By D'Vera Cohn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Bobbie Ritchie and Bill Kight drive across seven counties in three states to get to their jobs at Fairfax County's Burke fire station.
Their five-hour round-trip commute is nothing out of the ordinary stacked up against the commutes of some of their co-workers, who trek in from Pennsylvania, Maryland's Eastern Shore and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.
Extreme commutes are becoming more routine for many of the region's police officers, teachers, firefighters and others who provide core services. High housing costs are often blamed. Many public employees simply cannot afford to live in the communities they serve. Even in a stalled real estate market, the gap between prices and salaries has widened so much in recent years that workforce housing has jumped to the top of the agenda in many localities.
But looked at up close, at the Burke firehouse and elsewhere, the picture is more complex than the scripted public policy conversation allows. For many, the choice of where to live -- and the impact that has on their work -- does not always fit the political rhetoric.
"I love coming to Fairfax to work," said Kight, 40, a firefighter technician from the tiny town of Westernport in Western Maryland. "I love running all the calls, but it's nice to go home to where there is one traffic light and no calls."
Advocates of affordable housing say more is at stake than making life pleasant for public employees: Local governments would have a hiring edge in a competitive market. The workers would be more involved in their communities if they lived in them. And in case of snowstorm, terrorist attack or other disaster, having public safety workers close by could save lives.
At the Burke fire station, long commutes have taken a toll. Several firefighters quit because they could not stand their lengthy and energy-sapping commutes. Others say they manage to live relatively close -- only two counties away -- because their spouses also work.
And some, particularly police officers, see the distance between home and workplace as an asset. As former Montgomery police union president Walt Bader put it, "I don't want to live with the people I'm locking up for street crimes."
Most firefighters in the region's two biggest jurisdictions, Fairfax and Montgomery counties, do not live in the community where they work, according to government records. These days, said Capt. Brendan Harris, who oversees operations at the Burke station, it seems as though most new hires who live in the county are single people who rent or live with their parents. Police union officials in both jurisdictions see the same pattern.
Most firefighters who live elsewhere have homes in adjacent counties, but several dozen make long-distance commutes. Pennsylvania is home to 17 Fairfax County firefighters, and a handful of others commute from as far away as Delaware and Hampton Roads. A similar pattern holds among Montgomery County firefighters.
Firefighters' schedules ease the pain of cumbersome commutes, because they work several 24-hour shifts a month, often beginning at 7 a.m. on the shoulder of the rush hour.
There are dozens of long-distance police officers, too. Most Montgomery County officers live in the county, but more than two dozen live several hours away, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in Maryland. The majority of Fairfax County police officers live outside the county, however, many in counties south of Fredericksburg.
Most teachers in Fairfax and Montgomery counties live in the jurisdiction in which they work. But Rick Baumgartner, president of the Fairfax Education Association, said the county is losing potential applicants because of the cost of living. And many who are hired leave within a few years, he said, because the area is so pricey.
Affordability is not the only explanation why so many live far from work. One reason for the growing number of marathon commuters is that public safety departments have widened their recruiting nets to fill jobs that turn over more quickly than they used to and to meet affirmative-action goals. Nick Venuto, a recently retired Montgomery County firefighter who supervised two surveys of union firefighters, said many new hires recruited from Pennsylvania or other far-flung places prefer staying in their home communities.
Ritchie and Kight drive in together to Burke from Western Maryland, along with a third long-distance firefighter they drop off at a station in Chantilly. Kight has driven this route for more than 16 years, and he recruited Ritchie nine years ago.
Their drive to work takes 2 1/2 hours, and they leave at 3 a.m. Any later and they would hit too much traffic. They usually get to work well before they are due, which means the previous shift can leave early. They come in even further in advance if snow is forecast.
Kight and Ritchie's long commute, and carpool arrangement, means they cannot swap shifts as easily as someone who lives close by. Before he had Ritchie to carpool with, Kight did not take classes on his own time that could get him a promotion. And once in a while, they are so weary they call their wives and say they are not driving home that day.
"We give up a lot to come here," said Ritchie, 31, an apparatus technician, "but it works out."
It doesn't work out for everyone. Two members of Company 14 quit in the past year, Harris said, in part because of grueling commutes. One was an 11-year lieutenant who lived in Virginia's Northern Neck, east of Fredericksburg. The second was a recruit who decided after a few months that she was unwilling to make the 2 1/2 -hour drive each way between Burke and her home in Delaware.
Harris has no criticism of firefighters who live outside the county and said it has not hurt response time.
One benefit of having trained personnel making long commutes is that they can offer emergency help on the road. The Western Maryland carpoolers say they have stopped at several accidents during their commuting years to lend their skills.
To some, that only underscores what communities are missing. Bader noted that if more officers lived in the counties they work in, the taxpayers who employ them would be safer. With more than 125 Montgomery County police officers living in Frederick County, he said, "those people up there are well protected by trained Montgomery County police officers."
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