- [Announcer] Tonight, on "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories".

Oldphoneworks in Kingston is one of the largest suppliers of antique phones in the world.

You'll be surprised to find out just how popular this nostalgic technology really is.

Plus, how The Workplace in Watertown helps residents through a variety of government programs will help you navigate which ones might be right for you.

Your stories, your region.

Coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories".

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- [Announcer] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports-related injuries.

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- And good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories".

I'm Michael Riecke.

Oldphoneworks in Kingston, Ontario is one of the largest suppliers of antique phones and phone parts in the world.

Even though these vintage telephones were manufactured decades ago, their well-made designs stand the test of time.

Just how popular is this nostalgic technology?

The answer may surprise you.

(people chatting) (phone ringing) - [Eric] Nestled in Kingston, Ontario lies Oldphoneworks, a unique business dedicated solely to phones of a now almost bygone era.

Owner, Don Woodbury, says, "There isn't a landline in existence they don't service no matter when they were made."

- Oldphoneworks is an organization that we started 24 years ago and it was basically, brought online to facilitate the sale of vintage phones.

Vintage phones going back to, well, when the phone was invented, which is 1876.

And we actually, go all the way up to, you know, the 2020s, 'cause of some of these vintage phones or vintage phone styles are still being made today.

- [Eric] Woodbury adds that the company was formed purely by happenstance.

- Oldphoneworks got started from a vision we had at the time.

I was operating a series of cellular phone stores across Ontario and we were opening a store in downtown Kingston in a historic building.

And I got the brilliant idea that, you know, maybe we should put a vintage phone in this store.

Just, you know, as a interesting piece to contrast with the cellular phones, which we did.

It was a old wooden wall phone from about 1920 and put it on the waddle looked great and the whole bit, but next week someone wanted to buy it.

And that's basically, where it started.

We, you know, determined that there was a market for this stuff, and it grew from there.

- [Eric] Growth is precisely what took place as the business expanded beyond just sales of phones.

- Oldphoneworks provides a variety of services related to antique phones.

Not only do we sell antique phones, but we also repair and service them for customers from across North America really?

So, they will send us their vintage phone and say, "It doesn't work and can you make it work," or "Can you refurbish it to like new condition?"

We have the facility here to do that.

- [Eric] The work done on the phones is of the highest order as well as visionary says Woodbury.

- Oldphoneworks has a really, really high level of quality control with regard to the product we produce.

When we refurbish a phone, we go to great lengths to ensure that it is, you know, 100% right down, you know, is the paint perfect?

We manufacture our own cords for the phones.

Are the cords perfect?

Are the internals functioning properly?

So, I like to think that our quality is really second to none.

And some of the products with regard to unique envisionings of what a product can be, they are 100% unique.

No one else does it.

So, you know, we will take a military phone that was available in standard black in the 1950s and we will say, "Well, what can we do with that phone?"

And so, we will take this classic military phone and do something that I'm sure that no military planner ever envisioned.

We'll paint it pink.

And this is unique, I don't know of anyone else who does that.

- [Announcer] This niche type of business is quite popular.

says general manager Jeff Martin.

- So, the demand for old phones is fairly large.

We're a small operation, so that allows us to stay pretty lean.

But we ship 15, 20 phones out a week and it's steady all throughout the year.

Leading up to Christmas is our busy season and our numbers will go up significantly then.

- [Eric] The history behind the work is an important aspect to Martin.

- I think people should know about Oldphoneworks and the refurbishment of phones, because it's an important part of our history that we should really keep alive.

It's something that really allowed us to progress over the years.

And although cell phones are convenient, they do go out from time to time.

And the traditional old phone lines do stay active during a power outage, which can be nice in emergency situations.

- [Eric] Becoming involved in the movies was also something that happened purely by chance.

- Oldphoneworks got involved with the movie industry just by them randomly reaching out to us one day.

And once you get into the business, your name spreads throughout the business and it's just built off of that now.

Some of the movies our phones have appeared in are "Cinderella Man".

We provided candlestick telephones for them and we also did the remake of "Grease" amongst other movies over the years.

- [Eric] Oldphoneworks isn't just stuck in the past when it comes to the usage of the phones they provide.

- The other thing that we do, which is kind of interesting is, you know, these vintage phones were designed to work on one type of telephone system and slowly but surely those telephone systems are disappearing.

Being replaced by cell phones and other types of telephone services.

So, we feel that we have a responsibility here to allow these phones to be used on these new systems.

So, we have technologies that we can install in the phones, whether it's converting the rotary dial pulses into tones that are, you know, able to be understood by modern equipment or even a Bluetooth connection so that you can use your cell phone as your telephone line for these vintage phones, and they will work just like they did back in the day.

- [Announcer] From the vintage to the present and beyond.

Oldphoneworks keeps the phones ringing.

For WPBS Weekly, I'm Eric Cleary.

(phones ringing) - For more information visit Oldphoneworks.com.

Well, in times of need, there are many local, state, and national programs that can help with things like childcare, financial aid, food, medical, heating, housing and more, but navigating all these different services can be a challenge.

Cheryl Mayforth, executive director of The Workplace of Jefferson County sat down with me for a special interview.

She explains many of the available resources and how you can find out if you qualify.

(subtle upbeat music) (audience applauding) - [Speaker] Yeah, baby.

= And thank you for joining us Cheryl Mayforth, the executive director of The Workplace.

When I think of The Workplace and the role it plays in the community, you know, obviously, helping job seekers comes to mind, but your work and the work The Workplace does to help folks goes far beyond just helping job seekers.

You also help people remove some of those barriers that might keep them from finding a job or from holding down a job.

So, can you tell me about some those barriers and how The Workplace can help people through them?

- Yes, you know, we are two faceted.

We are also, we help job seekers.

We also have services to employers.

So, what we're trying to do is bring everybody together.

And so, when people come in and they've lost a job, it's a very difficult time for them.

So, we help them to see their good side, and to see that they have worth.

And so, we will work with people on developing a resume and that's a hard thing to do is to be able to put on paper your skills, your ability, your knowledge that you're a marketable individual.

And so, we'll help you with that.

We'll do mock interviews with you, because sometimes people have a great resume and then we can't figure out why in the world aren't they getting offers.

And sometimes, it's just what they're saying in an interview or what they're not saying.

And so, we will do mock interviews with individuals.

And then from the employer side, we take in job leads and so we can match job seekers with those job leads and send people out.

We do workshops to help people with interviewing skills.

How to dress, how to present yourself.

So, we also do a workshop for people that are looking to work on Fort Drum.

Now, that is a little bit difficult.

It's not the same as other private sector positions.

And so, with a partnership with Fort Drum is that we hold the workshop to help people do that.

So, we have a number of things going on all the time.

We do employer recruitments.

This is where an employer will come to us and they'll set up shop for about four hours and people can just walk in and meet with these employers.

We found that was a good strategy way back in the recession.

And so, that really became such a mainstay of what we do.

Right now, the Department of Corrections comes in once a month, the state police.

So, these recruiters come in so that they can meet with individuals.

We have services for all types of individuals.

We have a disability resource coordinator.

She is trained, she has done a lot of work, and working with individuals that may have those challenges and that includes justice-involved people.

So, we have people who are trained in various areas to be able to connect open jobs.

Now, as you know, we have a labor shortage that is something that has happened in America.

And so, getting people in the right fit and helping individuals and especially, employers to navigate those waters, because employers will report, you know, I have job openings I just don't have candidates.

And so, that's one of the things that we always navigate.

So, we're always changing.

We go through a period of time where there's more job seekers than are jobs.

Right now, there's more jobs than there are job seekers.

So, we're always having to evolve to meet the needs of the community.

- So, it's a good time to be a job seeker, but I think some folks find themselves in these situations where there's just something keeping them out of the job market.

And maybe that's childcare, for example.

- Yes.

- Or a loved one they have to care for at home or maybe it's a struggle to find and maintain stable housing.

So, when we talk about some of those more, you know, personal life challenges outside The Workplace, but can keep people from finding employment or keeping down a job, how do you help those folks?

- You know, right now, the strategy that we're taking is once a quarter we are holding what's called The Workplace forum.

These the whole focus is to work with employers to be able to take a look at what we call the wraparound services.

And so, we just had one on housing, we had one on childcare.

And one of the things, and we're gonna have one on elder care and those types of things.

And we just said housing.

These are real barriers.

They're real barriers to employment.

We know that childcare is expensive.

We know that it's hard to be able to find childcare.

In Jefferson County alone, the ratio is two to one, meaning for every two kids there's only one childcare slot.

And so, when the Governor came out with the childcare incentive, is we tried from our agency to present that to the general public and we found we weren't reaching.

So, we brought employers in and their HR and said, "Look, this is something you can present to your employees that may come to you to say, 'I'm having childcare issues,' meaning costs."

And so, we gave all of the how to apply for that.

You can apply for that online, and that is something you can provide to your employees, and to let them know that this is available.

If they could save several hundred dollars a month, it's a definite benefit.

We talked about housing.

Housing is definitely an issue.

It's issue all over.

We just had, you know, a number of agencies, again, we presented this to employers.

So, if you have an employee that comes to you to say, "I'm having issues," is that to give them the resources to say, "Here are some people you can call," and they can help this employee.

Hopefully, help this employee.

And that is something that, that's the strategy we're taking right now is, you know, letting employers know, look, here's some resources that you can offer your employees that are in crisis and they need help.

We've been partnering with the United Way and on workplace stability, because that's the whole key.

Keep your employees employed.

And many times the stuff, the childcare, the housing, this, that, and the other thing weighs the employee down so much that they just give up.

You know, I'm just gonna quit.

I can't deal with it.

But from an employer standpoint, if you can help that employee through various lines of help now tons of it's out there, but trying to get access to it.

And one of the things that we're promoting is the 2-1-1.

Now, you call and someone answers and you say, "I'm having a housing problem and I live in this zip code."

They can give you the resources that are available.

Jefferson County Community Services has put out on their website a list of those agencies that can possibly help you, especially housing, neighbors of Watertown, Community Action Planning.

And so, there are some areas to help.

So, this our strategy is we wanna keep people employed.

- What are some of, when someone says, "I'm in crisis, I have a need," and they reach out to some of those agencies you mentioned for support, whether it be for childcare, for housing, et cetera.

What are some things they should be prepared for in terms of coming to the table?

It's very much a two-way street, right?

- [Cheryl] That's correct.

- That these agencies are going to ask for something in return.

How can someone going and seeking out those services make the process easier for themselves?

- You know, the biggest thing is, is if you make the phone call.

Now, people come into our office, they're unemployed, you know, they're now at 50% of their average weekly wage, is it can become in crisis.

And so, our staff is also trained to be able to say, "All right, you know, we wanna keep you in your home, we're going to refer you over to Community Action Planning."

Now, they deal with trying to keep you in your place.

They're not there to try to rent you a place.

Neighbors of Watertown, the Housing Authority.

So, there's a number, but you've got to be prepared to have some documentation.

And when you call there, they will tell you what you need to bring, including Department of Social Services.

We have a housing unit there, whether it's some other support such as HEAP or SNAP is they're gonna tell you you're gonna have to bring in certain documentation.

You know, every single program is going to have eligibility rules, and, you know, work through the process.

And you're not going to walk in someplace and they're not gonna write you a check.

And that's what people need to be aware that you're gonna have to present documentation.

You're gonna have to back up and work through it.

That's the big thing.

And you know, we have a list of food pantries.

If you come in and you're desperate, we will connect you with those resources to assist you in making these connections.

- You know, so often I think we see government agencies and even employers working in silos, but you talked about this wraparound approach and I think that's so interesting.

Have you found it to be effective so far?

- We cannot be successful without partners.

And so, we work very closely with the Department of Social Services.

We work closely with economic development.

And many times when there is new opportunity in the community is that we're connected so that we can help them with recruitment.

We can assist in all those types of areas.

We work with our outside, you know, partners as well, Community Action Planning, any sort of agency where we can connect people either for resources or for jobs.

- It's a new year.

There may be some people thinking I'm looking for a new job, my next opportunity, or I wanna get back in the job market.

You talked about interviewing earlier and how sometimes you keep wondering why are they not getting bites or why are they not getting that job offer?

What are some common mistakes that you see people make during the job interview?

- Giving I would say too much information.

Sometimes people don't give enough to be able to, for the employer to say, "Yeah, you have what I'm looking for."

But giving too much information, especially personal information.

You know, you say, "Tell me about yourself."

And they go on about, you know, how many kids they have and it's like you don't do that.

You just talk about your professional experience.

That's what they're interested in.

And, of course, you say there's so many laws out there that you wanna be careful about sharing too much.

You know, my favorite one, and I've been doing this for a long time, is, you know, what happened to that job?

"Well, I got fired."

And you're like, "No, no, no, you just simply say, 'The employer and I, you know, we just weren't connecting.

And so, it wasn't a good fit.

And so, we decided to part company.'"

That is a much better answer than startling your interviewer with something crazy like, you know, "Well, I punched out my employer."

Well, you know, it's probably not gonna get you the job, but, you know, working with people to be able to answer those questions.

You know, the other favorite one is, you know, "What's your weakness?"

"Well, I can't get up in the morning and get to work on time."

Well, you know, that's not gonna be a selling point.

You know, you wanna say, "Well, I push myself and I expect a lot outta somebody else."

And I know that that's probably a little bit of a weakness.

Well, that's not a bad weakness.

So, you just wanna turn your weakness into a positive.

And so, many times we have to work with people, you know, making eye contact, you know?

You know, what's the difference between, you know, I type 40 words a minute, I type 40 words a minute.

So, there's a lot of technique to be able to brush up on those interviewing skills.

And unfortunately, people don't do it that often.

You know, you've been employed someplace for 10 years, it goes out of business.

Man, this is a whole new road that you need to travel.

- Absolutely.

It makes me think about, I think about my dad who's about to retire and he's thinking about, do I keep working a little bit after retirement?

And I'm wondering if you work with seniors at all who are sort of in that transition phase to maybe find, you know, a new role that keeps them active, but not necessarily full time.

- And that's the key.

We know that the labor shortage has been created by the Baby Boomer generation retiring.

There's just more of them than there is the Gen Zs and the Gen Alphas.

So, it's another strategy is look at these people.

They got a great work ethic, but they're not gonna come back full-time.

And so, trying to create these part-time jobs for those who want to work just a few hours to keep active.

So again, that's a strategy for an employer is that, you know, these are good people, but they're not interested in a 40-hour week anymore.

So again, so working with employers is just as important as working with the job seeker.

Is that we wanna bring them together.

That's our whole mission.

Is to bring jobs and people and get 'em together.

And I've always told our staff, "When everybody's employed, we'll turn off the lights, we'll go home."

- That's right.

Well, I hope you never have to do that and find yourself searching for a job yourself, but it sounds like it's a great time to be a job seeker.

Cheryl Mayforth, thank you so much.

We really appreciate your time.

- Oh, thank you so much.

- You can access the Jefferson County resource guide nnycs.org.

Well, that does it for us for this Tuesday night.

Join us next time for a fresh look inside the stories.

Mom, author, abuse survivor, and three-time cancer survivor, Trish Michael, uplifts kids with powerful messages of resilience, inner strength, and hope.

And everyone knows about the use of drones for aerial photography, but they also have a surprising use in the field of disaster response.

We'll tell you how.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we'd love to learn more.

Just drop us an email at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for tonight, everyone.

Have a safe evening.

We'll see you next time.

Take care.

(subtle upbeat music) - [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories" is brought to you by.

- [Announcer] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage walk-in clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and healing close to home when you need it most.

- [Announcer] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports-related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- [Announcer] We are the North Country.

We're protecting one another like family is who we are, and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong at claxtonhepburn.org today.

- [Announcer] Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants program, A regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

(subtle upbeat music) (gentle music)