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Volume 18
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Number 2
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FEBRUARY 2016
A first of their own
Adapting to change
L-R: As family, Daniel Huband, vice president, and Kenny Mantor, president, have been working together in general contracting for over 15 years.
Roxann and Mike Cotugno (right) have transitioned MJC & Associates into MJC Construction Services since Mike’s retirement. Today, he and Jeff Ragland (left) run the nonprofit Adapt A Vet.
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hen Kenny Mantor and his family moved to Boerne in 2011, he and Daniel Huband, his stepson, started their own general contracting business, Huband-Mantor Construction (HMC). Originally intent on staying small, the company is doing around $20 million a year now and celebrating its fifth anniversary. Specializing in commercial with a residential division that is a separate company, HMC Custom Homes, HMC’s projects include several car dealerships in the Boerne area and recently working on a project for the City of Kerrville. Previously, Mantor worked for a couple of general contractors. With experience as a superintendent and project
manager, he started his own company, KJM Commercial, which he operated for 10 years while living in Corpus Christi. When he and his wife, Angie, relocated to Boerne, Huband moved, too. With a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering technology, Huband was a superintendent at KJM. “I like seeing him grow and develop and become a better manager,” Mantor says of Huband. “Hopefully, one day, he’ll take over everything. I enjoy seeing him develop what it will take to become an owner and operator of everything to do with construction.” Huband, 32, is one of Mantor’s two stepsons. The other, Rodney, owns a big continued on Page 24
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ne year ago, Roxann Cotugno became owner and president of a new company, MJC Construction Services. At the same time, her husband Mike Cotugno retired when their former company, MJC & Associates, closed on Dec. 31, 2014. Formerly the majority owner of MJC & Associates, Roxann has made a seamless transfer to her new company. The new MJC has transitioned back into the residential side of construction while maintaining a commercial presence. The company does work for CPS Energy, schools and banks as well as residential remodels and design build custom homes. Running the business on her own is a
new experience for Roxann, but she notes that it is also fulfilling, and she has the support of her husband. She says, “I enjoy what I do, so I have fun coming to work every day and building dreams for clients and homeowners.” While Mike still does consulting for the new MJC, which opened Jan. 1, 2015, he is now director of operations for Adapt A Vet, a nonprofit that adapts the homes of disabled veterans so they can navigate and maneuver through the house comfortably and safely. Mike discovered the need to adapt homes while doing work under MJC & Associates, and now MJC Construction Services will be just one of continued on Page 24
WC’s fair share
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ith the City of San Antonio one year closer to the goal of SA 2020, downtown is buzzing with construction activity on several sites, including Hemisfair Park. With different construction teams contributing to different areas and pieces of these massive projects, WC Solutions LLC worked on part of the Hemisfair Historic Homes Stabilization and Rehabilitation project. The job was exterior preservation, stabilization and restoration of 10 historic homes in Hemisfair Park. Starting work in November 2014 and achieving substantial completion in October of last year, Walter Lamar was on site daily due to the sheer size of the project. As project manager, superintendent and owner of WC Solutions, Lamar oversaw the work through a few major challenges. There were two large projects going simultaneously, the work related to the Hemisfair Homes and the renovation of
On the Hemisfair Historic Homes Stabilization and Rehabilitation project, WC Solutions faced significant challenges working around an overlapping jobsite and the frequent presence of the public downtown.
Hemisfair Park itself. Since the properties are intertwined, boundaries for WC Solutions’ project crossed over into the boundaries of the Hemisfair Park project and vice versa. “It was tough, because you’ve got a fine line, and you don’t want to mess up someone else’s work,” explains Lamar. “So, you have to do a lot of coordination and you have to give a lot of support to the other contractors, because they may need to come through your area. When I had to do the pavers, I had to wait for [the other project’s crew] to come do their underground sprinkler system to get the plant beds ready before I could come and cut the dirt out, bring the fill in and lay the pavers down.” In addition to concern about crossing paths with other construction teams, Lamar had to take extra caution with pedestrian traffic due to the jobsite being in continued on Page 24
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
In his grandfather’s name
Walking the Pro-Line
Members of the Alpine Contracting team L-R: Oscar Martinez, project manager; Colby Lewis, president; Brandon Brysch, general superintendent; Gabriel Gutierrez, superintendent
The Pro-Line leadership team L-R: James Oliver, Mark Crawford and Mike Crawford
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hen Colby Lewis established Alpine Contracting in 2012, he was carrying on a legacy his grandfather started more than half-acentury ago. “He was always my mentor and inspiration,” says Lewis. “I wouldn’t have done this unless it was for him, because he pulled me aside and tried to motivate me to go off and do this.” His grandfather, Zac P. Russom, started his own company, which was called Alpine Contracting, in Houston in 1957. When Lewis moved to San Antonio in 2006 after graduating from Texas Tech, he worked for a general contractor and then a site work contractor. Four years ago, he was determined to go out on his own, and inspiration struck to give new life to the company name his grandfather used. “This year, we’ve grown by about 100 percent,” he says with pride. “And the first two years were a steady growth of about 30 percent.”
A World War II veteran, Russom joined the Navy at 20 years old and fought in some of the most famous battles, including Guam, as a dive-bomber in the South Pacific on the USS Hornet. As a builder, he specialized in multi-family and residential, and then he retired 30 years ago. “His story is a true inspiration, and he really was a huge impact on me, the driving force to push me to get to where I am,” he says. Though his grandfather passed away two years ago, Lewis recalls taking his grandfather out on a few jobs, including a La-Z-Boy in Corpus a few days before he passed away. Lewis continues to honor his grandfather’s memory and his family in his work as Alpine. One of his current projects is a cabin his family has on an island in Baffin Bay, south of Corpus Christi. Alpine Contracting is a commercial general contractor. Based in San Antonio, the company will be opening a branch office in McAllen this year. –mh
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t the 20th anniversary of Pro-Line Pavement Maintenance, founder and majority owner Mike Crawford is proud and a little overwhelmed at the success that his business has achieved. Crawford states that the success isn’t owed solely to his investment in the business. He says it has taken the right people in the right positions to get to this point and still be going forward. On Jan. 1, 1995, he opened Pro-Line with a loan from a friend who became his partner in the business. Within three years, he tripled his partner’s money and bought him out. His twin brother, Mark Crawford, joined the business in 2000 as an owner and vice president. James Oliver joined the company in 2008 as a striper and is now project manager and estimator. Another key employee, Juan Rocha, started as a laborer and learned how to run every piece of equipment. He’s now an asphalt foreman and has been with the company for 15 years.
Submitted to Construction News
Emerging hospital projects
Today, Pro-Line has about 33 employees, and Crawford says that he would start another asphalt crew if he could find the employees right now. He takes great pride in knowing that they taught themselves how to do every service they offer. When they started, they only did striping and seal coating, but when they wanted to get into asphalt paving, they rented the equipment, had asphalt dropped in the yard and learned how to do it. The employees who stepped up to become operators of the road milling machine were also self-taught. As he aims to continually grow and expand, Crawford also credits his customers with the success of the company, noting that they have many loyal repeat customers. Pro-Line Pavement Maintenance provides commercial, residential and highway pavement services, including asphalt paving, line striping, seal coating, asphalt milling and “anything to do with a parking lot.” –mh
Construction News JOB SIGHT
Making a jobsite shine
F.A. Nunnelly Co. recently broke ground on two new, almost identical Baptist Emergency Hospitals for Emerus. The groundbreaking was held at I-35 and Zarzamora, the new South San Antonio location. The other site is located at North Loop 1604 and NW Military Hwy. L-R: Daryl Fry, F.A. Nunnelly; Adolfo Carrasco, regional CEO of Baptist Emergency Hospital; Blaine Beckman, Greg Vaughn and Rick Nanez, F.A. Nunnelly; Dr. Toby Hamilton, CEO of Emerus; Andy Palmer, architect, PhiloWilke; Doug Nunnelly, F.A. Nunnelly –mh
Under the leadership of owner Emily Rhodes, Upright Cleaning Services just finished the final clean of two new floors for the grand opening of the Rivercenter Mall’s new wing. Subcontracting for general contractor Guido Construction, a crew of eight to 10 men geared up every evening from midnight to 7 a.m. for three days, cleaning 200-plus glass and windows, scrubbing 40,000sf of floor, cleaning restrooms, exterior storefronts, escalators and elevators. –mh
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
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The Keys to longevity
PUTZ AROUND TOWN JC Putz here … I finally woke up from my holiday food coma and guess what was the first thing that came to mind? Some of y’all having a good old time at the Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala!
As owners of the company their father started 70 years ago, David and Ron Key are keeping Texas Sheet Metal going strong for their family and their father’s memory.
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arking its 70th anniversary this year, Texas Sheet Metal has grown with the children of its founder. Today, Ron Key is president at 75 years old, and David Key is vice president at nearly 60. Together, they are working to carry on their father’s legacy. “Our dad provided for us and gave us everything that we had,” says David. “We worked side by side with him for years. We feel a strong bond with him even though he’s been gone for about 25 years. We were just blessed to have a dad that cared so much about us. So, we want to make it work for him and for all our kids now, of course. He wanted to make it work for us. So, we want to make it work for them.” Patriarch Morris Richard Key, also known as “Bud,” taught himself sheet metal out of books and rose to the head of the sheet metal department at Kelly Air Force Base. In 1946, he started his own company as Texas Sheet Metal & Corrugated Tank Company working out of a
very small blacksmith shop. In the early ‘70s, Key bought property and the company moved to its current location on Cevallos Street. Soon after, the business transitioned from a focus on corrugated stock tanks for farmers’ and ranchers’ water systems to stainless steel kitchen equipment, and the company became Texas Sheet Metal & Stainless Steel Fabricators. Being a family-owned business, the second generation and third generation have all worked for the company at some point. Ron works the business end, but in the last eight years, David has come in from working most of his life in the shop to learn more about running the office. The company has done work for fast food restaurants, schools, hospitals and outdoor barbecues and has sent equipment to Air Force bases overseas. Texas Sheet Metal specializes in custom fabrication and installation of stainless steel equipment, especially kitchen equipment. –mh
OK ladies – Simon says raise your hands for the San Antonio construction industry’s support of Construct A Kids Christmas!
Craig Noto, Quality Fence & Welding, evil magician, attempts to cast a spell on hapless maidens Mary C. Haskin and Dawn Thompson at the Construct A Kids Christmas Gala. Looks like his wife, Teresa Noto, has seen this trick before.
Margie Ohlenbusch has always wanted to clean out a couple of cowpokes, including her husband, Marvin Ohlenbusch, Alamo Crane Service! Current San Antonio Tilt Up walls project
Meet 2015 IECC Code at lower cost than conventional construction materials
That’s right big guy! I’m pointing right back at ya!
Looks like everyone had too much fun. I know I did! With that, I’m out’a here.
H16 Insulating Plate R Value 10.03
MAKROS Tilt up walls and Insulated Concrete Roof and Subfloor R Value from 20.29 to 39.72
HOLMAK ICF Insulated Concrete Form R Value 22.24
IKOS Insulated Metal Stud for Exterior & Interior Walls and Lightweight Roof R Value from 9.48 to 31.77
1777 NE 410 Loop, Ste 600 San Antonio, TX 78217 210 – 820 – 2676 www.novidesa.com.mx
Serving San Antonio & South Texas since 1984
Specializing in Machine Laid Curb
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
A closer place to connect
Construction News ON LOCATION
Shaping 2016
L-R: Hector Salazar, George Rice, Izzy Uriegas and Joe Hune were “shaping tomorrow” in the office and the shop at Ahern Rentals. –mh
L-R: Roy and Ted Juarez started Alamo City Hydraulics in 2007 and recently opened a new branch centrally located near the airport.
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ustomers in search of hydraulic hoses can now connect with Alamo City Hydraulics at a more central location. Since the oil field has slowed in recent years, the company decided to relocate its Dilley branch, opened in 2011, to 208 E. Nakoma. The new branch opened Oct. 19 in an existing space with about 800sf of showroom, 400sf of office and 1,800sf of warehouse. There is also a sales counter. Some of Alamo City’s customers are located north of the airport, and the company had received requests from those customers for a location closer to that area of town. The company opened in April 2007 out of the Roosevelt Avenue location that it still calls home. One of the two Dilley employees relocated to that location on the south side, and the other joined three employees at the new location near the airport. Roy Juarez worked for a local company for 17-and-a-half years before
reaching out to his brother, Ted Juarez, about becoming his partner in their own hose business. Ted’s background was in the lighting business, having spent 15 years in that part of the industry, but like his brother, he was ready for a change. After discussing the idea in October 2006 and starting to move forward a few months later, Roy helped Ted transition to working with hydraulic hoses and parts. “When we opened up, we put our trust in the Lord, because it was very difficult at first,” Roy recalls. “So, we had to keep our faith up, and all we have to say is thank God for the many blessings that he has bestowed upon us. Also, thank you to the loyal customers that have stuck with us for all these years.” Alamo City Hydraulics sells hydraulic hoses and fittings for heavy equipment. The company caters to the trucking industry with contractors and members of the construction industry accounting for approximately 80 percent of its business. –mh
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The women of Vision Construction celebrated in style at the corporate holiday party at Hacienda Santa Maria. –mh
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
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First in the succession
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he New Year has brought Joeris General Contractors to the first big step in its succession plan with John Casstevens taking the helm as the company’s new president. With the company since the summer of 1995, Casstevens will channel his two decades of experience in project management at Joeris into overseeing its 377 employees across three offices. Based in San Antonio, Joeris opened an office in Dallas-Fort Worth four years ago and one in Austin three years ago. “We’ve had a close-knit, strong executive team managing our company for 15 years,” says Casstevens. “I’ve been a part of that, and I’m honored and humbled to be the one to step into this role. I could not have done it and I cannot continue to do what I’m doing without their support.” Gary Joeris, son of founder Leo Joeris, will continue as the company’s CEO. As he and Stephen Walter, executive vice president, prepare for retirement on the distant horizon, Casstevens will continue the succession process, eventually transitioning a new generation of longterm employees into leadership roles. Casstevens notes that his goals include communicating the vision of the company and its goals to Joeris’ team members, being a leader who provides energy and enthusiasm towards pursuing those goals, and growing the company’s people into future managers and leaders. After growing up in West Texas, Casstevens served in the Navy as a surface warfare officer on a ship based in San Diego. He worked for a general contractor in California for two years before relocating to San Antonio to join Joeris. Before his rise to president on Dec. 1,
Industry FOLKS Richard Frank Art Director ESC Consultants
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John Casstevens, Joeris’ new president
2015, he was COO. Outside of work, he has served in his church’s leadership for 20 years and is active with the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. He has also supported the Northside Education Foundation. Not only does Joeris do a lot of work for Northside, Casstevens’ two daughters, now in college, attended school in the district. Joeris works with many of the school districts in the San Antonio area. The University of the Incarnate Word has been a long-time client, and the company has a very strong relationship with HEB that reaches statewide. In December 2014, Joeris’ headquarters in San Antonio relocated to 823 Arion Pkwy. due to outgrowing its previous location with roughly 300 local employees. Established in 1967, Joeris General Contractors is a commercial general contractor that specializes in the construction of K-12 and higher educational facilities, healthcare facilities, churches, retail, research centers, multi-story office buildings, restaurants and hotels. –mh
Submitted to Construction News
Celebrating in good company
n November, Richard Frank celebrated his 20th anniversary at ESC Consultants. In 1995, the safety consulting firm hired him to do art and sales for its toolbox safety training. Today, he is the firm’s art director, guiding a wide variety of visuals from logos and business cards to advertising and jobsite safety signs. ESC’s toolbox safety training is a short Monday morning meeting for ESC’s customers and subscribers across the country, and Frank says, “I do enjoy the toolboxes, because I hand draw the artwork, I scan it in, and then I colorize it. So, I still have my hand in the fine arts end of things.” Recently, he also likes applying his talents in other areas, including doing accident recreations. These artistic renderings provide a visual aid of an actual accident, such as someone falling off a scaffold, presented in PDF form almost animating the accident. Frank graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975 with his bachelor’s degree in fine arts with a major in commercial art, which was more graphic arts and design than advertising. He worked at an advertising agency, and he later followed one of the partners to his own agency. When the art department was downsized, Frank spent a few years working in sales for a directory company, similar to the Yellow Pages, and Paragon Cable, which is now Time Warner. Then, 20 years ago, he found
his home at ESC through an ad in the newspaper. Born in a little California town outside of San Francisco called Livermore, Frank grew up living in Washington, D.C. and Germany, since his father was in the Air Force. A B-17 pilot in World War II, his father brought the family to San Antonio in 1968, and he was director of military personnel at Kelly Air Force Base before he retired. He is grateful for the life and travel that his father’s military career afforded them. His family traveled the U.S., and when they lived in Germany, they took Frank and his two sisters to Paris, Denmark and Italy, where he enjoyed seeing Michelangelo’s statues. At 62, Frank has his own family with his wife of 33 years, Sharon. They have two daughters, Ashley, who is 30 years old, and Meghan, 25. Outside of work, his primary interest is music. With a collection of British Invasion music that he has amassed over the years, he goes to see those bands in concert, including the Moody Blues and the Zombies, who’s lead singer and keyboardist he met along with Eric Burdon from the Animals. For a while, Frank even sang with a local band called the Illusions. –mh
MUSTANG COLT SERVICES Serving Customers Honestly Electrical Contracting • Commercial/Industrial Special Projects San Antonio, TX Weslaco, TX
With an ice sculpture to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Yantis Company hosted its holiday party Dec. 18 at La Cantera Resort. More than 200 people attended, including current and former employees, family and friends. L-R: Mike Yantis Jr., CEO; John Yantis, founder; Mike Yantis Sr., chairman of the board; Matt Yantis, president; Arnold Briones, COO –mh
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Anthony Heye Jr. President Planet Pickup
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nthony Heye Jr. started out doing everything at Planet Pickup on his own; buying, selling and installing lift kits and truck accessories. He now has 16 employees and the next generation of the company’s leaders among them. As he eases toward retirement, he hopes to spend more time hunting and fishing. He also hopes to stop in and be available if they need him once he has retired. But for the time being, he is still at the shop, working side-by-side with the employees he has trained and entrusted with the business. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Castle Hills off of Winston Lane. That’s about a mile from here on West Avenue. It’s kind of amazing, because I went to school at St. Gregory and Antonian High School. Back in the ‘60s, I used to ride by this building when it was Jesse & Chandler Electric. Later, it became Bexar Electric. There was something that always drew me to the building. Just looking at it from the school bus every day, I would be thinking, “Wow, that’s a pretty cool place.” I never thought I’d buy it and own it. Tell me about those schools. I went to St. Gregory’s in grade school, and it was a good Catholic school. I went to church every day and played CYO baseball. My dad wanted me to go to Antonian High – my name being Anthony Heye – and I was the only person at Antonian who rode a bicycle to school. I caught a lot of flack for that, but the school was pretty cool. I found out my senior year that all I needed to graduate was English, since Antonian was a college prep school. But I was ready to go to work. I transferred to Churchill and took English, PE and DE, and so I went to work at Speed & Sport. What drew you to Speed & Sport? It was a hot rod store, mainly a wholesale supplier of high-performance parts, cams, carburetors, headers and stuff. My dad was very mechanical and unfortunately died when I was 13. I spent a lot of time working with him in the garage, and I was really into hot rods. I used to do a lot of street racing, back when you could get away with it. But I loved Speed & Sport. It didn’t feel like work. I enjoyed it. And that’s pretty much what I do here – I love it. I started at Speed & Sport in 1973, as a warehouseman. I worked on salary. I worked about 70 hours a week for about $180. I would stock parts, pack and ship items all over Texas. Back then, UPS was not around, so in the evenings I would
take the packages to the Greyhound Bus Station. I would get home at 9 o’clock in the evening but that was okay. I was single, lived at home with my mom. So, it was all good, and I enjoyed it. Back in the ‘80s, things changed. With mail ordering – which is now the Internet – prices started being cut and we could not compete with them. I was interested in the 4-wheel-drive trucks. Speed & Sport started to do lift kits, grill guards, toolboxes and those kinds of things. Speed & Sport had always done tires and wheels, but then we were one of the first in town to start doing lifts. I was vice president of Speed & Sport when I left. I worked there for exactly 25 years to the day. I left Speed & Sport and went to help Ken Hohmann open a shop. After pressure from many customers, I left there a year later and opened my own business, Anthony’s Planet Pickup in 1999 on San Pedro. I am proud to still be in business 17 years later. What was it like starting out with your own business? It was scary. Nanette and I started with hardly any money, so it was just me, Nanette, one guy in the shop and one guy on the counter. I nickel, dimed and quartered it. I called all the vendors that I had known through the years, asked them if I could pay daily, weekly or monthly and just give me the best possible deal. In 1999, I knew the hot rod industry was pretty hard to make a living at, so I decided to do strictly trucks. We also do performance stuff on bigger trucks for fuel mileage and many other things. As I generated more income, I was able to hire more people for my shop. I also hired extra sales staff. I hired my cousin, James Heye, who still works with me and pretty much runs the business now. I now work for him. James has been with me since day one. He worked at Discount Tire full-time and worked for me part-time. At that time, he was single and wanted to help me get started. He would work for free in his spare time, and I would give him $50 or whatever I could afford. In 2000, I was able to hire him full-time. Since then, it has been pretty much a rocket ship. Do you have any plans for retirement? My hope for the future is for James to take over. He does a great job, but I would like to stay somewhat in the loop. I could come and go as I wish. When I turned 60 a couple of years ago, I told all my employees, “Expect me when you see me.” Unfortunately, we lost our good friend and long-time employee Steve Jones. That kind of put me back in the loop of things. Little by little, I would like James to take the reins and run it. He has three sons that are 13, 9 and 6. Hopefully, some of them will show an interest in the business, and we could continue the family-owned legacy. Chris Campbell is the assistant manager and a very valuable employee. We also have Anthony MacKechney, Eric Briones, and Lauren Nutt as part of our team. Tell me about your family. My dad, Anthony Paul Heye, was a bus driver for 25 years for VIA. It was a transit company back then. He was the foreman of the paint and body shop. In 1968, the year that he died – that was the year they started Hemisfair – he was working hard to get the bus routes organized. He even went to Chicago to pick out the new buses that were going to be used for the Hemisfair ’68 World’s Fair. They trusted him because of his mechanical knowledge. My mom, Dorothea Agnes Heye, was
Anthony Heye Jr., president of Planet Pickup, shot this mule deer (right) on a hunting trip to Canada with the best friend he has known since childhood.
a farm girl from Ballinger, Texas. She and her sister moved to San Antonio to attend Incarnate Word and study for their nurse’s degree. They both became registered nurses and worked at Nix Hospital and Santa Rosa Hospital. They both married and raised their families here. I have one sister who teaches nursing education at Santa Rosa for the last 43 years. She went Mom’s route, followed her footsteps. She’s a junior – we call her Dotty – and I’m a junior, too. How did you meet your wife? I met my wife, Nanette, at Cooter Brown’s across from UTSA when I was attending college. Back then it was a popular nightclub. That was in 1977, and we got married in 1979. To this day, she is my best friend and the love of my life. You know what they say, “Behind every successful man is a good woman,” and that is what Nanette is. Nanette is still by my side as she has been all along this journey. She also works at Planet Pickup. She helps Joyce Stanush, my office manager, with administrative duties. We had a daughter named Kindall in 1986. She’s living her dream in Austin. Our present home is on Lake Dunlap in New Braunfels. Nanette and I wanted a fun place for Kindall to be able to bring her friends to. In the 1970s, when Nanette and I were dating, we had friends who were New Braunfels policemen and one of them had a place on Lake Dunlap. We used to go to some great keg parties and spend weekends. With those memories of fun, we decided to find a little house on the water for the weekends. While Kindall attended Texas State University, I had a boat; she would come and bring her friends. We’ve lived there full-time now for four years. What was it like trying to raise your daughter while starting your business? Kindall was in middle school, and I don’t think I took a paycheck for about eight months. Nanette and I would leave between 6:30 and 7 in the morning and get home at 9 or 10 o’clock at night. I borrowed $50,000 from the bank, and paid it off within the first year. After about a year I finally began paying myself. Our savings was almost gone as we had been living on beans and rice and rice and beans for a long time. But it’s good. Things like that make you tough and make you stronger. It was a great bonding experience for our family. All of that hard work taught Kindall some good values. She watched how hard we worked, and is using those les-
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sons in her life in Austin. She went to Angelo State University her first year of college and transferred to Texas State, graduating in four years with a degree in fashion merchandising. She found that she liked doing recruiting better. She worked for a company called Aerotek for about three years. Somehow or another Google found her, and she was offered a job. She worked for Google for about a year. She’s now a recruiter for a company called Bazaarvoice. She loves what she does. It’s funny how things work out. She grew up in Encino Park. We lived there for 20 years, and there was this kid in the neighborhood, Scott Carlson, that she knew, but never hung out with. About four years ago, they ran into each other in a restaurant in Austin and have been together ever since. I’m glad that he is in her life and look forward to someday having him as a son-in-law. What do you do for fun in your spare time? Nanette and I purchased a condo in Rockport this past year. We enjoy going there to fish and relax. I also love to hunt. My best friend, Joey Blackmon, has several ranches in South Texas. We do a lot of deer hunting and deer management. We do tractor work and keep the place nice and tidy. We’re kind of workaholics, and we love to hunt. Joey Blackmon, Mark Bissonnette and I grew up in Castle Hills, and we’ve enjoyed hunting, fishing and playing together since we were little guys. So, the three of us hunt together, and we do a lot of youth hunts on the ranch, which also helps with our deer management. We are brothers with different mothers. Joey and I have been to Alberta, Canada three times. Last April, we went to New Zealand and took our families. We went hunting for red stag. That was one thing to take off our bucket list. We are looking forward to crossing other things off of that list. Do you still tinker with hot rods? Yes, I’ve got a red and black 1970 SS 454 Chevelle. It has always been one of my favorite cars. I have always dreamed of owning one. That’s my hot rod! I have a little shop at the lake, and I like to tinker with the Chevelle when I get a chance. We only take it out when it is nice. It’s a fair-weather car. I’ve driven it from home to Planet Pickup and back. It’s a nice, fast, fun car. I just have that one; I would like to build a nice little street rod truck someday. Maybe sell the Chevelle and build a nice older truck or restore one. –mh
Texas Style
San Antonio Austin Dallas/Fort Worth Houston South Texas
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Page 7
A generational impact
A family of glass
Members of the Beaty Palmer team L-R: Dustin Timmermann, LEED AP; Nathan Flores; Lisa Lautenschlaeger; Clay Hagendorf, AIA, LEED AP; Jorge Arellano; Sarah Watson; Michael Beaty, AIA; Terry Palmer, AIA, LEED AP; Cory Hawkins, AIA, LEED AP; Abel Gomez; Michael Sutherland; Sinead Thackaberry; Evan Beaty
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ith more than 22 years since Beaty Palmer Architects opened its doors, the San Antonio firm found the key to longevity and success in its people. And today, the firm’s leaders represent three different generations working in design together. In November 1993, Michael Beaty and Hilary Saunders started the firm on the foundation of creating a boutique design firm to offer their services to a select clientele, enjoying the collaborative process of design. Saunders left the firm about 20 years ago to return to her home in South Africa. Terry Palmer joined the firm in 1994, and five years later, he became a principal and shareholder. Today, Beaty, Palmer and Cory Hawkins are the firm’s principals. “Mike is a baby boomer, Cory’s a millennial, and I’m sandwiched in between as a Gen X,” says Palmer. “So, we cover the generation spectrums pretty well. I think we have complementary skills, and Cory and I have both been fortunate to have Mike to mentor our professional development.”
Sarah Watson, senior associate; Abel Gomez, CAD and studio manager; and associates, Clay Hagendorf, Michael Sutherland and Dustin Timmermann are just a few of the approximately 15 staff members who have contributed to the firm’s success. Along with seeing the firm’s talent learn and grow in the profession, Palmer finds the most rewarding part of his job to be experiencing the profound impact the firm’s work has on its community and environment. They have worked on projects such as the Riverwalk Capital Improvements, San Pedro Springs Park Improvements, Port San Antonio corporate headquarters, and several City of San Antonio fire stations. Beaty Palmer Architects is a commercial architecture firm covering a variety of markets, including corporate and medical office, public, institutional, municipal and state parks, industrial development and active reuse. –mh
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Fastened to a new name
Southern Fastening Systems is in the process of rebranding as Southern Carlson. L-R: Roger Placido, who has been with the company’s service department for 34 years, is the shop supervisor, and David Mead, who has been with the company for two-and-a-half years, is the area manager based in Austin and was helping out in San Antonio during the rebranding. –mh
Correction In the January 2016 legal column, “Texas Mechanic’s and Materialman’s Liens on private projects in Texas,” it should have said the author, Janet Townsley, and the firm, The Cromeens Law Firm, are based in Houston. Construction News regrets the error.
Don’t forget your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day! Sunday, February 14th
The Cavallini family at The Cavallini Co. L-R: Debbie, Manlio, and Adrian J. Cavallini
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s The Cavallini Co. grows slowly and steadily, three generations of the Cavallini family work together to make glass an artistic addition to the design of commercial and residential projects. In 2014, the company experienced a significant increase in supplies and commission work. To accommodate the growth, they acquired a 30,000-sf warehouse on Blanco Road that will be used as a distribution point for the architectural glass. By moving their supply center, they will create more studio space at their Fredericksburg and Vance Jackson location for commissions. “I began working part-time with my father [Manlio Cavallini] when I was about 11 years old doing mosaics,” recalls Adrian Cavallini, president. “Thirty-four years ago, at the age of 21, I decided to work full-time in the stained glass studio. Besides the wealth of information about stained glass and mosaics that my father taught to me, he also encouraged pa-
tience when pursuing work, and to never give up.” Adrian’s wife, Debbie Cavallini, acts as the office manager, and his son, Joseph Cavallini, who is 22 years old and recently graduated from UTSA, joined the company full-time to do the Information Technology (IT) as well as help with dayto-day operations. Joseph is developing an online store for their supplies and updating the studio website. Their oldest son, Anthony Cavallini, 24, will be representing the company’s clear architectural glass line to glass companies, and their youngest, Adrian, 19 and a sophomore at UTSA, will also become active in the family business. Established in 1953, The Cavallini Co. is a stained glass studio, designing, fabricating and installing stained glass windows. The company also does restoration of stained and faceted glass as well as mosaics and supplies stained and architectural glass. –mh
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Looking in from the outside
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Jumping in the line
L-R: Corbin Oakes, Justin Baldwin, Walter Baxter and Tyler Turner were all lined up for 2016 at BlueLine Rental in Selma. –mh
Francisco Valadez was a founding partner of SA Partnership 21 years ago. Today, he is the president and sole owner of the firm.
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ince Francisco Valadez, owner and president of SA Partnership, is a licensed architect and a licensed interior designer, the firm takes all of its concepts from exterior to interior, doing all of the architectural design work on its projects. Born and raised in San Antonio, Valadez’s family members on his father’s side were all carpenters, building homes for a living. From an early age, Valadez knew the path he wanted to pursue and went on to study architecture at UTSA. In February 1994, he started SA Partnership with two partners that were bought out by 2009. Since then, Valadez has been the sole owner. SA Partnership does work in all commercial markets, including retail, healthcare, office buildings and hospitality. The firm is currently working on five hotels and the renovation of the old Joske’s building in Downtown San Antonio, a project that is 500,000sf.
Valadez estimates that hospitality accounts for about 50 percent of the firm’s workload with retail at 30 percent, office 15 percent and public 5 percent. Excited about the growth potential in the area and the state, Valadez notes that he doesn’t have much spare time to play a round of golf these days. He makes time for his family and to attend Spurs and UTSA games. His wife, Jacqueline, is a dyslexia therapist for South San Antonio ISD and works part-time as a professor for the University of Notre Dame. Having just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, he and his wife have three children, and Valadez cites them as a motivation to make his firm a success. SA Partnership is an architectural firm that offers services including architecture, planning and development, programming, project management, interior design, graphic design and sustainable design. –mh
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A holiday soiree
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he American Subcontractors Association (ASA) San Antonio Chapter hosted its Volunteer Appreciation Christmas Party Dec. 17 at Scenic Loop Café on Boerne Stage Road with fun and white elephant gifts galore. –mh
L-R: Mike McGinnis, Allen & Allen Co.; Beth Moore and Kenneth Moore, KCM Cabinets
L-R: Barbara Newcomb, Trimble-Batjer, and Kerry Stanush, You Name It Specialties
Roxanne Harris, Concrete Renovation Inc., and Nora Romero, ASA
Duane and Debbie Hannasch, Fire Alarm Control Systems
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Page 9
Tax break now permanent
Industry FOLKS Andrea Hughes Quality Control Manager The Trevino Group
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bout a year ago, Andrea Hughes came to San Antonio to join the Trevino Group after working two years as a quality control manager doing military construction in New Mexico. Now, she does the same type of work for Trevino. “I review some of the drawings and the specifications and make sure that our subcontractors uphold those standards and that all of the testing that’s being performed gets done and all the results get issued to the Corps of Engineers,” explains Hughes. “I also do the inspections with the Corps of Engineers, and then I update the drawings as we go through the project to reflect what was actually done.” Originally from Ripley, OH, Hughes was an engineer in the Army, doing construction for five years, including a deployment in Iraq and an exercise in Japan. She spent six months at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri learning the various elements of being an engineer, including bridging, horizontal and vertical construction and explosive demolitions. “In the Army, doing construction, you do it while you’re deployed, so I did all my construction pretty much in Iraq,” she recalls. “Here on the civilian side, you have a ton of time to plan and you have all the resources, and you have everything at your disposal that you need. In the Army, you have limited resources. You have equipment that sometimes works, sometimes
doesn’t work. You’re doing things on the go. It’s a lot more fast-paced.” She notes that she learned a lot in the Army that she did not have a chance to utilize when deployed, such as concrete slump tests, but now she uses that knowledge out in the field in her civilian job. Hughes enjoys exploring, trying new things and mountain biking. Her mother still lives in Ohio, and she has two sisters. Her father lives in Mississippi where he also works as a quality control manager. “I’ve been blessed,” she says. “My dad helped get me into this field and my co-workers back in New Mexico helped by taking me under their wing to help get me started in this industry, and without them, I don’t know where I would have been. I love it, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” At 32, she is eager to share her blessed life and is going through the process to get licensed for foster care. “I have a great job, and I had a great family growing up and at this point in my life, I just haven’t had kids of my own. So, to be able to provide a little bit of stability and a caring, nurturing place for an infant or a child to feel wanted has called me.” –mh
ohn McClelland, vice president of government affairs and chief economist for the American Rental Association, says the passage of the Section 179 deduction as a permanent tax deduction in December is great news. The deduction will make it more affordable for small companies to buy up to $500,000 per year in equipment, including machinery and vehicles. “Since 2003, ARA has been a strong advocate for expanding the Section 179 expensing limit – now set at $500,000,” McClelland says. “We’ve been strong proponents of making the $500,000 limit permanent. We think it is something that small businesses can use and they are a huge agent for job creation.” Before the law passed, the dollar limit on Section 179 fluctuated, creating uncertainty for businesses that spend a large portion of their budgets on equipment, McClelland says. “An important piece of this is the permanence,” he said. “We’ve had times where we didn’t know what the limit would be until towards the end of December. Sometimes, the new limit set would be for the year just past, but not the year coming up. This law creates certainty so we can rationally decide what our equipment purchases are going to be now and in the future.” Section 179 allows qualifying capital items to be written off immediately on a business’ taxes, instead of being depreciated over a number of years. The deduction is essentially limited to small and midsize companies - those that spend less than $2 million a year on qualifying purchases. “This is important especially for rental companies who have a large capital
John McClelland
outlay and may still be a small company,” McClelland said. “Annual expenses of $1 million are not out of the ordinary. A very high percentage of our members would be eligible to use Section 179.” McClelland cautions, however, that every business owner must study his or her own situation before making a decision to increase inventory based on Section 179. “Your tax situation is unique to you,” he says. “Before you implement any kind of acquisition program, talk to your tax professional and figure out what is best for you. “If you are in a mode where you really need to expand your fleet, taking advantage of these rules is an important part of your strategy and is certainly worth looking at.” –cw
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Jesse Aguilar, left, owner of Platinum Electric, and his journeyman electricians supervised students at work during MacArthur’s Electrical Program Habitat for Humanity Outing.
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ntroducing high school students to the trades has become a high priority for the industry. To offer students an engaging hands-on experience, MacArthur High School’s Electrical Systems Technology Apprenticeship Program brought 43 of its students to the program’s eighth annual Habitat for Humanity outing. “This outing gives the students an opportunity to put into practice what they have learned in the classroom and labs, at the same time, giving back to the community by helping someone’s dream of home ownership become a reality,” explains Steve Albert, director of the program. The students work under the permit of Jesse Aguilar, Platinum Electric, who does the electrical contracting for the Habitat for Humanity homes. Aguilar and his journeyman electricians watch the students work to ensure they are doing it
correctly. Before stepping into these homes, freshmen and sophomores in the group learn at MacArthur from their instructor, Victor Casares, and juniors and seniors learn from their instructor, Eduardo Del Toro. This was the first Habitat for Humanity outing for Larry Vurt, a junior in the program, who says, “It’s great. It’s like nothing you could ever imagine would get you this kind of experience. The lab is nothing compared to this.” Stephanie Wiese, vice president of Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio, notes that the nonprofit has been working on this neighborhood, Coleman Ridge, off Old Pearsall Road and southwest 410, since 2011. With a total of 185 homes in the neighborhood, the students did electrical wiring for four of its five homes currently under construction. –mh
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Work on Hand Reports – a key tool for underwriting
Business is a game! Play to win! Part 2 of a 3 part series Carrie D. Bradshaw, C.P.A. Brown, Graham & Company P.C. Georgetown, TX
Clark Fresher, IBTX San Antonio, TX
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now your cost: Variable versus fixed cost and how to utilize the break even analysis tool In part one; we discussed the importance of knowing your score to be able to win the game. This included understanding the story your financial statements tell about your company through ratio analysis, industry benchmarking and internal trend analysis. This month, we will discuss evaluating your cost and how to use a break even analysis tool to gain a more thorough understanding of your company’s current position. Before we get into the five steps that make up this break-even analysis tool, there are a few definitions that we should review. • Break-Even: The point at which revenue exactly covers costs. • Variable Costs (VC): Costs that are incurred only if a sale happens. • Fixed Costs (FC): Costs that are not directly related to sales. • Contribution Margin (CM): The amount of revenue remaining after variable costs are paid. • Target Profit: The profit the owner plans to achieve for the year. As we stated above; engaging in the exercise of using this break-even analysis tools is a five-step process, which involves the following steps: Step one: Classify expenses into fixed or variable costs. In order to perform this step you will need a detailed income statement for your most recent annual financials. Identify each cost as fixed (FC) or variable (VC). This is not to be confused with the definition of direct costs, indirect costs or selling, or general and administrative costs used by the accountants. If you incur the costs regardless of whether you have any sales, it is fixed (i.e. rent or telephone). If you incur the costs because you made a sale, it is variable (i.e. job materials or tools). Step two: Determine the variable cost percentage (VC%). Add up all of the cost you determined were variable and divide that number by your total sales. For example, if your variable costs are $75,000 and your sales are $100,000, your variable cost percentage is 75 percent. Step three: Determine the contribution margin (CM). The contribution margin is the amount of revenue from the sale remaining after the variable costs are paid. In the previous example, the contribution margin is $25,000. ($100,000-$75,000(VC)=$25,000(CM)). In other words, $25,000 remains to pay for fixed costs.
Step four: Calculate your total fixed costs. Return to the identification process your performed in step one, and add up all the costs you determined were fixed costs. Step five: Calculate your break-even. Begin with the calculation of fixed costs. Let’s assume the fixed costs in step four are $100,000. Next, using the contribution margin calculated in step three (25%), calculate the needed sales. In order to pay for the $100,000 in fixed costs, your company would have to generate $400,000 in sales. ($100,000(FC)/25%(CM)=$400,000 sales) To look at this from a different perspective, consider this equation: $400,000(sales) - $300,000(75%(VC%)) = $100,000(FC) This calculation is well and good, however none of us are in business to break-even. We are in business to win! Let’s determine how much revenue from sales you need to generate profit. In order to do this, we need to make the assumption that you can achieve the next level of sales with the same capacity, and therefore not needing to increase fixed cost. (We will discuss the evaluation of funding growth in the final installment of this series.) For the purpose of this example, let’s assume your target profit is $50,000. How much do sales need to go up to generate an additional profit of $50,000? Most of us would immediately answer $50,000. However, we need to remember that for every dollar of sales we generate, we are also generating 75 cents in costs. In order to create $50,000 in profit we would need $200,000 in additional sales. ($200,000(sales) - $150,000(VC at 75VC%) = $50,000 profit.) By truly understanding the costs of your business, you can develop the strategy to coach your team to greater success! Carrie D. Bradshaw, CPA and CCIFP with over 20 years of construction contractor coaching experience, is the Managing Shareholder of the Brown, Graham & Company, P.C.’s Georgetown office. You can contact Carrie at cbradshaw@bgc-cpa.com or call 512-930-4090.
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urety underwriters carefully review work on hand reports for several important reasons: 1. Backlog- Most contractors have bond lines which require that the agent know what the aggregate backlog is being carried by the contractor. The term "backlog" refers to "estimated cost to complete". Any new bids must fit into this aggregate backlog maximum. 2. Profit Fade- Since an important feature of contractor accounting is the percentage of completion method for income calculations, the jobs in progress are estimates of what the project will earn at completion. This is necessarily an uncertain way to calculate the financial health of an income statement, but it's the best we have. Surety companies use the work on hand reports, both at yearend and interim periods, to see how well estimated profits are holding up versus the original estimates. Clearly, a contractor showing significant and widespread profit fade will experience a net loss and will face questions from the surety. All contractors will experience profit fade on various jobs from time to time and this would not be a cause for alarm as long as it is not a habit. Contractor's inability to maintain estimated profits on projects as they proceed is a serious concern for all surety underwriters.
3. Closed Jobs- Comparing final gross profit on a completed job to the original estimated gross profit sheds light on just how effective is the jobsite supervision and project management functions of the contractor. The closed job schedule can also be used to close bonded jobs and generate the bond dividend, if one is available. Finally, one quick word of warning with regards to change orders. It is not unusual, though not ideal, that work will begin on a change order before the actual signed change order is generated and received by the contractor. The problem here is that the costs incurred in completing the change order will appear on the work on hand report but, conversely, the increase in contract price and resulting revenue will not be picked up on the report until the order is signed and received by the contractor. It's pretty clear that the results of this process will negatively impact that report specifically and the financials in general. Clark Fresher joined the IBTX team twelve years ago. He currently has more than 35 years of insurance experience and came to IBTX from Guarantee Insurance Services. Clark’s areas of expertise include Surety, Property and Casualty and Risk Management Services Plans. Contact us at 800-880-6689 or visit us at www.ib-tx.com for more information or to setup your policy today.
Submitted to Construction News
Dinner with the new board
HOWELL CRANE & RIGGING, INC.
AUDIE HOWELL President
PHONE (210) 661-8285 FAX (210) 661-7683 MOBILE (210) 862-5301 1-800-438-9814 HOME (210) 649-3726 email: Audie@HowellCrane.net 24-HOUR SERVICE CRANES 15 TO 500 TON P.O. BOX 200576 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78220
The Hispanic Contractors Association (HCA) de San Antonio hosted its 2016 Board of Directors Installation Dinner Jan. 20 at the Quarry Golf Course Banquet Hall with Judge Nelson Wolff officiating the installation ceremony. L-R: Adrian Silva, Silver Builders; Henry Villarreal, Turner Construction; Rafael Llera, Shorm Consulting; Roland Gonzales, Cokinos Bosien & Young; Leonard Flores, CEC; Irene Chavez, Tejas Premier; Shelley Woitena, Padgett Stratemann & Co.; JR Trevino, Treco Enterprises; Trisha Ramirez, A-Ram Plumbing; Lisa Casarez, Emergency Service Restoration of Texas; Josh Hill, Hill Bros. Construction; Estela GarciaPerez, Fairway Landscape and Nursery; Edward Pape, Vaqueros Group; Judge Nelson Wolff, Bexar County Judge; Vinnie Gonzales, VP&R; Jesse Torres, CPS –mh
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Page 11
Knowing the difference between an invalid and a fraudulent lien
Guidance on safe rope sling use
Tina Snelling, Of Counsel The Cromeens Law Firm Houston, TX
Joann Natarajan Compliance Assistance Specialist OSHA Austin, TX
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f you have performed work on a construction project, and filed a lien on the property, you could find yourself facing penalties as well as criminal charges. Texas has specific laws governing the filing of fraudulent liens and the refusal to release a fraudulent lien. There is a difference between an invalid, as opposed to a fraudulent, lien. Texas law entitles the person to claim a lien against an owner’s property to secure a debt. However, the steps to “perfect” a lien can be complex, if not outright costly. Failure to comply can operate to render the lien invalid. Five relevant examples of an invalid lien are: (1) failing to provide notice of the claim to the owner or original contractor, (2) the filing of a faulty affidavit, (3) failing to give notice of the filed affidavit to the owner or original contractor, (4) the filing of a lien after expired deadlines, (5) the filing of a lien on homestead property. If an invalid lien is filed and the owner proves it in court, a lien claimant can be ordered to pay court costs and attorneys’ fees. However, there is a difference between an invalid lien and a fraudulent lien. If an owner proves the lien claimant knew when he filed his lien that it was invalid, the claimant could be subject to further penalties under the Fraudulent Lien Act. The Fraudulent Lien Act, found in Chapter 12 of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code, provides that a person may not make, present, or use a document or other record with: 1. Knowledge that the document is a fraudulent; 2, Intent that the fraudulent document be given the same legal effect as a valid document; 3. Intent to cause another cause another financial injury, physical injury or mental anguish; and 4, Intent to defraud. Under section 12.002(b) of the Act, when a person files a fraudulent lien, the injured party can receive: (1) the greater of $10,000.00 or actual damages; (2) court costs; (3) attorney’s fees; and (4) exemplary damages. Moreover, there is the potential for criminal sanctions for failing or refusing to promptly remove a known fraudulent lien. The offense is a Class A misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $4,000, and incarceration for a period up to one
year, or both. One case which addresses the elements of knowledge the lien is fraudulent and of the intent to cause financial injury is Taylor Electrical Services, Inc. v. Armstrong Electrical Supply Co., 167 S.W.3d 522 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth, 2005, no pet.), which involved work done for the same owner on two different churches. Subcontractor, Taylor, claimed material supplier, Armstrong, falsely promised and failed to deliver materials on a guaranteed date, which caused Taylor to fall behind schedule. Taylor paid Armstrong $7,732.99 but withheld $6,110 due to Armstrong’s delay. Armstrong held Taylor’s check and filed a mechanic’s lien on the properties. Then, after filing the sworn lien for the sum for the full balance owed, Armstrong cashed the check. Armstrong’s lien was challenged and, at trial, the jury was asked if it found that Armstrong presented a document to the county clerk with knowledge it would create a fraudulent lien or claim against the property with the intent that the document be treated as a valid lien against the property. The jury answered “yes” and the court found sufficient evidence of a fraudulent lien because Armstrong failed to credit the sworn-to lien amount by the amount of the later cashed check. Additionally, the evidence revealed Armstrong was previously warned to make timely deliveries because of Taylor’s potential financial losses of falling behind schedule and that Armstrong’s notice of lien notice letter stated “[w]e do not wish you any harm in your business.” The court found this evidence sufficient to establish the element of intent to cause harm. In sum, there is a difference between an invalid lien and a fraudulent lien. If you are unsure of the validity of a lien you filed or wish to file, it is advisable to consult with counsel experienced in mechanic’s and materialmen’s’ lien law.
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atural and synthetic fiber rope slings are used primarily for temporary work, such as construction and painting jobs, and in marine operations. Designate a qualified person to inspect slings and all fastenings and attachments each day before use for damage or defects. Make periodic inspections of natural and synthetic fiber rope slings at intervals no greater than 12 months. Make a thorough inspection of slings and attachments. Items to look for include: • Missing or illegible sling identifications, • Cuts, gouges, areas of extensive fiber breakage along the length and abraded areas on the rope, • Damage of 10 percent or more of the ropes diameter, • Uniform fiber breakage along the major part of the length of the rope in the sling such that the entire rope appears covered with fuzz or whiskers, • Fiber breakage or melted fiber inside the rope that appears along the length at the same relative position and involves damage estimated at 10 percent of the fiber in the strand at that point, • Discoloration and brittle or stiff areas on any part of the sling, Excessive dirt and grit in the interior of the rope structure, • Foreign matter that has permeated the rope and attracts and holds grit, • Kinks, distortion, or other damage in the rope structure, • Melted or charred areas that affect
more than 10 percent of the diameter of the rope or affect several adjacent strands along the length to more than 10 percent of their individual diameters. • Poor condition of thimbles or other fittings manifested by corrosion, cracks, distortion, or localized wear, and • Other conditions that cause doubt as to continued use of the sling. Where any such defect or deterioration is present, remove the sling or attachment from service immediately. Do not use worn or damaged slings or attachments. Do not use repaired or reconditioned fiber rope slings. Do not use old or used rope to make up a fiber rope sling. Modifications or alterations to end attachments or fittings are considered a repair. Do not allow natural and synthetic fiber rope slings to be used in contact with objects or at temperatures in excess of 194 degrees F (90 degrees C), or below minus 40 degrees F (minus 40 degrees C). Some synthetic yarns do not retain their breaking strength during long-term exposure above 140 degrees (60 degrees C). Long-term exposure to sunlight or ultraviolet radiation can affect the strength of natural, nylon and polyester rope slings. Consult the sling manufacturer for proper retirement criteria for nylon and polyester ropes subjected to long-term storage or use in sunlight, long term heat exposure, or chemical environments. natarajan.joann@dol.gov 512-374-0271 x232
Submitted to Construction News
The past meets the future
For more information on our services, please visit www.thecromeenslawfirm.com or call (713) 715-7334.
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A good year ahead The Associated General Contractors (AGC) San Antonio Chapter hosted a past presidents reception Jan. 8 following a leadership meeting discussing goals for 2016. L-R: Bill Huber, Rene Garcia, Fred Galvan, Kristian Pearson, TJ Rogers, Doug Nunnelly, Sam Nunnelly, R.C. Contreras –mh
NOTICE OF PLUMBER, PIPEFITTER, HVAC APPRENTICESHIP OPPORTUNITY Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 142 J.A.T.C. Will accept applications for apprenticeship beginning February 22 thru March 4, 2016, M-F, from 8:00 -11:30 a.m. and 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. at the address listed below.
“I think 2016 is going to be a good year for all of us,” says Jim Westbrook, principal of Westbrook Engineering. The firm, which focuses mostly on foundations, framing and retaining walls, is growing quickly and had to expand into the office next door about a year ago. There are currently 11 on staff and the firm is still adding more. L-R: Vincent Posadas, Alberto Sustaita, Daniela Vasquez, Reddy Chittamuru, Greg Welch, Bridget Stehling, and Jim Westbrook –mh
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Must be 18 years of age when applying. Must have a high school diploma (or be a graduating senior in May 2016) or have a GED. A certified birth certificate and official sealed high school transcript or GED grades are required to completethe application. DD-214 needed for Veterans.
PLUMBERS AND PIPEFITTERS J.A.T.C. 3630 BELGIUM LANE SAN ANTONIO, TX 78219 (210)226-2661
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
A new joy in the New Year
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The Lone Star Paving Christmas barbecue drew employees into the office throughout the day. L-R: (back row) Frank Gallagher, Glenn Mergele, Armando Chong, Aaron Garcia, (middle row) Cresencio Garcia, Bernadette Rodriguez, Aurelio Contreras, Jordan Olson, Nathaniel Bowman, Steve Lum, Victor Chimalhua, Antonio Muniz, Isidro Hernandez, Roberto Martinez, Ben Zwicke, (front row) Nicole Masten, Marcus Raine, Shelly Brietzke, Daniel Diaz
We provide a full line of rock, masonry, stucco and foundation materials along with mixers, saws, scaffolds, and hand tools
San Antonio Location
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7480 FM 1560 North 210-695-8222
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Call or come by and one of our sales associates will be glad to help you
We do custom rebar fabrication for all types of projects, including shop drawings.
hen Lone Star Paving celebrated its first Christmas in San Antonio, the staff and crew were treated to a barbecue surprise. Roger Haydon, operations manager, chose the holiday party for the inaugural use of Snoopy’s Cook Shack. Haydon won the custom-made barbecue trailer, the biggest raffle prize in the history of Construct A Kid’s Christmas, at the gala in December. At the San Antonio Division’s party Dec. 23, Lone Star Paving christened the pit with construction manager and cook-off veteran chef, Frank Gallagher. With more than 90 employees in San Antonio, Lone Star’s four crews were out on various jobs, and came in throughout the day to enjoy the food and see the pit in action. They also played music over the trailer’s sound system. “We’ll probably use it three or four times a year just for the guys, for the crews, to show them our appreciation for all the hard work that they do,” says Hay-
don, who notes that its first use was a pleasant surprise and well received. In January of last year, Asphalt Inc. bought out Lone Star Paving and opened a couple of other locations. The San Antonio Division opened one year ago, Jan. 19, 2015, which is when Haydon joined the team. Originally from Illinois, Haydon has been working in the industry for about 25 years. Haydon credits Jack Wheeler, the company’s patriarch, and Ben Carroll, director of business development, with getting operations started in the Alamo City. Projects in its first year in town have included the USAA corporate headquarters, San Antonio Children’s Museum and many apartment complexes and subdivisions. Based in Austin, Lone Star Paving also has divisions in San Antonio and Dripping Springs. Services include asphalt milling and paving, patching, sealcoating, crack filling and striping. –mh
Signs of the times
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ooking back at the history of The Southwell Company, the business has changed significantly in its 150 years. Yet as Billy Southwell, president, and Scott Southwell, vice president, celebrate the sesquicentennial, the company is still helping others leave their mark. The original business started out in 1866 as the San Antonio Rubber Stamp Company, making stencils for the big bales of cotton. Eventually rubber stamps entered the picture and the company has made marking devices ever since its inception. Today, those marking devices include cast metal letters, signs, and plaques that general contractors have Southwell install in schools, higher education facilities and fire staGeorge T. Southwell established the name and future tions. They also make the dediof The Southwell Company after purchasing the San Antonio Rubber Stamp Company in 1912. Now, the cation plaques for those facilicompany does architectural signage and is celebrating ties as well as interior signs, 150 years since the original company’s founding. such as the ones with braille next to the doors and rooms. One of their recent projects was the UT Health Science Center. That job included some custom logos that Southwell made that were 8 feet in diameter. They also fabricated letters about 2 inches deep and 4 feet tall to read “University of Texas Health Science Center of San Antonio.” They put LED lights inside the letters to backlight them, installed them and hired a licensed electrician to hook them up. In 1912, George T. Southwell, Billy and Scott’s great-grandfather, purchased the company. Then, his son, Wilson Southwell Sr., took over and was followed by Wilson Southwell Jr., Billy and Scott’s father, who goes by Bill Southwell and slowly retired in the mid-‘90s. Billy came into the company after graduating from college in 1977. Scott was a commercial pilot before joining the company in 1989. Today, they represent the fourth generation of Southwells at the helm of a company that has made many transitions and endured a century-and-ahalf. The Southwell Company fabricates, sells and installs architectural lettering and signage, plaques and ADA signage. They have also made all of the historical markers for the State of Texas since 1962. –mh
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
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Still learning on the job
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Charles Pope, principal of Charles William Pope & Associates, at his office with two of his three grandchildren
ven though Charles William Pope & Associates passed its 25th anniversary recently, founder and principal Charles Pope never gave a moment’s thought to how long he’s been in business. It’s just another year of doing what he knew he wanted to do since he was 13 years old. Pope recalls a witticism that he was told in school while studying architecture at the University of Texas in Austin: “’Architects are no good until they turn 50,’” he quotes with a laugh. “I’m 53, so I’m just now figuring stuff out. It took 25 years to know a little bit about what I’m doing, and I’m still learning. The whole thing is a challenge, making sure every job gets better as you go. But it’s been a fun challenge.” Working for Greg Davis and Lloyd Jary, Pope learned on the job, and he credits his mentors with training that provided him with a tremendous education in the field. As a licensed State of Texas architect, Pope started his own firm
in 1990. He has three associates: Ryan Rumohr, who has been with the firm for 14 years; Jacob Gomez, who has been with the firm for three years; and Alex Ramirez, who has been there for three months. The firm’s business model is 60-percent repeat work with many customers retained from the ‘90s. He explains, “Sixty percent of what we do is small projects – we do that on purpose for a higher volume – and 40 percent are bigger projects, which take years to develop.” A couple of those projects are the HarleyDavidson on Weidner Road and the Lighthouse for the Blind. Born at the NIX hospital downtown, Pope says he has never gone far from home. He went to Churchill High School where he met his wife, and his children went to the same high school. Charles William Pope & Associates is a San Antonio architecture firm that focuses on commercial work and does projects in Texas and across the U.S. –mh
Construction News JOB SIGHT
Clearing the way for education
As the site work contractor on the job, M&M Contracting developed the site for a new high school facility. The new $7.3 million school building is for Randolph Field ISD, which serves children of military personnel at Randolph Air Force Base. Ramtech Building Systems is the design-build contractor for the project. –mh
15 to 500 Ton Capacities Available for your Toughest Projects Setting a new LED billboard at loop410 and West Avenue to get the word out.
Testing the field
Members of the BRL NDT team are helping to get the new company off the ground. L-R: Virgil Martinez, Bill Rogers, Mike Phillips, Christopher Voelker, Jeremy Moreno, Joseph Dickson
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n August, BRL NDT Services opened its doors, and in late fall, the company moved into its own office at 11914 Persuasion Dr. A sister company to BRL Consultants, which provides training and consulting for the non-destructive testing field, BRL NDT is the services side of the relationship, explains Virgil Martinez, president. Martinez owns the company with BRL’s namesake, Bryan R. Lancon, who has ASNT Level III certification. BRL NDT inspects any part that its clients want inspected without affecting the structural integrity of the part. This can be accomplished through several methods of testing: radiographic, ultrasonic, eddy current, magnetic particle, penetrant or visual. Martinez notes they have been doing a lot of visual inspections recently and are working toward offering radiographic testing services as well. Currently, 90 percent of their work is construction related. They are in queue
with the Federal Aviation Administration to acquire their repair station to allow them to perform inspections of aircraft and aircraft components. They do work with structural steel, construction and aircraft components. They have also done work with rollercoasters at theme parks, power plants and water pipelines. Martinez has been in the business and working with Lancon since 2002. In 2014, he took a job in the oil field for 10 months, and he returned to San Antonio when they decided to move forward with BRL NDT. Out of high school, Martinez earned his diploma in non-destructive testing at Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, OK. Since then, he has learned on the job and worked toward having his own company. He has a wife, Elisa, and two daughters, 17 and 14. BRL NDT Services provides non-destructive testing services to the construction industry as well as other industries. –mh
from El Paso to Beaumont Amarillo to Brownsville
www.alamocrane.com 36 Years of Service to Texas San Antonio (210) 344-7370 Austin (512) 282-6866 Toll Free (800) 880-0134
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Developing local disciplines
Materials on the move
Bury’s San Antonio team leaders L-R: Steven Grau, vice president of business development; Mark Johnson, principal; Jason Nelson, managing principal; Larry Heimer, principal; Coy Armstrong, principal
L-R: Michael Cervantes and Brad Galo Jr. are leading Galo Materials as the company passes its first anniversary and continues to grow.
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wenty years ago, Bury, a design and engineering consulting firm, opened in San Antonio to serve a local retail client. After two decades, the firm still serves that client and has built a strong foundation in the market with many more clients it has gained since. Established in Austin in 1984 by Paul Bury, president and CEO, Bury covers multiple disciplines across the commercial and industrial markets, including government, healthcare, hospitality and large industrial parks. In the Alamo City, civil engineering is heavy along with landscape architecture and survey. Jason Nelson, managing principal of the San Antonio office, has a long-term plan to aggressively grow the firm’s other disciplines on the local level, particularly structural and MEP engineering. Local projects also include a lot of multi-family, such as Cevallos Lofts downtown.
With his master’s degree in environmental engineering from Texas Tech University and 14 years of experience leading a multi-discipline design firm, Nelson joined Bury about two-and-a-half years ago. Since Nelson took over, the San Antonio office is up 18 employees, bringing the approximate total to 50. “The best part is the people,” says Steve Grau, vice president of business development. “We’ve got a lot of people that opened this office that are still here, and we’ve got a lot of the folks that opened this office that are now running offices in other markets for Bury. Bury is really focused on its employees, taking care of them, and it shows when you have people that stick around that long.” Bury does civil, MEP and structural engineering as well as landscape architecture and surveying. Headquartered in Austin, the firm has offices in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Orlando and Phoenix. –mh
W
hile working in construction and doing site work, Brad Galo Jr. noticed a need in the industry that propelled him into material sales. After discovering that his property off Marbach Lane had good materials, he opened Galo Materials one year ago. In August of last year, Michael Cervantes came on board as vice president to help the new venture expand and get it organized and run efficiently. He previously worked for a large San Antonio site contractor, and he has been in the construction industry on the site work side for about 15 years. Cervantes notes that their goal is to have pits all around San Antonio to become a one-stop shop for site contractors, providing various types of materials. They have a pit on the north side of town, and they have another on the southwest side that will be opening in the beginning of this year. He points out that their prices are
based on their customers’ needs and quantities, rather than flat-rate fees. Also, the locations of their customers’ projects in relation to their pits do not present a problem because Galo has its own fleet of trucks. “It doesn’t matter if they’re buying material from us,” Cervantes adds. “If they just need to move material from one job to another job that they have, we have the trucks to do that too. Essentially, if they have a need for any type of material or to get rid of any type of material anywhere around town, they can call us.” Recent projects that have used Galo’s materials include the Walmart in Schertz, the IDEA school off Judson Road, an apartment complex near 1604 and Vance Jackson, and several warehouses. Galo Materials sells select fill and topsoil. The company also moves and accepts material. Galo Materials was previously Galo Equipment & Construction. –mh
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
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Expect the unexpected!! by Capt. Steve Schultz Sponsored by: Waypoint Marine, Majek Boats, E-Z Bel Construction, Power Pole Shallow Water Anchor, Aggregate Haulers, ForEverlast Hunting and Fishing Products MirrOlure, and Columbia Sportswear.
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can’t believe that I am saying this, but I’m glad to see deer season come to a close. It’s been a busy couple of months on the road from South Texas to West Texas and back with a few spots in between. Lots of memories made throughout the way with friends, clients and of course my two boys. Both of my boys killed awesome management bucks this year and I must say they are becoming great outdoorsmen. I can’t wait to get them back on the water this spring and summer for some saltwater action. February starts one of the most challenging times of the year to be on the water. Weather can be so unpredictable it is very hard to plan outings in advance. It’s one of those times of the year that you literally have to be ready to go on a mo-
Capt. Steve Schultz holds up his 44in. redfish caught in Baffin Bay on a gambler flappin shad last month. Fish was released after photo by Malek Afram.
ments notice, or perhaps already be here when the weather allows you to fish. That was the case last month when I visited Modern Pawn and Guns Shop and my good friends Malek and Mark Afram, which by the way run one of the best guns shops in South Texas. I got to talking about fishing and how I haven’t been in several months because of guiding hunts all winter and how I had the urge to wet a line. Unfortunately I was boatless at the time after selling mine, and the new one still not rigged. They also were having some withdrawals after a long holiday season, working long hours at the shop and happen to mention that their boat was ready to go. I checked our schedules and glanced at the upcoming weather and a plan was quickly established. Our day started with a cold north breeze and temperatures in the low 50s,
but we knew clear skies would warm us up quickly. After a short ride to Baffin Bay, we eased over the side on the Majek Illusion and began our wade. Fishing was rather slow at the start but we man-
aged to string several specks in the first half hour. After a brief lull in the action I set the hook on what I thought was a trophy trout that about ripped the rod out of my cold hands. After realizing that I had a redfish instead of the trophy trout we were seeking, the excitement went away until the fish emerged in front of me. OMG I shouted, It’s a huge red. Granted I have caught many big redfish before, (up to 48 in.) but all out of the boat. This was by far the largest red I have caught wade fishing. The redfish measured over 44” and weighed over 40 lbs. and after a short photo session it was revived and released back into it’s environment. Whether you’re fishing for trophy trout, or just wanting to catch a few fish for dinner or the freezer, always expect the unexpected. You never know what’s going to be on the end of that line. I have already started to fill the calendar for the upcoming 2016 season. Don’t wait till all the good dates are gone! To schedule your next bay fishing trip give Capt. Steve Schultz a call at 361-8133716 or 361-334-3105 or e-mail him at SteveSchultzOutdoors @ gmail.com. Good luck and Good Fishing.
STEVE SCHULTZ OUTDOORS, LLC BAFFIN BAY –– LAGUNA MADRE –– LAND CUT SPECKLED TROUT –– REDFISH –– FLOUNDER FISHING AND HUNTING TRIPS
(361) 813-3716 www.baffinbaycharters.com steveschultzoutdoors@gmail.com U.S. Coast Guard & Texas Parks and Wildlife Licensed
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Ken Milam’s Fishing Line Since 1981, Ken Milam has been guiding fishing trips for striped bass on Lake Buchanan in the Texas Hill Country,. You can hear Ken on radio on Saturday and Sunday mornings, 6-8 AM on AM 1300, The Zone – Austin, or http://www.am1300the zone.com
C’mon Spring!
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know, spring hasn’t sprung yet but I can feel it coming and I’m just all kinds of excited about it! This will be the first time in five years we have had water in our part of Lake Buchanan! Yes, Buchanan has been low before and came back up before; this certainly isn’t my first rodeo on the back of that nasty bronc. What makes this time special is that our water was gone so long this time. Years of no flooding rains covering up the Colorado River bottom land that our grandfathers once farmed and Native Americans once roamed had begun the process of erasing the fact that a lake had ever been here. The river itself had wavered itself all over the mud flat and chosen a course again and tall willow, cottonwood and sycamore trees had established themselves on the new river banks. Now the flooding of last summer and fall that caused so much hurt and damage for some finally spilled enough water upstream to restore our river and lake to normal levels and return life to our part of the watershed. Everyone up here from the parched ranchers to the anemic tourism industry is breathing a sigh of relief. Even though our rains seem to have already stopped for now, we remain hopeful for more. The exciting part for a fisherman on Lake Buchanan and on Lake Travis too, I expect we have vegetation now covered by water like we have never
Lakebed Oct. 2015
Same lakebed after the lake came back up
seen before. Even when the lakes were brand new and flooded for the first time there was a whole lot of farm land, little settlements and homesteads that were covered up. Even the wilder parts of the new lake bottom had been put to the ax to clear the way for the lakes. They downed everything from scrub cedar to gigantic oaks and pecan trees while the dams were being built. This time the no man’s land that the lake bottom became was allowed to grow in its own wild way. In addition to the impenetrable willow thickets were all kinds of wild scrub brush and wildflowers growing so thick in the rich silt, it often was taller than a man’s head and so thick and tangled that you couldn’t walk through it. Now imagine what a bunch of fish could do with that! As that vegetation decays and enriches the water the whole food chain on the lakes and river from alga on up to shad and all the game fish that feed on them thrive. Plenty to eat and a chance to get back to all the old spawning places mean that there will be all kinds of little fish with plenty of cover to hide and feed and grow. The most exciting part is the larger fish that have been able to grow during the drought because they haven’t been fished and caught as heavily are experiencing good growth and are looking for their next meal. I plan on being there looking for those guys! We are even going to be booking some catfish charters too this year in addition to stripers and hybrids. Spring Break is coming, so grab a kid and your fishing hat and let’s go!
Adventurer in the north
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onnie Furillo, inside sales and traffic manager at Closner Equipment Company, recently got outside for some adventure. On a trip to Alaska, she did some ice fishing and dog sledding. “My son lives in Alaska, and my daughter and I went over the holidays,” says Furillo. “The three of us all feel it was the best Christmas and vacation we have ever had.” They also went skiing, hiking and saw Mt. McKinley. While at the ski resort for New Year’s Eve, they watched fireworks on the mountain. –mh
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Page 17
Submitted to Construction News
Submitted to Construction News
Big-time deer Buster
His buck stopped here
Buster Williams, outside sales and warehouse manager for PMI Sales & Marketing Services, harvested a trophy he can be proud to call his biggest. Shot at the M3 Ranch in Atascosa County, the buck is a main frame 12 with 20 points, scoring 220 1/8 B&C non-typical in the Cola Blanca and Dilly Deer contest. The catch had Williams exclaiming, “It's my buck of a lifetime and is the largest I have seen in 40 years of hunting.” –mh
Trey Hagen, 11-year-old son of Bud Hagen, general parts manager at On-Highway Truck, bagged his first deer, an 8-pointer, in Pleasanton. –mh
Submitted to Construction News
A new Champion hunter
Esai Luna shot this 7-pointer in Hays County on Nov. 23.
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he holiday season was a big first – and second – for Esai Luna, 12-year-old son of Ray Luna, Champion Glass. Just before Thanksgiving, he shot his first buck, and then just after Christmas, he bagged his second. Esai had always looked forward to having this experience with his grandfather, who was an avid hunter. Unfortunately, his grandfather passed away in 2014. Luna assured his son that his grandpa would be proud, and Esai replied that grandpa “is” very happy for him, seeming
to say he was there in spirit. “Esai has picked up a lot of his grandpa’s qualities, and it appears that his hunting skills will be added to that list,” says Luna, whose nephew, Davey Luna, served as Esai’s mentor on both hunts. “It was a hunting season I’ll never forget, and I’m glad to have been a part of it. I’ve always found that sharing these experiences with my kids is always more fun than I remember them being when I was their age.” –mh
From the heart
SpawGlass San Antonio participated in the recent American Heart Association Heart Walk, sponsoring in memory of friend John English, who was a member of the SpawGlass team for 41 years. L-R: Hillary Cadra, Stephanie Dixon, Chuck Calvin, Melodye Tomsu. –mh
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email: info@a-1fireandsafety.com www.A1fireand safety.com Esai and his cousin, Davey, pose with his second deer, a 12-pointer harvested on Dec. 29 on the same ranch in Hays County.
210-342-5518
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Construction News ON LOCATION
Construction News ON LOCATION
Part of the internal structure
A decade standing on three legs
Currently doing survey work at Lackland Air Force Base, GE Reaves Engineering is also working on residential projects. The firm’s projects include several custom homes, doing foundation design, pre-pour inspections and structural. L-R: Jane Mayfield, Wayne Husarik, Brad Parrish, Meri Beth Hart, Karen Eppright, Pat Christian, Karen Crain, Ginny Graygor –mh
A Trimble survey distributor, Martin Instrument has been in San Antonio offering supplies for surveying needs for about 10 years now. L-R: Mark Martinez, Michelle Rolirad, William Wilburn, Mike Minick, Jeff Leggett –mh
Submitted to Construction News
Texas just got greener
The sun rises on a new board
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More than 175 attendees gathered at Sunset station Jan. 18 for the Associated General Contractors (AGC) San Antonio Chapter annual Board of Directors Installation Luncheon. The new board of directors includes L-R: (front row) Kristian Pearson, Joeris General Contractors, immediate past president; Patrick Byrnes, Linbeck; Hilda Ochoa, 8A Electric; Sherrika Arch, Straight Line Management; Mike Kaiman, Turner Construction, president; Blaine Beckman, F.A. Nunnelly Co., secretary/ treasurer; Luis Berumen, Bartlett Cocke General Contractors; (back row) Adam Richie, Coats Rose; Michael Sireno, Baker Triangle, vice president; Albert Gutierrez, Guido Construction; Chris Thiel, Alterman –mh
Did you know?
he U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) strives toward efficiency and sustainability for buildings and their construction, and now the 501c3 has restructured to become more efficient and sustainable in the State of Texas. As of Jan. 1, all of Texas’ previous USGBC chapters were consolidated into the USGBC Texas Chapter with five regional councils to continue representation and association activity across the Lone Star State. The five regions are Gulf Coast, based in Houston; South Texas, based in San Antonio; Central Texas, based in Austin; West Texas, based in El Paso; and North Texas, based in Dallas, the new statewide chapter’s headquarters. “The biggest point of our restructuring here in Texas is being able to be a more efficient and effective organization,” says Jonathan Kraatz, the Texas Chapter executive director, who is based in Dallas. “It allows us the opportunity to centralize our administrative costs and our administra-
tive duties and really gets our volunteers back to working in their communities as their primary focus instead of on administration of the organization.” A LEED Green Associate, Kraatz had been on staff with the USGBC North Texas Chapter since 2010, previously serving as executive director of North Texas before taking on the role of the first executive director of USGBC Texas. He notes that he will be visiting as well as video conferencing regularly with the regional councils. Under the new structure, one of the biggest changes is San Antonio and Austin being separated into their own regions. Previously, they were both covered under a single office, the Central TexasBalcones Chapter. Individual chapter memberships were automatically transferred over to USGBC Texas, and annual membership renewal will continue to be on the anniversary of joining date. –mh
Past editions can be downloaded at www.ConstructionNews.net USGBC’s Texas Merger Taskforce L-R: Joe Riccillo, Sundt Construction, El Paso; David Matiella, UTSA, San Antonio; Pam Carpenter, 7th Generation Design, San Antonio; Brad Garner, W2 Real Estate Partners, Austin; Sergio Grado, Mitsubishi, The Woodlands; Jane Baxter-Lynn, JBL Strategies, Austin; Tim Murray, EYP Architects & Engineers, Houston; David MacLean, Sebesta, Houston; Michelle McEuen, USGBC chapter staff, Dallas; Eloisa Portillo-Morales, City of San Antonio; Heather Holdridge, Lake Flato Architects, San Antonio; Keith Lindemulder, Nucor, Denton; Brian Uhlrich, DBR, San Antonio; Kirk Johnson, Corgan, Dallas; Thom Powell, GFF, Dallas; Jonathan Kraatz, USGBC Texas executive director; Scott Gerhardt, Interceramic, Austin
Map of the new USGBC Texas Regions
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
The power of safety
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At its Excavator Safety Day, CPS Energy simulated what happens when a gas line is struck, doing a mock demonstration of unsafe digging around gas lines as well as the safety and hazard control procedures that follow such a hit.
e’ve all most likely seen the billboards that say “Call 811 before you dig,” but in hosting its Excavator Safety Day Jan. 13, CPS Energy showed contractors and construction crewmembers why this is a necessity and what happens when this simple precaution is foregone. At CPS Energy’s Tuttle Training Facility on Perrin Beitel, the utility provider offered a mock demonstration of heavy equipment coming in contact with underground gas and electric infrastructure. This included simulating an emer-
gency response from CPS and the fire department. Through this simulation program, CPS aimed to educate contractors and their crews about the consequences of the 357 incidents that led to more than $428,400 in damages to CPS Energy underground infrastructure last year. Also, hitting an underground utility line can result in fines, repair costs, loss of service, and serious injuries or fatalities. “The number of incidents has been up slightly from 2014; however, we’ve had an increased amount of activity in
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the area with the growth of the economy,” explains Don Stanton, senior director of Gas Delivery, who adds that in 2015, the number of calls to 811 increased by 23 percent increase from 2014. The safety event promoted 811, a free service to have underground utility infrastructure located before any digging is done on a construction site. Calls to this federally designated call-before-you-dig number must be made at least 48 hours, two business days, before beginning any work to ensure proper response time in locating the underground utility lines. By calling 811, contractors can locate and identify lines to ensure that any digging on the site is done properly and safely to avoid incidents. The event included demonstrations of the two safe methods of excavating in an area where underground utilities have been identified. Those soft digging methods are hand digging, using hand tools alone for excavation, and vacuum excavation, which can use air and vacuum or water and vacuum, also known as hydro excavation. Stanton emphasizes that in the event that someone strikes a gas line or comes in contact with an electrical line, it’s important to report the incident immediately so that CPS can respond, a response that includes several steps, to make the area safe. Intended to prevent incidents completely, he also emphasizes that CPS offers training and education for any company or crew that wants it. “We have a damage prevention and public awareness program, and we offer free presentations to construction crews, companies, contractors – whoever would like it,” he says. “We’ll send a representative out to make a presentation to those companies and those crews. “We are truly committed to zero harm, and that’s to make sure that everyone in the public and every one of our employees and their employees go home safe every day to their families and loved
At the arc and spark demonstration, CPS demonstrated the dangers of getting up close and personal with power lines.
ones. We will partner with anyone out there that wants to get that message out. “We do at least 300 to 400 demonstrations or programs a year with different contractors. We have had a great participation here, and I believe we had over 400 RSVPs for this event alone. We’re hoping to reach more and more every year.” Attendee Chad Brooks, operations manager for InfraSource, Inc., a contractor that does electric and gas installation for CPS Energy, says that he was not aware the program existed and having brought several of the company’s younger foremen to the event to see actual hits, he expressed an interest in it as well as the intention to bring more of the company’s people with him to next year’s event. Following the excavation safety program, CPS did an arc and spark demonstration, showing the potential hazards of overhead electric lines and what can happen if contractors get too close to them, for example, when trimming a tree or if a rope goes over the electric line. “You always want to keep a safe distance if there’s any kind of question as to whether something’s too close. [When] doing anything around the power lines, you can call CPS Energy, and we’ll send someone out to clear that line and clear those branches and be safe about it.” –mh
The Fetzer Companies, Inc. We are hiring a commercial construction superintendent. Must have at least 3 years exerience as a commercial construction superintendent in full charge projects. Send Resume to: penny@fetzercompanies.com
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
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Submitted to Construction News
Industry FOLKS
Southwell’s fourth generation
Adrianna Kee Engraver Alamo Stamp & Engraving
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his past Christmas, the Yeti Rambler was a popular item, and some were even customized with a personal engraving. At Alamo Stamp & Engraving, Adrianna Kee is behind the lasers that have etched more than 3,000 of those tumblers. Having started out as an apprentice under her brother, James Kee, who is now one of the owners, she learned how to engrave and take over for him when he became an owner. But when they received an influx of Yeti orders, all of her time turned toward engraving the Yetis, personalizing them and perfecting the craft. Today, she has three lasers that she runs constantly and with the help of an attachment, she can engrave up to six Yeti Ramblers at once. “What I love the most about it is how personal it can be,” she says, noting that though they do some large corporate orders, they also have people come in to get a Yeti engraved for their spouses or loved ones as gifts. Before coming on board at Alamo Stamp & Engraving, Kee was in the Army for six years. She enlisted when she was about 17, and while in basic training, she met her wife. Kee recalls that they hit it off right away. They’ve been together for six years and married for three. For about five years, they lived in Ohio, since her wife is from Columbus. Though she discovered after joining the Army that she was medically
ineligible for deployment, she remembers having some pretty interesting experiences with her unit. “We actually went down to the valley a couple of times to give free medical aid to all of the residents in that area,” she says. “It was pretty interesting meeting a mix of different people and interacting with them. It was incredibly eye opening. Officially, I was a chemical operations specialist, but I was attached to a medical unit. So while we were on these missions, I was more of a medical soldier.” Kee is a lifelong band geek who loves playing and listening to music. In school, her primary instrument was the French horn, and in middle school, she picked up the trumpet. Kee and her wife have a 4-year-old daughter, Allison, who loves her dance class at daycare, and she spends a lot of her spare time chasing their daughter around. “I honestly can say that I really do love what I’m doing and where I’m working,” she says. “Eloina [Benavides] and James, aside from the fact that they’re family, it’s just a really great welcoming and open place to work. Nobody there has any sort of issues with my being gay or anything like that. They’re all very open and open-minded, and it’s a fantastic thing.” –mh
Moving into a ‘green’ market
L-R: Scott and Billy Southwell, The Southwell Co., are surrounded by photos of the past generations in the family business – and one of themselves with their father – at the office as the company celebrates 150 years in the industry. –mh
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Luis Higareda is leading the way for NOVIDESA’s entry to the San Antonio market.
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n June of last year, NOVIDESA opened a showroom on NE Loop 410 to bring the supplier’s products, which are focused on energy efficiency, to the Alamo City, which Luis Higareda, general manager of the new branch, observes is also a “green city.” The first city to adopt the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) in Texas, San Antonio stands out to Higareda as an important market for distribution and economy. He studied economics at ITESM, Monterrey Technical Institute. He says that the panel products that NOVIDESA manufactures for each project, sells and trains contractors to install are sustainable and can reduce AC consumption up to 40 percent without increasing the cost of the project. He adds, “The advantage is that it’s tongue and groove as is required by the 2015 IECC.” Higareda trains contractors to install
the product and keeps a list of contractors trained to install it. With products geared toward sustainable solutions for rooftops, subfloors and walls, that list includes concrete, drywall and insulation contractors for commercial and residential projects. NOVIDESA’s product was installed in two large homes in Boerne in 2010, which sparked interest in opening a local office. Since opening here, NOVIDESA has become involved with a tilt-up project and four houses in historical downtown. Higareda has been in the construction industry since 1986. He relocated to San Antonio from McAllen with his wife, Esteher and their 10-year-old son, Luis. NOVIDESA is based in Mexico with offices in Pharr and San Antonio. The company is a supplier of sustainable panels and insulated concrete forms (ICF), including mezzanine panel, insulating plates and formwork for walls. –mh
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
The coolest expo in town
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he Texas Air Conditioning Contractors Association (TACCA) Greater San Antonio Chapter hosted its third biennial South Texas HVAC Expo Jan. 13 at Alzafar Shrine. Dawn Thompson, executive director, observed that the event drew a lot of new faces this year. Approximately 450 attendees gathered to meet with 50 exhibitors and sit in on several educational programs held throughout the day. This was the first time the expo has provided lunch, Bill Miller’s barbecue, for everyone. The event finished with some spicy fun - a hot wing-eating contest that boasted Spurs tickets as prizes. –mh
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t Construction News, we receive several questions from our readers each month, and often readers inquire as to how to get the paper. We are very happy to say that our website, www. constructionnews.net, makes it easy to get copies and subscriptions. Here are a couple of those frequently asked questions and their answers. How do I subscribe to the paper? On our website, go to the menu bar and click “Subscribe.” Fill out the subscription form. The subscription is free upon approval. You can only get a free subscription if your office is located in the area of the paper for which you are requesting a subscription. Please check the county listings for your city/paper to make sure you are in that coverage area. If you are approved, you will receive the next month’s issue in the mail. If you apply after the 20th of the month, you will receive the issue following the next month’s paper. Free subscriptions are given to company decision makers, such as presidents, CEOs, vice presidents and branch managers. Only one free subscription is allowed per location. Free subscriptions are not approved for companies that are outside the construction industry or for employees, other than decision makers, of a company. Free subscriptions for residential contractors are only given in San Antonio. If you are not approved for a subscription, you can request a paid subscription for
$35 for the year per city, payable by PayPal, or you can choose one of the following options. Read on for details. How do I get copies of the paper? People who would like copies of the paper have a few choices. For starters, you can pick up free copies at any of our rack locations. On our website, go to the menu bar and click “Rack Locations.” Select your city. The map will display all of the rack locations in your surrounding area. There are many racks in each city in offices, shops and other supplier and vendor locations. Those locations only carry the paper for that area. Also, you can download a free PDF copy of the paper. On our website, go to the top right corner and click “Paper Archives.” Digital versions of each paper for each city going back to 2001 are available for download from our online archives. Furthermore, you can request a digital reprint of an article, often used for framing. These are digital versions of the complete article, full size and full color, with the masthead from the issue in which the article appeared. On our website, go to the top right corner and click “Digital Reprints.” To order a digital reprint, fill out the reprint form. The charge for a digital reprint is $42 plus tax, and the form will redirect to PayPal. Upon payment, you will receive a PayPal receipt. Your digital reprint will be delivered by email soon after. –mh
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
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A grand builders gala
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he Greater San Antonio Builders Association (GSABA) hosted its annual Holiday Gala Dec. 4 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel downtown. The event included the installation of officers and awards. The membership grand prizewinner received a 2016 Chevy Cruze. –mh
2016 Executive Committee
Builder of the Year Tim Pruski
Inaugural Becky Oliver Lifetime Achievement Award Becky Oliver
Steve Louis, President Wayne Moravits, First Vice President Bryan Smith, Vice President Treasurer Jeff Buell, Vice President Secretary Scott Whisenant, Associate Vice President Frank Sitterle Jr., Immediate Past President Dominick Alongi, Past Associate Vice President George McNair, Past President Representative David Anderson, Builder Representative (second year) Michael Moore, Builder Representative (first year) Kristi Sutterfield, Executive Vice President
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Passing the gavel to 2016
The 2016 MCA-SMACNA Board of Directors L-R: Andy Rodriguez, Mechanical Reps, director; Kyle Pennington, A.J. Monier Service Company, vice president; Roger Ford, DSI, president; John Gargotta, SMG, immediate past president; (not pictured) Matt Summerville, Brandt, secretary/treasurer
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he Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contractors (MCA-SMACNA) of San Antonio held their Christmas party Dec. 16 at Oak Hills Country Club. Approximately 150 attendees enjoyed a steak dinner and a chance to win prizes. At the luncheon, the new board of directors was inducted. John Gargotta, Service Mechanical Group (SMG), received a plaque in appreciation of his service as president in 2015, and he passed the gavel to Roger Ford, Dynamic Systems Inc. (DSI). –mh
Tezel & Cotter L-R: Paul Tezel and Ramon Brison
continued from Page 1 — A first of their own construction company in Austin. Mantor also has a daughter, Cassie, who graduated from Texas A&M University with several equestrian national championships under her belt. HMC built the 19-stall equestrian rehab facility she owns and operates today. Mantor and his wife have six horses of their own at home, and Angie spends most of her time working with them. In the early ‘80s, Mantor ran racehorses. Though they won several big races and he had a lot of fun, he says he grew tired of it, noting, “It’s seven days a week every day of the year, so it gets old.” Today, at 53, Mantor is an avid team roper. “That takes up most of my time. We try practicing three, four nights a week, and we’re on the road a lot. And I golf and hunt when I can.”
Last year, when he was offered the chance to build a house for Helping A Hero, a nonprofit that provides specially adapted homes for qualifying service members, he did not hesitate to help give back to a veteran. Gathering several subcontractors, he got nearly 80 percent donated to build a specially adapted house in Bandera for retired Sgt. Edward Matayka, a wounded warrior, his wife, Karen, and their 2-year-old twins. HMC has donated to other organizations as well. Huband-Mantor Construction is a commercial and residential general contractor that offers design build services. The company does remodeling, new construction and interior finish out. –mh
continued from Page 1 — Adapting to change
L-R: Wally Bomhoff and Andy Luke, Trane; Michael Cervera, Johnson Controls
L-R: Scott and Jordan Wunsch, LWA; Randy Mann, Romar Supply
many general contractors doing adaptations with Adapt A Vet. The 501c3 nonprofit organization started Jul. 1, 2015 with the mission statement: “What freedom looks like at home.” Mike points out that they adapt homes for veterans that are at least 70 percent disabled of all time periods, not just post9/11. Always looking for help and donations in the construction world, such as materials and volunteer subcontractors, Adapt A Vet crews widen doorways, install ramps, widen the showers to fit wheelchairs or put in a bench, and install grab bars among other adaptations. They also adapt the home for service animals and can connect the veterans with organizations that provide service animals.
“One of our missions is to cut the suicide rate down,” says Mike. “It’s 22 per day, 1.2 million since 1999. A lot of those are Vietnam vets. Those guys feel like they’ve been forgotten. So, now they know that there’s an organization out there ready to help them.” Jeff Raglan, executive director of Adapt A Vet, adds that it is believed that introducing a service animal into the operation and vet’s home reduces the suicide rate to near zero. He also credits MJC with providing rent-free office and hosting Adapt A Vet’s operations. MJC Construction Services is a residential and commercial general contractor. The company is HUB certified and is a WBE and EBE. –mh
continued from Page 1 — WC’s fair share the heart of downtown and a high-traffic tourist area. “The public is there, walking around, and so the first thing you have to consider is the public’s safety,” he says. “We’re going up and down sidewalks on South Alamo, which runs right next to the Magik Theatre. So you’ve got tons of kids being offloaded on buses, and you have tons of activity going on downtown. When [the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center] had Comic Con, there was a ton of people walking back and forth during that time. So, you just have to really take the public safety in consideration first and foremost.” With Hemisfair Plaza open during the construction in the park and around WC Solutions worked on several aspects of the exterior restoration and stabilization of 10 historic homes in Hemisfair Park. the homes, Lamar had to be very considerate of the public and tourists when using equip- neers did the MEP engineering. As for the owners, Roger Tavares represented the ment and personnel. For this project, WC Solutions in- City of San Antonio and Brian Orebaugh stalled and maintained tree protection represented Hemisfair. While on this project, Lamar spoke to fencing and ground covering for approxi- mately 30 trees. A list of WC Solutions Curt Stoddard, JC Stoddard, every day subcontractors included Cribley Enter- and recalls that he received a lot of suppises, who installed 5,731sf of pavers, port as a small general contractor. With which included excavation and haul off 20-plus years as a military construction of 5.5 inches existing soil. South Texas manager, Lamar says that Stoddard menConcrete Specialists installed approxi- tored him and taught him a lot about gomately 25 cubic yards of concrete flat ing forward toward becoming a big genwork and 203 cubic yards of concrete eral contractor on the civilian side. curbing. Vestal Steel installed a steel rail- Stoddard was impressed with Laing for an ADA ramp, and Republic Steel mar’s tireless work ethic, noting, “It’s abinstalled structural support beams for solutely great working with him. I don’t roof reinforcement and bollards. K Con- have to check back with him. He just gets struction Cleaning did the homes interi- it done.” Established in 2009, WC Solutions is a or construction cleaning. WC Solutions worked under JC Stod- service-disabled veteran-owned general dard Construction, the prime general contractor. The company also handles contractor on the project. Fisher Heck equipment procurement. –mh Architects did the architecture for the project and Cleary Zimmermann Engi-
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
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Construction Safety Keepers of their brothers and sisters Mike Gunter, Vice President of Safety Yates Construction San Antonio, TX
Randy Powell, Senior Vice President Texas Division Yates Construction San Antonio, TX
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n 2014, Yates Construction began formalizing its safety processes and programs. Unsatisfied with an incident rate of .41 – which Mike Gunter, vice president of safety, notes is many times below the national average – Yates implemented fully documented processes through three programs that reduced that rate to .27 by early 2015. “By design, safety is Yates Construction’s number one core value and an integral part of our day-to-day operations,” explains Randy Powell, senior vice president of the Texas Division. “This culture of safety has been recognized many times, most recently as one of only nine recipients in the country to be selected for the prestigious 2015 ABC National Safety Pinnacle Award as a result of our continued commitment to jobsite safety, exemplary safety performance and programs.” The construction safety culture that earned Yates this honor is comprised of the Blue Vest Monitoring, Family Pledge and Brother’s Keeper (and Sister’s Keeper) programs. All of the above focus on behavior rather than punitive action.
While punitive action is sometimes necessary, Yates uses it as a last resort. Preferring to focus on areas of higher risk, Yates has found that the company needs to spend the majority of its time and safety education on new employees. The Blue Vest Monitoring Program is aimed at acclimating new people to Yates’ safety culture, specifically those with less than one year at Yates, and more so, those with the company for less than six months. One key step to emphasizing and encouraging safety on the job is to make sure new hires are identifiable on the job site. As the name of the program suggests, Yates’ new employees wear a blue vest on site. If a client asks that all crewmembers wear the standard yellow vests, then Yates will use a different identifier for the new hires, such as colored stripes on their hard hats. When the employees are on the job, they see a new hire in the blue vest and know that they need to be their brother’s (or sister’s) keeper and pay special attention to that person. New employees also
A safety mindset Terry Buza, Director of HSE Slack & Co. Contracting Inc. Houston, TX
What kind of safety training do Slack & Co. Contracting employees participate in during the year? We are proactive about safety training. Every employee that works for Slack & Co. receives the OSHA 10-hour training and every foreman and above receives the OSHA 30-hour training. Our foremen and lead men also get excavation, confined space and first aid/ CPR training. Our equipment operators receive hands-on training. Additionally, each of our crews includes a minimum of two people who have completed an 8-hour rigging class that focuses on safely placing utilities in the ground. We utilize a third party safety consulting company to assist us with our training and to conduct jobsite audits for us.
What can be done to increase safety awareness? We conduct our training classes in both English and Spanish, and give our employees visual aids to reinforce key messages. This is important since a high percentage of Slack & Co employees are Hispanic. We hold off-site safety meetings four times a year that all employees (field and office) are required to attend. These meetings are designed to increase awareness of how easily incidents can occur and how to avoid them. Every one of our employees has the responsibility and authority to halt work when they feel unsafe conditions exist. Our goal is to create a mindset whereby everyone incorporates safety into his or her work. It’s a constant process.
go through an additional orientation that addresses new hires, expectations of them and the Blue Vest Monitoring Program. After a couple of weeks, as the new employee becomes acclimated to Yates’ policies on safety and health, the superintendent can take them in to re-test them on their grasp of this culture. This is also reinforced by a second orientation. After several months, the supervisor can allow the employee to attempt to test out of the blue vest. If they are still struggling with their grasp on the procedures, the employee will continue to wear their blue vest or stripe. Additionally, Yates has what it calls a safety task assessment process. “The safety task assessment process is a document that’s filled out in real time before work to address the known anticipated risk of the job that the employees are going to be performing for the day,” explains Mike Gunter, vice president of safety. “It’s also opened up for the employees to ask questions or to provide input. In addition to identifying those potential at-risk situations that may be encountered, the supervisor also offers up the ways that we will manage or mitigate those anticipated risks. Meaning that we all get on the same page before we begin work in the mornings. We know what our expectations are. We know what we anticipate as a risk. We identify how we’re going to be able to either mitigate it or through another means manage it, and the employees then sign off, stating that they understand that. “To make sure of that, we assign a mentor to each new hire employee on that safety task assessment process so that during the day, if any one of the new hires has a question, they can go to Mary, their supervisor, and say, ‘I know we talked about this this morning, but I’m not really clear, and I want to make sure I do this right.’ So, they’re allowed to freely ask questions and allow us to coach them through the process.” Another program is Brother’s Keeper, which also has a version for the ladies, Sister’s Keeper. In this program, employees commit to be their brother’s keeper.
This means that if they see any employee, new or not, in the field doing something they consider at-risk, those employees are willing to intervene, identify the potential risk, and work with the employee to find a safer way to do it. Part of this commitment includes the employees’ willingness to accept comments about making their job safer. Yates gives program-themed T-shirts to those that commit to this program. While fellow employees try to look out for each other and make sure everyone goes home to their family after a safe workday, the Family Pledge Program extends the promise to be safe to the family at home. Yates asks employees to voluntarily commit in a one-page document to work safely every day so that they can go home to their spouses, significant others, children or parents and other loved ones. Then, the employees take the pledge home for their family and loved ones to sign as a commitment to ask them every day if they worked safely that day. This also gives the people at home ideas about what to ask, such as “Did you wear your hard hat and your safety glasses?” and helps them keep the employee accountable and responsible for working safely. Yates sends themed T-shirts to the employees and each family member at home for this program as well. All of these safety measures led to the .14 decrease in the company’s incident rate, as Gunter points out, “There was a marked improvement to year ending ’15. We were significantly lower on our number of near hits. That’s an event that’s occurred where there could have been property damage or personal injury but there was not. We saw our incidents with injury drop. And on our lost time rate, we’ve always been right at or around zero.” Celebrating its 52nd anniversary, Yates Construction is a commercial general contractor with offices in San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth. Based in Mississippi, the company also has locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Mexico. –mh
What are the major risks in construction? Workers can fall or be electrocuted. They can also get caught between or struck by equipment. Since multiple trades work simultaneously on one jobsite, we teach our people to constantly lookout for other contractors’ people, equipment and materials. How important is a good safety record in the construction industry? A good safety record is very important. The GC’s we work with expect us to maintain an excellent safety record. They cannot afford to have unsafe people or work conditions on their jobs.
when an unsafe condition occurs.
What is the most significant challenge the safety industry faces? One of the challenges we face is the increased number of unskilled workers on a jobsite. Often they are not familiar with the safety risks that exist on a jobsite, or the situations that require extra caution to avoid an incident. To address this, all our new employees must attend a New Hire Safety orientation before they can go to the field. The language barrier is another challenge, since everyone on a jobsite must be able to communicate with others
What is rewarding about your job? I sell safety every day and I love it. Years ago when I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, a mentor introduced me to the safety industry. And thanks to him, I found my niche and I have been doing this for 27 years now. What is on the horizon for construction safety? The construction industry is headed towards more stringent safety requirement than ever before. Owners and developers are more safety conscious. And, OSHA regulations are becoming stricter. Companies with excellent safety records will be rewarded with more work opportunities. That means, if we want to be the contractor of choice, we will be the safest. Slack & Co Contracting is a prime and specialty contractor on public and private projects. The company works in densely populated, tightly confined areas like the Texas Medical Center, the Galleria and downtown Houston, as well as in the middle of wide-open fields. The majority of the company’s work is performed in the south and east regions of Texas. –ab
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Construction Safety Risk: Identify it and reduce it David P. Consider, CSP Director – Safety & Facilities Briggs Equipment Dallas, TX
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hat are the major risks in construction? Construction sites are a health and safety nightmare, as almost every conceivable hazard exists within this constantly changing work environment. So, I will answer this question two ways: 1: The top four causes of construction fatalities are falls, struck-by, caught-in/between and electrocutions. 2: The main hazards encountered on a typical construction site are working at heights; moving objects; slips, trips and falls; noise; hand/arm vibration; material and manual handling; trench collapse; asbestos; airborne fibers and materials; and electricity. What are ways to reduce risk? Ways to identify and reduce risk are
through “JHA’s” (job hazard analysis), regular inspections and training. How important is a good safety record in the construction industry? The construction industry has, in addition to the moral commitment, an economic incentive to help reduce the number of accidents that occur on construction projects. The high cost of accidents gives owners and operators of construction companies a good reason to concern themselves with the safety efforts of the contractors they hire and ensure they have a record of good safety performance. This requires attention during the processes of qualifying contractors for bidding work and selecting contractors for a contract award. A prospective contractor with a history of good safety performance is more likely to perform safely in the future than a contractor with a
Effective safety training strategies Anna Pelletier, CSM National Association of Safety, Board member, Shelby, NC Liberty Construction, Boston, MA
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ithin the construction industry, shout-outs like “be safe,” “safety first,” “zero tolerance” and so on are ever plentiful. Marketing endeavors to share the message include catchy phrases, slogans, stickers, and gifts to reward, promote and highlight any and all safetysuccess moments. While there is merit to spreading the news, it is equally important to ensure that, along with a campaign, education is a key component in promoting safe practices. Such education can stem from in-house training programs and on-site refresher courses conducted by safety managers, or by outsourcing with consultants for observation, analysis, and recommendations. Recent statistics reveal a disturbing fact – over half of all construction injuries and fatalities are due to lack of or improper training. Therefore, an effective training program must be your top priority. There are a variety of training programs that range from an introduction and overview of a topic (i.e. tool box meetings) to more in-depth content where one receives a certification. Training programs are available in electronic form, for those who are working and find it challenging to attend classes in person. For example, project administrators can take on-line courses in construction ter-
minology and HR personnel might be interested in current behavior-based safety studies. It’s common for construction companies to require that employees complete their OSHA 10 Outreach training; this hazard awareness training is available on-site by safety trainers, on-line and offered through many schools of higher education. A company must ensure that the instructors are certified to teach and that the methodology used is appropriate and adheres to current standards. When considering the options of safety training programs, you must know your audience. Will the training be for craft workers at a large hospital-remodeling project that involves working near sterile environments or catered to office personnel with the focus on active shooter and hostile situations? Upon completion of the training will participants earn CEU’s, or will refresher courses be led by in-house safety trainers and attendance entered into a company database? Specialized training can include First Aid and CPR, Confined Space Entry, Material Handling Equipment, Rigging and Signaling, Scaffolding, HAZCOM, OSHA Recordkeeping, Silica Safety, Emergency Response, PPE and ANSI standards to name a few. Be certain that the training is specific to the hazard, the process, and equipment. For
poor, or less-than-average, safety record. Several relatively objective measures of past safety performance are available, notably the “EMR” (experience modification rate) which is applied to workers’ compensation premiums, and OSHA recordable injury and illness incidence rates. Both may be obtained from contractors. Both indicate a contractor’s accident experience on past work. How does construction safety impact your company? We are impacted by the construction industry by the equipment we sell, rent and supply parts for, and ensuring it is inspected on a regular basis, functioning properly by performing OM (operational maintenance), and the people operating this equipment are trained. Does an increase in volume of construction affect safety? Absolutely. Any time there is an increase in equipment, miles driven, people and man-hours worked, there is always an increase in risk and exposure. example, if a sub-contractor brings a scissor lift onto your site, individuals must be trained on that particular scissor lift. Training must include the practical operation of the lift by someone who is familiar with the equipment along with the proper documentation. Take into consideration the following: • Which type of training would be most beneficial, in-house, on-line or outsourced to professionals with experience in the subject matter? • Is the training affordable and does the investment make economic sense for yourself and your company? • If the decision is to use in-house safety trainers, are they familiar with the content and will they present in a way that captures the attention of attendees? • Is the subject matter relevant? • Is the material current and viewer friendly, (it can be extremely disappointing to pay for thrown together binders, copied pages laden with typos and boring power point presentations)? • Are the tools and equipment being used clean and in good condition? Social media can prove valuable when opting for networking opportunities to learn about safety training programs. However, be cautious of selecting offers that sound too good to be true and take the time to vet the program or the instructor. Endorsements from safety professionals within your network are significant, read reviews and ask questions. Inquire about associations that are recognized and in good standing. Membership with them can work in your favor as one can take advantage of webinars, conferences, and continuing education programs. Assistant Department of Labor Secretary David Michaels recently said, “We
What can be done to increase safety awareness and create a safe work environment? Hire competent workers; insist on safety in the workplace by practicing what you preach (“walk the talk”); post signs; give workers the tools and resources they need to be safe; continuously find ways to improve; keep a clean house; provide maintenance on all machines and equipment; reward safety and train – and then do more training. Briggs Equipment is a materials handling equipment provider, offering shortterm rentals, parts sales, service equipment, new and used premier materials handling equipment sales and fleet management strategies. In addition to locations throughout seven other southern states, Briggs Equipment offers Texas locations in Abilene, Austin, Beaumont, Brownsville, College Station, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Freeport, Houston, Laredo, McAllen/Pharr and San Antonio. –mjm
are seeing untrained workers – many of them temporary workers – killed very soon after starting a new job. This must stop. Employers must train all employees, including temporary workers, on the hazards specific to that workplace – before they start working. The bottom line is this: training is arguably the most important element of an effective safety program. It’s not an area to cut corners or take lightly. Take the time to qualify yourself to provide the training in-house or choose an outside vendor whose training is quality, reputable and cost-effective.” Anna Pelletier, a native of Prescott, AZ holds the position of National Corporate Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator at Liberty Construction (a division of Suffolk Construction). Anna graduated Summa Cum Laude at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT and is furthering her studies in Occupational Safety and Health at Columbia Southern University. She currently sits as a member on the National Association of Safety Professionals (NASP) Board of Advisors. NASP is a non-profit membership organization providing training, consultative services, and third-party certifications that validate knowledge, skills and abilities in the area of workplace safety. The primary mission of NASP is to provide safety professionals with innovative training opportunities and professional certification to assist them in carrying out their safety related functions with confidence and proven competence. NASP offers workplace safety and environmental safety courses and certifications for general industry, the construction industry, and the petroleum industry. For more information, visit them at www. naspweb.com.
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Page 27
What is your favorite dessert? It didn’t have a title when I was a kid. My mom had found it in a recipe book somewhere with no title, so she called it “Roger’s favorite dessert.” It is a crushed graham cracker crust, and then the middle is a consistency of basically chocolate pudding and vanilla ice cream, and then the top layer is whipped cream and then it has chocolate sprinkles or chocolate shavings on top of that. That was my go-to for every birthday that I can remember. Roger Haydon, Lone Star Paving
My favorite dessert is red velvet cake, because my neighbor has a kid, just really knew how to make it. And now I’m addicted [laughs]. Walter Lamar, WC Solutions
My favorite dessert is a molten chocolate lava cake, because when it’s made right, the cake itself is really soft, but then you have this really ooey, gooey, chocolate-y center. It’s awesome. Adrianna Kee Alamo Stamp & Engraving
Baba au rhum. It’s like an Italian puff pastry made in Naples, which is something you very rarely find unless you’re there. Sometimes I make it, but it doesn’t come out right all the time [laughs]. Silvana Nappo, USS Panel
Pecan pie, because it tastes so good. I just had some on Christmas. Anthony Heye Jr., Planet Pickup
Extra Papers?
It would have to be apple pie. It’s almost sweet and tart at the same time, and then it attains perfection when you add the ice cream to it. Emily Rhodes Upright Cleaning Services
My favorite dessert is banana’s foster. I have a good friend that makes it homemade, and I just love it. But I can’t eat it very often [laughs]. John Casstevens Joeris General Contractors
I’m going to say Boston cream pie, and why, I have no idea. Curt Stoddard JC Stoddard Construction My favorite dessert is anything with chocolate on it, and it usually has four or six spoons to go with it, and the reason is because that way I can take a bite and let everyone else eat it. Steve Spinn, Lone Star Paving Banana pudding. It has to be ice cold with a glass of milk. That’s euphoria right there. My grandmother would bake banana pudding on Sundays, and it would be gone by dinner on Sunday. Chris Sanford, VIP Commercial Vanilla ice cream. It’s not too fancy. It’s just the flavor I like. Jorge Olivares, HMG & Associates I guess it’s coconut cream pie, because it just tastes so great. I love the filling. I love the crust. And I love the cream on top of it. It’s just great. And the problem with me is I love all sorts of sweets. Everybody knows that at the office. Charles Timms, Timms Trucking
Pecan pie. Why? I don’t know. I just like pecan pie. Bobby Neuse, IES Commercial Pineapple Upside Down Cake is my favorite. It’s that tropical sweetness of that pineapple together that delectable cake with a bit of brown sugar topped with a glass of milk – scrumptious! Eva Ramirez, RVK Architects Crème brûlée, because it is the perfect sweetness! Meghan R. Lannom, RVK Architects German Chocolate Cake…you don’t need a reason why! Joe Cannata, RVK Architects Without a doubt…Oreo’s and a glass of milk. Of course, I dunk them until they’re soft then eat them. Just don’t ask me how many I eat in one sitting. Kyle M. Trepagnier, RVK Architects Crème brûlée – it’s creamy and crunchy at the same time, and you can’t beat the taste of vanilla! Oh, and it’s like having candy and pudding all at one time! Rosie Hartman, RVK Architects
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Round-Up Mark Tomlinson has joined KCI Technologies Inc. as a regional practice leader. He will be responsible for growing the multidisciplined firm’s presence in Texas and its offices in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Irving. Previously, he worked for TxDOT for nearly three decades. He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas. He also graduated from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ National Transportation Leadership Institute. David Neumann, PE, has joined Vickrey & Associates as a senior project manager of transportation. With more than 20 years of project management experience, he has more than 13 years of experience working for TxDOT’s Waco District. He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M University in 1993. Gerald Hill, CPA, CFF, has joined Ridout Barrett & Co. as the head of the firm’s Litigation Support and Forensic Team. Formally with the certified public accounting firm of Hill & Ford PC, he brings 40 years of experience to Ridout Barrett.
O’Connell Robertson announces: Ted Davison, HFDP, LEED AP, has been named a principal. With the firm for more than 14 years, he is a mechanical designer. He earned a Healthcare Facility Design Professional (HFDP) designation from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and a Higher National Diploma in Building Services Engineering from Brighton University in the U.K. Jarrod Sterzinger, AIA, LEED AP, has been named a principal. With the firm for more than seven years, he is a registered architect with more than 16 years experience as an architect and project manager. He earned a master’s degree in architecture and a master’s of business from Texas Tech University. He is also NCARB certified.
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Association Calendar
Content submitted by Associations to Construction News ABC Associated Builders & Contractors
Events are held at the ABC office unless otherwise stated. Feb. 11: Casino Mixer; Greater San Antonio Builders Association Building; 3:306:30pm; for more information, email Ruby Trejo at ruby@abcsouthtexas.org Feb. 13: OSHA 10-Hour; for more information, email Chris Preetorius at chris@ abcsouthtexas.org Feb. 22-24: OSH311 Fall Protection Training; for more information, email Chris Preetorius at chris@abcsouthtexas.org Feb. 25: OSH725 Health Hazard Awareness; for more information, email Chris Preetorius at chris@abcsouthtexas.org Feb. 26: OSH750 Introduction to Safety and Health Management; for more information, email Chris Preetorius at chris@ abcsouthtexas.org
AGC Associated General Contractors
Events are held at the AGC office unless otherwise stated. Feb. 12: Outstanding Construction Awards Applications Due, 8am-5pm Feb. 25: Salsa Taste-Off Mixer; Architectural Division 8, 2425 Brockton Drive, Suite 101; 5-7pm; to submit salsa or to be a sponsor, call 210-349-4921 or e-mail kwilson@sanantonioagc.org; deadline to enter salsa is Feb. 22.
AIA American Institute of Architects
Feb. 22: Monthly Chapter meeting; Luby’s, 911 N. Main Avenue; noon-1pm; no RSVP required; for more information, visit www.aiasa.org
ASA American Subcontractors Association
Feb. 16: General Membership meeting, The Barn Door, 6pm Feb. 23: Lunch & Learn: Surety Bonds, Pappadeaux’s Restaurant on 410, 11:30am Feb. 25: Safety Training Course; A/C Technical Services, 15425 Hwy 90 W, Castroville; 9am-2:30pm Mar. 10: 21st Annual Excellence in Construction Awards; Pearl Stable, 307 Pearl Pkwy; 6pm cocktails, 7pm dinner, 7:45 program; $95 per guest, $950 per table of 10, includes entertainment, cocktails and dinner; coat and tie requested, black tie optional; to RSVP by Feb. 29, contact Jennifer at 210-349-2105 or jennifer@asasanantonio.org
CFMA Construction Financial Mgmt Assn.
Feb. 23: Chapter Luncheon; Petroleum Club, 8620 N. New Braunfels; 11:30am1pm; to RSVP, contact Stephanie at 210828-6281, ext. 1575, or stephanie.harms@ padgett-cpa.com
GSABA Greater San Antonio Builders Assn.
Feb. 18: Building Believers monthly meeting, guest speakers TBD, GSABA Ballroom, 11:30am-1pm; Membership Mixer, 5:30pm Feb. 29, Mar. 7: OSHA Worksite Compliance Training #1; GSABA; 10:30am4:30pm; limited seating; 10-Hour certification (5 hours each day); for more information, email Trevor Whitney at twhitney@sabuilders.com
HCA de San Antonio
free for members, $10 for non-members; presentations by Bexar County representatives Feb. 25, Mar. 3, 10, 24: OSHA 30-Hour, $200 for members, $300 for non-members; space limited To register or for more information on these events, visit www.hcadesa.org, email admin@hcadesa.org or call 210444-1100
IEC Independent Electrical Contractors
Events are held at the IEC office unless otherwise stated. Feb. 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18: Journeyman/ Master Prep Class, 5-9pm Feb. 20: Electrical Maintenance Technician Class, 8am-5pm Feb. 22: Continuing Education Class, 5-9pm Mar. 19: 16th Annual Barbecue Cook-Off & Apprentice Competition, Helotes Festival Grounds, 10am-6pm For more information on these events, call 210-431-9861 or www.iecsanantonio. com
MCA–SMACNA Mechanical Contractors Association Sheet Metal & A/C Nat’l Assn.
Feb. 3: Regular and Associates Meeting, Oak Hills Country Club, 11:30am Feb. 10: Labor/Management meeting, MCA-SMACNA office, 11am Feb. 17: Joint Industry Fund meeting, Oak Hills Country Club, 11:30am
NAWIC Nat’l Assn. of Women in Construction
Feb. 3: General meeting, Petroleum Club, 5:30pm Feb. 14: Anti-Valentine’s Day Mixer, COVER 3, 5-7pm Feb. 18: New Member Luncheon, Petroleum Club of San Antonio 11am-1pm Mar. 2-12: WIC Week Mar. 2: General meeting/Industry Awards Night, Petroleum Club, 6-8pm Mar. 5: Community Outreach Mar. 9: Industry Certification and Education; Workplace Resource; Lunch ‘n’ Learn; Lien Law Presentation, PEANUTs and bolts of M&M’s liens: How to get your client paid without getting your hands messy; presentation by Sean B. McNelis; $25 for members, $30 for nonmembers Mar. 10: Career Day at CCA; Construction Careers Academy; 11:35am-1:20pm; speakers are Hilary Scruggs, Operative Ventures, and Julie Howard, IEC; lunch provided by Culinary Arts students Mar. 11: Golf Tournament; Silverhorn Golf Club; 11am registration opens with lunch, 12:30pm shotgun start Mar. 12: Wine Down & Design, Stray Grape, 3-6pm
PHCC Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors
Feb. 6, 20: Plumber’s Continuing Ed class; PHCC office; for more information, visit www.phcc-tx.org Feb. 11: Membership meeting, Petroleum Club, 11am; subject is Legionnaire’s Disease Mar. 10: Fleet & Accessory Showcase; Coliseum Expo Hall; 3-7pm; vendor space still available For more information on these events, visit www.phcc-sanantonio.org
SAMCA
Hispanic Contractors Association
San Antonio Masonry Contractors Assn.
Events are held at the new office, 101 W. Euclid Ave., unless otherwise stated. Feb. 8: Why Do Salespeople Fail? Training Class; 9-10:30am; presentation by Sandler Training; free for members, $10 for nonmembers; free Breakfast; space limited Feb. 10-11: OSHA 10-Hour in Spanish; free; 8:30am-5pm on Feb. 10, 8:30amnoon on Feb. 11; to register, email safetytraining@tdi.texas.gov Feb. 17: Monthly Meeting/Mixer; The Quarry Golf Club, 444 E. Basse Rd.; 6-8pm;
Feb. 24: Membership meeting; Pappadeaux Restaurant, 76 NE Loop 410; noon; $30 per person; for more information, call Debbie at 830-606-5556
SDA Society for Design Administration
Feb. 25: Monthly Chapter Luncheon; noon-1pm; topic is finance/investments; The Barn Door, 8400 N. New Braunfels Ave.; for more info: email angelica@tejaspremierbc.com
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Page 29
Cross training and testing
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L-R: Troy, Sandra and Fred Baird are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their family-owned business, Bac-Flo Unlimited.
hat Fred Baird, an owner of Bac-Flo Unlimited, observes about the backflow world is that it ties all water together and touches a variety of fields. Since Baird owns the company with his son, Troy Baird, and his wife, Sandra Baird, the backflow world has also tied them together in the family business for 20 years now. In the early ‘70s, the City Water Board, which would become San Antonio Water System (SAWS) established a cross-connection control program to prevent contamination events. Baird served as supervisor of the backflow prevention section of this program, which he notes was the first of its kind in this part of the country. After nearly 30 years in that role, Baird retired from SAWS. Though Bac-Flo Unlimited was a part-time operation, the company evolved into a full-time enterprise with Troy, a master plumber and licensed irrigator, and Sandra, who Baird says has learned to “speak backflow over
the last 45 years.” Today, at 71, Baird declares, “If it’s backflow related, we do it.” The company does cross-connection surveys and testing for military bases and large colleges. They did a cross-connection survey at SpaceX, where rocket engines are tested, and they helped resolve an internal contamination event at a major manufacturing plant in San Antonio that caused approximately $3 million in damage. They also train the people in the industry and other fields associated with cross-connection control, including plumbing contractors, irrigators and fireline contractors as well as members of the military and the water department who develop and enforce backflow prevention programs and testers. Bac-Flo Unlimited is a consulting and training firm that does cross-connection surveys and testing and offers courses in backflow prevention. –mh
Construction News ON LOCATION
Trucking forward
L-R: Aaron Estrada and Charles Timms, owner and managing partner, kept on trucking through the holidays and into the New Year at Timms Trucking. –mh
Construction News ON LOCATION
A rock solid team
L-R: “Junior” Hernandez, Pearl Ozuna, Ray Montanez and Eddie Ortiz rock the New Year at San Antonio Masonry & Tool Supply. –mh
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Construction News ON LOCATION
Getting their motors going
L-R: Denisse Molina, Sofia Regalado, Jo Ann Sherling and Janie Martinez are ready to get things rolling at Jarco Transport. –mh
Construction News ON LOCATION
The bird is their word
S
The small business spirit
ince founding her own general contracting company, Robinson General Contractors, in San Antonio, Yvette Garcia has worked hard to build up her business and to get involved in the local business community. When she started out in June 2010, Garcia received a lot of help and guidance from the Small Business Development Center at UTSA’s downtown campus. Today, her company is celebrating its fifth anniversary and is SBE, MBE, WBE, DBE, HABE and ESBE certified and has State of Texas HUB certification. Garcia is currently working on 8(a) certification. Her fiancé, Kurt Robinson, is a coowner and does the estimating for the company that bears his name. As owner and CEO of the company, Garcia is very involved with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, volunteering for its welcoming committee and recently earning its Ambassador of the Year Award. She also recently joined the Hispanic Contractors Association. She recalls that the most difficult part of starting out was getting a foot in the door, stating, “It took us a little while to get our first job, and once we did, we hit the ground running, and we’ve had repeat customers since.” At 36, Garcia stays very busy, balancing work and family. Born in Laredo and raised in Houston, she has family in both cities and travels as much as she can to see them. But she is always on call. She says that she doesn’t shy away from any job and takes calls for any construction issue 24/7. Always in or around construction, Garcia would help her father, a home-
Yvette Garcia, owner and CEO of Robinson General Contractors, has been growing her company while acting as an ambassador for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
builder in Houston at the time and now in Laredo, on jobsites when she was little. When she moved to San Antonio with her fiancé, the couple started the company together. Based in San Antonio, Robinson has 12 employees working on jobs from New Mexico to Texas. They recently completed a large, year-long remodel in Alamogordo, NM for a grocery store chain, and they have done work locally for TxDOT, Port San Antonio, Lowe’s Market and HEB. Robinson General Contractors is exclusively commercial. Its niche market is commercial remodels, specializing in retail and office projects. The company also does ground up construction. –mh
Cleaning up the industry L-R: Jeff Vexler, Robert Martinez, Frank Bravo, Arturo Diaz, Jeremy Garcia and David Stokum gathered around the company mascot at Toucan Recycling. –mh
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ringing order to the chaos that can be a construction site is the highlight for and mantra of Emily Rhodes at her company, Upright Cleaning Services. Starting the business in 2008, Rhodes set out to help her clients, general contractors and subcontractors, present their product at its best to their clients and end users. “I think that to some people the value of [these services] is misunderstood,” says Rhodes, adding that if the site is not properly cleaned, it can reflect poorly on the project crew upon presentation. The job and value of the cleaning service, she notes, is to make the completed project look the way it was intended to look to the client. Upright has done a final cleaning of 50 buildings for Border Patrol in eight different cities, including Brownsville and Del Rio. The company has also done construction and detail cleaning for hotel, multi-family and medical projects. On some projects, the construction cleaning team is there from the beginning, cleaning trailers and everything else all the way through the final cleaning. Often, when doing multi-family projects, Upright will do the general daily cleaning, including dust control, which assists in keeping the completed sections of the project clean and ready to be shown to clients or potential tenants. When doing medical, such as the VA Hospital and University Hospital, the cleaning team goes through higher security and more precautions. With the VA Hospital, the team went in for orientation and a shot in order to work in the medical
At 29, Emily Rhodes has been running her own construction cleaning company, Upright Cleaning Services, for about eight years now.
environment. Rhodes earned her associate’s degree in business administration from the University of Houston. At 29, she runs Upright, loves to travel and is very active in her church, Faith Based Institute. Last year, she went on a mission trip to Haiti, which she says changed her perspective to see beyond the numbers game of business to those who are struggling to survive. Upright Cleaning Services offers construction cleaning and janitorial services. Construction cleaning accounts for 80 percent of the company’s business. –mh
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San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Page 31
T
Love is in the air again
hough there isn’t just one day of the year that couples should show love for one another, one date this month serves as a reminder that love is precious and not to be taken for granted. So to all of you in the construction community who have a significant other or spouse who is your better half, your sunshine, your world, we wish you a happy Valentine’s Day! Here are just a few of the couples who are rocking true romance. –mh
E. Daniel Garcia, Rhino Design Build, and his wife, Elena, Hair Design by Elena, and their daughter, Arainna Elena Barbara Hrbek, Hart Acoustical, and her husband, Jim, owner of Universal Judo, married 27 years, on a trip to Alaska
Colby Lewis, Alpine Contracting, and his wife, Meagan, Meagan Lewis Interiors, in Italy for their seventh anniversary
Valerie and Butch Leist, Hill Country Bridge
Rick Smith, Keller-Martin Construction, and his wife, Tina Dave Sanchez, Hispanic Contractors de San Antonio, and his wife, Amy, owner of Aim Event & Meeting Ventures
Roxanne Higareda, controller for Tejas Premier Building Contractor, and her husband, Jesus, SimplexGrinnell
Christy Rhone, Cram Roofing, and her husband, Donovan, Knight Office Solutions
Craig Noto, Quality Fence & Welding, and his wife, Teresa
John Hoot, Quality Fence & Welding, and his wife, Morgan
Walter Lamar, WC Solutions, and his wife, Clarisa, a full-time civil service employee
Sandra and Fred Baird, Bac-Flo Unlimited, married 52 years
Marvin Ohlenbusch, Alamo Crane Service and his wife, Margie
Eloina Benavides, One Day Signs and Alamo Stamp and Engraving, and her husband, Tony, owner of Tone Custom Drums
Page 32
San Antonio Construction News • Feb 2016
Gingerbread winner
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Give them a sign
T
he Bury Inc. offices recently put their creative problem solving skills to use for some good old-fashioned fun in the first annual company-wide gin-
gerbread house contest! Check out the creative entries that came in from various markets all over the state, with descriptions from the teams responsible. –cw
The crew at One Day Signs gathered around the table used for the production of signs and banners. Recently, the company has finished a big order for the Wash Tub and a site sign for Drash Consulting. They’ve also done work for a large cable company and a large insurance agency. –mh
Construction News ON LOCATION
Team “The Ginger Snaps” came up with this colorful version of the well-known TV show “South Park.”
Making waves in stone tile
Interceramic Tile & Stone has had its showroom on Starcrest since 2003. Sherrie Minnich, regional manager who has been with the company for more than 12 years, notes that this particular high-end luxury tile is called Architexture. L-R: Kim Geffken, regional bookkeeper; Sherrie Minnich, regional manager; Chris Zielinski, senior territory manager; Evelyn Aviles, showroom manager; Steve Gerken, senior territory manager –mh
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