Clark County at Work: K&D Services Inc.

Business name: K&D Services Inc.

Owners: Carol and Brooks Walton.

Each week, The Columbian offers a brief snapshot of an interesting Clark County business. Send ideas to Mary Ricks: mary.ricks@columbian.com; fax 360-735-4598; phone 360-735-4550.

Operations manager: Chas Fleenor.

Address: 16213 S.E. 135th Ave., Clackamas, Ore. (The Waltons also own K&D Services in Everett as a separate company.)

What the business does: K&D Services Inc. is a traffic management company located and operating in both Oregon and Washington. The company’s mission is to provide the best possible safety for their customers in some very unsafe places: the roads. K&D’s niche is working with utility companies, not on huge highway projects. In Clark County, it works on projects for Northwest Natural and CenturyLink, and its flaggers are on hand to manage traffic at the annual July 4 Fort Vancouver fireworks show.

Steps to build the business: Operations manager Chas Fleenor said his company tries to be simply the best in its niche of the business. K&D has a hands-on training course, Flagger 101, for all new hires, so that they have some experience when they start working on the roads. K&D continues to update the training process, with the aim being to have the best-trained workforce available.

Greatest challenge: Fleenor said it is a challenge to manage his employees, because they don’t come in to the office every day. He said it is important to hire good people, because they work very independently and need to be responsible for showing up for work when they are supposed to.

What’s ahead: Because K&D works for utility companies, its business is steady and is not cyclical by time of year.

A favorite part of the job: One of Fleenor’s favorite parts of the job is to enter a K&D work zone and find everything right and executed properly. He said flagging is a tough job, and motorists are often unhappy to encounter flaggers. He said he is proud of the job his employees do.

Owner’s business history: Fleenor had a 32-year career with Qwest Communications and came to K&D as a second career. The owners are focused and intent on improving the quality of traffic management in Washington and Oregon.

Year operations began in Clark County: 2003.

Employees: 140.

Telephone: 503-723-7287.

Fax: 503-723-8750.

Email: dispatch@kndservices.net

Website: http://kndservices.net

Office hours: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.