Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 15, 1993 TAG: 9304150401
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LYNN A. COYLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT OFFERS OPPORTUNITY
"Sometimes you get in a bad jam, and it seems like there's no light at the end of the tunnel, but you just have to stick in there and tough it out," said T. Shannon Starkey.It's that kind of perseverance that made Starkey a triple winner at a Virginia Department of Transportation awards banquet earlier this year. His business, Starkey & Associates Inc., won the department's outstanding Disadvantaged Business Enterprise award for the Salem and Bristol districts as well as for the state.
Starkey, a contractor under that program for eight years, does guardrail and structural steel work for the department. He has overcome financial struggles to build a thriving business, said Jenny Brewbaker, district equal opportunity coordinator for the Transportation Department.
But, said Brewbaker, you don't have to do guardrails or have a snowplow to get a contract with the Transportation Department. The department also needs plumbers and electricians, tree trimmers and bulb planters, well drillers and janitors, to name just a few. If you have experience relocating cemeteries or Indian burial grounds, there may be a job for you, too.
The Transportation Department also buys the supplies and equipment to support these services and many more, but only from those on a pre-approved state bid list.
On May 13, the department's Salem district will hold a procurement fair to showcase business opportunities with the department and show how to work within state guidelines. The fair is open to anyone, but the department is especially interested in recruiting contractors for its DBE program.
To qualify, a person must own at least 51 percent of his or her business and be a minority, female or economically disadvantaged.
Starkey, who is black, said Brewbaker and her staff have been "super" to work with. He's also gotten lots of help from Richard Anderson, who heads the DBE Mentor Construction Program. Anderson, who will be at the fair, is available year-round to help businesses become certified to do construction work for the Transportation Department.
Anderson also gives special assistance to six primary clients chosen by the department who show the most potential. Through that program he helped Starkey expand his business to include structural steel work. "It's a lot of help to us, and I think all minorities should try to use it more," Starkey said of the mentor program.
Starkey learned to do guardrail work in high school, when he worked for Guardrail of Roanoke. In 1984, after working several years for others, he started Starkey & Associates. He first learned of minority business opportunities through the North Carolina highway department, but eventually decided to focus his efforts in Virginia, where he lives. The company's biggest obstacle has been working on a very low budget. It's hard to get financing, he said.
Starkey, of Roanoke County, now employs five full-time workers and hires others through the Virginia Employment Commission in the community where he's working. He said it's hard to find experienced workers willing to sacrifice and stay on the road. He doesn't anticipate the business growing much because the larger you get, the more people you have to hire to try to control it, he said.
"It pushes me sometimes, but at least I know where everybody is, and I can stay on top of it."
Starkey thinks he could now win state contracts without the minority program, because he's earned a reputation for quality work. And because "ninety-nine percent of the time I'm on every job I've got going, no matter where it is in the state. If there's any problem, I'm always there to take care of it on the spot."
The procurement fair will be from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Salem District Office at 731 Harrison Ave., Salem.
Brewbaker said another opportunity that could be especially useful to disadvantaged businesses is the district's used equipment auction, to be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the same location.
"Everything from used calculators to bulldozers" will be for sale, she said. Items can be viewed from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the district's equipment shop building Monday through Friday before the sale.
For more information about the procurement fair, call 387-5391. For more information about the auction and terms of the sale, call 387-5390.