Business
15 April 24, 2014
Initiative Aims to Give Immigrants Marketable Skills Lawn-Care Expert Teams with SEEC in New Program that Could Expand Regionally Tom Hayes held the trimming device like the expert he is, easily slicing through the overgrowth of a bush in need of a spring haircut. Hayes, the owner of We Recycle Trees, was not simply doing some seasonal work around the North Woodstock Street home of Shirley Ruhe. He also was providing instruction for a number of immigrant laborers as part of a new initiative by the Shirlington Employment and Education Center, or SEEC. Ruhe, who serves on the SEEC board, had conceived of the effort to provide the workers with additional skills. Hayes agreed to offer the instruction. “Tom is a master with plants,” Ruhe said. Participants in the initiative are “good workers who had some skills already,” she said, but could benefit from the additional instruction. “The SEEC board is constantly looking for a way to get them work,” she said. “If we could get them more training, people would be more inclined to hire them.” If the concept sounds familiar, it has a counterpart. Several years ago, SEEC began a program to teach women environmentally friendly ways to clean houses. The goal was the same: to provide workers with
more marketability. Ruhe’s yard was selected to serve as a locale for learning. While it looked fine to the untrained eye, Hayes recommended a total reconditioning. “It’s really overgrown,” he said of parts of the yard. “It’ll need a thorough pruning to recondition the shrubs.” Conversing with his students in Spanish, Hayes gave practical advice and tips, and was up front that the reconditioning effort would be of the “no pain, no gain” variety for the homeowner. “It’s going to be pretty ugly initially,” he said to Ruhe, suggesting it might take two years for the full benefits of the work to be realized. But there was good news: Because the plantings in the yard were of the hardy variety, “most of the things we’re cutting will come back in time.” Becoming sought-after by homeowners requires much more than just trimming Tom Hayes (left) explains advanced lawn-care techniques during a workshop held over the weekthings, Hayes told his charges. “You need to know your different end at the home of Shirley Ruhe in Arlington. plants,” he said, suggesting that some of program is expanding to Alexandria, and tional training, it also offers participants what is planted should not only be visually additional sessions may be held down the English classes. attractive, but edible, as well. His picks for road. Services are provided without charge the local area? Blueberries, mixed herbs Based along South Four Mile Run both to workers and prospective employand, if space will allow, a fruit tree or two. Drive, SEEC has provided opportunities ers. Though just in its infancy, the training for day-laborers since 2000. Besides voca– Scott McCaffrey
Business Briefcase SNOWY FEBRUARY SENDS AIRPORT TRAFFIC PLUMMETING: Cruddy weather
CHAMBER ADDS NEW MEMBERS: The
Arlington Chamber of Commerce recently announced the following new members (principal contact points in parentheses): Whitestone Custom Homes (Herb Aman IV); Meyerson & Associates (Steve Meyerson); Wolcott Hill Group (Jennifer Paquette Galloway); Del. Patrick Hope; Robert Martinson, Wells Fargo Private Mortgage; Simplify You (C. Lee Cawley);
Lawrence Cheng Photography; Cresa (Lauren Berkey); Strack Realty Team, Keller Williams (Gary Strack); American Tap Room (Rosemary Chamoun); and Chamber Discoveries (Chris Brough). COST OF CAB RIDE FROM AIRPORT MAY GO UP: Getting a cab at Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport could soon become more expensive, but also slightly more convenient. The board of directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is considering a proposal that would increase the dispatch fee for cabs picking up passengers at the airport from $2.50 per trip to $3. Also proposed: Requiring that all cabs servicing the airport accept credit cards. MWAA officials said the credit-card proposal generally has won the support of cab companies that serve the airport, but that concern was expressed that the higher dispatch fee – which is passed along the riders – would result in lower tips for drivers. A proposal to increase the annual permit fee charged to taxi operators received heavier criticism, and has been revised. The proposal now being considered by the airports authority would charge $100 for a two-year permit, compared to $40 for an annual permit that currently is charged.
If approved by the MWAA board, the changes would go into effect Sept. 1. HOSPITAL’S ONCOLOGY FACILITIES NAMED IN HONOR OF HITT FAMILY:
Virginia Hospital Center’s department of radiation oncology has been renamed at the Hitt Family Center, honoring longtime supporters Russell and Joan Hitt for their generosity expanding the facility. The renamed center features a new, state-of-the-art treatment suite, with patients since January having had access to a new linear accelerator. “This new center . . . has helped us build a home where patients can come for the highest level of comfort, healing and care,” said Dr. Robert Hong, medical director at the Hitt Family Center and chief of radiation oncology at the hospital. Since its opening, the new treatment suite has allowed for a 40-percent increase in patients served. In a statement, the Hitts said that they “have been so impressed by the staff and quality of care at the hospital, and know that our gift means that more patients will have the opportunity to be treated and healed by this caring team.” Find news of business, economics and development each week in the paper.
www.insidenova.com
contributed to anemic air-traffic totals at the region’s two major airports, with both Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport posting year-over-year declines. Combined, about 2.7 million passengers traveled through the two facilities during the shortest month of the year, a drop of 5.6 percent from a year before, according to figures reported April 14 by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). The storm that rumbled through the region on Feb. 13, dropping 5.9 inches of snow at National and 11.7 at Dulles, caused an 89-percent dropoff in total aircraft operations that day compared to the same day in 2013. The two airports never got the momentum back during February, a month that saw total snowfall of 11.2 inches at National and 16.3 inches at Dulles. The year-over-year decline at Reagan National (3.5 percent) was lower than the dropoff at Dulles (7.6 percent). For the month, there were 1,382,839 passengers at National, 1,295,690 at Dulles – the first time National had a majority of passengers since February 2013. US Airways and American, which have
merged but continue to operate as two carriers, carried 61 percent of traffic for the month at National, if their regional carriers are included. United and its regional carriers accounted for 68.5 percent of the air traffic at Dulles. For the 12 months ending in February, passenger counts were up 2 percent compared to a year before to 20.4 million at Reagan National, but were down 2.8 percent to 21.8 million at Dulles. Combined, the 12-month passenger total of just over 42 million was down 0.6 percent. At Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, which is operated by the state of Maryland, the passenger count of 1,356,324 for the month was down 7 percent from a year before, according to MWAA figures. Southwest and Airtran, which have merged, accounted for 71 percent of the passenger total at BWI.
Sun Gazette