British electronics manufacturer ACW Technology announced Jan. 28 that it will bring 155 jobs to the area over the next three years. Although the average wage is touted at $33,457, 105 of those jobs will hover closer to the amount mandated by the city’s liveable-wage policy, $23,718 per year.
It’s hard to see the announcement as anything but good news for high school graduates who have a tough time finding work in the area, and it’s a missing piece of Durham’s economic puzzle.
That brings us to the second bit of good news, which came in Mayor Bill Bell’s State of the City address.
Bell announced that Durham will first get a grip on the skills that the city’s unemployed workers already have, then figure out how to plug them into the labor market.
If that includes luring expanding industries here with the promise of a large, underused labor force, all the better.
Bell also said that the city will work on a new job-training program, something like a public/private partnership that trains workers for construction and skilled trades.
Bell is right to recognize the wage and work gap, and a well-prepared work force is a key asset when the city’s economic development team is pitching Durham to expanding industries.
n We are thrilled that Durham Fire Department Captain Tamala Wilson has received an historic promotion.
Wilson is the first female battalion chief in the department’s history.
We tend to look askance at a lot of “first female” or “first minority” titles these days out of sheer astonishment that glass ceilings still exist.
In this case, however, Wilson has put in 20 years on the job to build the seniority required for her new rank, first as a firefighter, then fire technician and captain.
Fire departments have been among the most physically demanding and tight-knit male bastions, and we are pleased to see a woman earn a leadership role.
n Congratulations are in order for N.C. Central University’s football program, which had a banner year for recruiting. Coach Mose Rison pulled two promising recruits from the deep talent pool in Virginia’s Tidewater and landed three transfer students to round out the team as it steps up to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
n Connie Campanaro, the departing president and chief executive of The Carolina Theatre, will bow out in June, but it’s not too early for richly earned applause.
In the past six years, Camanaro has pushed the theater firmly into the black after declining audiences and donors shoved it into red-ink territory.
She also shepherded the theater through a $4.5 million renovation project and championed scholarship admissions and other programs to make performing arts accessible to families that couldn’t otherwise afford it.
She also deserves a thumbs up — and this week’s Durham Grit Award — for the collaborative relationship that she has built with leaders at the Durham Performing Arts Center.
It would be easy for the smaller Carolina Theatre to struggle in the shadow of the larger, newer facility, but the community can only benefit when both venues cooperate to make Durham a must-stop location for performances on every scale.
