The daily grind for Erica Fendley isn’t preparing the elixir of life at the coffee shop she manages in downtown Durango.
It’s the 70 hours a week she spends at the Steaming Bean Coffee Co., cleaning houses and assembling sleep masks worn by insomniacs and air travelers.
Fendley is one of Durango’s three-job workers, which by anecdotal accounts isn’t all that uncommon. A lot of residents get by on two jobs, but many will say it takes three to keep the boat afloat.
“I’m not afraid of work,” Fendley said. “I live conservatively, but to afford the basics of life in Durango, you need more than one job.”
In her native Arkansas, a studio apartment rents for $300 a month, Fendley said. In Durango, the going price for the same unit is $800.
“You do the math, and you find you need one paycheck just for rent,” Fendley said. “Forget about saving for the future.”
Fendley, 30, has undergraduate degrees in sociology and criminal justice from the University of Arkansas. She was a personal trainer at a gym back home, and she taught English as a foreign language in Izmir, Turkey, for three years before arriving in Durango.
“The Ozarks are beautiful, but there are so many reasons to live in Durango,” she said. “The opportunities to get outside are endless.”
Fendley doesn’t own a vehicle; she bikes or walks everywhere.
“It takes more time to get ahead here, but it’s worth it,” she said.
The decision to tough it out in Durango derives from more than economic issues, she said. Social interactions play a role.
“Arkansas is in the South, where there are certain expectations,” Fendley said. “It’s the Bible Belt, it’s conservative, so if you don’t fit the mold, you feel foreign.”
She said that eventually she’d like to work in one of the professions for which she studied.
“I’m attracted to both and can see myself taking advantage of my degrees,” Fendley said. “In fact, sociology and criminal justice could be the flip sides of some issues.”
But for the present, she likes the direction she’s headed.
“The work is fulfilling, and I’m growing,” she said. “I’m learning things I didn’t know about.”
H H H
Josh Martin must be a rarity in the sunup-to-sunset and into-the-night working world of Durango. He has three jobs, but he doesn’t toil out of sheer necessity.
Martin chooses not to simply survive but to prevail. He’s a team manager at the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a news reporter at Four Corners Broadcasting and a bartender at the Best Western Rio Grande Inn.
“I’m lucky,” the 33-year-old Martin said. “I don’t need three jobs, but I work to get ahead. Three years ago, I got tired of being in debt, so I got the bartending job, and I’ve paid off my student loan and my car loan.”
Martin, who spent his formative years in Delta where he finished high school, graduated from Fort Lewis College in 2008 with a degree in communications.
He got a job at the D&SNGR as a bartender/tour guide on runs to Silverton and now is manager of the onboard crew that serves drinks, relates historical events and indicates points of interest along the way. He recently received his 10-year pin.
He puts his degree in communications to work as a news reporter at Four Corners Broadcasting.
“We read stories from the Associated Press, but we also report, write and broadcast our own stories,” Martin said.
His favorite spare-time activity is catching up on his sleep.
But he can’t slip the yoke around his neck.
A devotee of personal-finance guru Suze Orman, Martin is following her advice: Everyone should maintain an emergency fund equal to eight months of his or her total expenses.
“I’m at four months now,” Martin said. “Maybe when I reach eight months I’ll think about dropping one of the jobs.”
But then he reconsidered.
“I’m debt-free, except that I’m buying a house,” Martin said. “Only 24 more years.”
H H H
The day starts early for Cody Wilkins and often doesn’t end until late.
Wilkins, 35, worked three jobs for a total of more than 60 hours a week until leaving one of them recently.
He drives a morning school bus route for Durango School District 9-R, toils at Velorution Cycles.
“I guess I could work one job, but it would be living paycheck to paycheck,” Wilkins said. “I prefer to do more and have some savings to get ahead.”
Wilkins fell into the driver job with 9-R easily because he had eight years experience behind the wheel of a school bus in Arkansas.
Durango was a good fit also because Wilkins has a degree in outdoor recreation from the University of Arkansas. He kayaks and bikes, which he did in Arkansas and learned to ski in the San Juans.
“Gear is expensive for all my pastimes,” Wilkins said. “But once you have the equipment, the outdoors is so close, so accessible.”
Ordinarily, working multiple jobs could be drudgery because of inflexible schedules, Wilkins said.
“But everywhere I work is a good place, and the people are good,” Wilkins said. “My work isn’t rigidly structured, so if I need time off, I can get it.”
daler@durangoherald.com
