Building Indiana News Sept/Oct 2009

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009

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Swanky 2009

Awards

Feature

Community With a “Y” 43

NWI Forum

A Link to the Future 52

Welcome Center Super Crowd 64

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• Crown Point

• Hammond

Voted by the readers of Northwest Indiana Business Quarterly

• Michigan City

• Munster

• Valparaiso

In Recovery I talk with business and labor leaders around northern Indiana all the time, and while my conversations hardly constitute a scientific survey, the general consensus is that the tough economy is finally easing up. It isn’t getting better fast enough for anyone, but it is getting better all the same.

“We could use more business,” one executive said recently, “but we’re hanging in there.” Another executive was successfully pursuing new markets. The head of one of our local steel unions told me that all but 50 of his members were back to work.

There’s also more tangible evidence that a recovery is underway. Thanks to the efforts of Starke County economic development officials, a New Jersey company will shortly break ground on a new $5 million facility in the Knox Industrial Park. The LaPorte County tourism department is still basking in the success of the recent Super Boat races in Michigan City, which injected an estimated $6 million into the local economy. And the Northwest Indiana Forum reports high interest in the new South Shore Fiber Link, 75 miles of fiber optic cable running from Chicago to South Bend that promises to cut telecommunication costs for current businesses and attract new ones to the region.

Those success stories, and more, are detailed in this issue. And I don’t have any doubts that there will be more to come soon.

Publisher/Editor Andrea M. Pearman andrea@buildingindiananews.com 219.226.0300 ext. 301 Senior Writer David Wellman dave@buildingindiananews.com 219.226.0300 ext. 307 Creative Director Rebekah Hendricks rebekah@buildingindiananews.com 219.226.0300 Office Coordinator Jean Fostini jean@buildingindiananews.com 219.226.0300 ext. 305 Special Projects Coordinator Maureen McShane maureen@buildingindiananews.com 219.226.0300 ext. 305 Director of Marketing Chrischelle Schmidt chrischelle@buildingindiananews.com 219.226.0300 ext. 304 Media Director

Kind Regards,

Kristin Harkin kristin@buildingindiananews.com 219.226.0300 ext. 307

Andrea M. Pearman Publisher

Website

Our condolences to the family of Indiana University Northwest instructor and administrator Randy Jacobs, who passed away August 30. A longtime advocate for the university and northwest Indiana, Jacobs had just been honored in July with the Chancellor’s Medallion Award – one of only eight recipients in the history of IUN. He will be missed.

www.buildingindiananews.com Building Indiana News is a business-to-business publication from Diversified Marketing Strategies.

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2006 Communicator Awards’ Award of Distinction 2009 Communicator Awards’ Award of Excellence

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2006 Marcom Gold Award Winner 2007 Marcom Gold Award Winner 2008 Marcom Gold Award Winner

2008 Hermes Gold Award 2009 Hermes Gold Award

2009 Nichee Magazine Award

Silver Award

Copyright ©2009 Building Indiana News is published six times a year. Address correspondence to: PO Box 730, Crown Point, IN 46308-0730. Publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any editorial or advertising matter. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts or art. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise duplicated without the written permission of the publisher. For general reprint information, contact Building Indiana News at andrea@buildingindiananews.com. All opinions and views are solely those of the participants or editors and are not necessarily the views of magazine sponsors.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009

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20 Corporate Q & A Thor Thordarson, La Porte Regional Health Services

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EVERY ISSUE

04 Publisher’s Desk 08 Contributors

30 Being Productive A Handful of Trouble

09 Business Buzz 17 People News

48 From Here to There Knox Notches Another Win

69 Road Report Highway of Houses

18 PHOTO Feature - Area duffers hit the links for annual NWIBRT Golf Outing - Dunes Learning Center celebrates its 10th Anniversary

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21 State of the Industry Management Matters

36 Cover Story The 2009 Swanky Office Awards 43 Feature Community With a “Y” 46 FEATURE Headz Up 66 Community Spotlight Diamond in the Rough

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EXPERT ADVICE

FEATURES

32 MASS PRODUCTION Shoreline of Steel

23 Rule of Law Arbitration of Discrimination Claims: A New Dawn 25 Hard Hat Area Safety Pros: Cops or Coaches?

27 The Bottom Line Branching Out 52 NWI Forum A Link to the Future

DEPARTMENTS

49 Your Well-Being Workouts at Work 56 MARKETING Merry Networking 58 Lifelong Learning Higher Learning in High Demand 60 Natural Elements The Green Wrapper 63 Active Culture Wait ‘til Next Year 64 Welcome Center Super Crowd 70 The Last Word How Innovative is the Construction Industry? www.buildingindiananews.com

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Contributors JOHN DAVIES John Davies is Managing Director of the Society of Innovators, sponsored

by Ivy Tech Northwest, and founder and President of Woodlands Communications Group, a public relations firm located in Valparaiso, IN. He specializes in helping organizations through innovation. He is a 1965 graduate of Valparaiso University and spent two years in the U.S. Marines from 196668. He also held public relations and marketing positions in the steel, farm equipment,

cotton, health care and economic development fields over the past 40 years.

DEBRA FINE Debra Fine is a keynote speaker and the author of the bestselling book, The Fine Art of Small Talk How to Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills - and Leave a Positive Impression (Hyperion) and The Fine Art of the Big Talk: How to Win Clients, Deliver Great Presentations, and Solve Conflicts at Work (Hyperion) More

information about Fine can be found at www.DebraFine.com.

STEVEN A. JOHNSON Steven A. Johnson is a partner in Johnson, Rappa & Ivancevich, LLC, in Merrillville.

He concentrates his practice in the areas of litigation, labor relations and construction law. Johnson has served as an adjunct professor at Valparaiso School of Law and has taught labor relations at Purdue University Calumet.

Mark Myers Mark Myers is a Safety Advisor for Safety Management Group, an Indianapolis-based professional service organization that provides workplace safety consulting, training, staffing, program planning and implementation nationwide.

DEWEY PEARMAN Dewey Pearman serves as the Executive Director for the Construction Advancement Foundation. He holds a Masters Degree in Economics from Indiana State University.

The Foundation promotes the union construction industry of northwest Indiana by helping to enhance its efficiency and competitiveness via labor relations and government management, education, training, safety and workforce development.

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ALEC J. REXROAT Alec J. Rexroat is a project manager for M&O Insulation Company, the Executive Director of The Illinois Regional Insulation Contractors Association, the Executive Director of The National Union Insulation Contractors Alliance, the Executive Director of the Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust and is a member of the Board of Directors of The National Insulation Association and Past President of the Midwest Insulation Contractors Association.

Rexroat began his career in the insulation industry in 1964.

JOHN SCHAEFER John Schaefer is Founder and President of the Schafer Recognition Group, and the author of The Vocational Shrink – An Analysis of the Ten Levels of Workplace Disillusionment, The Vocational Shrink: The Game, and the Manager Training Program “Why Should Supervisors Care?” which gets to the bottom of what they’re really thinking, “what’s in it for me?” His web site is www.vocationalshrink.com.

Mike Winkler Mike Winkler is a Certified Safety Professional and Safety Advisor for Safety Management Group, an Indianapolis-based professional service organization that provides workplace safety consulting, training, staffing, program planning and implementation nationwide. www.buildingindiananews.com

BUSINESS BUZZ

Food on Center Stage for 2009 Holidays Businesses can boost employee morale and recognize key clients and partners with food gifts that help stretch holiday budgets.

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veryone loves food – especially at the holidays, when individuals are looking to stretch their dollars, and companies are seeking the perfect gift for employees and clients.

Gifts involving food have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. Food gift sales to consumers jumped 56 percent between 2004 and 2006, according to a study from Packaged Facts, a New York Citybased market research firm. At the same time, corporate food gift sales grew by 14 percent. The winter holiday season is second only to Valentine’s Day as the top occasion for food gifts.

This year more than ever, food gifts are sure to be appreciated by key clients and customers, employees, vendors and partners because, while food and family remain the bedrock of holiday celebrations, economic concerns have everyone on a budget.

Nearly all (98 percent) of the 1,000 people surveyed by Chicago-based Information Resources Inc., said that spending time with family during the holidays was a priority, and 93 percent said those plans included parties and meals.

But this year, nearly two-thirds of consumers plan to eat their holiday meals at home, and more than 94 percent of those surveyed said they will spend no more than $500 on food. Furthermore, cost-cutting techniques, such as list-making and buying private label, continue to be top of mind.

This gives smart organizations a chance to combine seasonal gifting with something people are really looking for in 2009: a way to stretch their holiday dining budgets without compromising quality. Enter tastyfoodgifts.com, a new Web site offering businesses a complete, personalized and turnkey food gifts program for center plate items such as hams and turkeys.

Loaded with a variety of meats, from spiral, honey and brown sugar hams to roasted and smoked turkeys, tastyfoodgifts.com can customize all their products to www.buildingindiananews.com

include corporate logos and personal letters to individual employees or clients. The gifts themselves are ordered by the recipients, so there’s no danger of giving something that they won’t eat. Companies choose what gifts to make available, and can even customize different “tiers” of gifts for different levels of receivers. Companies only pay for gifts that are actually ordered—nothing is left to spoil in a warehouse Tastyfoodgifts.com provides the gift letters, a personal web page featuring your logo, the login codes, and

handles the entire shipping process.

In addition to holiday giving, tastyfoodgifts.com is a resource for other occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries.

With consumers looking for ways to stretch their holiday dollar without compromising quality, and companies looking for ways to say thanks after a year in which monetary rewards have, in many cases, been scarce, tastyfoodgifts.com presents a perfect win-win opportunity for the holidays. For more details, visit www. tastyfoodgifts.com 9

BUSINESS BUZZ

Women’s Care Center Wins 2010 Leighton Award for Nonprofit Excellence The Community Foundation of St. Joseph County has named the Women’s Care Center, under the leadership of President and CEO Ann Manion, the winner of its 2010 Leighton Award for Nonprofit Excellence.

The Women’s Care Center has experienced extraordinary growth over its 25-year history. In its first year, Women’s Care Center served 376 women at its one neighborhood center. Last year, it served nearly 11,000 women at 14 sites in northern Indiana, Niles, MI, and Columbus, OH. According to Women’s Care Center, it is now the largest crisis pregnancy center in the country.

As it has better understood the needs of its clients, the Women’s Care Center has expanded its services to meet them. Most recently, Women’s Care Center has increased its focus on connecting its clients to prenatal health care.

Thanks to a new partnership with St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, the Women’s Care Center’s clients can now access onsite prenatal health services at its Notre Dame Avenue location.

As this year’s Leighton Award winner, the Women’s Care Center receives a $100,000 endowment challenge grant and must raise $100,000 in matching funds. The resulting $200,000 will be used to create or add to a fund in the Community Foundation for the center’s benefit. The Women’s Care Center receives an additional $10,000 to help cover the costs of any fundraising and communications associated with the match.

Six Area Companies Make Top Growth List Six companies in northern Indiana made Inc. Magazine’s third annual list of the top 5,000 fastest-growing companies. These include two in St. Joseph County, three in Porter County, and one in Lake County. The companies were: • No. 931: Working Person’s Store. The Lakeville apparel retailer’s revenues have grown by almost 328 percent since 2005 to $14.4 million in 2008.

• No. 2,005: ESW. Based in Crown Point, ESW saw revenues grow from $1.6 million in 2005 to $4.6 last year, a 159 percent increase. The company provides training in electrical and mechanical crafts, instrumentation, machine operation, software, quality assurance and safety, and mobile equipment operation.

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• No. 2,075: Alliance. A maker of magnetic manufacturing materials for a variety of industries, Alliance’s revenues increased 153.4 percent to $7.8 million from 2005 to 2008. Alliance is based in Valparaiso.

• No. 2,782: Cornerstone Appraisal Services.

Also based in Valparaiso, residential appraiser Cornerstone had revenues of $6.3 million in 2008, up 103.1 percent versus 2005.

• No. 3,166: St. Clair Apparel. The South Bendbased custom apparel maker’s revenues rose 83.8 percent to $8.6 million between 2005 and 2008.

• No. 4896: Livemercial. The Valpariso-based online direct response company saw revenues grow 3.1 percent to $23.6 million between 2005 and 2008.

Overall, 62 Hoosier concerns made Inc.’s list.

Governor, INDOT, Local Officials Break Ground on Crown Point Interchange Governor Mitch Daniels, Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) Commissioner Michael Reed and Crown Point Mayor David Uran broke ground in August on the Major Moves New Interchange at I-65 and 109th Street in Crown Point.

“Thanks to funds made available by the Major Moves transportation plan, today we break ground on a project that will relieve congestion and improve connectivity for local residents and motorists traveling through Northwest Indiana,” Gov. Daniels said. “The direct access provided by the new interchange will offer major economic benefits to Crown Point and Winfield.”

The $8.2 million project is scheduled for completion in 2010.

The interchange project was originally slated for construction in 2012, but the City wanted a faster timeframe to help meet the growing community needs. INDOT worked with local officials to form a partnership where the preconstruction elements of the project, including the design and right-of-way acquisition, were managed by the City, similar to that of a local project. The project was let and awarded through the state bidding process and INDOT is now managing the project during construction in order to adhere to all state and federal regulations.

“This project is a great example of local and state government working together towards a common goal,” Commissioner Reed said. “I’m happy to stand here today celebrating this collaboration.”

“The interchange will offer direct access to our commercial and residential areas which will www.buildingindiananews.com

Indiana Farmland Values and Cash Rents Dip Slightly

Region Awarded More Than $2 Million in Workforce Acceleration Grant Funds

Indiana farmland values dropped slightly but held their own in a tumbling economy, according to the 2009 Indiana Farmland Values and Cash Rents Survey completed by Purdue University.

The survey, conducted each June by the agricultural economics department, reports that the value of top-quality farmland in Indiana declined 0.2 percent from 2008 numbers, while average- and poor-quality farmland declined by 1.2 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

“I expected the drop in grain prices and higher input costs would lead to a fairly significant drop in farmland values,” says Craig Dobbins, Purdue Extension farmland economics specialist. “But farmland real estate is often seen as a strategy to hedge against inflation, so we may have some of that coming into play here.”

Statewide, top-quality land averaging 182 bushels per acre for corn was valued at $28.40 per bushel; average-quality land averaging 150 bushels per acre for corn was valued at $27.92 per bushel; and poor-quality land averaging 118 bushels per acre for corn was valued at $27.44 per bushel.

The average value of bare Indiana cropland ranged from $3,351 per acre for poor-quality land to $4,994 per acre for topquality land.

For cash rents, Dobbins says “variation” is the buzzword.

“On a statewide basis, we found cash rents moving in just about

The Northwest Indiana Workforce Board and the Center of Workforce Innovations have been awarded funding from the Department of Labor’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) towards Workforce Investment Act Title I Adult and Dislocated Worker activities, entitled Workforce Acceleration Grants (WAG).

“These funds will enable learners to afford their workforce education without accruing high levels of debt,” said Linda Woloshansky, President and CEO of the Center of Workforce Innovations, which is the Regional Operator for the Northwest Indiana Workforce Board and the state’s workforce system in Jasper, Lake, La Porte, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, and Starke counties. “Being able to add to the funding pool for education in our region’s high-demand industries is vital for our workforce and economic health.”

WAG provides eligible students educational funding if they are applying for or attending a two-year program at a specified Indiana college or university and have already applied for financial aid.

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help support existing and future development plans in addition to providing an improved travel time for our local residents along the corridor,” added Mayor Uran

BUSINESS BUZZ

every direction,” he said. “For top-quality land, cash rents were up about two percent. For average-quality land, cash rents were just about constant with 2008 numbers, and for poor-quality land, cash rents were down one to two percent.”

The average estimated cash rent was $198 for top-quality land, $158 for average-quality land and $121 for poor-quality land. The report showed that statewide, rent per bushel of estimated corn yield was $1.03 to $1.09.

There were significant variations in cash rents by region of the state. Some areas did see an increase, such as the west central and southwest regions of Indiana, where cash rents increased from 2.1 to 6.7 percent. The central and southeast regions reported constant or declining cash rents, while the north and northeast reported increases for top-quality land and declines for average- and low-quality land.

The Purdue report also tracks the value of transitional and recreational land.

The value of transitional land, or land moving out of agriculture, was down seven percent, and the value of recreational land had decreased by 13 percent, according to the survey. “I think this is a general reflection of the economy,” Dobbins says.

Calumet College of St. Joseph Opens New Student and Community Center Calumet College of St. Joseph formally opened its new Student Activity/ Community Center in September.

It is the first new building in the history of the Whiting, IN-based institution.

Established in 1951 by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, the college offered the Calumet region’s first bachelor degree program, and originally educated the sons and daughters of millworkers in church basements and empty storefronts.

In 1973, Amoco donated the building that currently serves as the college’s six-story “vertical campus.” In 1999, the college added an athletic program. Ten

years later, the new center finally gives Crimson Wave athletes a home.

The $3.5 million, 25,000-square-foot facility includes a new gymnasium, weight room, locker rooms, offices and a conference room. The building was designed by Daniel Szany of Carras, Szany-Kuhn and Associates Architects. The general contractor was Larry Behling, President of Gil Behling & Son, Inc.

Comcast Completes High-Speed NWI Rollout Comcast has completed the rollout of “wideband” DOCSIS 3.0 across its systems in Chicagoland and northwest Indiana.

The upgrade, which provides residential and business customers with faster Internet speeds, began in December 2008.

Wideband allows the Schaumburg, ILbased company to offer multiple speed tiers, including the Extreme 50 tier with download speeds of up to 50 megabits per second (mbps) and upload speeds of 10 mbps. It also enables Comcast to double speeds for the vast majority of existing high-speed Internet customers at no additional cost.

In addition to Extreme 50, Comcast is also offering residential customers the Ultra tier, with 22 mbps download/5 mbps upload speed. Business customers can sign up for the Deluxe 50 mbps/10 mbps tier, which includes a full suite of features and support.

Existing Comcast Business Class customers also will receive complimentary speed increases. Speeds on the Starter tier will be doubled to up to 12 mbps/2 mbps and a new Premium Tier will also be introduced, offering speeds up to 22 mbps/5 mbps.

Valparaiso Named Community of the Year The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has named the City of Valparaiso as the “Indiana Chamber of Commerce’s 2009 Community of the Year.”

“Mayor Jon Costas and other community and business leaders have emphasized infrastructure improvements and taken advantage of many benefits of working closely together,” said Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar. “Valparaiso is not only a regional destination in Northwest Indiana, but a shining example for all through the state about what can be accomplished through 12

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proactive leadership and action.”

This is the first time in more than 20 years that a community in either Lake or Porter County has received the award, according to Rex Richards, President of the Greater Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce.

The Greater Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce nominated Valparaiso for the award, which is open to all Indiana communities.

The main items in the nomination included: • Forty million dollars in public investments since 2004, including more than $32 million in state and federal grants • Building a pipeline of nearly $700 million in new private investment into the Valparaiso community from 2006 through 2012 • Redevelopment of a five-block downtown area and two key corridors leading into the city • Valparaiso’s diverse economic base including the planned additions of two medical facilities as well as the strong factor of an ever-growing Valparaiso University with the new Harre Union and the new $40 million campus of Ivy Tech Community College Valparaiso will be honored at the Indiana Chamber’s 20th Annual Awards Dinner on November 10 at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis.

Indiana Society of Chicago Sets Annual Dinner Date The Indiana Society of Chicago will hold its 104th annual Anniversary Dinner at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Chicago on December 5. Indiana’s most prominent business, education, community and political leaders are expected to attend.

The Society, originally created with the idea of bringing together Hoosiers who had migrated to Chicago, owes its existence largely to the trio of journalist and playwright George Ade; Pulitzer prize-winning Chicago Tribune cartoonist John T. McCutcheon; and Federal Court Clerk Edward M. Holloway. Forty-seven charter members signed on in September of 1905, and 375 attended the first dinner, held December 21 of that year.

Today, the Society works to celebrate Hoosiers, promote understanding of Indiana’s history and its place in the history of the United States, and to support the institutions and citizens of the State of Indiana and honor their talents and accomplishments. In 1997, the Society created an educational foundation to award scholarships to deserving Indiana students.

For more information about the Indiana Society of Chicago or the anniversary dinner, visit the Society’s Web site at www.indianasocietyofchicago.org, or call 847-673-2013. .

Army Corps of Engineers Shifts Responsibility for Northern Indiana Responsibility for overseeing regulatory activities under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Indiana counties of Lake, Porter, and a portion of LaPorte will move to the Corps’ Chicago District effective October 1, 2009. These areas were previously served by the Corps’ Detroit District.

The transition schedule is based on three key dates: October 1, 2009, January 1, 2010, and January 29, 2010. On October 1, all new - continued on pg 14

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requests for regulatory actions (including applications for permits, requests for jurisdictional determinations, and reports of alleged unauthorized activities) should be directed to the Chicago District Regulatory Branch.

From October 1 through December 31, the Detroit District will finish as many actions already in their possession as they can. Any pending actions, other than those that, on a case-by-case basis, cannot be transferred to Chicago District, will be transferred for finalization to Chicago by January 29, 2010.

“The two districts are working together to make the transition go as smoothly as possible,” Chicago District Engineer Col. Vincent Quarles said.

Chicago District is developing a website for Indiana Regulatory information at www.lrc.usace.army.mil/co-r. It will include permit applications, instructions, and public notices.

“It’s long been our dream to have our entire company housed under a single roof,” said Rod Carringer, vice president of sales and marketing. “This is the third time in our company’s history that we’ve expanded into a newer, larger facility. Since we’ve planned enough space to basically double our size from what we are now, we expect to stay here for some time.”

Larson-Danielson Construction Company (La Porte, IN) was the general contractor on the project.

Task Force Tips Opens New World Headquarters

Mental Health Alliance of Porter County Announces Award Winners

After a year of construction, Valparaiso, IN-based Task Force Tips opened its new world headquarters in September. The new building, which adds 98,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 20,000 square feet of office space to an existing 50,000-square-foot facility, allows the manufacturer of firefighting equipment to finally bring the entire operation together in one building.

The Mental Health Alliance of Porter County, made up of Porter-Starke Services, Inc., the Porter-Starke Services Foundation, and Mental Health America of Porter County, has announced its 2009 award winners.

Dr. John Johnson will receive the Aled P. Davies Award for Public Policy on Health; Attorney Donald Evans will be awarded the Patient Care and Advocacy Award; Dr. Timothy Ames of HealthLinc is set to receive the Porter-Starke Award on Community Mental Health; and Mr. Todd Willis will be recognized with the Robert A. Anderson Award for Community Education and Service.

Also receiving awards will be Ms. Jenni Schneider of Von Tobel Lumber and Hardware, who will receive the Friends of Mental Health Award; Jennifer Cimbala and Mary Sexton will be recognized as a United Way Volunteer Award Winners; and Vicki Urbanik will receive the Distinguished Service Award. Bob Jacobs of North Coast Distributors will receive the Porter-Starke Services Foundation Impact Award.

2009 NWIBRT Reliability Seminar to Focus on Maintaining Reliability During Reduced Operations Maintaining reliability during times of reduced operations will be the focus of the Northwest Indiana Business Roundtable’s 2009 Reliability Seminar on Thursday, October 22.

Highlighting the one-day event, to be held at the U.S. Steel Midwest Training Center in Portage, is a panel discussion on managing reliability during intermittent pro14

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Sand Creek Recognized for Environmental Commitment The Sand Creek Country Club golf course has retained its designation as a “Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary” through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, an Audubon International program. Participation is designed to help course personnel plan, organize, implement, and document a comprehensive environmental management program and receive recognition for their efforts.

To reach certification, a course must demonstrate that they are maintaining a high degree of environmental quality in a

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number of areas including: Environmental Planning, Wildlife & Habitat Management, Outreach and Education, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, Water Conservation, and Water Quality Management.

“Sand Creek Country Club has shown a strong commitment to its environmental program. They are to be commended for their efforts to provide a sanctuary for wildlife on the golf course property,” said Jim Sluiter, Staff Ecologist at Audubon International.

Sand Creek Country Club is one of 20 courses in Indiana and 711 courses in the world to receive the honor. Golf courses from the United States, Africa, Australia, Central America, Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia have also achieved certification in the program. The golf course was designated as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary in 1996. After designation, courses go through a recertification process every two years.

Propel Conference Take Two-Track Approach Northwest Indiana community leaders are collaborating to offer “The Propel Conference: Taking Small Business to the Next Level” from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13 at Faith Church in Dyer, IN. The event will focus on two tracks: “Starting a Business” and “Growing a Business,” with presentations tailored to each avenue. Participants will also have the opportunity to network and meet with representatives from the Northwest Indiana

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duction periods. “Reduced and intermittent operating schedules create new challenges,” says Willis Shepherd, Executive Director of NWIBRT. Experts from ArcelorMittal, DMI, NIPSCO, Tonn and Blank, and CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne will share their solutions, he adds, “so have your questions ready!”

Also presenting at the 2009 NWIBRT Reliability Seminar are: Vern Martin, Flowcare; Mike Shebel, Nisource/NIPSCO; Rob Shepherd and Mark Onweller, MA/Flodyne/ Hydradyne; Joe Oliver, JOA Inc.; and Jim Ladd, Cornerstone Electrical Consultants.

Check-in begins at 7 a.m. Reliability vendor exhibits, a picnic lunch and refreshments are included. Cost is $15 preregistered/prepaid; $25 and as seating permits at the door. For more information, contact Brian Biby at (219) 399-6753.

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Small Business Development Center.

The day will also feature success stories from business owners who have overcome challenges and a question-and-answer session. Both potential and current business owners and business students are encouraged to attend.

“We are looking to help start and grow existing businesses in Northwest Indiana through Propel,” says Bethany Schutt, conference and event producer at Faith Church. “We believe we can have a positive impact on our economic climate by offering vital business lessons to region residents.”

“Propel is a platform for professional development and business growth,” says Joshua Lybolt, regional director of the NWI SBDC. “By offering two distinct tracks, we have the opportunity to assist more businesses and entrepreneurs since the content will be focused on their specific needs.”

The cost of the workshop is $40 for professionals and $15 for students. Registration is available at www.faithchurchonline.org and the deadline is Oct. 30.

For more information, contact Faith Church at 219-864-0300 or visit the conferences page at FaithChurchOnline.org.

Jasper County Hospital Gets $15 Million Loan to Modernize The Jasper County Hospital in Renessalaer will receive a $15 million Federal loan to modernize and upgrade its facilities. The loan is part of $54 million in stimulus funds being distributed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Community Facilities program.

Currently, the Jasper County Hospital functions with original Sixties-era operating rooms, lacks modern medical equipment and has very limited space for physicians. The funding will be used to construct a new 24,000-square-foot addition and renovate the current facility. In addition, the hospital will be equipped with a permanent MRI scan room and equipment, six new Operating Room Surgi-

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cal Suites and other services such as a Sleep Lab, Oncology Treatment Area and office space.

The Community Facilities program helps finance essential community facilities for public use in rural areas. These facilities include childcare centers, hospitals, medical clinics, assisted living facilities, fire and rescue stations, police stations, community centers, public buildings and transportation.

Newton Chamber Launches ‘Buy Local’ Campaign The Newton County Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Committee launched an educational campaign in September encouraging residents to patronize local businesses. Chamber President John Boothby said that by spending locally, county residents will be encouraging more businesses from outside the area to open locations in Newton County.

In addition to brochures and handouts, the Chamber has established a Web site at www. buylocalnewton.com which offers a directory for, and profiles of, local businesses.

St. Joseph Regional Medical Center Joins UnitedHealthcare Network Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center, a South Bend-based not-for-profit health care system, has entered into a new multiyear agreement with UnitedHealthcare which will provide UnitedHealthcare customers with in-network access to health care services at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center’s acute care hospitals in South Bend and Plymouth, its new facility in Mishawaka, and the Michiana Rehabilitation Institute.

This agreement expands UnitedHealthcare’s network to more than 10,500 physicians and 140 hospitals and medical facilities throughout Indiana.

“This agreement with UnitedHealthcare is an exciting and important development for all of us here at Saint Joseph, but also for so many here in the communities we serve,” said Nancy R. Hellyer, SJRMC’s CEO. “Some 12,000 individuals in St. Joseph County and the surrounding areas will now have access to the state-of-the-art health care services.”

On Dec. 14, Saint Joseph will open its new 254-room Mishawaka facility at Edison Lakes.

Set on a 90-acre campus, the new hospital will provide world-class technology and advanced care in a healing environment.

The hospital will Ceco Building and a state-of-theoffer a full range of services Systems art diagnostic and treatment platform. www.buildingindiananews.com

o Stark Memorial Hospital Taps Satkoski Linda Satkoski has been named CEO of Starke Memorial Hospital. Previously Senior Vice President of Physician Relations/Patient Care Services for La Porte Regional Health System, Satkoski has been serving as Interim CEO at Starke Memorial Hospital since July 1. In her healthcare career, Satkoski has served as a staff nurse, head nurse, nursing supervisor and member of the Patient Care Review Staff at LRHS. She was named director of Inpatient Nursing Services in 1985, and then promoted to Vice President of Patient Care Services 11 years later. Satkoski received an Associate in Nursing from Purdue University North Central, a Bachelor of Science from the College of St. Francis, and a Master in Administration from the University of Notre Dame.

Professional (CSP). Burke met the Board of Certified Safety Professional’s (BCSP) academic standards, satisfied professional safety experience requirements, and passed two rigorous examinations. The examinations covered engineering and management aspects of safety, applied sciences, legal and regulatory matters, professional affairs, and other safety-related topics.

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Isakson Joins Porter-Starke Services Abigail Isakson, D.O., has joined the psychiatric staff at Porter-Starke Services, Inc. Dr. Isakson will offer psychiatric services to children aged five and up, adolescents and adults seeking individual, marital or family counseling. She will also treat substance abuse, post traumatic stress disorder, and dissociative disorders. She has more than 19 years of experience in the mental health field. Isakson previously worked at a private practice in Savoy, IL working with children, adolescents and families.

Tonn and Blank Safety Director Earns Certification David E. Burke, Safety Director for Michigan City, IN-based Tonn and Blank, has recently completed all requirements for certification as a Certified Safety www.buildingindiananews.com

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South Bend Names Zientara Controller Gregg D. Zientara has been appointed as South Bend’s new City Controller. Zientara brings experience as a chief financial officer serving in healthcare, manufacturing and service industries for both publicly and privately held companies in the United States, Europe and the Far East. He was selected from a field of candidates in a search process led by former City Controller Cathy Roemer, now assistant dean for law school administration at the University of Notre Dame. Zientara, a resident of Clay Township, most recently has served as chief financial officer and secretary of South Bend-based Cyberlink Technologies Inc. as well as controller for Redman Homes Inc., of Topeka, IN. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and accountancy from the University of Toledo (Ohio).

Hendricks Added to Purdue Calumet Senior Leadership Team Daniel L. Hendricks will join the Purdue Calumet as Vice Chancellor for Advancement at Purdue University Calumet. Hendricks, previously Vice President for Advancement and Public Services at Western Illinois University (WIU) and Executive Officer of the WIU Foundation, will oversee Purdue Calumet’s development, alumni, and marketing/university

relations units. During his time at Western Illinois, gift and pledge funding rose by 70 percent in three years. Hendricks’ background also includes positions as Vice President and Chief Development Officer of the Louisiana State University Foundation, Director and Chief Operations Officer of The Campaign for the University of Kentucky and Director of Planned Giving at Hanover College. Hendricks holds a baccalaureate degree from DePauw University, and master’s and doctorate degrees from Duke.

Nita Replaces Mazer at Horseshoe Harrah’s Entertainment has announced that Dan Nita will take over for Rick Mazer as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Horseshoe Hammond. Mazer will move on to the position of Regional President of Harrah’s Las Vegas properties. Nita, a 14-year veteran of Harrah’s, comes to northern Indiana from Atlantic City, NJ, where he served as Atlantic City Regional President. Prior to moving to the Atlantic City market, Nita was the Senior Vice President and General Manager at Harrah’s New Orleans. During his tenure at the property, gaming revenues and operating income grew on an annual basis by eight percent and 34 percent, respectively. He received the Corporate Excellence Award for his efforts leading the property through the Hurricane Katrina devastation.

The Troyer Group Adds Walker to Staff Alexander P. Walker recently joined The Troyer Group as a Civil Engineering Associate. Walker is a 2009 graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. Mishawaka, IN-based Troyer Group provides comprehensive planning, design, and construction administration services, with a focus on sustainable design.

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photo feature Roundtable on the Green The Northwest Indiana Business Roundtable’s held its annual Golf Outing in July at the River Point County Club in Hobart. Business leaders from around the region enjoyed a beautiful day of golfing and networking, sponsored by Van’s Industrial, BMW Constructors, The Pangere Corporation, Thatcher Foundations, Stevenson Crane, Security Industries, Inc., N.A. Logan Painting, Lakeshore Bone & Joint, The American Group of Constructors, Solid Platforms, IBEW Local 697, Team Industrial Services, Stevens Painton, Mersino Dewatering, CL Coatings and Building Indiana News.

Danny Jones of Security Industries, Inc. sinks a putt.

L to R: Scott Vidimos, Vidimos, Inc., David Bochnowski of Peoples Bank, Tom Frame from Sargent Electric and Peoples’ John Diederich.

L to R: Sid Smith, NIPSCO, Marcus Williams, Safway, Dale Boon, NIPSCO and Les Williams, Safway.

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L to R: John Andershock of EMCOR, Jim Arendas from CAF, Purdue University Calumet’s Shoji Nakayama, Ph.D and Scott Spence of Safety Management Group.

Participants are revved up and ready to go at the annual NWIBRT Golf Outing.

www.buildingindiananews.com

photo feature A Decade of Learning The Dunes Learning Center celebrated ten years of success in August at its 10th Anniversary Black Tie & Barefoot event at Marina Shores at Dune Harbor. The night featured Polynesian cuisine and a live band. Proceeds from the event benefit the Dunes Learning Center, a not-for-profit organization providing innovative environmental education in the Indiana dunes region.

L to R: Tom Keilman of BP and wife Kim with the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce’s Dave Ryan and his wife Mary.

L to R: Nipsco’s Don Babcock with Jim Flannery of the Quality of Life Council and the NWI Forum’s Kay Nelson.

Guests arrive for a fun evening at the Dunes Learning Center’s Black Tie & Barefoot event. www.buildingindiananews.com

L to R: Craig and Kay Nelson of the NWI Forum, Building Indiana News Publisher Andrea Pearman and Dewey Pearman Executive Director of CAF (standing).

L to R: U.S. Steel’s Mardanna Soto and Jill Ritchie with Mark Lopez, Chief of Staff for Congressman Pete Visclosky.

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Thordarson Takes the Reins at La Porte Regional Health System Last June, La Porte Regional Health System (LRHS) named G. Thor Thordarson as its new President and CEO. Thordarson, who had been serving in dual capacity as Interim President and CEO, and Vice President of Corporate Operations since March 1, has only been with the organization for a year. Now, he is in charge of an expanding health care operation – LRHS recently acquired Starke Memorial Hospital – and with a staff of more than 1,500 oversees one of La Porte County’s biggest employers.

An experienced administrator and former president of two health care management consulting firms, Thordarson holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Andrews University and a Master in Business Administration from Kent State University. In an interview with Building Indiana News, he discusses LRHS’ challenges over the past year, and looks forward.

Q: You joined LRHS in June of 2008, and were named President and CEO a year later.

It sounds like a busy year, to say the least.

Was this at all what you were expecting when you arrived?

A: No, not at all. I was expecting to spend the next few years gaining experience under the veteran leadership of Mike Haley. I was pleasantly surprised when asked to serve as the Interim CEO upon his departure.

Q: You tenure at LRHS has largely coincided with one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. What’s been the impact on LRHS and the community it serves? What steps have you taken in response?

A: The impact on the La Porte community has been severe. The unemployment rate doubled over the course of a few months. This affected LRHS in two major ways: The number of elective, non-emergent procedures decreased significantly and the number of uninsured or underinsured patients increased dramatically. As a result, our revenue declined which, in turn, impacted our ability to reinvest in capital projects

and infrastructure.

The first step we took was to freeze executive pay. Then we took a series of progressive steps including freezing all employee wages, reducing hours for non-clinical personnel and cutting back some benefits. We formed a task force to develop additional cost reduction and revenue enhancement strategies. This task force came up with a number of plans resulting in a significant impact on our bottom line. A thorough review of our capital plan and growth strategies was then performed and some construction projects placed on hold.

At the same time, we realized that more people than ever are now in need of health care services and have little ability to pay for those services. In response, we expanded our Community Health Center and La Porte County Dental Services, which provides health and dental care to those with little or no ability to pay for those services. Our La Porte Hospital Foundation arm is also working overtime to develop new sources of funds and donors to help the burgeoning population of people who desperately need health care but can’t afford it.

Q: In announcing your appointment as President and CEO, LRHS mentioned the

“resurrection” of Executive Rounding and a commitment to communication with both employees and the community. How does this reflect your healthcare management philosophy?

A: More often than not, the best ideas for improving services and delivering higher quality care comes from the people directly engaged in the delivery of that care. It therefore makes sense to establish regular meetings with the employees. I find it also particularly helpful to regularly visit the units where patient care is delivered as well as the support services departments. I like to see things with my own eyes and get a perspective on the challenges employees face in meeting our obligations to our patients and our physician partners.

The same approach applies to the community we serve. I firmly believe that we need to have regular dialogue with our friends and neighbors about what we are doing well and what we can do better. As a not-for-profit, taxexempt organization we have a special obligation and commitment to meet the health care needs of our community. It only makes sense that the leadership team stays actively involved in community service organizations and develops personal relationships with the people we serve.

Q: What does the acquisition of Starke Memorial Hospital do for LRHS? A: Acquiring Starke Memorial Hospital made sense for us as we have significant commitment to the Starke County community already. We have several physician partners in the area and the acquisition was a natural progression of support for those physicians.

Q: When you aren’t in the office, what do you do to relax?

A: : For relaxation, I train for and participate in triathlons. I just finished an Ironman triathlon in Louisville at the end of August. I also enjoy woodworking, photography, barefoot waterskiing and soccer.

Would you like us to consider you for a future issue? To submit your Q&A, go to www.buildingindiananews.com.

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY

Management

Matters

In the complex world of construction, best-in-class management and supervisory skills are a must. A new program for 2010 offers a way to build them.

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By Dewey Pearman, Executive Director, Construction Advancement Foundation

hat is it that makes one contractor more productive and therefore more profitable than another contractor? At first glance, it would appear that most contractors in a given labor market are on a fairly level playing field. All contractors would seem to have access to all the same production inputs – skilled labor, equipment, tools, capital, materials, etc.

As an example, we are fortunate in the northwest Indiana region to have a large and highly trained pool of labor from which all contractors can draw their skilled craft workers. I have written about this matter before, but let me again emphasize how important it is to the industry that our apprenticeship schools turn out the besttrained and most-skilled craft workers. It allows contractors to deliver quality built projects on time, safely and at a competitive cost to project owners.

Yet some contractors seem to get more out of their skilled workers than others. It doesn’t seem that the quality or the mix of other productive inputs would account for these differences. Like skilled labor, all contractors would appear to have access to the same equipment, tools, technology, and other inputs. So what makes the difference?

I suggest it is the capabilities of the contractor’s management and supervisors.

Those contractors who, through good management and supervisory practices, combine their productions inputs in the most efficient manner, and keep their inputs working effectively are the ones which will be most productive. The contractor who has all of the necessary skilled craft www.buildingindiananews.com

workers on site and ready and motivated to work, but does not have all the necessary equipment, tools, or materials accessible when they are needed will end up with valuable resources sitting idle. Poor planning and scheduling leads to lost productivity. Likewise, the contractor which does not properly manage its workforce so as to maximize the time workers have hands on tools loses productivity. Inefficient management simply leads to low productivity and lower profits.

I have written in this column before about the uniqueness of the construction industry in terms of how production is managed. In most manufacturing or process production, productivity and quality are achieved by doing exactly the same thing exactly the same way over and over in a controlled environment. In construction, no two projects are exactly alike.

Conditions continually change, and the flow of production inputs like labor, materials and equipment are highly variable.

This creates a very complex and highly variable production process which makes coordination and management particularly challenging. The contractors that can manage this complex process effectively are the ones that are most efficient.

• The Next Step

I have seen during my time working with the industry a marked increase in the commitment contractors have to ensuring that their management personnel are highly educated and trained. Over the years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of contractors sending their people to the CAF for education programs. We are proud of our management and supervisory

training programs, but feel it is time for the industry to take the next step.

This is why the Northwest Indiana Business Roundtable (NWIBRT) and CAF are instituting a Supervisory Training Program (STP) series of classes. This series of management training classes, developed by the Associated General Contractors of America, will allow area contractors to further develop their pool of management talent at an affordable cost. The STP program offers a series of 12 modules focusing on the critical supervisory topics in the construction field. Each module consists of two full day sessions offered at the CAF office. Each module will be taught by local construction industry practitioners with many years of experience in their fields of expertise. We expect to offer the first module in January 2010.

The modules are: Leadership and Motivation; Oral and Written Communication; Problem Solving and Decision Making; Contract Documents and Construction Law; Planning and Scheduling; Understanding and Managing Project Costs; Accident Prevention and Loss Control; Managing the Project – The Supervisor’s Role; Productivity Improvement; General and Specialty Contractor Dynamics; Construction Supervisor Overview; and Heavy/Highway Construction Supervisor Overview.

Individuals completing the STP program will be eligible to receive credit hours applicable to degree completion requirements at Purdue University Calumet. Individuals who should attend include anyone on a construction jobsite in a supervisory role, from the new supervisor and foreman to the experienced superintendent.

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www.buildingindiananews.com

RULE OF LAW

Arbitration of Discrimination Claims: A New Dawn A recent Supreme Court decision may make arbitration of discrimination claims more attractive to employers.

By Steven A. Johnson of Johnson, Rappa & Ivancevich, LLC

I

s an employer better off having discrimination cases decided by an arbitrator rather than by a jury? What about an employee who claims discrimination; is he better off? Where do I go to get a straight answer? Why do I care?

There isn’t one “straight” answer, but employers, employees and unions ought to care because now, thanks to the 2009 United States Supreme Court decision in 14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett, et al., there is a choice.

Here is where I have to give you the legal part because it’s important, but if your eyes start to glaze and you simply can’t get through it, skip to the next paragraph. In 1974, the Supreme Court decided the Alexander v. GardinerDenver decision, which provided that a union-negotiated provision in a collective bargaining agreement which required an employee to arbitrate a right conferred by federal law was unenforceable. Later, in 1991, the Supreme Court decided Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., which determined that an employee who signed a mandatory arbitration agreement as a part of his employment agreement could be required to arbitrate his age discrimination case.

Prior to this year, then, an individual could agree with his employer that any discrimination claims must be handled through arbitration, but a union and employer could not bind employees through a collective www.buildingindiananews.com

bargaining agreement to arbitrate those same claims.

In the new 14 Penn Plaza case, Steve Pyatt and a couple of others worked as night watchmen. Pyatt was a member of the Service Employees International Union and benefitted from a collective bargaining agreement which contained a provision that all discrimination claims were subject to binding arbitration. The provision also provided for an attorney to represent the employee grievant, either the union attorney at no cost to the employee or a private attorney chosen and paid by the employee. When the employer hired additional night watchmen and reassigned Pyatt and the others, they filed multiple grievances, including allegations that they had been discriminated against on the basis of age.

When the age discrimination case was later filed in federal court, the employer moved to dismiss based upon the arbitration, but the judge denied the motion and found that the arbitration provision was unenforceable and violated the employees’ right to present their claims in federal court.

The case made its way to the Supreme Court and, in a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that a collective bargaining provision that requires an employee to arbitrate his discrimination claims is enforceable.

So what? Well, this affects us in several ways. First, it changes how we interpret collective bargaining

agreements. Those unions who have been successful in inserting non-discrimination provisions in their collective bargaining agreements may have inadvertently deprived their members of the opportunity to go to federal court.

Moreover, unions may be stuck with this provision until the agreements come up for renegotiation, since the provision usually found at the end of an agreement striking any provision found to be illegal doesn’t apply: the provision requiring arbitration was specifically found to be legal.

Going forward, we will not see non-discrimination provisions proposed by unions or agreed to by management in the same way again. It may now be employers who propose such language.

And lastly, every employer who receives a complaint of discrimination is going to be taking a hard look at his collective bargaining agreement; the opportunity to defend a case for a few months in arbitration can look very attractive when compared to the time and expense of a federal jury trial.

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MAXIMIZE YOUR BUILDING’S

ENERGY PERFORMANCE

Retro-commissioning of your mechanical or refrigeration systems guarantees that your existing building is operating at peak energy efficiency, keeping your building green and saving you money on operating costs.

Pipefitters Local 597 has been training their members in servicing and maintaining heating, cooling, and refrigeration systems for over 100 years. Today their focus is on improving the energy and environmental performance of buildings. In other words, they have the training and know-how to save money for you, and save valuable natural resources for our planet.

For tools and techniques that can help you conserve resources on your next sustainable building project, please visit www.pf597.org/green or call 312-455-6411.

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HARD HAT AREA

Safety Pros:

Cops or Coaches?

Building trust between workers and safety professionals is the best way to reduce safety problems on the worksite.

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By Mike Winkler and Mark Myers, Safety Advisors, Safety Management Group

harks in the water!”

It’s an odd thing to hear at a construction project in the middle of a rural area, but we know exactly what it means. It’s one example of a code that workers use to warn each other that safety professionals are on the jobsite. Some are a lot more clever, and others are more straightforward, but they all mean the same thing: “Shape up, so you don’t get in trouble.”

The perception that safety professionals are on the jobsite to catch misbehavior is widespread, but it isn’t accurate – at least not among the safety professionals The safety professional’s job isn’t to we know. Our role on a jobsite isn’t to sneak up punish misbehavior, but to protect the and catch misbehavior, craftspeople so they can go home but to protect the craftspeople so they can go safely at the end of each day. home safely at the end of each day.

A safety professional who observes a violation is like a police officer who notices a driver taking an unsafe action. In both cases, the goal is to protect the individual and those around him from the consequences of his actions. In both cases, the individual is likely to be embarrassed or even angry at having that behavior called into question.

And, in both cases, the goal is to correct the situation rather than create a confrontation.

For example, if you observe someone on the top step of a ladder, you can yell, “Hey, I’m going to write you up for that!” Or you can say, “Hey, I think you might need a taller ladder for this job.” With both approaches, they know they’ve been caught – but with the latter www.buildingindiananews.com

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approach, they’ll realize that your goal isn’t to harass them, but to you build that trust. By coaching rather than coercing, you strengthoffer a suggestion that will protect them and keep them from getting en collaboration. By taking time to get to know them on a personal level, and sitting down with them on their breaks, they’re less likely written up in the future.

Often, a little creativity goes a long way. On one site where seat to see you as a threat.

Of course, there are situations involving imminent danger to belt use is mandated, we did a seat belt audit in an unusual way. As vehicles passed, drivers who were wearing seatbelts were handed a life and health. That’s when we have to jump in and demand that bag of Life Savers candy, and those who weren’t received a Dum- whoever is doing something wrong cease and desist immediately.

Dum lollipop. We didn’t explain why until a safety meeting later But even in those situations, once the emergency has ended, we can sit down with everyone and explain to them that day. As they looked around the room why the situation was so serious that we had and saw co-workers sucking on their DumA cooperative approach not to act that way. If we’ve already established Dums, everyone started to laugh and tease only works – it’s actually far a good rapport, they’ll understand. them. We were able to make a point without There are some safety professionals creating an adversarial relationship. more effective and longer-lasting. who think the only way to increase compliFor another company with a policy ance is using fear, but our experience is that requiring gloves 100 percent of the time, a safety professional might carry a couple pairs of brand-new gloves a cooperative approach not only works – it’s actually far more effecwith him at all times. If he sees someone violating the policy, he tive and longer-lasting. On sites where safety issues were cropping can walk up and ask, “Did you forget your gloves?” and hand over up on a daily basis, the number of violations drops dramatically. In a new pair. It solves the problem and reminds the worker without some cases, that sense of trust becomes so strong that the workers start calling attention to safety issues or asking the safety profesanyone getting angry or defensive.

The overall key is very simple: treat people the way you would sional for his opinion about the right practices for a particular task.

When you see a police car with the slogan “to protect and want to be treated. When you criticize people, you’re projecting the attitude that you are better than they are, and that they are on the site serve,” you’re also seeing the mission of safety professionals who really understand their role on the jobsite. We work to protect the to work for you. But neither of those things are true.

Trust is critical, but it can only be built up over time. Every craftspeople on the site, and we serve their needs for safety and contact with a worker either builds up or detracts from that sense of well-being. And like police officers, sometimes we have to step up trust, as does every conversation about safety. By presenting safety and put an end to a dangerous situation, but even then, we’re doing issues in a positive manner and providing explanations for rules, it to protect and serve the people we work with.

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THE BOTTOM LINE

Branching

Out

Bank branch expansion in northern Indiana is being fueled by a growing population and an increased need for financial services.

By David Wellman

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end to that kind of growth for many big banks. For example, Cincinnati-based Fifth/Third reported a net increase of just three branches, from 1,314 to 1,317, between June of 2008 and June of ’09. Bank of America said in September it could close up to 10 percent of its 6,100 U.S. branches. One exception is Chase, which insists its plans to add The most popular locations for 125 branches a year are unchanged. new branches have been the Community and cities of Gary and St. John in regional banks have Lake and Valparaiso in Porter. wasted little time filling the gap. The AP bank branch survey as some major players pull found that the majority of new branches were being opened in back.

According to an Associ- fast-growing towns, suburbs ated Press study released in and exurbs of the sort found in August, banks have opened northern Indiana’s two westmore than 10,000 new branch- ernmost counties, Lake and es nationwide, a rate of about Porter. And indeed, a minisix a day, for the last five years. bank-branch boom has taken But last year’s financial shock- place in the region since the wave put at least a temporary start of 2008. Six area banks – ith many big-name financial institutions still dealing with the fallout from last year’s financial industry meltdown, regional and community banks have stepped into the breach, ramping up branch locations and services

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Centier, Peoples, Harris, Horizon, Lake Federal and Citizens – have opened at least 10 new branches since the beginning of last year, a pace of about one new branch every 10 weeks.

The most popular locations for new branches have been the cities of Gary and St. John in Lake County and Valparaiso in Porter, which have seen six of the 10 new branches: Centier and Peoples branches opened in Gary in 2008. Valparaiso got a Peoples branch this year (its first in Porter County) after Horizon opened one in 2008. Lake Federal Saving Bank opened in St. John in 2008, and Citizens will open its 23rd branch in that town in October.

East Chicago, Chesterton, Munster, and Merrillville have also gotten new branches.

Local bank executives cite several reasons for their branch growth, including competitive opportunities, demand for financial services and the overall growth of the region.

“Demographics in northwest Indiana are growing,” says Daryl Pom-

ranke, President of Munster-based Citizens Financial Bank. He points to towns like Winfield, recently identified as the fastest-growing town in the state,

Recent Bank Branch Openings in Northwest Indiana

2008 Gary (Centier) East Chicago (Centier) Gary (Peoples) Chesterton (Harris) Merrillville (Horizon) St. John (Lake Federal)

(219) 938-8437 www.volkinc.com 28

Valparaiso (Peoples) Munster (Horizon) Valparaiso (Horizon) St. John (Citizens)

and St. John as places of strong growth.

“We have a chance to get in on the front end,” he explains.

In Lake, “there has been an influx of people from the Chicago market,” says Dave Rose, President, Northwest Indiana, at Horizon Bank. “The quality of life in many communities is better and that continues to fuel growth.” Horizon

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2009

opened its first Lake County location in Merrillville last year, and sees further opportunities there as well as in Porter County. “We have been in Porter for less than 10 years, which in banking terms is still infancy, and we are now at $200 million in deposits,” he notes.

In northwest Indiana, Rose says the impact of the financial industry’s overall challenges has been felt in reduced services. “We have seen a large exodus of commercial lenders in the marketplace, so there are fewer to provide advice to small and mid-sized businesses,” he says. Large banks have also cut back on wealth management and estate planning services, and Horizon has accordingly beefed up its trust officers in Lake and Porter. “We see that as an opportunity,” he says.

Citizens is also eyeing business customers in St. John. “Small business services is an area we have dedicated a lot of resources to,” Pomranke says, “and there are a lot of small businesses in that market.” These, he adds, will be the first to benefit from a recovery.

“At the end of a downturn the people who benefit first are always the entrepreneurs,” he says.

Citizens’ new St. John branch will be of the full-service variety, offering retail as well as business banking services. Smaller banks can still offer a full suite of services, Pomranke says, because they “don’t have the burdensome overhead of a large institution.”

Large banks need more mass – meaning deposits – in order to be profitable.

“It’s a question of how to deploy capital for large banks,” says John Diederich, Executive Vice President at Peoples Bank. “You need a certain level of ROI.” The trouble, he continues, is that without the “bricks and sticks” piece of the puzzle, it’s difficult to attract customers.

“In general, surveys show that people want to bank with a community bank that’s within three miles of where they live,” he says. Even in an age of Internet banking, many people still want to come in to a branch to do their banking, particularly older customers. And even the younger crowd often still wants to come in for investment or mortgage services. “Those kind of services are face-to-face,” Diederich says. Peoples plans to follow up its newest location in Valparaiso with a second one in the same city, and overall is looking to continue to expand at a rate of about a branch a year. www.buildingindiananews.com

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BEING PRODUCTIVE

A Handful of Trouble The five biggest mistakes managers make in recognizing their employees.

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By John Schaefer, President, Schaefer Recognition Group

ennifer was at the end of her rope. It was time for a new job, one that would let her use all of her talents, creativity and experience. The exit interview was uneventful, and then she was finally free! Her manager Roberta was baffled. How could Jen leave? She was on the fast track, with great potential, numerous promotion opportunities and was a key member of the team. What went wrong? Sound familiar?

A recent study confirms that this vast divergence between employee satisfaction and management appraisal is quite common, as well as confusing and expenHow could an employee be so sive, to organiunhappy while management is zations today. thinking everything is hunky-dory? How could an employee be so unhappy while management is thinking everything is hunky-dory?

There are five big mistakes that, when addressed properly, will reduce unnecessary turnover and immediately improve morale, productivity and profits. With some minor changes in management’s communication style, your employees will want to bring their “A Game” to work every day.

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Mistake No.1 – Not Being Believable All executives claim to value their people, but are they getting the message? Recognition programs, incentives, bonuses and “ata-boys” are common in most companies, but are often seen as manipulative by the very employees they’re meant to incent. Why? There’s a fine line between the perception of true appreciation and feeling that you’re just “throwing them a bone.”

Unfortunately, with staffing down, workloads up and everyone busier than ever, it’s easy for a manager’s recognition efforts to be perceived as just going through the motions, not coming from the heart. When your managers understand what’s in it for them and begin to “make it real,” their interactions are seen as genuine.

Mistake No. 2 – Not Being Organized Once your employees begin to believe you truly care about them, the next mistake relates to the number of disjointed programs companies use to recognize and reward their people. Each has its own history, function, author and responsible party, so even if they’re working, there’s no easy way to tell. It’s impossible to properly train your management team about how to use each program correctly and in the right order, so effectiveness suffers. www.buildingindiananews.com

By coordinating all of your employee communications, training, recognition and performance processes into one organized system, you will be able to understand and control costs, manage and rate results and get the most for your investment in people.

Mistake No. 3 – Not Using a Strategy An organized approach is great, but the system won’t last if it’s not tied into a strategy based on the company’s core values and goals. Strategic planning is a leadership function that allows all employees to understand where they fit into the total scheme of things and how their performance directly effects the organization.

Once everyone begins to see that they are all on the same team, marching in the same direction for the same reasons, synergy happens and your combined recognition efforts yield much more than the sum of the individual parts.

Mistake No. 4 – Not Having Management Buy-in Even if you solve the previous mistakes completely, your best efforts are likely to fail if you don’t have strong, honest and consistent support from the top. Companies could use a professionally produced video featuring a top executive(s) to not only launch any new program, but then continue to demonstrate their passion and dedication to the goals and objectives over time. Employees are very quick to see through any signs of the company being disingenuous.

Poor upper management involvement is the number one sign that you’re using recognition as a manipulative lever, not an appreciation boost. To keep your top executives intrigued, committees must present program enhancements that show significant and measurable results, not just emotional blue sky and hype.

Mistake No. 5 – Not Following Through Any program, no matter how exciting, rich, well-organized or effectively supported will lose its momentum over time if it’s not fully integrated into your company’s performance management culture. This is by far the most overlooked weakness in many recognition strategies and it’s very disappointing after you’ve done so much right. A quality reporting system, along with an empowered team prepared to manage the information, is critical to keeping your programs relevant, fresh, interesting and profitable. The true test of a well-functioning recognition strategy is when you can quantitatively prove to your CFO that it’s turning expenses into profits over time.

The five mistakes are quite common, extremely costly, but relatively easy to avoid with some simple communications training and the ability to look at entitlement programs with an open mind. Yes, they are called “entitlements,” because that’s what your awards programs become if they are left alone for very long. It’s nobody’s fault, so don’t point fingers. Just decide to address each mistake in order, gain support and then develop a measurable set of initiatives that will make the best use of your company’s dollars. The good news is that today’s tools and technology solutions make it easy to develop, measure and analyze an effective recognition strategy. www.buildingindiananews.com

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MASS PRODUCTION

Shoreline of Steel A new book recalls the building of U.S. Steel and Gary, Indiana.

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n their new book, Steel Giants, authors Stephen McShane, Archivist/Curator at the Calumet Regional Archives, and Gary Wilk, Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana University Northwest, have assembled a collection of 300 photos taken by U.S. Steel and Inland Steel from the turn of the 20th Century onward. They document northwest Indiana’s transformation from “a barren waste of drifting sand” into both an industrial power-

house, and Gary, Indiana’s establishment as the era’s planned, orchestrated and progressive vision of a model city – or, as it was called at the time, “the magic city.”

The book, available from the Indiana University Press, contains only a portion of the photos in the archives. More can be found online at http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/ collections/steel/. From those archives, McShane has provided some sights from the early days of U.S. Steel and Gary. Building

The town was carefully laid out by competent engineers and ample provision allowed for growth…Citizens of New York and other big cities, accustomed to seeing their important thoroughfares constantly torn up for the laying of sewers, electric wires, etc., would find a pleasant change from these conditions in Gary, where it is never necessary to do such work in the principal streets. All gas and water mains and sewer pipes are laid in wide alleys between the streets and thus all repairs and improvements can be carried on without any obstruction to traffic. – Arundel Cotter, United States Steel: a Corporation with a Soul, 1921. Pictured: Workers dig the path of Gary’s first sewers in 1906.

Indiana News presents them here, together with excerpts of articles and books written about them at the time.

Why? Because we believe it’s worth recalling that for all the challenges faced by Gary and the steel industry in the region today, little more than 100 years ago, there was nothing at all. Northwest Indiana has come very far, very fast, and any place that can do what’s been done here has every reason to believe in a brighter future.

Practically every worker has in the front or rear of his home a small amount of vacant land, but unless he is offered some incentive to cultivate this, he is apt to let it remain bare and serve for the accumulation of rubbish.

Realizing that such a state of affairs was not only a waste economically, but was inimical to the physical and mental welfare of the worker, a plan was evolved to induce him to cultivate these vacant areas. The offering of small cash prizes was found sufficient to give the necessary impetus to this work, and the result is that a great many of the workers’ homes are now surrounded with flower or vegetable gardens to the cultivation of which the men and their families give much of their spare time. – Arundel Cotter, United States Steel: a Corporation with a Soul, 1921. Pictured: Mr. Daisy’s garden on Van Buren Street in 1918.

The intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue—consecrated names!—will be the centre of the new city. Both are intended to be business streets throughout their entire length. The former, early next summer, will be, for a mile or more, a handsome, concrete-paved avenue a hundred feet wide, showing an unbroken succession of two, three, and four story structures in compulsory brick and stone. These two streets already present two large hotels, two bank buildings, a public school, erected at an expense of $70,000, and an assembly, hall and restaurant, besides dozens of ordinary shops. A theatre to cost $100,000 is planned; also a church, with clubroom building, gymnasium, and swimmingpool. – Henry B. Fuller, “An Industrial Utopia: Building Gary, Indiana, to Order,” Harper’s Weekly, 1907. Pictured: Broadway in 1913.

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The Corporation had envisioned a massive mill complex, and it was not disappointed. Over twelve million cubic yards of sand were removed.

Foundations for the mill structures required two million yards of concrete. The railroad yards could hold 15,000 cars. A mile long harbor was built, twentyfive feet deep and 250 feet wide, between two parallel piers extending 2,360 feet into Lake Michigan; it included a turning basin 750 feet in diameter to accommodate the huge iron ore boats. In just over two years, on July 23, 1908, the ore boat Elbert H. Gary entered Gary Works harbor with the first load of iron ore. In December, the first of twelve blast furnaces began producing iron.

In February 1909, two open hearths tapped the first “heat” of steel and the rail mill produced its first finished product. By the end of the year, 6,800 employees had produced 570,000 tons of steel. – Steve McShane, Archivist/Curator, Calumet Regional Archives, Indiana University-Northwest, “The Magic City of Steel.” Pictured: .

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Down each side of the long line of open-hearth furnaces is a set of railroad tracks on which the metal is brought to or removed from the furnaces, and handled thereat.

On the tapping side on which the treated metal is withdrawn from the furnaces is a line of massive standards in which are placed the ladles of 80 to 100 tons capacity into which the metal is poured. When they are full, the proper amount of ferro-manganese is added to the metal in each ladle, and they are then picked up by 125-ton traveling cranes and carried to platforms, from which, by opening a plug in the bottom, the molten steel is poured into the ingot- molds, large cast-iron molds 65 inches in height, tapering from 20 by 24 inches at the bottom to 18 by 22 inches at the top. Here the metal cools to the point of solidification. The mold is then lifted off the ingots which, by the way, are carried on four-wheeled cars, each car carrying four molds, and after having been heated to a uniform heat throughout in the “soaking pits” the product is ready for rolling in the billet mill or the rail mill. – “Gary: The Largest and Most Modern Steel Works in Existence,” Scientific American, 1909. Pictured: The soaking pits.

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Working WITH you, and FOR You The Ross Group has 36 years of experience in Northwest Indiana designing and building unique solutions tailored to individual businesses.

We create the best results for our clients by: · Educating them · Minimizing their risk · Optimizing their business potential · Increasing their efficiency From start to finish, we detail every step, and work with all project stakeholders from funding through design and construction.

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Go to www.therossgrp.com for your COMPLIMENTARY copy of “Rules You Should Know Before You Build Your Important Project” compliments of The Ross Group.

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Everyone that I speak with that enters our facility uses the same words to describe Avalon Manor: beautiful, gorgeous and magnificent. Avalon has been here for 10 years and still stands structurally and aesthetically as an example of solid construction.”

– Peter Kaiafas, General Manager Avalon Manor, Inc.

The Avalon Manor - Merrillville, IN

“Our new Corporate Center is as functional as it is beautiful – with the high quality craftsmanship that defines the Ross Group. Peoples Bank has completed four other successful projects with The Ross Group, but the spectacular results of this design/build project exceed the high expectations created by those efforts.”

– David A. Bochnowski, Chairman and CEO Peoples Bank

Peoples Bank - Munster, IN

“Our project was difficult with a tight budget and a very tight timetable.

The Ross Group got the job done on time with everything to spec and within our budget. Honesty, value and excellence are what The Ross Group promises… and delivers.”

– Scott Bening, President MonoSol, LLC

MonoSol, LLC - Portage, IN

219.764.9932

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The 2009

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reativity, vision, a commitment to the community and the environment, and a unique and playful approach to materials and design can all be found among the winners of the 2009 Building Indiana News Swanky Office Awards. And in combining form with functionality, these debonair digs demonstrate that attractiveness and utility aren’t mutually exclusive concepts. Whether it’s designing a piece of security glass in a manner that both looks better and improves communication with customers or constructing a green building that’s both an enjoyable and energy-efficient place to work, the Awards show how companies across northern Indiana are aligning their workspaces with their overall business strategy.

Swanky Office Awards

The winners of the 2009 Swanky Office Awards are: Dynamic Dimension Blue Chip Casino & Hotel Best Exterior Design Steel Sales & Services Best Interior Design Peoples Bank Best Conference Room Gibson-Lewis, LLC Best Green Office Berglund Construction Best Small Business Office Volk, Inc. Best Technology Community Healthcare System 36

Dynamic Dimension: Blue Chip Casino & Hotel

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oyd Gaming spared no expense in expanding the Blue Chip Casino & Hotel in Michigan City with the Spa Blu Tower, which opened in January of 2009. Begun in 2006, the 22-story steel and glass structure is the tallest building in LaPorte County, and a magnet for sybarites of all stripes.

Among its 302 rooms are luxurious suites featuring wrap-around glass walls, deep-soaking bathtubs, even dining rooms. Spa Blu, a 10,500-square-foot spa, salon and fitness center boasts individual lounges, steam rooms and whirlpools, as well as hair, pedicure, manicure and make-up services. Sports fans can root on their favorite teams in The Game, a sports bar with 19 plasma screen televisions, while others looking for a taste of Las Vegas can enjoy the aptly named “It’s Vegas, Baby!” nightclub and its live entertainment and dancing.

The $300 million expansion also included the 15,000-square-foot Stardust Event Center, a 1,200-person capacity setting for concerts, conventions and exhibitions, opening up new market opportunities for city and county tourism officials. www.buildingindiananews.com

Best Exterior: Steel Sales & Services

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oing creative things with steel is what Steel Sales & Services is all about, so it’s not surprising that their East Chicago offices feature a lot of metal in rather unusual places. “We have completed design projects where we had customers that were looking for that ‘steely’ type unique look to finish their building and are not sure what can be done,” says President Mike Leeson. “We made the decision to create some unique things from steel to be able to show people what some of the possibilities are.”

Among the most unique is the entrance canopy, an impressive steel structure that presented installation challenges due to its size, weight and the design of the offset legs making it unable to stand on its own, but which Leeson says really demonstrates what can be done with steel.

“We have always tried to showcase how things can be made from steel and that is reflected at each of our facilities,” he says.

“Some people have retained us to design and build a monument for their facility or a piece of artwork that is specifically designed for them to be one of a kind.”

The company has other steelwork artistry inside the office and in certain areas. “When we need to have something that would traditionally be made of wood or other materials, we usually will make it out of steel if we have the time to do so,” Leeson says. “To us steel can be very beautiful; it is up to us to show other people its beauty and its limitless possibilities.”

Everything the company has done has been made completely in-house. “Bill Walczak has been a tremendous asset to us with design concepts and figuring out how something can be made,” Leeson says. “With the right kind of project Bill can dazzle people with certain designs.” www.buildingindiananews.com

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Best Interior: Peoples Bank

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bank branch isn’t something normally noted for striking interior design. Desks? Check. Wall o’ tellers? Check. Drive-thru window?

Check. ATM? Check. Stamp that out on a street corner somewhere and move on to the next site, right?

For Munster-based Peoples Bank, the answer would be, no. Starting with its Crown Point location last year and continuing with its newest banking center in Valparaiso, Peoples has developed a bold new look that is strongly customer-focused yet flexible enough to modify to meet the needs of future banking centers.

“We wanted customers to understand that we were moving along with the times,” explains Carla Houck, vice president, retail group, who oversees all building projects for the bank. Designed by interior designer Karen Anderson, the comfortable, upbeat atmosphere, rich cherry woodwork and fresh color palette, which adds oranges and greens to the bank’s traditional blue, give the center a contemporary update. Lots of windows create a naturally bright, open and airy environment. “I have heard people walk in and say, ‘this is the look I want in my home,’” Houck says.

For customer convenience, the entry is close to the teller lines where primary service is delivered. Ancillary services are located around the perimeter of the lobby. This layout promotes ease of access to banking staff and services, and helps to prevent a build-up of traffic. A PCequipped cyber café with a flat screen TV invites customers to conduct online banking, follow the stock market and catch up on financial and world news.

But the most notable feature is the wall of security glass protecting the tellers, which is cut in a flowing wave design. “Customers like the safety feature, but the glass can act as a barrier between customers and employees,” Houck says. So when building the Crown Point location, she asked architect Bob Priesol if there was any way to make the glass wall friendlier, “like it was waving at the customers?”

Priesol took the wave concept and ran with it, resulting in a glass wall that not only is a work of art in itself, but also provides better acoustics.

Best of all Houck adds, since the glass had to be cut anyhow, the effect was achieved without any increase in costs. “You can’t beat that,” she says.

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-

Best Conference Room: Gibson-Lewis, LLC

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n the offices of Building Indiana News, no entry in this year’s Swanky Awards produced more “wow” responses than Gibson-Lewis’ conference room. Featuring a 14-foot diameter round conference table made of concrete – yes, that’s concrete! – with a 6-foot diameter pane of frosted glass over sunken blue lighting in the center, it has the look of something that stepped out of a James Bond movie.

“We have received many compliments,” says Robert A. Lingenfelter, President of the Mishawaka-based interiors contractor. “It was a teamwork experience that truly brought out our best.”

Initially, Gibson-Lewis had planned a more conventional space. Having outgrown its existing meeting room and needing additional space for training, the company renovated underutilized space for a new conference room. But the high price tag associated with a big conference table, especially at a time when the economy was turning down, led them to rethink the room as a do-it-yourself project.

“What made it fun was when the idea shifted to creating a space that would meet our needs, but also showcase all of the work we typically provide for our clients,” Lingenfelter says. In-house craftsmen from the concrete and interiors divisions, Gibson-Lewis architect Todd Geer and several subcontractors teamed together to make the unique conference table a reality.

“We are proud of our team of skilled tradesmen that helped us assemble the space on a tight budget,” Geer says. In addition to Gibson-Lewis’ own talent, key contributors included Custom Millwork (panels, wood trim, lightboxes), S&T Bancroft (electrical) and JW Werntz & Son (doors).

One of the biggest challenges was getting the two-and-a-quarter-inch thick table top’s finish right, which required multiple rounds of grinding, diamond polishing, the use of a dye and waxing. From a distance, the table appears to be made of wood and up close it has a granitelike appearance. Lingenfelter says, “Creating the right finish was challenging and we are very pleased with the results.”

In addition to the table, the new conference room features Venetian plaster, a multi-level floating acoustical ceiling and padded carpet squares, a full light entry door with an etched logo, and custom cabinetry and millwork. Wave form wood panels are mounted to the wall under wall wash lights to compliment the space. www.buildingindiananews.com

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Best Green Office: Berglund Construction

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reen” building – sustainable design and construction – is not a passing trend. It’s here to stay and Berglund’s commitment to sustainable design is reflected in its new Chesterton offices. “The building accommodates not only the immediate growth of our firm but our commitment to the local community and to further service Indiana statewide,” says Bill Gorski, Senior Vice

President of the Chicago-based general contractor The building was designed by Design Organization of Valparaiso to meet LEED Certification criteria by the U.S. Green Building Council. Construction waste management, recycled materials, day lighting and views, and high-efficiency HVAC and electrical equipment are just a few of the strategies applied.

“Having a green building not only about conserving and protecting resources but most importantly it is about a work environment that is comfortable, inviting and a pleasure to be within,” Gorski says. “Our team has really enjoyed the past nine months in our new space. We have noticed everyone has upbeat attitudes and also in an increase in efficiency.”

Berglund’s green initiatives go beyond the new building. Gorski points to the corporate-wide institution of on-site debris recycling, “precycling” coffee and water cups (meaning not using disposable cups or bottled water -- essentially eliminating the use of recycling) and a commitment to professional education and certifications in the US Green Building accreditation process as examples.

Outside the new facility, Berglund is encouraging the use of alternative transportation with bike storage and changing facilities, and dedicated preferred parking spaces for alternative energy vehicles, car pools and van pools. A white roof saves electricity and reduces air conditioning costs. Landscaping uses native and near-native plants that don’t require irrigation in order to save water. More water savings can be found inside the building thanks to the use of lower-yield water fixtures that use about 60 percent less water than standard ones.

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Best Small Business Office: Volk, Inc

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or companies in the construction industry, one strong reason for a “swanky” office is to strut your stuff for potential clients. No one is going to take a design/build firm seriously in dumpy surroundings. So Volk, Inc., a Gary-based design/build commercial construction firm, put its own expertise to work in creating an office that President Thomas J. Volk calls a prototype for future green tech design.

As Volk, a member of the U.S. Green Building Council, currently has a couple of LEED-certified Platinum projects underway, it’s obviously made an impression.

“Everyone who walks in just stands there and gawks,” he says. The office makes liberal use of light gauge metal framing, a material Volk has been working with for more than three decades. “There’s so much you can do with it,” he says. “Our office is something I can point to; we can do this, that, walls, roofs, all of the variables very quickly.”

The office also allowed Volk to test various green building elements to see if they performed as advertised. “The products used, and their design integration into our office, allows us to experience the benefits of green tech firsthand,” Volk says. “I am always trying to track down the latest technology; I will buy straight from the factories so we can study it.” In fact, in the case of the two current green projects the company is working on, Volk will be tracking results for a year at its own expense.

Nearly all the light gauge metal framing is made from recycled steel, purchased from companies in Hammond and East Chicago who in turn buy from U.S. Steel. “I made sure that I got the steel from U.S. Steel,” Volk says. “So everything stays in northwest Indiana.” That helps to both bolster the region economically, and reduces transportation costs, distance and emission of greenhouse gasses.

Other green elements of the office include: long life span, highly energy efficient lighting; energy efficient heating and air conditioning equipment; ample windows to provide natural daylight; and recycled floor finishes. www.buildingindiananews.com

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Best Technology: Community Healthcare System

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taying on the cutting edge of medical technology is a priority for Community Healthcare System, which operates a trio of facilities – Community and St. Catherine Hospitals, and St. Mary’s Medical Center – in northwest Indiana. Routinely, the organization is first, or among the first, to bring new medical technology to the region.

For example, in 2005, St. Catherine Hospital was the first hospital in Indiana, and just the 26th nationwide, to pioneer the CyberKnife, an advanced radiation treatment system that can eliminate tumors that can’t be removed surgically or otherwise treated effectively.

In 2006, Community was the first hospital in northwest Indiana and one of just 250 nationwide to bring in the da Vinci Surgical System, a robotic surgical system that performs less invasive surgery with greater accuracy and fewer complications.

The following year, Community recorded yet another area first with the Dual Source CT, an advanced imaging system offering a completely non-invasive method to diagnose patients at risk for heart attacks, strokes and a variety of other medical conditions.

In 2008, Community added CartSound Imaging Technology to its repertoire. The new system enables Community to eliminate more complex cardiac arrhythmias in patients than ever before.

Last December, Community Hospital became the first hospital in northwest Indiana to offer Wearable Therapy and NeuroProsthetic Systems that help replace lost neurological function and maximize muscle activity – the same system worn by the late actor Christopher Reeve to help restore muscle and prevent atrophy in his legs that accompanied his spinal cord injury.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Community is regarded as one of the nation’s top medical facilities. In August, it was the only healthcare system in northwest Indiana ranked in the top 50 in Thomson Reuters’ 100 Top Hospitals: Health Systems Quality/Efficiency Study published in Modern Healthcare magazine.

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Valparaiso Family YMCA Contractor Listing General Contractor Tonn and Blank Construction Architect Moake Park Group Civil Engineer DLZ Indiana, LLC Structural Engineer Engineering Resources Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical SCO Engineering, LLC Door Frames & Overhead Door Allied Door Electrical Continental Electric Fire Protection McDaniel Fire Systems Precast Panels Fabcon Windows Harmon, Inc. Concrete Placement Hartwig & Spagna HVAC, Plumbing and Service Mechanical Concepts Inc. Ceramic Tile, Midwest Tile & Interiors Gym & Aerobics Wood Flooring Foster Specialty Floors Elevator Otis Elevator Metal Studs, Drywall, Acoustical Ceilings Huggett Betten Painting Prism Painting Asphalt Walsh & Kelly Masonry & Brick Ziolkowski Construction

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Community With a The new Valparaiso Family YMCA represents a big upgrade from the Y’s previous quarters.

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By David Wellman

he new Valparaiso Family YMCA, which opened its doors last May, just six months after construction began, “is more like a community center,” than a traditional Y, says CEO Robert Wanek. “We feel it’s one of the top YMCAs in the country. It’s gotten a lot of exposure, and now other YMCAs in the tri-state area that are looking to build are coming to see it.”

The previous facility, built in 1951,

had become problematic on a number of fronts. Foremost among its challenges was its location near downtown Valparaiso, “which had a perception of being hard to get to,” Wanek says, and didn’t offer sufficient parking. The new Y is located on the northeast side of town.

While the old YMCA had undergone numerous renovations over the years to accommodate increased activities and services, the result was a multi-story location with varying floor surfaces and 43

The new 83,000-square-foot YMCA has a lot to show off, including: • A 10,000-square-foot gymnasium • A cardio workout center with a dozen flat-screen televisions • Wireless internet access • A dance center boasting hardwood floors, mirrored walls and ballet bars • 230,000-gallon warm and cold water pools, with serpentine slide and a hot tub

narrow halls and stairs, which inhibited access by older adults and families with strollers. The locker rooms didn’t connect with the pool, leaving the fully clothed and the swimsuit-clad to mingle in a main hallway.

Other issues included the need for a contemporary HVAC system, especially in the cardio workout room, where temperatures could rise to uncomfortable levels if many people were working out, as well as the lack of now-standard features like a walking/running track.

Not surprisingly, the lack of space and modern amenities wasn’t helping the Y attract many new members. “Membership had

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kind of peaked,” Wanek says.

“We had good retention, but felt we could best serve the community with a new building.”

In order to create the best possible facility, YMCA officials toured other new Y’s as well as university facilities in the region, happily swiping any and all good design ideas they could find. For example, Wanek says the walking/running track is based on one they saw at Indiana University: an eighth of a mile long, it’s wider than the usual track – eight feet – to allow three abreast and make it easier for runners to pass slower joggers or walkers.

Once officials had identified all the features they wanted in the

Pool slide and play area for kids.

new building, they turned to architect Moake Park Group to design the facility. “They had designed other recreational facilities and they did a great job on the design,” Wanek says.

The project was then turned over to general contractor Tonn and Blank (Michigan City, IN).

Construction began in November of 2008. “It’s always difficult to start a project in November or December but this went fairly smoothly,” says Brian Delich, project manager for general contractor Tonn and Blank (Michigan City, IN). In

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The 10,000-square-foot gym.

An extra-wide running track circles above the cardio workout area.

the end, the weather proved less troublesome than the original design, which had to be changed mid-project in order to stay within budget. Tonn and Blank worked with the architect as well as YMCA officials for several weeks on changes to bring costs in line with estimates. These included alterations to the roof and inside finishes, and switching from pure masonry construction to a combination of masonry and precast concrete.

“That’s one of the things we do best: help owners get projects back inside costs,” Delich says.

Indeed, Wanek says that in the end, “we had less than two perwww.buildingindiananews.com

cent overage on change orders on a $15 million project.”

In addition to the amenities listed at the top of this page, the new YMCA’s day care facilities boast four dedicated classrooms, making the Valparaiso YMCA Porter County’s largest child-care facility. It also has a dedicated youth cardio workout room with equipment specially designed for grade school kids. “That’s an age that can fall through the cracks,” Wanek explains. “I think that if we are doing our job, we should be a family-friendly building with youth wellness facilities for grade school to middle school.”

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Headz Up King Headz continues to grow thanks to a hobbyist community that won’t let anything, not even a recession, come between them and the race track.

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By David Wellman

ike every businessman, Jim Walker would have preferred it if the economy hadn’t decided to take a nose-dive late last year—especially since his company, King Headz, was building a new headquarters and manufacturing facility in Valparaiso, IN, at the time. Fortunately, his customers are radio-controlled (RC) car enthusiasts for whom the choice between, say, food and the latest accessory to jazz up their favorite toy isn’t as clearcut as one might think.

“People are going to buy these?” he recalls asking then-co-worker Chris King back in the early part of the decade, when both were working for Task Force Tips, a Valparaiso-based manufacturer of firefighting equipment. “These” were cooling heads for RC cars that King had asked him to machine during some down-time. When King showed them off the next weekend at the local track, he was inundated with requests.

“So we made a dozen more and he took them down and sold them,” Walker says. “I couldn’t believe it.” Though Walker himself had been an RC car fan back in the Eighties, the hobby had changed, as he saw the next week when he accompanied King to the track. “There were guys with trailers full of stuff,” he says.

Like Walker, the RC car industry had 46

grown up, and now included not just kids, hobbyists and local car clubs, but also big regular events and even cash prizes for winners. “On the professional end, people probably make $100,000 or $200,000 a year playing with toy cars,” he says.

A local racer uses his car as a viewing stand at the track outside King Headz’ new HQ.

“On the professional end, people probably make $100,000 or $200,000 a year playing with toy cars.”

- Jim Walker, King Headz owner “Some of them are young kids who have that ‘Nintendo coordination.’ They know exactly when to hit the gas and exactly when to brake. The kids drive, and their dads are the mechanic. They just travel the world, playing with toy cars.”

Between the basic kits for the cars, and the motors, batteries and radio con-

troller, the cost for a single car can easily approach $2,000. On top of that, hard-core RC car fans think nothing of spending another $400 to $600 to outfit their vehicle with better heads and a variety of other “hop-up” accessories.

That was the “light at the end of the tunnel” moment for Walker, who had always thought about starting his own business, but had never found the right opportunity. He worked out an agreement with his employer to rent time on their equipment on the weekend, and began making heads and other hop-up accessories for Chris to sell to RC car junkies.

“It was supposed to be a Saturday morning thing,” Walker says, “but it quickly escalated to seven days a week.”

King Headz was incorporated as a partnership in 2003. Two years later, Walker bought his partner out. The parting was cordial – Chris wanted to pursue a career in stock car racing, while Walker was focused on building the business—and the two remain friends.

“His goal was to race full-size stock cars,” Walker explains. “He was a mechanic and set-up guy for a friend who also drove.” Meanwhile, though King Headz was selling accessories like hotcakes, most of the proceeds were being plowed back into the business, not into the partnership’s pockets. www.buildingindiananews.com

To keep up with demand, the company was acquiring an increasing amount of metalworking equipment, and by last year, “we had gotten to the point where we couldn’t expand,” Walker says. He approached Harris Bank, which in turn pointed him to the Regional Development Company and its 504 program. Initially leery because of the rumored mountain of paperwork, Walker says the RDC made the loan “a pretty easy process.”

That process culminated in King Headz exiting its cramped rental space for a new, 8,000-square-foot facility in December of 2008.

Naturally, the new building was going up as the economy was going down.

Though sales did take a hit, RC car enthusiasts tend to spend less on things like travel to events before trimming their accessories budget. “Plus, once you’ve made the initial investment, it’s not a lot to maintain it. It’s like golf or any other hobby,” Walker says.

The key to staying on top is getting there first. “The car manufacturers sell accessories, too,” Walker points out. Typically, RC car makers roll out new vehicles once every one or two years, often in conjunction with the RC car world champion-

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King Headz’ new facility opened last December.

Initially leery because of the rumored mountain of paperwork, Walker says the RDC made the loan “a pretty easy process.”

The company’s on-site test track.

ship, also held every other year. As soon as a new car hits the market, King Headz buys a kit and begins machining tougher parts out of aircraft aluminum to replace plastic

and carbon fiber pieces at key structural locations.

“We’ve turned stuff around in five days, from putting the kit on the bench to producing a finished product,” Walker says. With a heads-up from the industry grapevine, it can happen even faster. For instance, the company once became aware that a forthcoming new car had an issue with a clutch shoe. Because of a design flaw, the shoe quickly wore out. “We got the kit by UPS on Friday, and by Sunday we had a replacement on the web site and people were already buying it,” Walker says.

And just like real cars, RC cars have a “used” market as well. As enthusiasts buy new cars, they sell their older vehicles.

“We still sell some of the original parts we started with five or six years ago,” Walker says.

To date, King Headz has sold accessories to individuals and dealers (usually retail hobby stores) in 38 countries, with little marketing other than the internet and word-of-mouth. “We dabbled in some ads,” Walker says, “but with the internet, we just put out the word, and all the internet vultures pick it up and off it goes.”

47

FROM HERE TO THERE

Knox Notches Another Win

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n a victory for northern Indiana, Reagent Chemical and Research, Inc., in September selected the Knox Industrial Park in Starke County as the location for a new $5 million rail car facility. The Ringoes, NJ-based company, North America’s largest private owner of rubber-lined rail cars, plans to have the facility up and running by next summer. It is expected to create 31 jobs.

Starke County came out on top in an 18-month-long competition with sites in Texas, Louisiana and West Virginia for the facility, according to Starke County Development Foundation Director Charles Weav-

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The City of Knox and Starke County beat sites in Texas, Louisiana and West Virginia for a new $5 million rail car facility.

er. “They have existing facilities in those locations, so it was a question of, do they expand one of those, or build a new one here?” he says.

Helping to turn the tide in favor Starke County was the mile-long lead track laid down in 2004 that connects the Knox Industrial Park with the Norfolk Southern main line. “This new rail car facility would not be possible without the lead track,” says Brian Skeuse, Vice President of Reagent.

It also didn’t hurt that White Flyer Target, a division of Reagent and the world’s No. 1 producer of clay targets, built a facility in the park back in 2005. “Reagent already had a presence here and they like how they have been treated,” Weaver says. “They know that if there is anything that they need, we will help them with it.”

The Starke County Development Foundation has “continued to be an important partner with Reagent since our arrival,” agrees Tim Gunter, Plant Manager, White Flyer. “The Development Foundation truly works with industry in not only enticing industry to come to Starke County, but once here, to do whatever it takes to assist the industry to grow and prosper.”

The primary purpose of the new Reagent facility will be to equip new rail tank cars, and maintain and repair Reagent’s existing fleet. After being

outfitted at the Starke County site, the rail cars will then be used to transport hydrochloric acid between Reagent’s distribution facilities, located outside Indiana, and its customers. Reagent is the nation’s largest marketer of hydrochloric acid, which is used in the food processing, energy, steel and other industrial sectors.

In order to accommodate Reagent’s needs without disrupting rail traffic to any of the other nine companies currently operating in the park, the City of Knox has agreed to use $200,000 in economic development funds for a 991-lineal-foot passing track. “We have a couple of heavy rail users, so this will allow the cars to move easier,” Weaver says. “We estimate we’ll be shipping 2,000 cars a year [from all companies operating in the park] off our lead track.”

In addition to city-funded track expansion, Reagent will build 6,155 lineal feet of new rail on its site in addition to the 36,500-square-foot facility. Groundbreaking on the building was scheduled for October 21; the rail portion will be bid out in the spring.

The Starke County Development Foundation, Starke County, and the City of Knox were boosted in their bid to attract Reagent by a grant from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. “It takes everyone working together to bring business to our community,” says Knox Mayor Rick Chambers.

With Reagent in the fold, Weaver is turning his attention to further expansion of the Knox Industrial Park. “We are acquiring additional land to extend the rail to,” he notes. Begun in the late Nineties, the park has been adding companies, and thus jobs, at a rate of about one company a year. “The community has been very receptive,” Weaver says. “We think we are poised for even more growth when the economy turns around.” www.buildingindiananews.com

YOUR WELL-BEING

Equipment at Valparaiso University’s new fitness center.

Workouts at Work

On-site fitness centers help organizations manage health care costs and build team spirit.

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By David Wellman

The new VU fitness center cost $1.4 million.

Centier employees at last summer’s fitness “boot camp.”

A 2003 review of 42 articles on worksite wellness programs by the American Journal of Health Promotion found a

26% reduction in the use of health care benefits.

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ocal proponents of on-site workout facilities say that they not only offer the opportunity for organizations to address health care costs and related issues, but also serve as recruitment, and morale- and team-building tools that can help further broader business goals.

It’s no surprise, then, that such workout rooms continue to make the leap from ad hoc status to full-fledged fitness facilities. When Centier Bank opened its new Merrillville corporate headquarters last fall, it included space dedicated to a fullyequipped workout facility, including lockers, showers, cardio and strength training equipment and classroom space for courses in yoga and Pilates.

“When I joined the human resources department 12 years ago, it was just a vague idea,” recalls Tami Janda, Wellness Coordinator for Centier. With the backing of President and CEO Michael Schrage, the company started by opening a 500-square-foot workout room in its previous operations center. Reception was enthusiastic enough, Janda says, that when plans for the new headquarters were being made, people were expressing concern over the possibility of losing their on-site workout space.

In similar vein, the newly opened fitness center at Valparaiso University has followed a circuitous path that reflects the growing importance of such facilities.

“When I was a student at VU, this was a cafeteria,” says Rin Seibert, Director of Recreational Sports. It was later converted

into a bookstore, which was recently relocated to the new Harre Union, paving the way for incarnation number three.

Until now, fitness activities and equipment had been shoehorned into a couple racquetball courts in VU’s Athletics-Recreation Center. Though officially dubbed the Cardio-Fitness Center, it was a very small space, Seibert says, and was

In 2006, IBM said that health care claim costs for its employees who exercise one to two times a week are

$350 a year less than those who don’t exercise at all.

sometimes usurped or shut down by larger athletic events.

“It’s a huge benefit to have a home in the heart of campus,” she says. “It’s very difficult to run a program when you have no place to run the program.”

While Americans are generally painted as sedentary in nature – about four in 10 don’t even get “moderate” exercise, and only about a third exercise “vigorously,” according to a 2008 Gallup poll – both Centier and VU have found that if you create a space for workouts, people will come. Centier requires those who want to use its facilities to undergo an orientation so they know how to use the equipment properly. “It’s training to get the most out of training,” Janda quips. “If they don’t get results, they won’t use it.” To date, more 49

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than 200 people have gone through orientation.

VU’s new fitness center, which opened on Labor Day, was eagerly anticipated.

“We had over 100 faculty and staff preregistered,” says Ann Mitchell, VU’s Health Care Coordinator.

Mitchell sees the center as an opportunity to advance her major role at VU, which is to help the university control its medical expenses. “This is definitely a major facet of our whole plan,” she says. “We have support from the top down.” Though the center will be used by students as well as faculty and staff, accommodations such as earlymorning (6 a.m. opening) have been made with faculty and staff in mind.

Though Janda doesn’t have hard numbers on what impact Centier’s fitness center has had on the bank’s health care costs, anecdotal evidence suggests that there has been an effect. “I have had two people tell me they are off their high blood pressure medication because of the workouts,” she says. “I’ve also had someone mention that their back pain has ceased since they started working out, so they are sleeping better.”

That might not sound like a big deal, but looking back at 1996 data two years ago,

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the National Safety Council estimated that backaches alone cost companies $1.2 billion in lost production and services and $275 million in worker’s compensation claims.

In addition to providing a space for individual workouts, on-site fitness centers also allow for related classes and expert presentations. This past summer’s fitness “boot camp” at Centier started with four or

A 2003 review of 42 articles on worksite wellness programs by the American Journal of Health Promotion found a

28% reduction in sick leave absenteeism.

five people and ended with nearly 20. “I had one assistant tell me, this is great, I can work out during breaks and now when I mow my lawn I don’t get tired,” Janda says. Employees can also work with a physical fitness trainer who comes in on a regular basis to design a personalized workout program.

Fitness centers build teams as well as bodies. “We have four groups that get together several times a week to do workouts

together,” Janda says. “And I have people tell me that this builds camaraderie and makes them push themselves harder.”

On-site fitness centers are definitely a plus when it comes to attracting talent. For VU, the new fitness center means that the recreational sports department just got a spot front and center on the campus tour given to potential undergraduates. “It is absolutely a recruiting tool,” Seibert says. “There is a three-pronged approach in admissions and one of those is a strong recreational sports program, and we have lacked that. It’s not the be-all, end-all of the program, but it’s a big step forward.” Centier’s fitness program has proven so popular with employees that the company recently opened classes to family members as well.

While some companies might consider such facilities an expensive luxury, both Centier’s and VU’s examples show that people are willing to pay if they see value in the programs. Family members of Centier employees do pay to participate in the company’s fitness classes, though the bank picks up a portion of the costs. VU’s fitness center will cost faculty and staff $180 a year, while students’ costs will be rolled into their general fees.

51

NWI FORUM

STUCK IN THE SLOW LANE

A Link to the Future The South Shore Fiber Link addresses a crucial piece of the infrastructure puzzle in northern Indiana, positioning the region for a tech-driven boom.

By David Wellman

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nyone remember the “information superhighway?” Back in the early days of the Internet, transportation and construction metaphors abounded. Companies need to “build on-ramps” and fretted about covering “the last mile” where “fat pipes” met legacy phone lines.

That such quaint terminology has fallen out of favor helps to mask the fact that the American information superhighway remains decidedly less super than others around the world. A 2009 study by the Washington, D.C.-based Communications Workers of America (see sidebar at right) ranked the U.S. 15th among industrialized countries in terms of highspeed Internet adoption, and 28th in Internet speeds. Here, the average download speed was about 5.1 megabits per second (mbps), compared to more than 20 mbps in South Korea and more than 15 mbps per second in Japan. Indiana is actually slightly ahead of the national curve, with

52 52

an average download speed of 5.7 mbps per second.

The U.S. remains “seriously underdeveloped in broadband,” says Vince Galbiati, CEO of the Northwest Indiana Forum. As a consequence, domestic businesses face not only slower speeds, but higher costs compared to competitors around the world. “In any industry, if you’re not talking about your communication links, it’s a huge miss,” Galbiati says.

Just as bad or limited roadways will drive up the cost of distribution, so too a scarcity of broadband means that American companies pay more for high-speed data transmission capabilities. On top of that basic supply-and-demand issue sits another factor: most high-speed transmission lines are owned by individual network service providers. In order to use them, companies have to sign on with that specific provider, “so there’s no competitive market,” Galbiati says.

Research from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) indicates that between 2007 and 2009, the average download Internet speed in the United States increased by only 1.6 megabits per second (mbps), from 3.5 mbps in 2007 to 5.1 mbps in 2009. At that rate, it will take the United States 15 years to catch up with current Internet speeds in South Korea, the country with the fastest average Internet connections.

The Speed Matters Speed Test, a project of the CWA, measures the speed of a user’s Internet connection. The 2009 report is based on aggregated data from more than 413,000 Internet users who took the online test between May 2008 and May 2009.

The 2009 Speed Test shows that only 20 percent of those who took the test have Internet speeds in the range of the top ranked countries. Almost the same number, 18 percent, do not even meet the FCC definition for basic broadband as an always-on Internet connection of at least 768 kbps downstream.

The data also confirms that where a customer lives is a good indicator of Internet connection speed. Those in a Northeastern or Mid-Atlantic state are likely to have good high-speed Internet options.

The five fastest states are: Delaware (9.9 mbps), Rhode Island (9.8 mbps), New Jersey (8.9 mbps), Massachusetts (8.6 mbps) and New York (8.4 mbps).

However, in a Southern or Western state, access to high-speed Internet is less likely.

Mississippi (3.7 mbps), South Carolina (3.6 mbps), Arkansas (3.1 mbps), Idaho (2.6 mbps) and Alaska (2.3 mbps) have some of the slowest Internet connection speeds, according to the study.

Continued job growth, innovation and rural development require high-speed, universal networks. Data shows that for every $5 billion invested in broadband infrastructure to create these networks, 97,500 new jobs in the telecommunications, computer and IT sectors will be created. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that was signed into law earlier this year included a provision calling for a national broadband plan by spring 2010 and $7.2 billion in broadband grants for unserved and underserved areas

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Part of the reason why broadband remains underdeveloped in the U.S. is that it rarely gets positioned as what it actually is: an infrastructure issue. “It’s like electric or water or roadways,” says Bryan Baker, Principal of ComControl. The South Bendbased company worked with St. Joseph County’s economic development officials to create the high-speed St. Joseph Valley Metronet eight years ago. One goal of that project was to “develop a model to address broadband from an economic development standpoint,” Baker says.

Northern Indiana “has the highest concentration of fiber running east-west in the country because everybody has to go around the lake,” he explains, “but there was no place to get on.” The Metronet created one of the first entry points in the region, giving corporations access to gigabyte-level data transmission capabilities for the cost of 40 mbps service. That proved the concept by reducing broadband costs by up to 70 percent.

Though companies of all sizes benefit from lower broadband costs, Metronet was especially valuable to large organizations like hospitals “who had lots of bandwidth

and lots of cost,” Baker says. “They might be spending $50,000 to $70,000 a month on telecommunications, and $10,000 to $15,000 of that just for access. [Metronet] dropped the price by 50 to 70 percent because now they can buy broadband at wholesale rates direct from the carrier.

“Our initial estimate was that if we could get 25 organizations signed up, that

With 75 miles of fiber optic line running through five northern Indiana counties, the sky is the limit! would be great,” Baker says. “There were 52 when we turned it over to Project Future.”

But that success may turn out to be small potatoes compared to the opportunity afforded northern Indiana by a decision made a few years ago by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) to upgrade their signaling system along the railway from Chicago to South Bend.

“What happened was, as we were go-

ing through our design, we asked, ‘how much fiber should we put in?’” explains Boris Matakovic, NICTD’s CIO. “Our network has been operating for two years, and what we have found is that we have a lot of excess fiber. So we wanted to use that to further economic development in Northwest Indiana.”

With 75 miles of fiber optic line running through five northern Indiana counties, “the sky is the limit,” Baker says. Corporate access to the corridor, dubbed the South Shore Fiber Link, was announced on July 27, and within weeks about a dozen organizations had expressed interest, with the first tentatively scheduled to hook up to the line September 1. ComControl is managing agreements and connecting business users to the South Shore Fiber Link, while NICTD maintains the line.

Galbiati is unsurprised by the immediate interest, and believes it represents just the tip of the iceberg. “Fiber Link fits hand in glove with recent technology legislation,” he says, referring to Indiana Senate Bill 448, which became law July 1. It created a tax break for enterprise information technology equipment in order to encour-

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age network and data storage centers to locate in Indiana.

“We would be on the verge of getting data centers to come here versus Chicago but would lose out because of personal property tax issues,” Galbiati says. “448 changed that.”

“There’s no reason that we shouldn’t become the data center of the United States.”

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(D-2nd District) With that tax break in place and Fiber Link ready, one challenge remains. “We have to prove that the connectivity is there,” Galbiati says. Currently, the Forum is putting together a grant proposal for an asset inventory to identify access points for private

54 54

companies and local communities along the 75-mile length of Fiber Link. “We want to get that information for corporations as to how they access Fiber Link, and how much that ‘last mile’ connectivity will cost,” Galbiati says.

“This will allow us to leverage our broadband infrastructure to promote the region. It’s no different than [what we do with] roads and railways.

“If you talk to firms in California or New York, they are used to thinking in terms of their communication needs,” he says. “That never got mentioned [by us]. Now it’s in our marketing materials.”

As for the South Shore Fiber Link itself, talk has already begun about extending it further east to Elkhart County. As Congressman Joe Donnelly (D-2nd District) said at the press conference announcing Fiber Link, “There’s no reason that we shouldn’t become the data center of the United States.”

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55

MARKETING

Merry Networking Six tips for successful holiday mingling.

By Debra Fine, author, The Fine Art of Small Talk

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espite limited budgets and an uncertain economy, the season for tasty treats, gift-giving, and parties is right around the corner. It may look different than in past years, but the opportunity to make connections, enjoy face-to-face interaction, and improve networking opportunities is nearly upon us.

You may be ready to get into the holiday spirit, but are your conversation skills ready or are they rusty? Mingling among mistletoe and menorahs with clients, coworkers and peers can be a challenge, even in the best of times. Can you talk about anything besides the most current project or politics? And, for whatever reason, the need to impress at holiday business events can cause more pressure than it does at typical social events. It takes a lot of energy to engage with the boss, her husband and the entire team than it does to, say, get together with neighbors at a Fourth of July block party. But it will help reduce your anxiety if you maximize your merrymaking conversation skills. Here are six ways to turn your next holiday event into a social success: Break your silence and the ice. It can be daunting to enter a celebration when your fears about the economy and the workplace makes you feel like you have nothing to celebrate. So, take a deep breath and enter the room with confi56

dence. If you don’t feel brave, act as though you do, anyway. Survey your surroundings and find a target. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself and then break your silence by using basic questions or comments to start the dialogue with fellow partygoers. Try, “How do you know the host/hostess?” or “What do you have planned for the holiday season?” or “I love your outfit, it’s so holiday chic!” After this, the conversation should be easily unwrapped.

Try to be comfortable...and show it. Nervous body language – twisting your hair, slouching shoulders, and constant hand rubbing – can make others feel uncomfortable and anxious. Be aware of your body language throughout your chat. Remember, it’s supposed a fun time of year, so relax! This is a party, not an IRS audit.

Don’t steal the show, but be a showstopper. Nobody likes a Grinch, so make witty jokes, tell riveting stories and be personable, but also give everyone the opportunity to speak. If someone is monopolizing a conversation, wait for a pause or until that person takes a breath, and then make a comment to steer the discussion in a new direction. Try to include all guests in the conversation by asking, “What do you

Top 10 Icebreakers: 1. “What is your connection to the host/ hostess or event?”

2. “What do you enjoy the most about this time/season of the year?”

3. “Describe how this season of the year impacts your work?”

4. “Bring me up to date about your life/ work/family since the last time we got together...”

5. “Tell me about your plans for the holidays...”

6. “Describe you favorite holiday tradition...”

7. “What challenges do you encounter at this time of year?”

8. “Tell me about a special gift you have given or received?”

9. “What is your favorite holiday? Why?” 10. “What have you got going on during the coming year?” www.buildingindiananews.com

décor or setting of a holiday event can provide dozens of talk topics.

You never know whom you could meet – a future employer, a potential board member, or a resource for angel investors – so it is essential to make every interaction worthwhile. think?” You’ll make a great impression, be remembered in a positive way, and help keep the festivities more enjoyable for everyone.

Always be prepared. Before entering an event, take a couple of minutes and think of at least three conversation topics. Remind yourself of what you may already know about fellow attendees: their hobbies, careers, or interests. If you happen to encounter an uncomfortable silence, these conversation points will come in handy.

And, if you feel a pause coming, look around for conversational inspiration. The

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Mingle and move on, making a graceful exit. While at a holiday gathering, you should interact with several people. Ask for a referral to remove yourself from conversation: “Do you know anyone here who might have some ideas for designing a green business?” If this produces a referral, then you are on your way. If not, try, “I need to catch up with colleagues in asset protection as I never get to visit with them. It was very nice meeting you.” Another tactic is to include them as you move around: “I need to get some dessert, would you like to join me?” They can decline or join you, but at least you are moving around the room and managing your mingling sessions.

Follow up with your new friends. If you meet people and exchange information, be sure to follow up on what you promised after the event. If you told them you’d

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send them a recipe, do it. If you discussed something important with a colleague, send an email to reiterate your conclusion.

Reach out to that potential client to learn more about their service needs. You should enjoy yourself at parties and help others do the same, but remember what you’re doing there and what your goals are.

Holiday open houses, office parties, and seasonal social gatherings are opportunities to meet new people and enhance current relationships. Holiday networking, particularly in this economy, is a valuable tool for success. You never know whom you could meet – a future employer, a potential board member, or a resource for angel investors – so it is essential to make every interaction worthwhile. Also, these events are great for relating with co-workers, customers and clients outside of the office which can have far-reaching benefits. Use the holiday season, and everyone’s good mood, to leverage your networking abilities, and you can reap the rewards every day of the year.

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57

LIFELONG LEARNING

Higher Learning in High Demand Academic seams are splitting around northern Indiana as local colleges and universities absorb a flood of new students.

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n South Bend, local streets are the losers in the battle between the record fall semester class at Indiana University South Bend – 8,394 students – and the campus’ 2,515 parking spaces. Indiana University Northwest has its biggest student population since 1992. Fall enrollment at Valparaiso University is at a 26-year high following a record-setting summer session. Purdue University Calumet had to shut down fall enrollment prematurely, and Purdue North Central has an all-time high 4,463 students enrolled this year. At Ivy Tech Northwest, the student population has gone from about 6,800 last fall to more than 9,300 in ’09.

Even small schools are reporting gains.

Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting easily surpassed its projection of 505 students, enrolling 570 this fall, thanks to stronger interest in its graduate program. An exception was St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, where enrollment dipped from 1,075 in 2008 to 1,011 this year.

The booming college population in northern Indiana reflects a national trend.

Colleges and universities from Alaska to New York to Texas are seeing enrollment numbers climb. Educators point to the sour economy, which has led unemployed workers to join traditional college freshmen in the classroom.

“The economy clearly had an effect,” says Wes Lukoshus, Assistant Vice Chancellor for University Relations at Purdue Uni58

versity Calumet (PUC), where enrollment hit five figures – 10,133 students – for the first time ever. That tops the previous record, set two years ago, by 474 students.

Not only are the unemployed seeking to burnish skills or add to their knowledge base, but also students appear to be working fewer hours and so have time for more classes, Lukoshus says. Health insurance is a driver as well, he adds. Many family insurance policies require adult dependents to be full-time students in order to qualify for coverage.

Health insurance is also driving increased enrollment, as many family insurance policies require adult dependents to be full-time students in order to quality for coverage.

The rise of online learning options is boosting enrollment, too. Fort Wayne-based Indiana Tech reports that enrollment is up about 11 percent, or an additional 500 students, compared to 2008. Among factors credited for the bump is a big jump in primarily-online students, whose numbers have risen from 58 last year to 410 in 2009.

The same phenomena drove record enrollment over this past summer at Valparaiso University. A total of 1,883 students enrolled in VU’s two summer sessions. That shattered the previous record of 1,714 in 1995, and

was as increase of more than 15 percent from last year’s summer class. Of those 1,883 students, 986 took one or more of the 60 online courses VU offered in 2009. That compares to 751 students who chose among 50 online courses during the summer of 2008, and just 55 enrolled in six online courses in 2000.

However, the jump in students taking online courses doesn’t appear to have had much impact on those looking to attend classes in the flesh. For the fall session, a total of 4,070 students are enrolled at VU, the highest total since 4,190 were enrolled in 1983 and an increase of more than two percent from last year’s fall class.

Full classrooms prompted Purdue University Calumet to close fall semester admission early this year. “What happened this fall was that we ran out of room for, and people to teach, our entry-level courses,” Lukoshus says. One option for alleviating that problem going forward is for PUC to expand the dual-credit partnership that both it and Indiana University Northwest (IUN) in Gary now run with Crown Point High School. There, students in selected classes can earn both high school and college credits, and those credits allow them to leapfrog entry-level courses at PUC and IUN freshman year. Currently, more than 450 Crown Point high school students are part of the program.

Purdue North Central (PNC) reported a total of 4,463 students enrolled at its campuses in Westville and Valparaiso, IN, an increase of five percent over 2008. This inwww.buildingindiananews.com

Going Up!

Quick fall 2009 student enrollment stats for northern Indiana schools.

• Purdue University Calumet: 10,133 • Ivy Tech Northwest: 9,324 • Indiana University South Bend: 8,394 • Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne: 7,277 • Indiana University Northwest: 5,560 • Indiana Tech: 4,898 • Purdue North Central: 4,463 • Valparaiso University: 4,070 • St. Joseph’s College: 1,011 • Calumet College of St. Joseph: 570

cludes 2,761 full-time students, setting a record for a seventh consecutive year. PNC “has seen its student population increase by 27 percent since 2005 and a 28 percent increase in credit hours,” notes Lawrence Barrett, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Services At Indiana University South Bend (IUSB), the rise in the student population represents an 8.4 percent increase over last year, and breaks a long-standing enrollment record of 7,798 students set in 1992. The university will also set a new high in terms of credit hours taken by students at 80,534, a 9.4 percent hike compared to last year.

Jeff Jones, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, says the increase represents both a significant gain in the number of new students and an increase in retention rates.

In addition to the boom in South Bend, www.buildingindiananews.com

IU East enrollment increased almost 20 percent, setting a record with 2,746 students; IU Southeast set an enrollment record with 6,840 students; IU students enrolled at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne set a record at 7,277; and enrollment increased from last year, but didn’t set records, at IU Northwest and IU Kokomo.

Gary-based Indiana University Northwest notched 5,560 students this fall, the highest total since 1992.

“We had a huge high-school enrollment this year,” says IUN Director of Admissions Linda Templeton. “Dual credit has been a big thing for us. And we were up 23 percent in freshman admissions over last year, and up 17 percent in transfers, which are students that transfer to our campus from outside of the IU system.”

Templeton also acknowledged that the rough economy has given students of all ages increased incentive to seek college degrees.

“The good news is, people are getting education, whether for the first time or for a second career,” she says. “They need to get a good job out there in the future. Even though some people may have lost their jobs, they can get a college degree and then get a new and hopefully better job.

And we’re excited to be a part of that.”

What subjects are most popular with this bumper crop of students? At IUSB, “Heath Sciences continues to be strong,” Jones says, citing an 11 percent increase in nursing course enrollment. The business program has seen a boost as students flock to a new, “new media” degree program which combines elements of journalism and graphic design. And the School of Arts has seen a “significant increase” in music education, which prepares music teachers.

At PUC, Lukoshus says officials are still combing through the numbers, but one area that is likely up is engineering. PUC has developed multiple international partner-

ships (mainly with schools in China) that see fourth-year engineering students complete their degrees, and get English-language training in the bargain, in the U.S. This fall, 557 international students are calling PUC their temporary home, compared to 457 last year.

At Valparaiso University, enrollment in graduate and law programs have hit record highs. There are currently 579 students enrolled in graduate studies, an increase of more than 16 percent from the record 498 students enrolled in fall 2008. Increased graduate student enrollment was driven by the recent launch of new master’s programs in international economics and finance, digital media and sports media, as well as the expansion of VU’s existing graduate programs.

The VU School of Law also set a new enrollment record with 599 students this fall, topping the previous high of 596 students set last year. Enrollment in undergraduate programs totals 2,892 this fall, including 845 new students, up from 2,885 in fall 2008.

Among new students, VU reports it experienced growth in enrollment of both first-time freshmen students and transfer students from 2008 to this year.

59

NATURAL ELEMENTS

The Green

Wrapper Don’t overlook mechanical insulation when designing a green building.

By Alec J. Rexroat, Project Manager, M&O Insulation Company

60

I

t’s virtually impossible to open a construction trade magazine or attend an industry conference without stumbling over multiple articles or workshops on green construction. The reason why is no secret: green buildings use an average of 36 percent less energy than conventional buildings, according to a recent study by Washington, D.C. –based energy consultancy Capital E, making them green in more ways than one.

New techniques and technologies for greening up buildings abound. In northwest Indiana, the Indiana National Guard Heliport was designed to achieve SPiRiT Gold Certification, the Army’s version of LEED. Designed by CSO Architects, (Indianapolis) care had to be taken because the building site was

close to wetlands which had to be protected. There actually was another site under consideration, but that site was home to an endangered butterfly. So the site close to the wetlands was chosen.

The site was an old NIKE facility and required contamination clean-up prior to the building process. The wetlands had to be preserved during the construction process. The architect designed special walls to allow for increased R-value insulation.

A special roof finish had to be selected to eliminate glare because of the aircraft in the area and still achieve the increased R-value. Special hanger doors had to be designed into the building to keep heat in the building when the doors are opened. The mechanical contractor for this project was Circle R Mechanical (La Porte, IN). The heating www.buildingindiananews.com

vent and air conditioning mechanical system insulation was performed by E. J. Stevens of Tinley Park, IL. Finally, the specifications for the mechanical systems were designed to enhance the building performance well into the future.

The duct systems were insulated with twoinch thick 1# density fiberglass wrap. This is a greater thickness and density than has been used in the past. The heating hot water system was insulated with 1.5-inch thick fiberglass for pipe sizes two inches and smaller and twoinch thick for pipe sizes 2.5-inches and larger.

This, again, is thicker than past practices. The intricacies of this type of building construction show what can be done when true green building is considered.

That, however, is more an exception than a rule. Even with all the emphasis on improving the bottom line with green buildings, why is it that insulation contractors are still often pressed for “value engineering,” which is just a polite way of asking for the reduction or elimination of insulation? Mechanical insulation may be old hat compared to the many new green products and techniques pioneered in recent years, but can a green building really be green without consideration of proper mechanical insulation types and thicknesses?

each supplying 180-degree water to the coil system in a normal commercial building. One pipe is uninsulated, while the other is wrapped in two-inch-thick fiberglass with all service jacket (ASJ) as the insulation of choice. The time of operation for both is six months or 4,160 hours. The data is prepared using the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association 3E Plus program.

The results? The bare, uninsulated pipe operating at 180 degrees for six months loses about 610,700 BTUs per year. The pipe with two inches of fiberglass insulation will lose only about 53,850 BTUs per year, for a 91 percent efficiency rating.

This reduction in energy use also extrapolates into savings of greenhouse gas emissions. The same two-inch pipe operating at 180 degrees for six months will go from 94.9 pounds of CO2 per foot per year without insulation to 8.4 pounds per foot per year with insulation. The same reductions take place for NOx, which goes from 0.19 pounds per foot per year to 0.017, and CE goes from 25.86 pounds per foot per year to 2.28.

If a building is going to wear the green label, mechanical insulation must be a primary consideration in its design and construction.

Insulation Ignored

You might think so from reading all those articles or attending all those workshops. In all the stories about LEED buildings or green construction, mechanical insulation is seldom mentioned as a potential energy and pollutant reduction solution. And in almost every venue that I have heard about or read about pertaining to green buildings, mechanical insulation is not even mentioned. In an energy symposium in Chicago, a panel of experts in energy audits was asked if they looked at mechanical insulation for energy payback and reduction.

Not one member of the panel – not one! – had ever taken insulation into consideration as a source of energy reduction.

Insulation professionals know that the first thing that is omitted or reduced in new buildings is the mechanical insulation. Perhaps this is because everyone assumes that insulation is already included in the building specifications.

The proper thickness of insulation on all mechanical services will reduce energy consumption and allow for a more efficient building. It doesn’t cost, it pays – mechanical insulation is the only item in the building that begins to pay for itself as soon as it is installed.

As an example of the possible savings in energy and greenhouse gas emissions, imagine a pair of a two-inch hot water heating pipes, www.buildingindiananews.com

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www.buildingindiananews.com

ACTIVE CULTURE

Wait ‘til Next Year

Photo by: Heather Gollatz-Dukeman

Though the Railcats and Silver Hawks both lost in their respective playoffs, it was a strong year for minor league ball in northern Indiana.

M

id-September was unkind to northern Indiana’s two minor league baseball clubs, the Gary Southshore Railcats and South Bend Silverhawks. The Railcats fell 7-3 to the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks in game four of the Northern League’s best-of-five championship series, while the scrappy Silver Hawks forced the Fort Wayne TinCaps (94-46 in the regular season) into a third game in the best-of-three Mideastern Conference playoffs, before getting edged 5-4.

But while the season didn’t end the way either club had hoped, 2009 was a solid year for both teams. Fewer than 20 percent of minor league teams saw attendance go up, says Andy Viano, Director of Media Relations and Broadcasting for the Railcats, and the ‘Cats were one of them. Nearly 180,000 fans, a new team record, came through the gates of the U.S. Steel Yard in Gary during the course of the regular season and playoffs.

“We put a good product on the field,” Viano says, noting that the Railcats have now made the playoffs for five straight years, winning twice in 2005 and 2007, and Manager Greg Tagert was named Northern League Manager of the Year for the second time this year. The ‘Cats finished the regular season with the Northern League’s best record at 57-39 and won a team-record 34 home games. www.buildingindiananews.com

Coveleski Stadium, home of the South Bend Silver Hawks.

The Railcats have also aggressively marketed their organization to counter negative perceptions about Gary. “In the beginning, there was a lot of hesitation to come to downtown Gary, but we got people to come down, they have a good time, and they keep coming back,” Viano says. The team launched a new Web site last offseason, lured budget-conscious fans with a variety of specials such as Thursday beer deals and kidthemed Sundays, and brought in Chicagobased MLB and NFL stars for special appearances.

“Part of minor league baseball is everything else: the mascot and the fireworks and the atmosphere,” Viano says. “So not only do people save money – no ticket is over $10 – but it’s a place for the family to go.”

In South Bend, the Silver Hawks finished the year 19 games under .500, but Owen Serey, Media Relations Director and the broadcast voice of the Silver Hawks, says that the team’s development over the course of the year was encouraging. “They went 4-21 in June, but still found a way to come back and make the playoffs,” he says. “That speaks to the abilities of Manager Mark Haley and his staff.”

Among the team’s most valuable players was former Notre Dame star A.J. Pollock, the 17th overall pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks in last June’s MLB Draft.

Having a hometown hero on the squad

certainly didn’t hurt attendance, though the weather turned out to be a challenge in 2009.

“We had eight rainouts, which is six more than last year,” notes Sales and Marketing Director Amy Hill, “so overall our attendance will be down.” However, outside of those rainouts, attendance was strong, she says, with increases in first-time visitors as well as families.

“As far as the economy goes, it was beneficial to us, because people stayed close to home,” she says. Promotions like Dollar Mondays, which offered $1 hot dogs, sodas and tickets at Coveleski Stadium, also helped draw in budget-conscious fans.

Looking ahead to 2010, Hill is excited about the continued strength of the franchise and its ability to deliver value to local business partners as well as fans. “We have options to fit any business or budget,” she says. “Next year will be our 23rd year, and it says something that we have been a strong team for so long.”

Likewise, Serey expects 2009’s growth spurt to pay on-field dividends next year. The Silver Hawks had just one player this season who had been on last year’s club, and he was released in August. “So it’s a brand-new team with a lot of 19- and 20-year-olds,” he says.

“So we may get six or seven guys back and suddenly we’re the experienced team, and everyone’s gunning for us.”

63

WELCOME CENTER

Super Crowd

The First Annual Super Boat Great Lakes Grand Prix is a titanic success for Michigan City and LaPorte County.

I

By David Wellman

f you want to make Jason Miller, Sports Development Manager for the LaPorte County Convention & Visitors Bureau, smile, all you need to do is ask him about the August 7-9 Super Boat Great Lakes Grand Prix in Michigan City. “It was amazing,” he says. “I didn’t have a lot of time to watch the racing because we were all so busy, but I had a smile on my face the whole weekend.”

“Busy” is probably an understatement.

Estimates of the crowd on Sunday, race day, range from 40,000 to 60,000, and that’s not counting the hundreds of spectator boats.

“You couldn’t tell where the beach ended and the boats began,” he says. “Over the course of the three-day event, we estimate total attendance was 85,000 to 90,000 people.”

To put those numbers in perspective, according to the 2000 Census, the total population of LaPorte County was a bit more than 64

110,000, with about 33,000 of those people window,” says John Carbonell, President of Michigan City residents. “We had people Super Boat International Productions, Inc. from all over the country,” Miller says. “I Prior to last August’s race, the only time the talked to one couple from northern Ontario, Superboats came north was to race on New York’s Hudson River.

Canada. We had people That changed one day from Florida, North Carowhen Miller, a childhood Sulina and all over the MidSuper Fans perboat racing fan, Googled west.”

Who’s the typical Superboat Super Boat International, For fans of Superracing fan? just wondering how popular boat racing – a high-end, the sport remained. A phone high-powered and often • Male - 90% call to Carbonell revealed he celebrity-fueled sport – the was looking to fill a hole in Michigan City race offered • Aged 20-58 - 95% the Super Boat schedule after a rare opportunity to see • Married - 75% the new owner of one of their a race without a long trip • College graduate - 80% regular venues declined to to the southeastern U.S. • Annual household income continue hosting a race. coast. “The reason we $65,000+ - 63% “So they hooked us up,” race in Florida is there we Miller says. “It was pretty can race 12 months out of Source: Super Boat neat the way it all worked out. the year, while the Great International Productions We’re under contract for two Lakes has a much shorter www.buildingindiananews.com

Photos by: Paul Kemiel Photographics

more years, and then we can renew on a year-to-year basis after that.

Some venues have been on the circuit for 25-plus years, and we would love to have that kind of longevity.”

Given the response, that doesn’t seem out of the question. Initially, the LCCVB estimated about 20,000 fans would flock to the Lake Michigan shore for the races, which is about what a typical Superboat race draws. However, the Great Lakes Grand Prix would prove far from typical.

“For a first-time race, it was probably a bigger crowd than we’ve ever had before,” Carbonell says. Peter Meyer, owner of the Seminole Hard Rock Casino Vee-bottom boat, which won in the Superboat Vee unlimited class, compared it to a Rose Bowl game. “There were spectators on the left, the right, everywhere,” he says. Hotel and motel space in LaPorte County was booked solid.

“We had to send people to Porter, St Joseph, and even Berrien County, Michigan, for lodging,” Miller says.

The unexpected throng put Michigan City on the spot, and it “responded unbelievably,” Miller says. Despite fire and police services having to “expand their duties about five-fold, no one could believe how smoothly things went.” Carbonell reports a “few glitches here and there,” mostly related to the space needed to unload the boats, and that fixes are already in the works for next year’s race.

The LCCVB estimates the total economic impact of the three-day race at $5 million. “And that’s not including the hotel nights and gaming at the Blue Chip,” Miller notes, which would add another million.

With the addition of the Great Lakes Grand Prix, the Superboats now have a circuit that takes them from Sarasota, FL, to Michigan City and then on to the annual Hudson River event. Carbonell is in discussions to add a fourth race, also in Indiana, though not on the Great Lakes, which would fall before the Michigan City event.

“This sport unfortunately has a lot of negative vibes, and we are trying to make it very positive, and the vibes up there were very positive,” he says. “All of the racers like it, and the city, along with the board and all the local people were great.” www.buildingindiananews.com

2008 NWIBRT

ACHIEVEMENT

AWARD WINNER 65

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

Diamond in the Rough

An historic block in South Bend offers an opportunity for a forward-thinking developer.

W

By David Wellman

hen the South Bend Redevelopment Commission acquired the 500 block of South Michigan Street – nicknamed “Fat Daddy’s block” in recognition of longtime tenant Fat Daddy’s army surplus store – Todd Zeiger, Director of the Northern Regional Office of the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, saw a chance to get his students out of their classroom.

“I teach a class in historic preservation at Notre Dame, and the 500 block was a great project,” he explains. “Here we have a set of buildings that have suffered neglect, but are on the National Register [of Historic Places] and are quite striking architecturally. And it gave the students some hands-on experience; they got in there and measured rooms and examined the structure, and then went back and did some brainstorming and produced some visuals and floor plans to help people see these buildings in a different light.”

To the casual passerby, the 500 block of South Michigan appeared as little more 66

than another example of slow urban rot.

Fat Daddy’s, which occupied the large red building on the corner, closed after the death of the owner in 2007. The cabinet shop in the building at the other end of the block moved out. And the building in between the two had been largely destroyed in a fire, leaving little more than a crumbling façade.

But Zeiger’s practiced eye saw something different. First, the block, constructed over a 20-year period beginning in 1911, remains an intact block, unusual in South Bend as most examples were demolished during urban renewal projects in the Sixties and Seventies. Second, the building boasts some “amazing, almost Sullivanesque architecture,” he says, referring to famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, one of the founders of the Chicago School of architecture. For example, the terra cotta façade of the former Fat Daddy’s building features books worked into the design. Zeiger’s students didn’t know why at first, he says, until research revealed that the building had originally been the South Bend

Book Bindery. The building on the other end of the block once housed a hotel on the second floor, and a showroom for agricultural equipment on the ground level.

“So the first floor is wide open, and if you go into the basement, there is a forest of joists,” Zeiger says. “It’s just massively overbuilt to hold the weight of that equipment.”

Once his students had reimagined the 500 block, Zeiger switched hats from teacher to foundation director. The Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening and preserving the historic architecture of Indiana, and its mission runs the gamut from advocacy and education to loans, grants and real estate development.

“It’s always great to dream, but everyone always says, ‘Yeah, but what’s it going to cost,” Zeiger notes. “So we awarded a grant to Kil Architecture and Planning here in South Bend to put some very general numbers on the designs.” Cautioning that the figures are subject to change depending on how the space is used, Zeiger says the www.buildingindiananews.com

plans worked out to between $90 and $120 per square foot, “which is pretty much the going rate for a substantial rehabilitation project.”

The question now is whether any company is willing to tackle the project

in the current economy. “The key is patience,” Zeiger says. “The buildings are in good condition structurally,” so there’s no immediate reason to take them down.

However, that may be their fate. “Unfortunately, if we can’t find a developer, we may need to demolish them,” says Jennifer Laurent, economic development specialist with South Bend’s Department of Community and Economic Development. But Laurent believes the site has several factors working in its favor.

As part of the South Michigan Street Historic District, a developer can take advantage of tax credits through the National Park Service. At the same time, there is more flexibility in how the buildings can be renovated, since their historic nature lies primarily in their exterior appearance.

Zeigler even suggests that the fire-damaged building in the middle could be torn down except for the façade, opening space for parking in the back.

South Michigan Street itself “has the highest traffic count coming into South Bend from the south,” Laurent notes. “It lends itself well to professional space, or perhaps niche retail with residential space above. But it’s right in the heart of South

Bend, and to the west we have plans for the Coveleski Stadium neighborhood, so this becomes an accessory location to that.”

With a capacity of 5,000, “The Cove” is home to the minor league South Bend Silver Hawks, who routinely draw thousands of fans each game. “But the stadium isn’t connected to downtown,” Laurent says, so after games people simply pile in their cars and go home. Since 2007, the city has been acquiring properties with an eye toward developing a retail and entertainment corridor between The Cove and downtown – and the downtown end of that corridor would be Fat Daddy’s block.

For the moment, buildings on the 500 block have been stabilized. The city hired Wakarusa-based Brown and Brown General Contractors in June to board up broken windows, paint the facade, remove vegetation and prep the area for construction in what Laurent calls “a historically sensitive board-up and maintenance job.” Whether that leads Fat Daddy’s to a historically sensitive developer remains up in the air.

To see Fat Daddy’s block as envisioned by students at the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, visit www.buildingindiananews.com

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www.buildingindiananews.com

ROAD REPORT

Highway of Housing Greater-than-expected population growth is filling the path of the proposed Illiana Expressway with new homes and communities.

T

he latest study on the proposed Illiana Expressway, released by transportation consultancy Cambridge Systems in July, appeared to slip quickly and quietly down the memory hole. Neither supporters nor proponents made a particularly big to-do about the state-commissioned report, and perhaps that was for a similar reason: sticker shock.

Depending on the route chosen (the report outlined three possible corridors for the road) and its size (four, six or eight lanes) the Illiana could cost up to $1 billion to build.

Dead on arrival? Well, not exactly. But fans of the Illiana certainly aren’t going to be touting such costs – and detractors certainly won’t let them forget it. Regional organizations like the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) were just getting set to study the report at press time, so it will take some time to see if it produces anything, unlike the three previous expressway studies conducted over the last 40 years.

What is clear, however, is that congestion problems aren’t going away and, whether northwest Indiana residents like it or not, the invasion of Chicago commuters is only going to increase. In fact, it’s going to increase faster than anyone had dreamed, according to an appendix buried at the end of the 296-page study.

Appendix C, innocuously titled “Socioeconomic Trends and Forecast Update,” contains an explanation of the population projections for Lake and Porter counties in Indiana that undergird traffic predictions elsewhere in the report. Initially, the plan was to use www.buildingindiananews.com

the projections put together by NIRPC in its 2030 forecast. After all, why do the work twice?

There was a problem: reality. When Cambridge looked at the forecasts, it found that many parts of Lake and Porter had already zoomed past projected numbers. In fact, more than half – 12 out of 23 – of the townships in both counties had surpassed their projected 2030 population as of 2007.

These were concentrated in what the study

2030 Household Forecast County Lake

Pre-Study

Post-Study

198,664

220,300

Porter

64,733

82,700

Total

263,397

308,000

2030 Population Forecast County

Pre-Study

Post-Study

Lake

504,808

557,100

Porter

164,915

212,900

Total

669,723

777,000

Source: : Illiana Expressway Feasibility Study

dubs the “Illiana Study Area” south of Crown Point, IN, where seven of eight townships had topped 2030 projections in 2007.

“The projections in the 2030 report were very much on the conservative side,” says Lauren Rhein, Data and Research Analyst at NIRPC. “Much of the growth occurred in the

central and southern portions of [Lake and Porter] counties.” The consultants’ recommendation, with which NIRPC concurred, was that the 2030 forecasts should be revised to increase overall household and population forecasts for the two counties by approximately 15 percent – and, within the Study Area, by approximately 44 percent.

What happened? For one thing, counties to the north and west of Chicago have matured, sending would-be commuters first south and now east in search of housing.

Rhein points to explosive growth in locations such as St. John, from which it’s easy for commuters to access 394 or the South Shore Railroad. “There are now more than 50,000 people who commute into Illinois [from northwest Indiana] every day,” she says.

Many of those people now live in the Illiana Study Area. Between 2000 and 2007, the Study Area grew by 40,799 persons, from 298,381 to 339,180. Households grew by 17,033, while jobs increased by only 8,227.

Says the report: “Due partly to this low number of jobs created and the number lost, approximately 13 percent of these Study Area residents who are employed, work at jobs outside their state of residence; in the Lake County portion of the Study Area, 24.4 percent work outside their state of residence.”

The implications for the Illiana are obvious: the region in which it is supposed to be built is rapidly exurbanizing and suburbanizing. This will only add to the complexity – and cost – of construction, should it ever get underway.

69

the

LastWord opinion page

How Innovative is the Construction Industry?

C

By John Davies, Managing Director, Society of Innovators of Northwest Indiana

hanging the way it does business is just as important to the construction industry as it is to the rest of America.

But does the industry need to do step up its commitment to innovation? Are there obvious places that call for more innovative practices?

I am no expert in the construction industry, but I have spent some time talking to experts about innovative practices. And I was surprised at the amount of innovation I discovered.

One expert put this way: “How important is innovation to this industry? It is estimated that buildings account for 50 percent of all energy used in this country. Anything we can do through smart building practices will help us reduce our need for energy. Innovation is critical to getting this done.”

Professionals in the construction industry are addressing, and will continue to address, these issues. Suffice it to say that Northwest Indiana has innovators in this field.

For example, I read with interest a recent story in the Times entitled “Hardhats, hammers and women.” It described the Urban Women in Construction program, developed by the Broadway Area Community Development Corp., and funded in 2007 by the Knight Foundation.

Executive Director Vernita Leslie, who created the pre-apprenticeship program, said the goal of the program was to introduce women to the non-traditional field of construction. “We do a holistic approach to get them ready for the field.”

The women, who had to have a high school diploma or GED to enroll in the program, received OSHA and lead-based

painting instruction, and on-site training at the Washington Manor subdivision in Gary.

They also worked on interview, reading, math and computer skills.

I recently talked with Richard Sussman, Ph.D., general manager of the ArcelorMittal R&D Center in East Chicago. One of 14 steel research and development centers operated

by ArcelorMittal, the East Chicago facility is the largest in North America for steel and the second-largest in the company.

The engineers there are working on outof-the-box ideas in a host of industries, including the construction sector. No better example is their work on designs for wind towers. While not yet commercialized, costeffective designs could open this technology for Indiana fabricators while providing alternative energy for consumers.

Imagine if these huge wind towers could be fabricated right here in northern Indiana, close to the source of supply? When I was told that one tower can use 190 tons of steel, that got my attention!

Energy Independence

Bill Keith, a Fellow in the Society of Innovators, is an advocate for energy independence. He is president of Sunrise Solar Inc., in St. John, where he distributes his solar attic fan. Installed on a roof of a building, these fans generate their own electricity from solar panels to power the fan motors and pull hot air out.

Bill makes over 24 models. His firm started seven years ago. Today, he is approaching $4 million in sales. His does something bestin-the-world in his industry sector. “I fill a niche to whet people’s appetite for more.” He

added, “I hope people will want to do more to make their home more energy efficient.”

Bill is outspoken in urging Indiana to be more energy efficient and has testified in both Washington and Indianapolis. “We need outof-the box thinking and stronger leadership to achieve a clean energy economy in Indiana,” he said. He also added it would be helpful were the government to be more helpful to small business. “I’m successful because consumers are demanding this.” He added, “Just think what could happen if we had a climate that encouraged innovation!”

A third example of an innovative company is Mortar Net, a leader in moisture management for building design. I knew this company because of the philanthropy of its founder, Tom Sourlis, who is appreciated for his support of United Way, the arts and other projects. But I wanted to know more about how the company had pioneered innovations in the sustainability of buildings.

In the early Nineties, he invented a better way to get water out of masonry walls. It was called Mortar Net, which is the flagship product of the Portage-based business. I met with Earl Bickett, the general manager, who described the company’s new products for today’s most effective drainage systems for masonry construction. These include both the residential and commercial markets.

Buildings utilizing these products include McCormick Place in Chicago and the Notre Dame stadium. Asked what he sees as his industry’s greatest challenge, he talked about the need for an educated workforce.

Maybe that’s the message of the 21st century: We not only need more innovation, but the skilled workforce to deliver it!

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Energy Savings 101:

POP QUIZ When installed by Local 17 professionals, mechanical insulation:

A Significantly reduces BTU usage B Cuts greenhouse gas emissions C Decreases your overall energy bill D

All of the above

Contact the Heat and Frost Insulators / Local 17 and schedule an insulation energy appraisal today.

Visit www.local17insulators.com or call 773.247.8184.

Class Summary Mechanical insulation gets to the heart of energy efficiency and is one of the only items in a building that starts to pay for itself immediately.