Paul Bass Photo
Harp, Saunders, Rountree in the WNHH studio.
Michelle Saunders has known how to lay bricks since she was a kid. She learned that just getting the opportunity to lay those bricks involves learning other skills that she and other black entrepreneurs need to work together to build.
Saunders is part of a crew looking to do that by renewing an organization dedicated to helpling black-owned small companies succeed, the Greater New Haven Business and Professional Organization (GNHBPO).
The group recently turned 50 years old; it’s celebrating the anniversary with a Sept. 15 “After Five Attire” bash at Anthony’s Ocean View honoring founder Gerald Clark. (Call 203 – 623-8688 for details.)
Meanwhile the group has hired a new director, Reynaud Harp, and enlisted new board members.
“There’s nothing so good as being able to take care of yourself, not having to ask someone else for a paycheck, not having to ask someone else for a handout,” Harp said on an episode of WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program. “You build your business. You do your business. You’ve got control of your destiny. That’s the ultimate goal of any community.”
One of those new board members is Wayne Rountree, who retired after 23 years as a facilities manager at Yale and a previous 23 years as an Air Force engineer. He saw how tough it is for local black-owned subcontractors to land onto the “approve list” for construction projects there. He hopes to help local subs break through.
New Haven’s in the midst of a construction boom. But you rarely see more than a handful of African-Americans on a building job, Rountree observed.
“There’s nothing like the younger kids going down the street and looking up there and seeing a black person working on a job and enjoying it…. They say, ‘Maybe I can do that,’” Rountree said. “We don’t have enough of that in our black community.”
Harp said he hopes the organization can tackle two main barriers to landing on the approve list for construction projects: obtaining a line of credit to cover the first 60 – 90 days of payroll and materials before subcontractors get their first payments on jobs; and obtaining enough bonding. He envisions doing the latter by organizing New Haven subcontractors to purchase bonding as a group.
Saunders has been working 80-to-90-hour weeks since launching Pride Construction eight years ago, between days on construction sites and then paperwork and administrative duties. She developed a love of masonry from her father, a mason who worked on the Coliseum and the old Macy’s; he used to take his kids on car rides through town to show them buildings he’d helped construct. Saunders started on the job at 16. A union laborer for years, she can now take her nieces and nephews on car rides to show them schools like Edgewood and Columbus where she laid the brick.
But she has found that black women often get the fewest calls for work from white, suburban-dominated unions. That’s what led her to strike out on her own after 20 years as a union laborer.
“They pretty much call you when they need a female or a New Haven resident. You find yourself working a month and you get laid off. You work two months and get laid off. It really doesn’t matter what your skill capabilities are,” she said. Her experience led her try to help the GNHBPO guide others like her.
“We can hire within the community. We can build the community. And we can teach trades to inner-city kids and have them someday own their own companies,” Saunders said.
Harp, Rountree, and Saunders discussed their experiences and plans on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program. Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full episode.