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PageO Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
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PageP Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
House Renovation
What are ‘good bones’? Consider floors, walls, ceilings and doors N
ew homeowner Susan Spiller got it right. As The Greenwood Commonwealth recounted in the current issue (Summer 2018) of its quarterly magazine, Leflore Illustrated, when she was house-hunting and walked into the 1920s “Vardaman house” on Grand Boulevard, she knew immediately that it had “good bones.” She noted that the floors were level and the doors opened and closed. Regardless of the lamentable cosmetic condition of the house, those good bones convinced her and her husband, Rob Spiller, that the house was worth preserving and updating. If you watch home renovation shows, such as “Fixer Upper” or “Property Brothers,” you’re familiar with old houses that have good bones. It’s a term that’s tossed out casually — “Oh, I’ll know it when I see it.” But those bones can play a substantial role in decisions about whether to renovate an old house or build a new one. Jim McNeer, operations manager with KT Builder in Greenwood for many years, said if you’ve found an older home on the market that you love, but that obviously requires a great deal of work, both you and your budget will need a clear vision of what it will take to bring the place up to McNeer code and make it livable. “Any buyer can go into a house and get a feel for the layout,” said McNeer. You can often tell just by walking through a house whether its layout feels right for the way you live and whether it will work for you, whether you can picture yourself living there, with or without construction changes. “Then it becomes about budget,” said McNeer. “You need someone to come with you to look at the structure of the house because that’s where the renovation cost will be.” And that person will be able to find problems that you won’t even know to look for. “So,” McNeer continued, “you’ll be able to say, ‘I can purchase this property for X dollars, and I’ll have to put Y dollars into renovating it. Can I do that?’” If you’re not clear-headed about both X and Y, you’ll probably run into costly problems during the renovation. McNeer said two broad sets of factors determine the quality of the “bones” an older house presents: major structural issues and design and layout issues. When a potential buyer asks him for a renovation estimate before purchasing a house, McNeer and his wife, Kim, go through the house as a team. Kim is not only KT Builder’s controller and the daughter of its founder, Kenny Thompson, but also a specialist in design and layout. Together, they try to cover all aspects of renovating the property so that their reno estimate will be as close to reality as possible. Jim looks for the major structure/infrastructure issues: n cäççêëW= Are they level? What condition are they in? Any apparent water damage (warping, discoloration), and if so, where is it coming from, and what needs to be corrected? Old hardwood floors will likely need refinishing, but that’s cosmetic, not structural. Are there any soft spots? Spongy spots can point to serious plumbing problems, weather leakage or weakened joists under the flooring that can be quite expensive to correct. n t~ääëW “All plaster and dry wall will
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crack,” McNeer said, “but the way it cracks tells us how serious it is.” For example, an easily repaired cosmetic crack will usually be hairline-thin and horizontal or vertical, and it’s usually caused by the house settling. A structural crack, however — one that squirms diagonally, looks like a stairstep or opens wider than a hairline — can indicate the house is shifting in a way that may require costly replacement of walls or supports. n `ÉáäáåÖëW Any visible swaying or discoloration from water damage? Where is it coming from, and how can it be repaired? n aççêëW Do the doors open and close without scraping against the floors or the door jambs? If not, what is the structural problem, and how will that be repaired? The design and layout issues sometimes overlap and interweave with the structural factors McNeer is considering.
“Potential buyers can walk through a house and see where they might want to tear down a wall to open up a space,” McNeer said. That’s often doable, but most buyers don’t know how to tell whether a wall is load-bearing — that is, whether it actually helps support the weight of the house, he said. Eliminating a non-loadbearing wall to enlarge a room might be within an average budget. But if it’s a loadbearing wall, some form of support will have to be engineered to replace it, and that replacement can add tens of thousands of dollars to the reno expense, depending on how many stories of the house are affected, along with several other factors — if it can be done at all. The McNeers themselves have recent personal experience with this issue. When they were renovating the house they live in now, they wanted a wall in their kitchen
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taken down to accommodate new appliances. But with some investigation, they learned that particular wall, which rose from the basement and went up through the attic, had originally been an exterior corner of the house when it was built in the 1920s. Since all exterior walls of a house are load-bearing, they knew that wall was there to stay, and they made the necessary plan revisions. If the good bones of an older home are tempting you to buy, McNeer offers some valuable advice that may help you avoid reno regret. “You have to know your budget,” McNeer stresses first. The purchase price of the house is only the beginning. Depending on how much work is needed, you may end up spending multiples of that amount on the renovation. Before you sign any purchase contract, enlist the help of a reliable general contractor to walk with you through every square foot of the property looking for things that need to be done, quantifying the expected repair costs and helping you set priorities. McNeer also advises buyers to add a cushion of 10 to 15 percent to cover contingencies. “You never know what you’ll run into,” he said. “And remember that the cheapest estimate is typically never the best,” he continued. You need to be confident your contractor is giving you the most accurate price, rather than the lowest. “You don’t want to start a project only to have to stop because you didn’t have the whole picture.” You also need to be judicious in deciding how to approach a problem, McNeer said. You want to do the right thing to improve a space, not necessarily an expedient thing that would leave a space diminished instead of enhanced. About 10 years ago, he recalled, the Rev. Dr. Rusty Douglas had KT Builder look at a damaged drop ceiling that the First Presbyterian Church in Greenwood had had installed many years before in its parlor. The intention was to replace the drop ceiling. “We got to work pulling the tiles down,” McNeer said, “and we discovered the drop ceiling was covering up the most beautiful wood wagon-wheel beam design on the original ceiling.” Douglas halted the project, conferred with the church’s decisionmakers and then instructed the contractor to do whatever needed to be done to restore the original ceiling. Finally, cost considerations aside, McNeer said every house has a story. Regardless of whether the house is historically significant, it still contributes to the narrative of its community’s development and the families who have lived in it, and it deserves a chance to have its tale continue. Renovating restores the story of the house and its place in time. McNeer has a fondness for home construction-related quotations he has found through his years in the business, and one of his favorites is from interior designer Nate Berkus, who some folks in Greenwood will remember was an executive producer of “The Help,” the movie of 2011 that was filmed in the area. Berkus said, “Your home should tell the story of who you are and be a collection of what you love.” Renovation of an old house with good bones rejuvenates those bones, adds to their story and encourages the new owner to continue that story for future generations. What a great opportunity to build and renew communities to keep all those stories alive. n
PageQ Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
Renovations That Add Value
Planning an upgrade Consider what purpose of improvement is
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hen renovating to add value to a home, it’s all about the space, says Pam Powers. “And the flow that suits your lifestyle, or what you envision your lifestyle.” Powers, a real estate broker and owner of Powers Properties, said it may be as simple as picking features that satisfy a homeowner’s immediate needs. She puts it this way: “How would you design your tent? What are your basic needs, desires? Then, you can go from there.” With Greenwood’s abundance of beautiful older homes and cottages, a remodel may be necessary for accommodating more modern interior essentials. “Greenwood has a wealth of beautiful Southern classic homes, with charm and space,” said Powers. “But most of these may need some renovation to be tailored to your needs.” When renovating, however, Powers said homeowners should ask themselves, “Is your home improvement and investment for profit, equity, enhancement or livability?” In a recent study by the National Association of Realtors, the No. 1 improvement for cost recovery is a new roof, the No. 1 joy factor is adding a bathroom, and the No. 1 for buyer appeal is a kitchen upgrade. “Consider the possibilities,” said Powers. “If the space is right, then you can make improvements now, as you go or as you are able.” Just upgrading or completely overhauling a kitchen may not be enough to attract buyers. The flow of the home is important to consider, too. “You can have a huge kitchen addition and if it doesn’t incorporate into the other living areas, then the cook is stranded,” said Powers. “I have rarely seen the size of a master bedroom or even a den sell a house. I love a formal dining room, but dinner parties aren’t so popular and may be obsolete to some.” According to the study, 54 percent of Realtors have suggested sellers complete a kitchen upgrade before attempting to sell, while 18 percent of Realtors recommended a total kitchen remodel. The Realtors estimate that the average kitchen upgrade runs $35,000, and the owner can expect to recover about $20,000, or 57 percent, of the cost when the home is sold. Although more costly than an upgrade, a total kitchen renovation has a higher payback, according to the study. The average cost of a kitchen overhaul is $65,000, and the owner can expect to recover about $40,000, or 62 percent, of the cost when the home is sold. Betty DuBard, who owns DuBard Realty with her husband, Ron, said many times a kitchen can be what sells a home. “The kitchen is the heart of a home,” she said. “Even if you are not a gourmet chef, it’s a gathering place for a family.” The more money a homeowner invests in a kitchen, the higher the value of the home increases, DuBard said. After a kitchen renovation, 91 percent of homeowners reported that they have a greater desire to be home, 91 percent have an increased sense of enjoyment when they are at home, and 89 percent feel a major sense of accomplishment when they think of the project. For those looking to spend a little less, however, there’s some quicker and more economical ways to add value to a home. “Make the home sparkling clean, a fresh
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coat of paint inside and outside, de-clutter, organize, trim the hedges and Weedeat the lawn,” said DuBard.
Curb appeal may not be what sells a home or adds the most value for money spent, but it could draw a potential home-
buyer to the house. “It’s pleasing to your eye and welcomes you home each time,” said DuBard. Other renovations that may add value but homeowners will see a lesser return on investment are a fence or swimming pool. For many HomeFront Home Improvement Center customers, kitchens and bathrooms are the most common remodels, said Design Consultant Michelle Adams. “Those are the two biggest, and those are the two biggest things that make money on a house,” she said. “Bathrooms and the kitchen, that’s what sells a house. That’s what people look at.” Sometimes when a homeowner plans to resell in the future, Adams will be asked about the best way to upgrade a home that will appeal to potential homebuyers. “Neutral is the best way to go,” she said. “Not everybody is going to like what you like. Personally, I recommend grays and browns together. A lot of people like gray right now, but not everyone. I would try to go as neutral as possible.” When renovating, consider going for neutral or for the most commonly liked styles on flooring and countertops. It’s important, though, to steer away from the latest fads or trends that may be popular for only a season or two. “Flooring is one of the big things we do,” said Adams. “People like the pine hardwood, but it tends to be more expensive. Your hickory is going to be the best bang for your buck — hickory or oak.” Tile floors are another way to go, since they are the most permanent, said Adams. “You don’t have to worry about tile floors getting damaged or water damage,” she said. White quartz countertops are in style now, but if a homeowner is remodeling to add value rather than for personal tastes, Adams recommends going with granite. “The granite is a little cheaper, and it’s durable, and it adds to a house’s resale value,” she said. What’s the least expensive way to upgrade a home? “Painting, for sure,” said Adams. “It is the cheapest way to revamp a room.” With any home remodel, DuBard does recommend to “get cost estimates for the renovations and contact your local Realtor to see what the market is doing in regards to these renovations.” n
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PageR `lkpqor`qflk Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 =======================================================================================================================================================================
PageS Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
Construction Outlook
Eyes on the future Builders busy, but some predict lull soon
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reenwood contractors are staying as busy as they can while also keeping their eyes out for future work as the state continues to deal with economic challenges. Malouf Construction does industrial design-build construction, civil projects and marine work as well as site development, and “most sectors are strong right now,” said the company’s president, George Malouf. “This has been the most optimism we’ve seen in the industrial sector since prior to the downturn in ’08, ’09,” Malouf said. He said the company has been busy making proposals but is not as busy in the field as he would like. Its only scheduled project in the Leflore County area is a paving project that is about to start at Milwaukee Tool, which is expanding its Greenwood operation. But there are a number of projects going on elsewhere, including expansions in Mississippi’s Golden Triangle and Arkansas related to the steel industry. “The industrial sector is picking up steam significantly, and civil (work) has been very steady in both the public and private sectors,” Malouf said. He expects public spending on infrastructure to rise in Mississippi, as it has in surrounding states, and that would likely bring more construction work. Malouf Construction has two current projects for the Mississippi Department of Transportation: one in the Rolling Fork area and one on the Gulf Coast. The company is also monitoring some projects on the coast that are in the design phase and will be going up for bids. “The coast is starting to pick up a little bit in general,” he said. “It was lagging, and there seems to be more activity on the coast and more opportunity right now.” The marine projects, which include work at petroleum or grain load-in or load-out facilities, have been affected by drops in commodity prices. “There was a lot of expansion in grain just a few years ago, and that’s slowed considerably,” Malouf said. Malouf Construction doesn’t build commercial buildings but does do site development for such projects. George Malouf said that activity has slowed significantly in Mississippi when it comes to new retail. “Things like big-box retail, Wal-Marts, you don’t see many new construction projects at all for them happening in a year or so,” he said. In general, he said, Mississippi is still behind surrounding states that have been recovering economically for a couple of years — and finding new workers continues to be a challenge. Malouf’s employment is up about 15 percent from this time last year, but the company is shorthanded for its current workload and must also recruit for the future. “It’s a bigger and bigger struggle each day to find and train qualified people who want to work in this wonderful industry,” Malouf said. Mike Rozier, president of Mike Rozier Construction, said that with two months remaining in its fiscal year, the Greenwood and Hattiesburg locations have booked 70 jobs — an increase over 65 for the last entire fiscal year. The company is now working on job number 70. “We’ve pretty well got all we can do right now, but four months down the road, I don’t see much work out there,” Rozier said. “Four to six months, I don’t see much work out to bid. So I think by the end of this year, we’re going to be in a lull.”
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“This is the most optimism we’ve seen in the industrial sector since prior to the downturn in ’08, ’09. ’’ George Malouf
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oçòáÉê=`çåëíêìÅíáçå=Äìáäí=íÜÉ=mÉéëáÅç=ÇáëíêáÄìíáçå=ÅÉåíÉê=çå=rKpK=UOK Rozier’s work locations include years down the road,” the company said. Hattiesburg, the Jackson area, north “We will continue to study different marMississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and kets and government rulings and invest in Texas. It does all commercial construction, our employees to ensure optimal perforincluding retail, industrial, agriculture- mance for our clients.” As for predictions, RC said, “We are takrelated and institutional. “Right now, if I had to predict what 2019 ing the growth of our business one day at a would be, I believe that our volume will be time. We are proud to be a part of the Greenwood, Mississippi, community and down from what it is this year,” he said. Rozier Construction also has also had are proud to provide employment for peodifficulty finding qualified workers, but it’s ple throughout the USA.” Kenny Thompson of KT Builder said his not alone, he said: “Skilled labor force is the number-one problem in this whole indus- current jobs include work for First South Farm Credit, the Sunflower County try.” RC Construction has 16 current projects schools, a school in Kosciusko and a spread across eight states. RC’s niche has Cannon Dodge dealership in Cleveland. been mainly in the Southeast and on the The company is always looking for work East Coast, but it is “actively looking to within a 100-to-150-mile radius of pursue jobs all across the country, specifi- Greenwood. “At this time, we have work, but the cally focusing on the Northeast in recent months,” the company reported in an future” — starting six months from now — “looks like there’s not as much stuff to email. “Our rate of growth has far exceeded our bid as there has been in the last year or so,” expectations, and we are definitely the he said. Thompson said construction is naturally busiest currently that we have been in an up-and-down business, and sometimes recent years,” the company said. Airfield paving has been fruitful for RC customers take their time before deciding Construction, and its preconstruction to go ahead with something. “We’re pretty versatile,” he said. “We can department “always has eyes out for five
do a lot of different things in construction from parks and recreation all the way to historic renovations to new construction.” He said he plans to keep his employee numbers the same in order to prepare for busier times. “We’ve got people that have got longevity with us, and that’s what we want — people that have been with us 10-plus years,” he said. “We’ve got some that have been with us 30, and we’re going to keep them busy. We’re going to pay them to do something.” Meanwhile, Upchurch Plumbing has a variety of projects going on. “The construction industry is on the upswing,” said Mike Upchurch, the company’s vice president. “We are probably busier now than we’ve been in four or five years.” Not many projects are available in the Mississippi Delta, although Upchurch is doing some mechanical work for the expansion at Milwaukee Tool and is nearly done with work for the expansion at Delta State University’s cafeteria. But Upchurch is very active in other locations, including the Continental Tire plant in Clinton, East Mississippi Community College’s new campus in Columbus, a sports medicine facility in Flowood, a Keystone Foods chicken-processing plant in Georgia and the Colbert County School District in Alabama. It also is working on College View Phase 1, a project at Mississippi State University involving new campus apartments built by a EdR Collegiate Housing, a private company based in Memphis. College View will include 656 residential beds in a combination of one-, two, and four-bedroom units for upperclassmen in Phase I, with delivery scheduled for the fall of 2019. The project will also feature retail and commercial space, recreational amenities, an outdoor entertainment zone, a day-care center and parking. Upchurch also has additional jobs in Tennessee, Alabama and even Indiana and is considering bidding on some other promising ones. Mike Upchurch said the company, which generally works in an area extending from the Carolinas to Texas, will carry a big backlog into 2019. One concern, though, is the effect of the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on steel. Upchurch estimated that steel prices have risen 22 percent on average since March. “If the tariffs don’t slow the construction industry down, I think we’re going to be in good shape,” he said, “but nobody knows what the tariffs are going to do to manufacturing facilities that rely on sending product to other countries.” He said his company has had to buy products earlier than it normally would in order to beat the increases in steel prices. “It’s pretty much leveled off right now,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s going to go back up or down, but that was a challenge this spring.” n
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PageT `lkpqor`qflk Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 =======================================================================================================================================================================
PageU Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
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PageV Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
Affordable Housing
Trying to add options W
Definition of ‘affordable’ varies widely
hat are Greenwood and Leflore County doing to support construction of new affordable housing? Or refurbishing existing housing for new homeowners and renters? That’s a complicated question with a complicated answer. For one thing, the term “affordable housing” is slippery. Compared to housing costs most anywhere else in the country, Greenwood’s real estate and rental markets are generally considered affordable. But look a little more closely at who rents in Greenwood and who a first-time homeowner is likely to be. With 39 percent of the city’s population living at federal poverty rates, chances are that many looking for safe, clean affordable places to live also fall into the low-income category. What’s affordable for a family whose annual combined income is $24,000 and a family that grosses $54,000 is distinctly different. Low-income renters in Greenwood have access to federally subsidized apartments in projects built specifically to house lowincome families — if one is available — or aging, privately owned housing whose owners accept Section 8 housing vouchers. Much of that aging housing stock is in poor condition, and putting all of a community’s poorest people together in expansive apartment complexes is widely known to be a formula for attendant social problems. In Greenwood, both of these affordable housing stocks are managed and controlled by the Greenwood Housing Authority, a low-visibility board that, for the most part, manages federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) dollars, sets rent prices on subsidized housing, determines how much low-income renters must pay and sets reimbursement rates for private owners. That’s a big job in a small town with a 39 percent poverty rate, and it leaves little time or resources to tap into the many other federal and state programs available for renters, homeowners, builders, developers and home renovators. Take state-administered tax credits, for example. In Greenwood over the last year, Main Street Greenwood has hosted workshops for would-be owners of abandoned downtown buildings, teaching them how to tap into state tax credits to fund renovation of those buildings into new business spaces and, possibly, into housing. It’s possible, though expensive, to repurpose old buildings into affordable housing, a scenario that has become a reality most recently in Jackson at the Capitol Arts Lofts — 31 apartments located in seven 100-year-old renovated buildings, one- and two-bedrooms ranging in rent from $292 to $766 per month. The construction was funded through state tax credits and lowincome rents are subsidized. Construction took less than a year for Capitol Arts, but the project was almost a decade in the making. Buildings had to be renovated with historic accuracy in mind. Developer HRI Properties received approximately $8.5 million in tax credits through the Mississippi State Historic Tax Credit and Mississippi Home Corp.’s allocation of federal Low-Income Housing Credits. Thirty-one apartments is a drop in the bucket for a city like Jackson with the same needs as Greenwood multiplied 10fold. But it’s a start. Meanwhile, in Leflore County, a frag-
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mented hodgepodge of potential affordable housing projects have been proposed or are currently moving forward while the existing affordable housing stock continues to crumble. This spring, Talisha Sandifer, who at that time was employed by Central Mississippi Inc., appeared several times before the county board of supervisors to discuss partnering with the county in a USDA-funded Self-Help Housing program. CMI wanted to either buy or accept as a donation land owned by the county on which to build 13 homes to be financed with low-interest loans by USDA’s Rural Development program. Qualified homeowners would be contracted to help build their own homes, earning sweat equity and lowering the costs. Once houses under the program were completed, the USDA loan would be transferred to a traditional mortgage company. The role of CMI would be to take applications from interested potential homeowners, walk them through the process and help them establish credit or improve credit ratings if needed. Supervisors tentatively approved donating land at Lake Bend Estates to be used in the program, pending an opinion by the state attorney general that such a donation is acceptable. In May, attorney Joyce Chiles told supervisors they would have to designate the lots as surplus property first, before giving them away or selling them
below market price. Assuming the program moves forward, that means 13 new brick houses sized to fit a family’s needs will be built and valued between $103,000 and $115,000 for homeowners who can qualify for the program. But qualifying for many of the available affordable housing programs that come through government channels can be difficult. Mississippi Home Corp.’s HOME program last year sought applicants for funding to refurbish houses in specific lowincome census tracts in the county. However, the guidelines were so stringent that homes in dire need of renovation could not qualify, applicants had to already be homeowners to qualify and many of those most in need of help were not eligible. At one point, a representative came to the county supervisors asking them to look for more applicants because no one who had applied had qualified for the program and the deadline to apply was about to run out. Navigating these various programs, including USDA funding for home rehabilitation grants and home preservation programs requires lots of time and knowledge of restrictions and requirements, and neither city nor county governments in rural locations like Greenwood have sufficient personnel to dedicate full-time to seeking money for affordable housing. That leaves it up to private developers with deep pockets in the majority of cases. One such developer, Rowanoak
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Development LLC of Brandon, approached supervisors last year with a proposal to take the former county livestock yard and build an affordable housing development there. Supervisors were initially skeptical, but gave Rowanoak the goahead to pursue funding which the group was ultimately denied by Mississippi Home Corp. The Mississippi Home Corp. required that any site for development contain “several blighted, abandoned residential or commercial structures,” and since the county stock yard didn’t meet that criteria, Rowanoak requested a waiver that would allow it to acquire other abandoned parcels near the stockyard to meet requirements. The state, however, refused the waiver. Rowanoak’s representative told supervisors at the time that his company would be back and had other proposals in the pipeline. Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams said in recent months she spent a couple of hours touring Greenwood with a housing developer from Oxford, Clarence Chapman, who expressed interest in developing city-owned property between the City Barn and Whittington Park. Chapman is a principal of Chartre Companies, which last year won a national Best in American Living Award for its Helm Place townhome development in the historic Farish Street Historic District of Jackson. “It would be nice, quality housing, a gated community,” McAdams said, but she had few details to offer, including how affordable the properties would actually be. In general, for developers to qualify for low income tax credits, administered by Mississippi Home Corp., a certain percentage but not all of the units developed must meet low-income affordability criteria. Chapman’s Helm Place townhome development included a mix of affordable units with units priced at current market value. Emily Roush-Elliott, a Greenwood architect who specializes in social impact housing and development, said the maze of funding for federal housing programs is often impenetrable, and that, in general, her company has found there is nothing out there for those most in need. Roush-Elliott referred to federal rehab grants and loans and one in particular for people over 65, eligible for $7,500 to pay for needed rehabilitation of run-down homes. “I’ve applied twice and have not been successful,” she said. “Your house can’t be in too good shape and also not in too bad shape to qualify.” Roush-Elliott said her company has a list of 40 or more homeowners, many of them older people, who are trying to qualify for weatherization funding that would help them pay to repair ceilings, windows and doors and gaping holes in their homes to keep weather out, with little luck. “We’ve been thinking and talking about this with our partners at Hope Enterprise Corp.,” Roush-Elliott said. The Jacksonbased community development organization that runs credit unions in rural areas is involved in several community development projects in the Delta and also loans money to credit union members while helping them repair or build credit. The bottom line is that funding programs for rehabilitation, for mortgages, for building new affordable homes and for repurposing existing buildings into affordable housing exist but are difficult to penetrate and access, especially in rural areas like Greenwood and Leflore County. n
PageNM Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
Vo-Tech Trends
Addressing the skills gap More students pursuing technical certificates A
ccepted wisdom in the Delta is that working in the skilled construction trades is a good way to make a substantial living, and it’s hard for companies to find enough trained workers. It’s not just a Delta or Mississippi problem but a national one due to a convergence of factors: the housing crisis and the Great Recession, the shrinking number of vocational programs and classes available in public schools post-1990s and, largely, lack of exposure to construction trades. Professionals in the construction business refer to it as “the skills gap.” In and around Leflore County, high schools and community colleges are trying to address the problem with a growing variety of what used to be called vocational-technical training classes, now referred to as career technical training. Melinda Anders works in the career technical training program at Mississippi Delta Community College, where she says all classes in skills related to the construction industry are full for the upcoming semester. “There definitely a demand for classes,” Anders Anders said. “We’re seeing more students not necessarily wanting to do the four-year university degree but a technical certificate program that takes one or two years instead.” MDCC offers programs in brick, block and stone masonry; heating, air conditioning and refrigeration; drafting and design (to become a technician); welding; operating construction equipment; and architecture, construction and electronics. Some are certificate programs leading to viable work in a relatively short time, and others link to upper-level classes at a fouryear institution. “Drafting and design, for example,” said Anders. “That particular program transfers to the University of Southern Mississippi.” Anders said that if students do their part and work hard, they can get work immediately upon completing their training in some of these areas, such as HVAC and welding. “We don’t partner directly with individual businesses, but we keep a running job board. Our instructors will direct them that way. There’s tons of jobs out there, especially in brick and block.” Anders said that in some trades, students can come out of one of MDCC’s certificate programs and be their own boss, starting their own business. “Our instructors have their own businesses as well,” she said, “and often help students find work.” “I’m not just saying this because I’m supposed to, but our instructors go that extra mile to help their students,” Anders said. “If there’s some fear about going out there to work, one of these instructors is going to help them.” Greenwood architect Emily RoushElliott, whose firm Delta Design-Build has run construction training programs for students over the past few years, singled out MDCC instructor and electrician David Grant as a good example. “David teaches in the electrical program at MDCC, and he’s wonderful all across the spectrum,” Roush-Elliott said. “He worked with us and our apprentices on the Katrina cottages we put up in Baptist Town, and at the other end of the spectrum, his business, he’s ended up hiring a bunch of his stu-
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dents.” Exposure to the construction trades through training programs such as RoushElliott’s is important as are career technical education programs in high schools. Charles Streeter is career technical education director for the Leflore County School District, where the newest program, starting this year, will teach students to operate large equipment, including in the construction industry. Streeter said he hopes to see a stone, brick and block masonry program soon and is working on implementing one. Earlier this year, Streeter approached the Leflore County Board of Supervisors as well as several area businesses that employ large equipment operators, asking for their endorsement of the new career technical class at the county schools. That means those potential employers said they would be open to helping students get a first hand look at the kind of work they do, and they certified the need for employees in the field. Streeter said working in career technical training is very much about making connections between the classroom and the work world. With anywhere from eight to 15 students each of three blocks each school year, he tries to arrange for students to visit job sites with private contractors. “We might go out and see a house going up,” he said. “They talk to the students about salaries, how much the house costs, those kinds of things, trying to make it real for them.” But the business of high school, as it is currently devised under state guidance and leadership, is to graduate students who can move on to a community or junior college or a four-year university program. Career technical training at the high school level is not necessarily seen as a means to a vocational or career end, but as a stepping-stone to higher education. “It’s more refined at the junior college level,” Streeter said. He sees students come through career technical training classes who might continue that path at, say, MDCC. He sees others who eventually decide to go the four-year university route because a trade is not what they really want, and a number who matriculate to the military. Still, he said, the skills they get in their classes are transferable to the rest of their lives and to other careers. As a student at Greenwood High School, Streeter studied electrical wiring and learned to read blueprints. That knowledge, he said, transferred to many other aspects of his career
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as a teacher and as a skilled technician. “We hope to prepare them for either path,” Streeter said. “With masonry, for example, you can do little things on the side, like building mailboxes or walkways made of brick. That kind of work can be taken on one job at a time, and word gets passed from one homeowner to another.” Roush-Elliott said she was encouraged to see recently that Fine Homebuilding magazine, a national periodical that has previously limited its attention to the actu-
al mechanics of building and design, recently kicked off a public awareness campaign called Keep Craft Alive. Recognizing the skills gap and the critical need for skilled workers in the building industry, the Keep Craft Alive campaign will offer scholarships to students going into the building trades and will work at raising awareness of both the viability of the field as a career path and the need for skilled craftsmen to meet industry demands and high quality building standards. Anders said she is encouraged by the enthusiasm she sees for career technical training at Mississippi Delta Community College. “I wish that we could take more students,” she said. “Right now welding is full, heating and air is full, electrical is full and large equipment is full for fall.” Depending on the program, these classes normally enroll 20 to 25 students. It’s a start, Anders said, but it doesn’t begin to meet the demand for skilled workers in the building trades. “Especially in electrical, HVAC and welding, we can’t meet the demand,” she said. “Some jobs you’d have to be willing to relocate somewhere else, but many are right here in the Delta.” She also advised that these fields are not exclusively male: “This year our entry in the state steel competition was a female welding student.” n
AUCTION COMPANY, LLC
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PageNN Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================
Mary Lawson Barlow
Family ties Designer enjoys job at Galley
B
y the time Mary Lawson Barlow graduated from college, she knew what she wanted to do, and it surprised her parents. She wanted to join the family business. Her mother, Leslie Barlow, said she inquired, “Are you going to do construction, electrical or refrigeration?” It had to be something else. That turned out to be The Galley, the kitchen and bath supply and design business on West Park Avenue. Mary Lawson, 27, lives in Cleveland, where she settled after earning a degree in political science from Delta State University four years ago. She commutes to her hometown of Greenwood to work as the manager at The Galley. Her parents bought the business, formerly Favara Kitchen and Bath, about the time she graduated, so she slipped into the job. “It just ended up that way,” her mother explained, but Mary Lawson said, “The first three months, I just answered the phone and ate cheeseburgers from the Park Cafe.” She’s learned a good bit since then and loves working with customers in deciding on what their new or remodeled kitchen or bath should contain and how the room should look and function. “I like to tell people we are a one-stop shop,” she explained. If a customer merely wants a new kitchen countertop, she’ll offer options, take measurements, order the stone and turn the cutting and installation over to her brother Brister. On the other hand, if a customer wants The Galley to handle more, such as cooking islands, cabinetry, sinks, flooring and lighting, she’s delighted. The work demands creativity, and it varies, which suits her and, evidently, The Galley’s customers. The business has so many customers that it has a waiting list. Every day at The Galley is busy. A good bit of Mary Lawson’s job involves design, but she insists that she shouldn’t be called a designer. Her mother said that’s exactly what she is and “she is good at it.” Mary Lawson said she likes everything about her job. “I have the opportunity to work alongside of people but also have independence. I like to take people’s ideas and create an envi-
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sion and see it all come to life.” Back in college, she was thinking about other vocations. “I changed my major about a hundred times.” She was looking for something appealing and found it in political science. She liked the writing it required and thought about going to law school later. She thought about trying to get a job with the FBI because she is fascinated by the science of forensics. At one point, Mary Lawson even worked as a copy-editing intern for CBS in New York. But there was that pull toward family. It has the Itta Bena-based Barlow
Refrigeration, which was started by her grandfather, Raymond, in 1954, and has other business offices in Greenwood. Mary Lawson’s father, Dennis, is a contractor, and her other brother, Dennis Jr., is in charge of the family’s heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and electrical services. The Galley’s business dovetails with their work. No wonder Mary Lawson gravitated toward the family trades. She said, “My dad worked with his dad, and my brothers were working with my dad, and I wanted to work with my family.” And her mother said, “It was meant to be.” n
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PageNO Greenwood Commonwealth / Wednesday, August 1, 2018 `lkpqor`qflk =======================================================================================================================================================================