WBJ: Clark to begin hiring for construction jobs at St. E's
Washington Business Journal - by Jonathan O'Connell Staff Reporter
Officials from D.C., the General Services Administration and the Department of Homeland Security held a ceremonial opening of a construction jobs trailer Dec. 18 at the former St. Elizabeths hospital to highlight their efforts at getting D.C. residents trained and prepared for the $3.4 billion development of the department's headquarters there.
The “opportunities trailer” is a temporary structure built on the campus near one of the entrances from Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, between Anacostia and Congress Heights, two of the city’s neighborhoods that suffer disproportionately from poverty and unemployment.
Clark Construction Design Build LLC erected the trailer after being awarded the contract to build the development’s first portion: a $435 million U.S. Coast Guard headquarters.
Inside is a meeting room, space for interviewing candidates and computers for filling out job applications. GSA and Clark officials said the trailer would be open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. for District residents who want to work on what D.C. congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton called the country’s biggest construction project.
Speaking to a crowd of more than 150 people -- many of them interested in signing up for job opportunities -- Norton said the city needs to close the gap between its residents’ skills and the skills needed for major construction projects. Creating hundreds of construction jobs in the city’s poorest ward is an ideal opportunity for improvement, she said, even though the project does not have the requirements for local hiring that are normal in city-supported construction jobs because of federal rules against hiring based on residence.
“We are not going to build the biggest construction project in the United States, just to have D.C. residents as onlookers,” Norton said.
Norton and Councilman Marion Barry, D-Ward 8, said the city would succeed in getting many unemployed residents into construction work despite lower-then-desired numbers of D.C. hires for construction of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and the Nationals ballpark, both also built by Clark.
“We’re going to deliver these jobs, and Ward 8 needs these jobs, Ward 7 needs these jobs,” Barry said.
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For more Congress Heights and River East news visit The Congress Heights Examiner website, http://www.examiner.com/x-13507-Congress-Heights-Community-Examiner
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Officials from D.C., the General Services Administration and the Department of Homeland Security held a ceremonial opening of a construction jobs trailer Dec. 18 at the former St. Elizabeths hospital to highlight their efforts at getting D.C. residents trained and prepared for the $3.4 billion development of the department's headquarters there.
The “opportunities trailer” is a temporary structure built on the campus near one of the entrances from Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, between Anacostia and Congress Heights, two of the city’s neighborhoods that suffer disproportionately from poverty and unemployment.
Clark Construction Design Build LLC erected the trailer after being awarded the contract to build the development’s first portion: a $435 million U.S. Coast Guard headquarters.
Inside is a meeting room, space for interviewing candidates and computers for filling out job applications. GSA and Clark officials said the trailer would be open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. for District residents who want to work on what D.C. congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton called the country’s biggest construction project.
Speaking to a crowd of more than 150 people -- many of them interested in signing up for job opportunities -- Norton said the city needs to close the gap between its residents’ skills and the skills needed for major construction projects. Creating hundreds of construction jobs in the city’s poorest ward is an ideal opportunity for improvement, she said, even though the project does not have the requirements for local hiring that are normal in city-supported construction jobs because of federal rules against hiring based on residence.
“We are not going to build the biggest construction project in the United States, just to have D.C. residents as onlookers,” Norton said.
Norton and Councilman Marion Barry, D-Ward 8, said the city would succeed in getting many unemployed residents into construction work despite lower-then-desired numbers of D.C. hires for construction of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and the Nationals ballpark, both also built by Clark.
“We’re going to deliver these jobs, and Ward 8 needs these jobs, Ward 7 needs these jobs,” Barry said.
To continue reading go HERE.
For more Congress Heights and River East news visit The Congress Heights Examiner website, http://www.examiner.com/x-13507-Congress-Heights-Community-Examiner
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