VILAS COUNTY - Three years ago, the Vilas County Sheriff's Office got about 100 applications for corrections officer positions. This year, only fourteen applied. The jail currently staffs at its minimum levels: four officers per shift. The jail houses about 80 inmates at a given time. If there's a disturbance, two officers must stay at their stations. That leaves only two to respond. Sometimes the jail needs to call deputies in off the street.
"It takes the right type of individual to work here. You've got to be ambitious. You've got to be hardworking. It takes a person with good communication skills, and those are the types of people that we're working for," said Vilas County Jail Administrator Bill Weiss.
But Weiss, Sheriff Joe Fath, and Civil Service Commissioner Wally Obermann are struggling to find the right people to fill open positions. In fact, they're struggling to find anyone interested in the positions.
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