Durango’s streets division hosted a job fair on Wednesday as part of the city’s efforts to recruit more commercial drivers. Turnout was small, but Allison Baker, public works director, said she met at least one good candidate and has received a couple other applications online.
The job fair was hosted at the Santa Rita Administration Building at 105 South Camino del Rio from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday and another session was scheduled for the same day at 5 to 7 p.m., Baker said.
Durango public works has five CDL driver positions it’s looking to fill. CDL drivers are hard to recruit in the post-COVID-19 era thanks to higher salaries across the board, Baker said in an interview in November.
The wintertime, when roads more frequently need to be plowed, is a strong example of the need for commercial drivers, even though they are needed year-round. During the snowstorm on Monday that dumped 3.6 inches of snow by 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, ushered in single-digit temperatures and caused school cancellations across La Plata County, the city assigned four CDL drivers from utilities to its streets division to work the roads into navigable conditions, she said.
She said recruiting more CDL drivers is a challenge, but not an emergency.
“I’d like to have a little more leeway where everybody’s not on call all the time and we have a little bit of downtown to just enjoy (our) families and not have to feel like, ‘OK, it could be tonight, it could be tomorrow,’ always looking at the weather,” she said.
Baker said persistence and creativity will lend to the city’s search for prospective CDL drivers.
“I think we’re getting more creative, which I think we need to. I believe that’s part of the real world these days,” she said.
Hiring is an ongoing process, she said. She plans to host more job fairs in the future.
Garrett Foster, who moved to Durango about a month ago to join his girlfriend, has a CDL license, is a truck driver by training. But he said it was time for something new and he is seeking to learn, grow and improve his skill set.
He filed an application for a CDL driver job with the city at the job fair on Wednesday. He said he is looking for work in something like construction. He said his long-term aspiration is to become an entrepreneur and own rental properties, so work experience that moves him in that direction is what he’s aiming for.
Positive company culture, the opportunity to learn and grow and pay and benefits are his top three qualities in jobs – in that order – when on the search for work, he said.
He said people don’t last long in toxic work environments, and living wages and benefits are indicators that a company or employer is interested in a worker’s well-being.
There isn’t a large amount of driving opportunities in Durango at the moment, he said, and so in addition to applying with the city, he’s also applied with the Colorado Department of Transportation.
He said he likes Durango, its people and its culture and he’s planned to move to the area for a few years.
For Baker, working for local government is appealing because of the opportunity to give back to the community through public service.
“These folks are hardworking and put heart and soul into it,” she said of city staff members. “In the private sector, you can make a lot more money, but there’s not the satisfaction of really giving back to your community in a hands-on way. I notice the difference when I drive to work.”
She said providing the infrastructure that ensures water comes out of one’s faucet when it’s turned on, or that the city streets are safe to drive on, is what labor in the public sector is all about.
“Public works for public good, that’s what we’re focused on,” she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
