FOLEY – Foley recently recognized city employees who received their commercial drivers licenses that will allow them to expand their abilities to operate municipal vehicles.

The city has been working for several months with Bishop State Community College and the Coastal Alabama Workforce to obtain outside funding and to train the workers.

Foley received a grant through the Alabama Workforce Stabilization Program that paid the cost for 11 Street Department employees to obtain their Class A CDLs through Bishop State. 

Class A CDL students completed an online theory instruction portion before working with an instructor. The instructor from Bishop State came to Foley and worked with  employees for three weeks teaching them about driving commercial vehicles, mastering specific range maneuvers and other skills to pass the CDL test. 

Brad Wallace, CDL supervisor-lead instructor/division chair with Bishop State Community College gave the employees their completion certificates on May 15.

The Foley employees receiving Class A CDLs were: Brett Brown, Chris Thomas, Colin Ray, Luis Alvarez, Trey Moore, Brock Rockstall, Micah Cotton, Garreth Cotton, Jake Smith, Jason Frank and Conner Clopton.

Foley has been working with Coastal Alabama Workforce since September on Class B CDL courses to improve the skills of Street and Sanitation Department employees.

Ten city employees completed their course and obtained their Class B CDL. Josh Duplantis, dean of workforce development with Coastal Alabama presented the completion certificates. 

Foley Sanitation Department employees receiving their Class B CDLs were Seth Till and Randell Price.

Street Department employees receiving their Class B certification were Trey Moore, Jake Smith, Tony Carrillo, Brock Rockstall, Collin Ray, David Childress, Charlie Roberts and Luis Alvarez.

The city will begin working with Coastal again in July to train more employees in the Class B CDL program. Foley is also working with Coastal to have two employees take part in the Skid-Steer course.