(The following story by Amy Wilson appeared on the Herald-Leader on March 6, 2010.)
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Allen Bryant’s fourth baby was born only six hours before he showed up in a Lexington line to wait for the chance to apply for a temporary railroad construction job for $25 to $35 an hour with the Corman Railroad Group.
Bryant was third in line. It was about 4 p.m. Friday.
By the time the application process closed for the 100 available jobs at 2 p.m. Saturday, there were 2,599 people behind him.
“It’s been months of fruitless searches for work,” said Bryant, 31, of Cynthiana. “I’ve done day work, like scraping out peanut butter silos, but it’s not what I need to support my family every day. My children depend on me.”
U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, called the scene at the R.J. Corman railroad yard something “this country has not seen since the 1930s, frankly.”
Standing in the yard near downtown, Chandler saw the long line of job seekers wending from Buchanan Street through the three-block-long yard and back to Cox Street, then northward. The men and women in the morning sunshine, résumés in hand, some with children in their arms, patiently waited in 30-degree cold to seek work.
“There is no lack of desire to work and work hard,” Chandler said. “This is something everyone in this country needs to see. And I hope I never see it again.”
The jobs were created through a $17.5 million federal grant awarded last month to Corman as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the stimulus package.
The work will occur in three states over the next 18 months.
How good were the jobs? And how hard the times?
Keith Russell, 29. was the first in line. Out of work for a year, the roofing contractor is also a scoutmaster and a youth pastor at Greater Faith Apostolic Church in Lexington. He has always had employment.
Asked how his family was living, he said, laughing, “very lightly.” He added, more somberly, “we are barely getting by.”
Second in line, Brian Mosher, 31, was laid off in November 2008 from Webasco Sunroof. The Georgetown man had worked there for almost 10 years.
“It’s getting scary,” he said. “I’m worried about losing my house and my car. It’s make-you-sick-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach scary.”
“It’s argument-with-your-spouse scary,” Russell chimed in.
“It’s uncertain-scary,” said Bryant, the new dad.
The first woman in line for a job was No. 140, Carolyn Lunsford, 30, of Owenton, a 2002 Iraqi War veteran. She’s been unemployed only a month, but the former Army track mechanic and tank driver figured she was up to the physical requirements — able to lift 50 pounds — that Corman had laid out for the positions of laborer, equipment operator, truck driver and bridge painter. Most men who stood in line with her figured she could handle the work too.
“I’m pretty sure she can kick my (butt),” said Nathen Hudson, who has been out of work since his 20th birthday, last June. The Shepherdsville man said his largest problem now is that he is living off the good graces of an ex-girlfriend. He has no money to buy gas to look for work, and he has traveled to Ohio and Tennessee in search of a job.
Brandon Brinegar stood nearby in his U.S. Army Reserve camo jacket. A member of the 979 Engineer Company, Brinegar requested and got special dispensation from his commanding officers to be at this post Saturday instead of at his once-a-month weekend duty drills. He was to report there as soon as he turned in his application.
“I’ve never missed a drill in two years,” said Brinegar, 23, from Georgetown. “I’m really embarrassed. I was going to lie at first but, gosh, I’ve got my integrity and these guys would die for me. Why would I lie to them? I just told them I needed some money to pay for my son’s well-being while I wait to be called to duty. They said they knew this was important.”
Brinegar said he has asked repeatedly to go into active duty in Haiti or Afghanistan, where looking for improvised explosive devices would be his job.
“Because I want to go, it’s my duty, and because I’m looking a lot better financially if I’m looking for IEDs than if I’m not working here.”
The single man has not had running water since his pipes broke five weeks ago. He has been using the training center’s showers as needed.
Brinegar was greeted by Gov. Beshear when he got to the front of the line. Corman employees showed Brinegar which line to get in and wished him luck. The application part of the process took less than five minutes.
Brinegar pronounced it “painless.”
Hiring decisions for the first jobs will be announced by early April.
Noel Rush, vice president for strategic planning and development for R.J. Corman, said preferential hiring will be given to the unemployed, provided that their skills and experience match the needs of the work.
Although most of the employment is temporary, some might be able to find permanent positions with the company if the quality of their work and their skill levels match the company’s standards, Rush said.
Derrick Harvey, 42, of Frankfort saw the morning as “a great opportunity. I couldn’t not see being in this number. There is just not enough of this kind of thing out there. You’d be crazy not to be here. I’m so gung-ho, so prayerful.”