CLEARFIELD – New staff members are coming to the offices of Visit Clearfield County and the Clearfield County Recreation & Tourism Authority welcomed the new director and named other staff members during yesterday’s meeting.
The new director, who was able to attend the meeting, is Josiah Jones, currently employed with the Community Guidance Center based in Indiana, Pa., with offices in surrounding counties, including Clearfield. Jones serves as public relations director at CGC and previously worked at Cen-Clear in a similar capacity.
Jones is from the Morrisdale area and graduated from West Branch Area High School in 1997 and Clarion University with a Bachelor’s degree in communications in 2001.
He said he enjoys working face-to-face with people and advocating for the county. “It will be a breath of fresh air for me, something different,” he said about the position at VCC.
One thing he has worked on is finding different ways to promote something, trying different avenues to see what is most effective and he said he is looking forward to using the same skills for Clearfield County.
“I’m really looking forward to getting started … I’ve lived here all my live and I want to bring people to Clearfield County.” Jones will start in the director position March 27.
Jones added that the county has many things to offer everyone, and it is as important to educate the people who live here, as well as reaching those outside of the county. He loves the outdoors, including hunting and golfing.
A new administrative assistant will start working as early as Tuesday of next week. Tracey Rose currently works in the county assessment office. And current employee Sue Swales-Vitullo will serve as assistant director at the office. She noted she is excited to have new staff come on board and get going with the spring and summer seasons quickly approaching.
Board member and County Commissioner Mark B. McCracken noted that board member Mark Burnett sat in on the interview process as representative of the board. Employees of VCC now fall under the county and the commissioners were the ones to interview prospective candidates. He noted the search for staff was an exhaustive process.
“What you’re going to find is someone with very a very strong background in marketing,” McCracken said of Jones.
Commissioner and board member Tony Scotto added he feels they’ve placed the right staff and now is the time to focus on moving forward.
