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CONSTRUCTION
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The Industry’s Newspaper AT&T Stadium, Arlington
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(210) 308-5800
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Volume 13
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Number 3
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MARCH 2016
Loads of goodwill
70 years of service
L-R: Bubba Tugs’ Gib Shellenberger and employee Norman Jackson
TDIndustries’ TDPartners will celebrate 70 years where they serve.
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n Dec. 26, 2015, a four mile-long EF4 tornado tore through the city of Rowlett. The aftermath devastated the small community; in addition to the human lives tragically lost, residents faced with shock what was left of their homes and businesses, the debris of which was strewn an estimated 300,000 cubic yards. In the weeks that followed, news stations reported on the tornado’s impact on the community. One viewer, Gib Shellenberger, couldn’t help but feel the impact as well. When he learned from a newscast that tornado debris was still piled up in front of homes weeks after the tornado had hit, he jumped into action. He knew his company, Bubba Tugs Corp., which hauls debris from construc-
tion sites, could help. “The people were really distraught over seeing the trash just sitting there from [when the tornado hit],” Shellenberger says. “I just felt sorry for them. I called the CBS 11 news station and asked to speak to the news desk. I told them that I saw the broadcast and what my intentions were, which was to offer some free help out there.” Shellenberger intended to drop off dumpsters for residents to load debris into, but the newscaster informed him that the residents weren’t physically able to load heavier debris. Undeterred, he called friends Johann and Renee Ferguson at Dallas-based junk-removal service continued on Page 18
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n 1972, a management philosophy touting leadership via service and the connection between personal growth and organization growth caught the eye of businessman Jack Lowe Sr. But even though the concept inspired Lowe to offer his partners formal training classes in “servant leadership” years later, it actually wasn’t a foreign concept to him. Twenty-six years earlier, when Lowe had opened Texas Distributors Inc., a small air conditioning supply store in Dallas, his servant’s heart was already beginning to beat. By 1952, Lowe had transformed his business from one that simply provided service and appliance sales for HVAC customers into an employeeowned company.
Even when his son Jack Lowe Jr. became CEO and chairman of the board after his dad’s death in 1980 and expanded services into the Houston market, servant leadership continued to be the company’s backbone. When the 1980s banking crisis forced five of the six largest mechanical contractors to fold, “TDPartners” (TD’s employee owners) invested $1.25 million of their own retirement funds to save the company from the same fate. The plan worked – the business was eventually restructured, operations were consolidated, and headquarters were moved to 13850 Diplomat Dr. in Dallas. The TDPartners were fully reimbursed and the company continued to thrive, continued on Page 18
Bathing beauty
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n 1930 on White Rock Lake’s shores, a bath house – one of the first examples of Art Deco architecture in the southwest – was built. For the many visitors seeking sweet relief from scorching summers in that lake, the building offered everything needed for fun in the sun: Lockers, changing rooms, concessions – even rentable swimsuits. For more than 20 years, the bath house at 521 E. Lawther offered a sort of “see and be seen” swimming hole for North Texans. However, that all changed when swimming in the lake was discontinued and the bath house was shuttered in 1953. The building sat vacant for 25 years until neighborhood arts activists rallied for its restoration and reopening. In August 1981, the bath house made new waves when it was reintroduced to the public as Dallas’ first neighborhood cultural center. As a visual and performing arts venue, it now houses a 116-seat
black box theater, a White Rock Lake Museum, three gallery spaces and several multipurpose spaces. Thirty-five years later, Dallas’ Bath House Cultural Center needed another renovation. Downstairs, a 4,200-sf former “boating station” promised to be the perfect space for theater productions – except for the gravel floor. General contractor Alpha & Omega Professional Services Group president R. Lamar Brooks, vice presidents Darrell Augustus and Estavion Trotter and project manager Tyron Whiteside were delighted to install a new concrete floor and become part of the Bath House Cultural Center’s history. “The whole project was designed around the vision that Bath House manager Marty Van Kleeck had,” Augustus explains. “She wanted to create that area into useable space as opposed to what it The show can go on, thanks to Dallas’ Bath House Cultural Center’s new concrete floor and drain system.
continued on Page 18