Columbia, Missouri has been experiencing city maintenance staffing shortages since 2020. The low supply of labor forced the city to increase its outsourcing costs, impacting taxpayers in the area. The essential fleet operations team is in charge of maintaining and repairing police cars and vehicles used for solid waste, transit, the airport, the Parks and Recreation Department and others. Even though workers are allowed to volunteer for overtime, they can't keep up with the number of city vehicles needing maintenance.
I worked with the photographer before and after his shoot for this story. We worked through an edit that we felt captured that the root of the issue - that these mechanics are being overworked. I toned and cropped the photos for the online and print publication of the story. I also helped select the image for page 1A.
Check out the online long-form I created here!
This was a very important story to the community, one that I felt like needed visuals to have truly display its severity to residents. I coached up the photographer before he went, telling him to focus on the mechanics - not only what they do but how they feel while working in such tense conditions. We worked through his images together and chose ones that reflected the mechanics dedication and hard work.