How do 150 new jobs sound, Floyd County?

That’s the number of people a newcomer to the area — Foss Manufacturing Co. — is looking to hire to get the business rolling and hopefully in production by February.

Jim Magruder of Foss Manufacturing flew in from New Hampshire to oversee the closing of the building on Huffaker Road this Thursday and get the hiring process started.

“It’s our desire to get Americans back to work,” Magruder said. “We’re trying to expand our current capacity in New Hampshire by buying this facility (in Rome).”

Magruder said he’d given out 10 applications to people he thought might make good employees Saturday morning at the 2012 Business Expo and hoped to have a strong afternoon.

“Do the people here want to work?” he asked. “We’re looking.”

While the event may have been literally all business, it was clothed in a liberal dollop of fun at The Forum.

Circus clowns, a stiltwalker, popcorn and music occasionally punctuated with a loud bell from a strongman game sounded more like the circus than a local business event.

The theme of this year’s 2012 Business Expo was “The Greatest Shopping on Earth,” and this year’s chairperson Kaytlin Greenley of Coosa Valley Credit Union said the exhibitors stepped up for the occasion.

“This crowd has been nonstop all day long,” Greenley said. “Everyone seemed to incorporate the theme and everyone is having fun.”

They were lined up at 9 a.m. Saturday at the door, and Greenley called the expo a “huge success.”

As he stood by the overlarge sledgehammer used to smash the puck into the bell of the strongman game, Chris Lodge, director of customer service for Service Master by Twins carpet cleaning service, said the game has been a good draw.

The company does carpet cleaning as well as emergency dry cleaning and restoration services, and Lodge said the expo was a great opportunity for networking within the community.

At least 31 people had rung the bell by lunchtime, and Lodge said he was hoping for more.

“We’re always listening to comments to see if we can do anything better but I’ve yet to hear a complaint,” Greenley said.