THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 21, 1994 TAG: 9409210390
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LISA GERRARD, POTOMAC NEWS
DATELINE: MANASSAS LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
In the moist quiet of another summer morning, with the red and white van waiting for them up the hill, Barry Wait reached for the plastic bag in his friend's hand.
``I'll carry that,'' he said.
Co-worker Vanessa Riley tied a knot in the smelly sack and passed it to him without complaining. ``OK,'' she said, taken aback by his generosity.
``You gotta be careful out here on this hill,'' Riley, 39, said as she picked her way to the next garbage can, across the dew-wet lawn behind the Manassas Museum.
At the words of caution, Wait slowed, shifted the rubbish to one shoulder and extended his big paw of a hand. Riley took it gratefully, and the two headed on, side by side, to finish the grimy job of collecting the city's trash.
Through summer heat and winter snow, fall's cool mornings and spring's easy rains, workers for Didlake Inc. of Manassas clean the city their own way - with care for the job and one another.
All the workers have disabilities - Riley has trouble seeing - the seven workers in the mobile crew make rounds to all the city parks, schools, public squares and side streets, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., five days a week.
A second crew, much like the first, gathers trash at the city's ballpark and a former IBM plant, now Loral.
``It's a lot of work. It's enough to keep us busy, I tell you,'' said Eddie Marbaker, a tall, dark 30-year-old who handles most of the heavier materials for his group.
According to federal statistics, 49 million Americans, or 19 percent of the population, live with some sort of disability.
Thanks to opportunities like the Didlake mobile crews, many Northern Virginia residents who are disabled have found employment.
``Businesses are finding that this is an untapped resource,'' said Joseph Blanton, chairman of the Prince William Committee for Persons with Disabilities.
``Industry and business are learning . . . persons with disabilities make excellent employees.''
Turning 20 years old next year, Didlake provides work for 70 workers in Prince William County and 123 from outside the county.
The two mobile crews are among the company's most successful ventures.
``I enjoy doing it. I enjoy being out, I really do,'' said Riley recently, wedged into the van between the paper towels and plastic bags with six other employees.
Most of the time, no one pays much attention to the white-shirted maintenance workers as they make their rounds, driver Jane Fogle said.
No one really notices how the soft drink cans and candy wrappers disappear from the bushes at the train station, how the cigarette butts turn to sand in the cement urns at the police station, or how neatly the clear plastic bags fit around the edges of the trash cans in the park.
But for this cleaning crew, hired to clean the city for the past four years, recognition doesn't matter. It's doing a good job that counts.
``I think it's real satisfying for them,'' said Fogle, the group supervisor. ``I try to keep them working independently as possible.''
The workers from Didlake are paid on a sliding scale based on ability, operations director Donald Bain said.
Didlake measures each employee's productivity and compares it to what a worker who is not disabled might accomplish in the same amount of time.
The Didlake worker then receives the corresponding percentage of pay. Some workers on the mobile crew might make $2.50 an hour or less, based on an average maintenance worker's $5 hourly wage. Others on the crew make the full amount because they complete the same amount of work as quickly as a person without disabilities, Bain said.
One of the benefits of the mobile program for the employees is the companionship of the long trips around town.
Sometimes they discuss the sprawling houses they see on their route.
``You'd get lost in a house that big, Jane,'' said crew member Steve Musick, 35, looking at a new home. ``It would take you two days to clean it.''
Most days for lunch, they pick up some fast food and enjoy a picnic outside. The best part of the job for Wait, 35, is stopping at the old red caboose parked in the town square, having lunch while the trains go by, he said.
The best part for others, though, is the sheer satisfaction of a job well done. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ray Hendricks empties an ashtray. He works for Didlake Inc. of
Manassas, a company that hires workers who are disabled and
contracts with the city. According to federal statistics, 49 million
Americans, or 19 percent of the population, live with some sort of
disability.
KEYWORDS: DISABLED WORKERS DISABILITY by CNB