Metro Detroit women leading the team for Packard Plant demolition in Detroit
(CBS DETROIT) - Beyond the perimeter at the Packard Plant in Detroit are two women calling the shots of the building's teardown.
"I manage the team that oversees the contractors that are contracted to do the demolitions," said Linda Montgomery, the field operations manager for the City of Detroit's Construction & Demolition Department.
"From securing funding from getting the project actually under development and off the ground, I oversee all of the phases of this project," said LaJuan Counts, Director of the Construction and Demolition Department in the City of Detroit.
Both play a major role in the construction and demolition teams for the city of Detroit.
READ: Detroit's Packard Plant enters next phase of revitalization
Counts has been in the industry for nearly 30 years and says she contributes resilience to her success.
"Any construction role that existed here in the city I have pretty much held until I found my way to the construction and demolition department," said Counts.
Montgomery also climbed the ladder. She was the first woman to join the demolition team in Detroit.
"I started out as the field liaison; I was promoted to the superintendent of the demolition, and now I'm the field operations manager over demolition. I feel real good. I feel as if I could be a mentor for any girl in the city, any girl that is interested in the demolition department," Montgomery said.
Each of these women is paving the way for future generations and shattering the glass ceiling in what's typically recognized as a traditionally male-dominated industry.
"Women coming into it (demolition)—it's time. It's time because we can do the work," Montgomery said.
"The construction industry is still very much male-dominated. Women only make up around 10% of the industry, and I thought that would have changed over the years, and it hasn't. But to be able to showcase the fact that our demo efforts here, we have had a woman touch every portion of it … I have a great sense of pride for that," said Counts.
Two women are leading the efforts to remove this iconic blighted structure that will go down in Detroit's history while inspiring others that they have what it takes to join this industry and get their hands dirty.
"I mean, it sounds really cliché, but there's nothing that you cannot do. I mean, even the heavy-lifting portion of it ... I get it. We just have to lift differently. We can do the same amount of work," said Counts.
The construction and demolition team says the goal is to have the bulk of the Packard Plant torn down by the beginning of next year.
