Fort Detrick preps for new workers
A snippet from Sunday’s FNP about the expansion of the Fort
Nearly 1,500 new jobs are forecast for Fort Detrick in the next few years and Frederick needs to prepare for them.
About 8,000 people pass through the base gates each day.
A panel of representatives from agencies were on hand Friday at the Frederick County Workforce Development board meeting to discuss growth the Federal Base Realignment and Closing, or BRAC, recommendations will bring to the military research base at the heart of Frederick.
Fort Detrick is the largest employment site in the county, made up of about 40 different government entities. It will become the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research, as well as continuing as a U.S. Army garrison.
“Most people don’t know who is on the fort and how to access jobs,” said Darlene Carver, chairwoman of the workforce board.
There are websites such as americajob.com that shows available job postings in the government. The meeting Friday was a step toward making those job opportunities listed through the local workforce office.
Bad credit? No job
One of the main factors in landing a government job, especially at Fort Detrick with the Department of Homeland Security and high technology laboratories, is security clearance.
Mike Hayes, director of military and federal affairs for the Maryland Department of Economic Development and a retired Marine brigadier general, said most people fail a security check because of bad credit.
Hayes and other panel members said young people need to realize early that handling their finances poorly or bad behavior can preclude them from a government job in the future.
Andy Moser, assistant secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, said the Maryland Workforce Exchange is a key site for job searching.
Maryland received a $4 million grant to help with planning and implementation for the expected influx of people because of BRAC changes, which will move personnel into Fort Detrick, Aberdeen and Fort Meade.
Construction at the bases is the first step, Moser and Hayes said, to build the facilities for the agencies on the bases.
That will create a lot of construction jobs, they said, but security clearance is still paramount.
“Even construction workers have to be cleared to get in the gate,” Hayes said.
However, Moser, even with its boost in employment, the BRAC influx is only 15 percent of Maryland’s growth. The rest is because of the state’s expanding economy. Moser said employers are also looking at an impending drop in the workforce as more people retire.
Hayes and Darryl Rekemeyer, director of the Fort Detrick Business Development Office, said the two main areas for employment at Fort Detrick will be medical research and information technology. Rekemeyer’s office deals primarily with companies that want to do business with the government.
1,500 new jobs is a good thing, but I can’t imagine what that’s going to do to the Rosemont corridor. Maybe a few more places to eat will pop up, if you can fight the traffic. I just hope this culls a few more cars off 270 every morning!
~LizFrog~
Even if the jobs are filled by people who currently commute toward DC, those DC jobs will still exist, and will quickly be filled by other commuters. Landing a job on base will be a relief for those who get the jobs, but not for the community at large. Hopefully, whatever they’ve been doing to the Hayward/15 intersection will encourage more base commuters to use the Opossumtown entrance to the base instead of rosemont/seventh street.
One thing I am certain of – traffic will get much worse before it gets better. There are too many factors converging in this area that need to be fixed. First off is the Hayward Road crossing. It is extremely busy in the mornings and evenings as traffic comes south down 15. It is difficult to cross the southbound lane and already prone to accidents. Traffic from the heading south has no trouble exiting 15 at hayward Road. Even with this danger it is my preferred route if I am heading north on 15 due to the typical backups mentioned next.
The Opposumtown Pike and TJ Drive intersection is a mess during the rush hours. The sheer volume of vehicles trying to get onto TJ drive in the morning causes the ramp over 15 to backup onto the north bound lanes of 15. It is not comforting if you have kids in one of the many school buses that waits on the shoulder to exit while cars and trucks whiz by.
The same interchange is even worse in the evenings as the traffic exits TJ Drive. Recall TJ Drive has many tenants and the road has only two routes in or out, one at Hayward and one at Opposumtown. There are no side streets. Much of the traffic exiting TJ bound for 15 North has to use Oppossumtown Pike. It is not uncommon to sit for several cycles of the light waiting for a turn to go. This causes drivers to cut through the shopping center and attempt a left onto Opposumtown, where the traffic from the fort is exiting and is, of course, backed up to the gate.
The North end of TJ drive exits to Hayward which then leads to 15 south, where if one has the guts and a car with the proper acceleration one can make it to the U-turn in the median, which then funnels you in to the fast lane of the North bound side as cars are slowing to make the aforementioned turn into Hayward Road, which is backing up into the North bound lane because of the southbound traffic.
Now mix in the Rosemont problems already mentioned, the 7th Street gate (which is better since the revamping), the fact that there is no good road on the north side of the fort between Rosemont and Opposumtown and another 1500 cars or so and we have a nice little traffic situation brewing. I really hope that our government can be truly proactive in helping this situation, but I really have no reason to believe they can or will.
I live in Frederick and have tried to get a job at Fort Detrick. I have sent resumes by the website, http://www.cpol.army.mil. on and off for the past two years and never received one reply.
It is very difficult to find jobs, to apply for them and to even expect a potential interview for a job position at Fort Detrick.
Please advise how to get this information and the proper means to apply and have correspondence with the Human Resource Departments. I have made phone calls and have been told you must do everything by the internet. Thank You, Mary Fran
Mary Fran,
You are correct. Trying to get a call back or an interview at the Fort, despite long lists of open positions, seems to be nearly impossible unless you have someone on the inside giving you a nudge to the right people. Kind of like any other government job, I guess.
What kind of position are you looking for? I know quite a few people there.
construction jobs are on the rise again these days because the recession is almost over `”`