Of Pinehurst, Golf Tournaments, and the Working Poor

I started writing this in a comment to Momo's blog about visiting Pinehurst, and realized it was taking on a life of its own. Not wishing to steal Momo's thunder, I post it here.

Pinehurst is a beautiful place. When you walk down the quaint streets of "the village", you feel like you're on vacation. There is good shopping (though the fashions are very conservative and not my taste), the people are generally friendly (though they are generally very conservative and not my taste), and you can have a great time at Dugan's Pub (any NC Blue-er who visits this area is hereby invited for a pint on me.)

When a major golf tournament, like the US Open or the Jimmy V classic comes to the area, we residents are told by the Chamber of Commerce, various government officials, and editorials in the Pilot (our local newspaper) what a boon this will be to our economy. The roads are re-paved, beautiful landscaping is done on every exit off of every major road. In 2005, when the US Open was coming, the contractor was promised a million dollar bonus to finish before the Open on an already $47 million dollar project to widen and redirect the path of US HWY Route 1 North of Pinehurst. This project redirected Route 1 outside of the business district of Vass, and has threatened the existence local businesses. It was stated that the reason for this DOT project was to alleviate traffic and make it easier to commute to Raleigh for "jobs", there are very few Moore Co. residents who make that commute. By and large, we live all live and work here. It is the belief of many locals that this project was done for one reason, and one reason only - Golf.

When a Golf Tournament comes to town, employment kicks into high gear. The resort and other hotels and restaurants hire people by the dozen, and their regular employees get hours and hours of good overtime. Since a Golf Tournament is relatively short, most employees are willing to work double, even triple shifts for the good money that comes in. That doesn't sound bad, does it?

The problem is this. Many of those employees are making barely minimum wage to start out with. Often they are single parent families, or both parents from the family are working for the resort. For most of the year, they rely on child care subsidy provided by the state through the County Department of Social Services.

Child care subsidies are a good thing - they help keep families working. Once a family is accepted onto the subsidy rolls, they must be re-evaluated once a year as to eligibility. Many of the individuals who work for the resort were originally hired, and originally applied for subsidy, in the spring/summer, because that's when the resort is at its busiest. When a family goes in for re-evaluation, they are asked to bring their paystubs/income statements for the previous month. In 2005, many families lost their subsidy because for that month alone, their income was way too high to receive the subsidy. This wouldn't be a problem, normally - the family could simply reapply, have another appointment, and aside from a few beaureacratic headaches, be back in the swing in a month or so. Or so you would think.

Alas, that's not the case. The waiting list for child care subsidy in Moore County is nearly 6 months long, so many families had to either quit work, or continue working but pull their children out of safe, regulated child care, and were forced to rely on substandard, often unsafe solutions - such as having their child sleep in their car while they work. (Yes, this is documented.)

It's horrifying, really. There was a much jubilation about the Jimmy V coming to Pinehurst. More money! More recognition! More roads! More flowers in pots by the side of the roads!

All I can think of is - more heartache, more parents working three shifts to try to earn enough to get ahead, only to wind up 6 months behind.

For what it's worth, the resort was unaware of the problem until I brought it to their attention. (I'm the director of a non-profit in the area, so I get to mouth off about these things sometimes.) They were also unaware that when they did their annual layoff in January, their employees were off just long enough to be dropped from the subsidy rolls, and had to start the process all over again. They did not seem concerned when the matter was brought to their attention, even when I pointed out that some of their employee turnover problem might be traced to this. But they can always find new waiters and housekeepers, because the folks that eat at the club and stay at the resort are big tippers.

And there is the occasional golf tournament and the possibility of some good overtime.

I find the attitude appalling.