With Wcc, Taxpayers Get Full Value

Anyone who asks Tom Gould what he’s been up to lately will need some serious time for the reply.

There was the rock wall he helped build, the concrete sidewalks he helped pour, the railroad ties he hauled, the house he helped refurbish, the information kiosk he helped assemble, the fire he helped fight, the trails he helped clean. … Drills. Hammers. Chain saws. Paint brushes. Shovels.

Name the tool, Gould has wielded it and he hasn’t been alone.

The 20-year-old Spokane resident is just one worker with the Washington Conservation Corps.

Established by the Legislature in 1983, the program gives untrained young people meaningful job experience while providing cheap labor to spruce up our state park lands.

Cheap is the word for it.

The WCC may be the best bang for the buck a taxpayer ever received. Especially now. Over the last seven years, budget cuts have eliminated 50 percent of the low-level workers who maintain our state parks.

The situation would be even more dire without the conservation corps. These WCC workers are paid just $5.15 an hour (minimum wage) and get no benefits. For that they toil from April through October, performing an assortment of tasks in whatever weather comes their way.

During the last two years, WCC workers completed 529 projects ranging from installing irrigation systems to building a day use area for off-road vehicles.

On Tuesday, I found a five-member crew baking in the sun as they installed heavy log fencing along Seven Mile Road.

When I caught up with them Wednesday, they were finishing a crescent-shaped rock wall that borders the majestic overlook at the McLellan trailhead near Riverside State Park.

“I want these young people to know that they can accomplish anything,” says Vicki Taylor, WCC coordinator for Eastern Washington. “Life is good. It doesn’t have to be drudgery.”

Taylor keeps meticulous tabs on the 26 workers she has in the field and documents what they do. In hiring a prospective WCC employee, she tries to weed out the big talkers and give jobs to youngsters who are sincerely trying to better themselves.

Gould is a good example of what Taylor looks for. Before signing on for a WCC job, his experience consisted of a short time in a fast food joint and working as an exotic dancer in some seedy Portland clubs.

“I want to have credibility with my family,” says Gould of his reason for applying with the WCC.

Even if it kills him. Gould has entertained his co-workers Aaron French, 20, Christi Way, 23 and Chris Platt, 20, in a variety of ways.

So far he has burned himself on hot asphalt and a gas auger, smashed a finger while working on a fence and clubbed his head with a rebounding hammer.

Don’t worry. All the injuries were minor.

“At least I can laugh about it,” Gould says during a lunch break.

Besides Taylor, the key to this crew’s success is supervisor Charlie Howard, 58. He not only has all the know-how from 37 years in the construction business, but also the patience to teach these unseasoned young workers the tricks of his trade.

Howard likes to present the crew with a task and then see how they go about getting the job done. When they stray off course, an unavoidable part of learning, Howard steps in with suggestions.

Last month, the crew was faced with the nasty business of removing 60-pound pieces of creosote-stained railroad ties from a 3-1/2 mile stretch. After breaking their backs hauling each piece individually, they learned how to make the job easier with ropes and teamwork.

They hauled out six truck loads of ties in one day.

“It’s the old sunburn classroom,” says Howard, who adds that he’s never had so much fun. “We have time for laughing and training. And when they pick it up and do it right the next day, that’s when I feel really good.”