Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993 TAG: 9301260378
SECTION: NEW RIVER VALLEY ECONOMY PAGE: 38 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
ARSENAL LAYOFF OPENED A DOOR
Getting laid off from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Linda Bevins.A little more than a year after losing her production job in April 1991, Bevins landed a job with better working conditions and better hours and only a little less money..
In May, Bevins went to work as office manager for Simon & Associates, a soil consultant business in Christiansburg.
Exercising her brain at work instead of her body has been a welcome change, and Bevins is thankful she no longer has to work evening and midnight hours.
"I'm lucky, really lucky to have found this job," Bevins said. "I couldn't have asked for a better situation."
The Blacksburg resident, who is divorced and has two grown children, worked at the ammunition plant almost four years. And if the arsenal hadn't forced her, Bevins said she never would have left.
"Nope, I'd still be puffing away over there every day," she said. "The money is so good that you don't consider leaving, even though you hate the work."
While thankful for her good fortune, Bevins said there have been potholes on her road toward success.
Shortly after losing her arsenal job, Bevins signed up for unemployment and enrolled in a federal program set up to help retrain laid-off arsenal workers.
In August 1991 she began taking computer classes at New River Community College, relying on a weekly $176 unemployment check to help pay the bills.
But a month later, Bevins' unemployment ran out and for three months she was forced to live without any income.
"It was extremely hard for me to keep the creditors off my back," she said.
Thankfully for Bevins, in December 1991 Congress approved the Emergency Unemployment Act and she was eligible for 20 more weeks of unemployment.
That money enabled her to persevere, and on May 14 Bevins completed work in her one-year computer program.
Four days later she landed her job with Simon & Associates.
"I never expected to find a job so fast, much less one that I like so much," she said.