SUNBURY - Northumberland County government had a need for a part-time worker in its voter registration office.
Giuseppe Bua, despite being confined to a motorized wheelchair, wanted a job.
Each got what it needed when Bua was hiring as a new assistant in voter registration, which is expecting busy months ahead in this presidential year.
Bua, 22, of Sunbury, has a congenital disease called osteogenesis imperfecta, which causes weak bones susceptible to fractures. Those who are affected are below average height, according to the U.S. Library of Medicine's website.
Despite his condition, Bua wanted a job. Knowing this, his father, Vito Bua, who works at O.I.P. Restaurant in Sunbury,
approached Northumberland County Commissioners Rick Shoch and Vinny Clausi.
"We were having lunch at O.I.P. when Giuseppe's father had a conversation with us. We took it back and discussed it," Shoch, board chairman, said Tuesday during a visit with Bua at the voter registration office in the human services complex. "It fills a great need in this department with the upcoming election."
Bua wasn't just hired on a whim, though. He had to do an interview through human resources and with Chief Clerk Gary Steffan.
"He is very good with computers and good on the phone," Clausi said, noting those are the two key skills needed in the office. He added that he is "so proud to see a gentleman like this ask for a job. We should all smile today," he said about hiring someone with a disability.
Clausi said he wasn't aware of any recently laid off employees who would have been interested in a part-time job that involves just 16 hours a week and pays $10 per hour.
Commissioner Stephen Bridy echoed Clausi's statement in this feel-good hiring.
"We couldn't have found a better candidate," Bridy said.
For his part, Bua is happy to be working.
"It is something different to get out of the house. I tried school and I didn't like it," he said.
Election board director Alisha Herb is also happy to have Bua on board, not only to replace a former part-timer, who was working 20 hours a week and left for a full-time job, according to Clausi, but also because one of her assistants is on maternity leave.
"He is working out," Herb said. "He does everything we do, including putting in voter registrations and transferring voters from county to county."