out to local schools and the community. One good source of help has been the Workamper website. These are people who move around the country in their RVs and work, like the folks in the movie Nomadland. Often it’s a couple looking for work, and we just find them a campsite for their rig. We’ve worked with them two years now.”
Cherry Republic is also hooked up with the Cool Works program to get college students. “They can work in Vail in the winter, or come to Glen Arbor for the summer. We provide housing in Maple City or on Trumbull Road,” Homa says. “We also house folks in a dorm at the Leelanau School. This year we have an arrangement with the Holland (Michigan) Culinary School to have interns working in our kitchen 40 hrs/wk. In Glen Arbor we’ve figured out a lot and we’re going to get by. Our Traverse City location is a little tougher. We usually have 45 people, and right now we only have 28. Maybe the J1 visa program will help us there next year.”
Tim Barr at Art’s Tavern in Glen Arbor is also short of help. “We need cooks, people at the door, and retail help,” he says. Barr has raised the hourly wage, put up signs and taken out ads, and depended on word of mouth from his current employees to find enough help. “The price of real estate makes it harder around here,” he muses. “I’ve got folks driving up from Benzie County and even from Thompsonville to come to work. And it’s a buyer’s market for the workers. Some jobs are easier to fill than others. A lot of young folks would rather work at the kayak rental shop where there are a bunch of the opposite sex walking around!” But Art’s stays busy. “We are hopping,” Barr adds. “I’d be happy with about half the volume right now.”
