San Antonio Construction News October 2022

CONSTRUCTION

Turning 120, acts of kindness

Close your eyes & imagine

The history of Turner Construction Company is remarkable, and it all started with a young engineer who had a vision to build a company for peo ple with exceptional skills. Henry Turn er, who was in his early 30s, began con structing buildings using steel-reinforced concrete in 1902. He founded his compa ny on the principles of teamwork, integri ty, and commitment.

Turner graduated in 1893 from Swarthmore College. His classmates re ferred to him as a good student, hand some and talented. He was also known for his great singing voice and a strong preference for the color “blue.”

A radical change in management at a company Turner had joined caused him to lose his job when he was 28 years old and recently married. The next company

Any business that’s been around 75 years has seen dramatic changes.

Hollywood-Crawford Door Com pany, founded in San Antonio in 1947 and still going strong today, is no excep tion and its story offers a unique perspec tive on San Antonio’s construction indus try as it positions itself to continue to grow in San Antonio.

Doyle Benton started installing ga rage doors at Hollywood-Crawford in 1959. Back then, garage doors were con structed of wood and installed without the help of power tools. Garage door openers were a cutting-edge luxury available only to the very wealthy.

As decades went by, pagers and electric typewriters were the height of business efficiency. When steel garage doors became popular in the late 1980s, they were only available in a white raised-panel design. Garage door open ers became more widely available and were a popular Christmas gift, so the

where he worked was shut down when he was 31 years old and expecting his first child. Henry decided at that point to start his own company to provide steady and meaningful work. It was a huge un dertaking, but he believed in himself and the future of the construction methods he helped pioneer. He found that others supported his vision with as much enthu siasm. A former boss told him “I’m in fa vor of investing in anything you person ally have to do with.”

Today, 120 years later, Turner Con struction has evolved from a one-man operation to a company with over 10,000 employees worldwide and a presence in 20 countries.

“A lot of the early work performed by

continued on Page 18

The construction industry has shown time and time again all the good things we do for our communities, but most importantly, for the foster kids in San Antonio. Year after year, the con struction industry bands together, open ing our hearts for the sole purpose of putting a smile on the faces of abused and neglected children in Bexar County.

Do you remember, as a child, how it felt to open a gift on Christmas morning? Do you remember the excitement and anticipation? Do you remember the hap piness you felt and the many days of joy that special Christmas gift brought?

For just one moment, close your eyes. Picture yourself as a child feeling lost and alone, a child who has experi enced the unspeakable. Picture yourself surrounded by a family, not your own,

Three-quarters of a century

but a family who has opened their home to you. Now imagine it’s Christmas morn ing and Santa has forgotten you.

Open your eyes! How did that make you feel? Did you feel even more lost and alone? Under those same circumstances, imagine not being forgotten at Christ mas.

What a feeling it must be to know that you are important and that an entire community cares. Imagine the face of an unsuspecting abused or neglected child of any age when he or she is handed a lit tle something Christmas morning. Imag ine the hope that child will feel knowing that somewhere out there, somebody cared enough and was thinking of them. Now, imagine the joy your heart will feel, knowing that you are that someone.

company offered them on sale during the holidays.

Benton went from installer to com pany owner in 1979 when he bought Hol lywood-Crawford from his longtime bosses, Harry and Merle Crosland, the

couple that had founded the business.

Today, at 86 years old, Benton is still the CEO, signing paychecks, helping with planning, and greeting employees. His son-in-law, Randy Oliver, is the compa ny president, overseeing the day-to-day

operations with his wife, Becky. Their two sons, Chris and Jonathan, work there too, representing the third genera tion of leadership of the family business.

Benton and Oliver offer more than 100 years at Hollywood-Crawford be tween them. Olive began working for the company in 1981 and became president around 1996. Together, Benton and Olive have helped Hollywood-Crawford sur vive by adapting to changing conditions.

Garage doors have gone from a purely practical necessity to a design ele ment, comprising up to 40 percent of a home’s elevation. They often serve as the main entrance into and out of a home. Homeowners now control and monitor their garage door openers from their smartphones, with some featuring builtin battery backups, cameras and twoway audio, and more.

The company has seen changing trends in San Antonio’s construction in

Mark your calendars, CAKC Toy Drive Dec. 2, 2022

Hollywood-Crawford Door Company employees with owners Front L-R: Doyle Benton, Becky Oliver and Randy Oliver

Turner Construction San Antonio team members volunteer for Habitat for Humanity on the company’s 120th anniversary and Founders Day.

Construction News turns 24

Mark your calendars

In1998, Reesa and Buddy Doebbler decided to create a publication like none other. With a strong background in construction, Buddy knew a publica tion catered to keeping the construction industry connected was the way to go, giving birth to San Antonio Construc tion News

The duo spent months brainstorm ing and decided Construction News would in fact be a paper for the construction in dustry - the people, the companies, the trades, trade associations, and projects. Once the design, editorial format, and ad pricing were developed, Buddy began pounding the pavement visiting poten tial advertisers. With plenty of people willing to help make their vision a reality. The first edition of the San Antonio Con struction was released October 1998.

“I remember sitting down with then President Steven Schultz of Associated Builders and Contractors like it was yes terday,” says Buddy. “I gave him my pitch and before I knew it, he was on board. ABC along with Lynwood Building Mate rials has been in every one of our papers for the last 24 years and we are grateful for their support.”

Three short years later, CN expanded in Austin bringing coverage of the con struction industry and its people to many more readers. The first edition of Austin Construction News was in June 2001.

Technology paved the way for the construction industry to be revolution ized, and Construction News would not be left behind. By 2016, CN would go digital, opening up new avenues of availability to our subscribers.

“Free digital subscriptions are avail able for all to experience Construction

News,” adds Reesa. “Digital subscribers receive their monthly digital editions via email with notifications sent to each sub scriber’s inbox letting them know their digital editions are ready for viewing.”

To start a digital subscription, which is free and open to anyone, visit ConstructionNews.net, click “Subscribe,” and complete the online subscription form. The digital experience doesn’t stop there. It has been expanded across many social media platforms, allowing companies to share their stories. Like us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/construction newsltd; follow us on Twitter, twitter. com/cnewsltd; and connect with us on LinkedIn.

This year, CN was privileged to share major milestones of many of our local contractors - Antonio Drywall Repair & Texture, 15yrs; Foundation Support Solu tions, 5yrs; MCA-SMACNA, 70yrs; Pro Landscape Solutions, 10yrs; EPI Enclo sures & Engineering, 55 yrs; Temp Tex Air Conditioning & Heating, 15yrs, Empire Roofing, 40yrs; Tejas Premier Building Contractors Inc., 30yrs; Joeris General Contractors, 55yrs; Keller-Martin Con struction, 45yrs; F.A. Nunnelly General Contractors, 100yrs; Turner Construction, 120yrs; Sinclair Land Surveying, 40yrs; Bill’s Total Comfort, 25yrs; Leonard Con tracting, 30yrs; Mr. Erwin Inc., 40yrs; Chamberlin Roofing & Waterproofing, 125yrs; Fazzone Construction, 65yrs; Con solidated Installation Support, 15yrs., McAllen Valley Roofing Co., 10yrs; UNIN TECH Consulting Engineers Inc., 30yrs; AR, 5yrs; Oblaque Electric, 15yrs; Acu form Architecture 15 yrs; Rhino Roofers, 1yr; and FLYIT Drone Services, 1yr. -cmw

The Nutcracker is a Christmas tradi tion and this year’s Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala theme. Gala committee members have been working for months to make sure this year’s event will keep with gala tradition, offering an evening filled with the holiday spirit. The event will be held on Dec. 1 from 5:3011pm at the Alzafar Shrine Temple

Enjoy an evening with food, bever age, casino, live band, silent and live auc tions, and the ultimate his and hers raffle, Bling & Bang!

You don’t want to miss your chance to walk away with a stunning 14k white gold diamond pendant with 2.25 TCW with a center round brilliant cut diamond of 1.53 carats surrounded by .71 round carats of brilliant cut diamonds from Americus Diamond, appraised at $13,000; a Proof Research Elevation MTR .208Win-Firearm made by Proof Re search with a Proof 20-inch Carbon Fiber Sendero-Light Profile barrel, TacElevation Stock, Zermatt Arms Origin Remington 700 pattern action and Triggertech Dia mond Trigger with $1,000 Optic voucher; a Benelli 828U O/U 12GA Over/Under Shotgun with a 28-inch barrel with Car bon Fiber Rib, AA-Grade Satin Walnut Stock, Anodized Receiver, choke kit and carry case; and a Sig Sauer P320 AXG Pro Semi-Auto 9MM pistol, aluminum AXG frame, pro cut slide is optic ready and ported, two 17-RD magazines and a $400 optic voucher.

Win the Bling & Bang raffle and your Christmas shopping for yourself and your special someone is done!

The more tickets sold means the

more donations Construct A Kid’s Christ mas can give to benefit the foster kids in Bexar County so they can have a merrier Christmas. The raffle winner will be drawn during the evening and the winner does not need to be present to win.

Unwrapped gifts, toys, and gift cards will be collected at the gala for the annu al Construct A Kid’s Christmas Toy Drive, which is held the following day, Dec. 2 , from 10am-2pm. at the Construction News office, 4047 Naco-Perrin Blvd. The gifts benefit the Friends of Bexar County Child Welfare Board and Child Protective Services which distribute unwrapped toys to the Bexar County foster kids.

The Gala is now able to support both the annual Christmas present project and provide an additional financial donation and gifts to CASA (Child Advocates of San Antonio).

For 44 years, CASA has provided court-appointed volunteer advocates for abused and neglected children and youth while advocating for services and placement in safe and permanent homes. -cmw

Bringing the best of the construction industry for 24 years

Buy your Bing & Bang raffle tickets today!

A new home

Focusing on 55

WhenBill Hunter first started the Pesado Construction Company in 1991, Pesado specialized in re building manholes and laying conduit. Thirty-one years later, Pesado performs work far beyond rebuilding manholes. The company has conventionally grown, branching out into all types of civil and in dustrial construction.

As a result, the company outgrew its home of over 20 years and moved to a new location on the southeast side of San Antonio.

“About two years ago, we started looking for a new facility,” says Pesado President Shane Hutson. “Our old space just wasn’t big enough to accommodate our staff. We started looking and we found this place. We moved in last September.”

Pesado’s new location consists of a 3,100sf office and a 3,100sf storage ware house, a 4,800sf mechanic’s shop on five acres of land, giving the underground util ity contractor plenty of room to accom

modate its 150-plus employees as well as continued growth. Other amenities in clude a covered carport and a paved yard.

“This is a better location,” adds Hut son. “We’re a lot closer to our vendors and suppliers and less traffic. It’s a lot easier to get to projects. From here we can hit High way 90, 151, and Loop 410. We’re happy to be here.”

The new facility has plenty of avail able space for training, company events and, of course, growth. Shortly after relo cating, Pesado hosted a crawfish boil for the San Antonio Chapter of the National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA) and recently held a rigging lunch and learn.

“This location gives us more opportu nity to do more hands-on training for our employees.”

Pesado Construction Company is a well-established San Antonio general con tractor specializing in underground utilities and heavy civil construction. -cmw

Timesure flies when you’re having fun. It’s hard to believe that Joeris General Contractors is celebrating 55 years in business.

While the company is not planning a big celebration, it is recognizing the mile stone with various celebrations through out the year. And the timing couldn’t be better. Not only is Joeris celebrating 55 years as an organization, but the compa ny is also celebrating its Dallas office’s 10th year in the big D and its fifth year in Houston.

“It’s those incremental ones that we are celebrating throughout the compa ny,” says Joeris Executive Vice President Angela Cardwell. “And we are going to do some surprise things centered around the number 55.”

Although Joeris has not opened any new offices since the opening of the Houston office in 2017, the company has expanded. “We are much bigger now. We have more employees. Even our revenue is higher than it was back then,” she adds.

Joeris has always had a presence in health care and higher education but is focused on expanding its footprint into these and other vertical markets and re gionally as well. “In the past, we’ve gone to other parts of Texas when we’ve been asked to by specific clients or even an ar chitect that’s asked us to pursue some thing with them. But now it’s more wide spread,” Cardwell continues. “We’ve got people working across the entire state all the time.”

A new thing for Joeris, they now have projects in Louisiana. “A client that we were working for in North Texas asked us to go to Louisiana to build for them. We’re not going over there pursuing work, but if this client or another longstanding cli ent wanted us to build for them there, we would. We are situated now where we know how to go about that process.”

“We’re just amazingly blessed as an organization to be part of this industry, especially in Texas. I am so convinced that continued on Page 15

Luster and strength

Geocrete Concrete Coatings

Jack Karam spilled paint in the garage of his new home, he quickly went to wash his car be fore the paint dried. When he returned home to clean up the garage floor, he was amazed that the paint came right up, and his garage floor looked as good as it did before the mishap. Impressed with the floor’s coating, Karam began looking into the floor coating leading the way to Karam’s new venture.

When

In 2019, Karam started Geocrete Concrete Coatings, a division of Geofill, Three short years later, Geocrete has grown to a team of highly trained and certified managers, sales reps, and in stallers.

Geocrete provides custom coatings to meet the needs of homeowners to in dustrial environments. “We offer poly urea, which is about four times stronger than epoxy,” says Kayla Pollock . “With epoxy, most people do an acid wash, but we grind it so we’re really starting from new to let our base coat adhere to the pores of the concrete. That’s why it’s

stronger. It’s not going to come up unless the concrete comes up.”

Other coatings offered include poly urea chip systems, metallic systems, stains, and spray textures which can be used residentially or commercially. Resi dentially, Geocrete performs work in ga rages, patios, and pool decking. Com mercially, their work can be seen in com mercial kitchens, restaurants, cafeterias, locker rooms, restrooms, animal care fa cilities, showrooms, aircraft hangars, in dustrial warehousing, machine shops, and many commercial exteriors.

“There are many benefits to poly urea concrete coatings,” Pollock adds. “They offer seamless transitions from walls to floors, antimicrobial, nonporous, easy to clean, slip-resistant, durable, and UV stable to name a few.”

Geocrete service area includes San Antonio, Schertz, New Braunfels, Boerne, and about an hour and a half radius of the Alamo city.

Geocrete Concrete Coatings is located in Schertz, TX. -cmw

Shane Hutson and Vice President of Operations Brian McGurk

Joeris General Contractors Executive team Front L-R: CFO Ryan Doege, Executive VP Angela Cardwell, and CEO Gary Joeris. Back L-R: COO Carl McClenan, COO Karl Joeris, President Kenny Fuller and COO/Operations Consultant Henry Serry

Fighting Fraud with Limited Resources

Alan Rich Assurance Shareholder Fisher, Herbst & Kemble, P.C. San Antonio, TX

We are two-thirds of the way through 2022 and inflation has hit us like a raging cedar fire with the Federal Re serve Bank trying to stomp it down with raising interest rates. Add to those chal lenges a tight labor market and “supply chain” issues. As a result the cash flow for businesses is tight and so is the cash flow for the people we love and trust and work with on a daily basis. All of these el ements combine into a perfect storm for possible fraud. Fraud is committed be cause of greed, need, rationalization and opportunity. Fraud does not discriminate based on the size of a company and we must be smart in utilizing our limited time and resources. Having strong inter nal controls are critical to your success and include the following:

Setting the Tone

The tone of the owners and manage ment of a company requires a commit ment of leadership to ethical and honest conduct. This is your value and ethics clearly defined and demonstrated for your employees to see and emulate. These traits are a foundation that defines and sets your culture.

Assess Risk and Establish Controls

A fraud risk assessment is a proactive view of the weaknesses of a business to prevent the misappropriation of its as sets and related fraud which occurs due to a short falling of internal controls. Cor nish & Clark noted in a 1986 study that individuals chose when and where to commit fraud. The higher the likelihood of getting caught or punished the less likely they are to commit fraud. A com mon sense argument for internal con trols. The Occupational Fraud 2022: A REPORT TO THE NATIONS by the Associa tion of Certified Fraud Examiners (2022 ACFE Report) (https://acfepublic.s3.uswest-2.amazonaws.com/2022+Re port+to+the+Nations.pdf ) states 86% of fraud was due to misappropriation of as sets. For the construction industry it was an average of 12 months before fraud was detected with a median loss of $203,000. Almost half of fraud is commit ted by employees in either operations, accounting, management or sales. Some common controls include:

Establish a hotline — Approximately 42% of all frauds are detected by tips ac cording to the 2022 AFCE Report. Estab lishing a way for customers and employ ees to report fraud is an effective way to manage risk. Companies without a ho tline have 2 times the loss on each fraud than companies with a fraud hotline. The 2022 ACFE Report also shows the likeli hood of fraud detection goes up by 45% with employee training regarding fraud. Training can include teaching about what constitutes fraud, the cost of fraud, who employees can go to for ethical questions and the policy of zero toler ance for fraud.

Review — Management review and in ternal audit detects another 28% of fraud according to the 2022 AFCE Report. Re viewing the monthly bank statement and introducing positive pay with your bank are great controls in detecting fraudulent outflows of cash. The most simple of schemes regarding cash is the

fraudster writing a payroll or expense check directly to themselves and a simple review can stop this type of loss.

Background Checks Background checks are an excellent prevention con trol. The 2022 AFCE Report notes 43% of victim companies did not run back ground checks on prospective employ ees. Calling on employment history and running background checks on criminal history, education, and credit can help prevent problems before they start. This is a low cost and effective tool to prevent possible future losses.

Hire Great People and Check Them

The AFCE 2022 Report noted that when a person engages in fraud the top three behavioral red flags are living beyond their means, experiencing financials diffi culties, and usually close relationships with a vendor or customer. There are many more red flags such as control, “wheeler-dealer” attitude, addictions, le gal problems, outside pressure and insta bility.

Segregation of Duties To the extent possible have separate employees for ini tiating a transaction, approving the transaction and reviewing the activity. For example the authority to establish a vendor, to pay them and then to recon cile the bank statement should be duties that are segregated. It is not uncommon for businesses to have employees having multiple job duties as it keeps costs low er. If you cannot split these duties then implement a strong review of monthly or daily bank activity and avoid signature stamps. Ask questions and show that you are looking and monitoring.

Reconcile Reconcile everything in cluding cash, accounts receivable, ac counts payable, fixed assets, equity, sales, costs of sales and payroll. Reconcile relat ed party inter-company accounts and verify the activity. As needed a business will use these accounts to move cash and fund needs. The inter-company accounts are often out-of-balance between the re lated party companies and can hide fraud.

Email – Compromised email scams are on the rise. Cyber actors may imperson ate vendors with who you do business with on a regular basis. To address the threats on an email scam verify all pay ments with a purchase order, approval and possible call backs to trusted vendor contacts. Be alert for slight email chang es and enable security features that block malicious emails, such as anti-phishing and anti-spoofing policies.

Internal controls will not eliminate all losses from fraud but hopefully good controls will reduce the time and amount of the loss. Our intent in this article is not to list every possible internal control that could be put in place rather it is to pro vide you with a starting point to establish some good controls.

Alan Rich, Assurance Shareholder at Fisher, Herbst & Kemble, P.C. San Antonio, Texas arich@fhkcpa.com

INSURANCE

OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) Updated

Jim Greaves

Assistant Vice President of Risk Management Services Catto & Catto

a division of HUB International Texas, Inc. San Antonio, TX

In a new release on September 15, 2002.   OSHA has updated their severe violator enforcement program.   This effort is to increase compliance and mitigate haz ards.     OSHA’s new expansion to the Severe Violator Enforcement Program will now include all hazards and OSHA standards and focus on repeat offenders in all in dustries.   See national news release here: https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/ national/09152022

Previously, an employer could be in the program for failing to meet a limited number of standards. These new changes will broaden the program’s scope with the possibility that additional industries will fall within its parameters.   Since the inception of the Severe Violator Enforce ment Program in 2010, OSHA has focused on enforcement and inspection resourc es on employers who either willfully or repeatedly violate federal health and safety laws or demonstrate a refusal to correct previous violations.   In addition to being included on a public list of the nation’s severe violators, employers are subject to follow-up inspections.

Specifically, the updated criteria include:

• Program placement for employers with citations for at least two willful or repeat ed violations or who receive failure-toabate notices based on the presence of high-gravity serious violations.

• Follow-up or referral inspections made one year – but not longer than two years – after the final order.

• Potential removal from the SVEP three years after the date of receiving verifica tion that the employer has abated all pro gram-related hazards. In the past, remov al could occur three years after the final order date.

• Employers’ ability to reduce time spent in the program to two years, if they con sent to an enhanced settlement agree ment that includes use of a safety and health management system with seven basic elements in OSHA’s Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs.

What is SVEP?

• Enforcement policies and procedures for OSHA’s SVEP, which concentrates re sources on inspecting employers that have demonstrated indifference to their OSHA obligations by committing willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations.

What is the criteria for an SVEP case?

• OSHA considers an inspection to result in a SVEP case if it meets at least one of the criteria below. All OSHA standards are applicable to SVEP.

1 Fatality/Catastrophe Criterion. A fatali ty/catastrophe inspection where OSHA finds at least one willful or repeated viola tion or issues a failure-to-abate notice based on a serious violation directly relat ed either to an employee death, or to an incident causing three or more employee hospitalizations.

2 Non-Fatality/Catastrophe Criterion. An inspection where OSHA finds at least two willful or repeated violations or issues fail ure-to-abate notices (or any combination of these violations/notices), based on the presence of high gravity serious violations.

NOTE: Low and moderate gravity serious violations do not fulfill this criterion.

3 Egregious Criterion. All egregious (e.g., per-instance citations) enforcement ac tions shall be considered SVEP cases.

How can an inspection be removed from OSHA’s SVEP public log?

• OSHA will remove an employer from the Severe Violator Enforcement Program Log after at least three years from the date of receiving acceptable abatement verification. To be eligible for removal,

the employer must have:

1 Abated all SVEP-related hazards,

2 Paid all final penalties,

3 Where applicable, followed and com pleted all applicable settlement provi sions,

4 Received no additional serious cita tions related to the hazards identified in the original SVEP inspection or any relat ed establishments, and

5 Have received one follow-up or referral OSHA inspection.

Does OSHA offer a SVEP term less than 3 years?

• Yes, if an employer agrees to an En hanced Settlement Agreement, they may elect to reduce the SVEP term to two years. In such cases, SVEP removal is con tingent on the employer agreeing to de veloping and implementing a safety and health management system (SHMS), within the two-year period, that includes policies, procedures, and practices that are effective to recognize and abate oc cupational safety and health hazards and protect employees from those hazards.

The employer’s SHMS should include at least the seven basic elements outlined in OSHA publication 3885, Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs (October 2016) and should also include provisions for evaluating and improving program effectiveness, along with a pro vision for OSHA’s review and evaluation of the SHMS. Lastly, implementation must be verified by an independent third party (i.e., a CSP, CIH, or – for a unionized workplace – a national union safety and health representative), subject to the ap proval of OSHA.

Does OSHA maintain a public log of inspections in SVEP?

Yes, to obtain a complete list of inspec tions in OSHA’s SVEP Public Log, select the following Link: OSHA’s SVEP List

In closing, understanding and proper compliance with OSHA safety standards is and will always be the best way to re duce the possibility of ending up on the SVEP, in addition to helping to reduce the risk of fatalities, injuries, and hazards at worksites, which will in turn reduce the risk of repeated serious citations from OSHA.

Prior to joining the team at HUB Interna tional, Jim has gained vast experience in the safety field working in the construction, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, nonprofit agencies and healthcare industries. He is closely involved with the Risk Management team members to ensure that clients receive exceptional risk management, safety and claims consultation services. Jim received his bachelor’s degree of Science in Mechan ical Engineering from the University of Tul sa. He is certified as a Field Safety Represen tative (FSR) and as an approved Profession al Safety Source (PSS) by the State of Texas.

Jim is a member of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), Applied Ergo nomics from HumanTech and a Master In structor for the Crisis Prevention Institute.

Jim is also a Certified Active Shooter Instruc tor through the ALICE Training Institute.

LEGAL

After Ten Years of the Texas Anti-Indemnity Act, Indemnity in Construction Contracts Still Lives in Texas

Travis Brown, Principal Cokinos | Young Austin/San Antonio/Houston/Dallas, TX

Subchapter C of Chapter 151 of the Texas Insurance Code, the Texas Anti-Indemnity Act (the “TAIA”), went into effect on January 1, 2012. The Act affects not only the validity of contractual indemnity provisions, but also the availability of additional insured coverage, voiding both indemnification clauses and additional insured provisions in construction con tracts that purport to indemnify the indemnitee/additional insured for its own negli gence or fault.

However, despite the statute being in effect for over a decade, there was no case law directly addressing its applica bility, particularly as to a downstream contractor/indemnitor’s insurance com pany’s duty to defend an upstream con tractor/indemnitee in a claim that alleges both the negligence or fault of the up stream contractor and the negligence or fault of the downstream contractor. Many downstream contractors and their insur ers began to assume that indemnity was all but a dead issue on Texas construction projects (save for the limited specific ex ceptions in the TAIA). However, over the course of just over two months in 2022, a string of Texas cases clarified, piece by piece, both the scope of allowable risk transfer in Texas construction contracts and the related obligations of carriers in insuring this transfer of risk between con tractors.

In the first such case, BNSF Railway Company. v. Jones Lang Lasalle Americas, Inc., No. 4:20-cv-01372-O, 2022 WL 562898 (N.D. Tex. Feb. 24, 2022), the Northern District of Texas clarified that the “complete defense doctrine”—under which an insurer or indemnitor owes a complete defense to the entire lawsuit if there is even one covered claim—applies even in the face of the TAIA’s prohibition on requiring a defense for a claim “caused by” the negligence or fault of the indem nitee Participants in the construction in dustry, particularly general contractors, have long relied on a complete defense from their subcontractors’ insurers when a claim arises that implicates the defec tive work or negligence of the subcon tractor. Prior to this ruling, however, in surers for downstream contractors in Tex as often took the position that, because a “complete defense” is required, they could not provide any defense if there were allegations of negligence or fault by the upstream contractor/indemnitor be cause to do so would necessarily violate the TAIA’s prohibition of a defense against the indemnitee’s own negligence.

However, the Northern District of Texas implied that the TAIA did not over turn the decades of case law underlying the “complete defense doctrine.” If the underlying complaint alleges even one covered claim, i.e. a claim for the negli gence or fault of the indemnitor, the in demnitor must defend the entire suit against. Although this case was a person al injury lawsuit and not a construction defect suit, and it did not involve insur ance, its reasoning arguably applies more broadly. For example, consider a con struction defect lawsuit filed by an owner that alleges both direct claims against the general contractor for its own negli gence and contractual claims against the general contractor based on the negli gence or defective work of one of its sub contractors. Under this case’s reasoning, the allegedly negligent subcontractor’s insurer would owe a complete defense to the general contractor as an additional insured (assuming, of course, that the subcontractor’s policy was endorsed to provide such coverage).

The next case we will discuss, Knife River Corp. – South v. Zurich American In surance Co., No. 3:21-CV-1344-B, 2022 WL 686625 (N.D. Tex. March 8, 2022), ad dressed this additional insured issue head on. There, Knife River, the additional

insured, sought defense and indemnity from Zurich for a settlement arising out of an accident that occurred on a high way project. Zurich was the CGL and ex cess insurer for AWP, the subcontractor to which Knife River subcontracted the sig nage work on the project. The Court looked primarily to the allegations in the underlying lawsuit, where the plaintiff al leged that Knife River and AWP were jointly and severally responsible for the acts or omissions of their employees for hazardous sign placement in a construc tion zone. Because only AWP’s employ ees actually placed the signs, but Knife River was alleged to be jointly and sever ally liable for those acts, the underlying petition alleged that KRC was liable for AWP’s negligent acts. Applying the TAIA to these facts, the court determined that while the TAIA disallows indemnification for claims caused by the party seeking in demnification, it permits indemnity for claims caused by the indemnitor. Taking the allegations of the underlying plead ings as true, and giving the benefit of any doubt regarding coverage to the insured, the court held that it could not conclude that Zurich had no duty to defend Knife River as an additional insured in the un derlying suit against allegations that it was responsible for the defective work of its subcontractor, the indemnitor.

The final case, Southwest Electrical Contracting Services, Ltd. v. Industrial Ac cessories Company, No. MO-18-CV-00123DC, 2022 WL 1468384 (W.D. Tex. May 10, 2022), provides the cleanest example of how indemnity should work in a con struction defect suit, in light of the TAIA’s restrictions. There, the subcontractor, SWECS, subcontracted to perform elec trical work for the general contractor, IAC, in the construction of a sand plant in West Texas. After SWECS sued IAC for breach of contract on a delay claim, IAC counterclaimed against SWECS for breach of contract, indemnity, negli gence, and breach of implied warranty. The court dismissed IAC’s negligence and breach of warranty claims, but upheld re covery by IAC for breach of contract, and specifically, indemnification for a $2,000,000.00 “credit memo” deducted from IAC’s final invoice to the project owner. The credit memo was found to be attributable to the defective work of the indemnitor, SWECS, and the court rea soned that because the $2,000,000.00 reduction from IAC’s final invoice to the owner solely related to losses arising out of SWECS’s work, the indemnity agree ment was permissible under the TAIA be cause it did not require SWECS to indem nify IAC for any amounts arising from IAC’s wrongdoing.

Suicide Prevention: Five Things You Should Know

Joann Natarajan, Compliance Assistance Specialist OSHA Austin, TX

Suicide rates increased 30% between 2000–2018, and declined in 2019 and 2020. Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States, with 45,979 deaths in 2020. This is about one death every 11 minutes. The number of people who think about or attempt suicide is even higher. In 2020, an estimated 12.2 million American adults se riously thought about suicide, 3.2 million planned a suicide attempt, and 1.2 million attempted suicide.

Suicide affects all ages. In 2020, sui cide was among the top 9 leading causes of death for people ages 10-64. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 and 25-34. By race/ ethnicity, the groups with the highest rates were non-Hispanic American Indi an/Alaska Native and non-Hispanic White populations. Other Americans with high er than average rates of suicide are veter ans, people who live in rural areas, and workers in certain industries and occupa tions like mining and construction. Young people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual have higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behavior compared to their peers who identify as heterosexual.

Everyone can help prevent suicide

Mental health and suicide can be dif ficult to talk about—especially with work colleagues—but your actions can make a difference. When you work closely with others, you may sense when something is wrong. Know the warning signs of sui cide.

There is no single cause for suicide but there are warning signs. Changes in behavior, mood, or even what they say may signal someone is at risk. Take these

Industry FOLKS

Courtney Ann Bennett, Vice President, Howell Crane & Rigging Inc., San Antonio, TX

Courtney Ann Bennett grew up on a farm in Adkins, TX with her family and cousins where they would walk to each other’s houses almost every weekend. She attended Town East Christian School and later attended St. Mary’s University.

She experienced college life to the fullest at St. Mary’s with studying and cheerleading practice. “I abso lutely love St. Mary’s. It’s a smaller uni versity and the professors were amaz ing. They truly helped each student to succeed. GO RATTLERS!”

Courtney earned a bachelor’s de gree in Marketing/General Business. Marketing ended up being something that she truly loves and knew that a general business degree would be a good foundation. “I think it’s the cre ativity that comes with marketing that I love the most.”

She and her husband Geoff Ben nett met at St. Mary’s University during Geoff’s last semester. They have been married for nine years and amazingly, they share the same birth day. “Geoff works in finance and has a ton of dad jokes. We have two very en ergetic but very sweet boys.”

Six-year-old Geoffrey IV and his three-year-old brother Weston love anything that has to do with dino saurs, monster trucks, or Sonic the Hedgehog. Her oldest is currently lov ing his first year of tackle football

signs seriously. It could save a life. Ask “Are you okay?”

If you are concerned about a co worker, talk with them privately, and lis ten without judgment. Encourage them to reach out to your Employee Assis tance Program (EAP), the human resourc es (HR) department, or a mental health professional.

If someone is in crisis, stay with them and get help. If you believe a coworker is at immediate risk of suicide, stay with them until you can get further help. Con tact emergency services or the 988 Sui cide and Crisis Lifeline.

Suicide prevention resources are available

• Call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.

• Visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (www.afsp.org) to learn more about suicide risk factors, warning signs, and what you can do to help prevent suicide.

Resources: https://988lifeline.org https://www.osha.gov/preventing suicides

natarajan.joann@dol.gov 512-374-0271 x232

while his little brother tries to be just like him.

For as long as Courtney can re member, her family has been in the crane rental business. Her aunt retired from Howell Crane and that is when Courtney joined the Howell Crane family. This year will be her 10th year with Howell Crane where she handles the company’s accounts receivables. “I like being able to help our customers and help make sure that their experi ence with us is a good one.”

Her parents have been her men tors. Growing up, she witnessed them both work hard to provide for their family. “They taught us how to be loy al, dedicated, and everything else that goes into making a family great. I hope to show my kids the same.”

San Antonio Construction News • OCT 2022 Page 7 Even after ten years, there remain questions to be answered about the scope of permissible indemnity on Texas construction projects, but as is clear from these cases, it is still permissible for a general contractor to require its subcon tractors (and their insurers) to defend the general contractor for claims that al legedly arise out of the subcontractor’s defective work. If, as in the final case dis cussed above, it is ultimately determined that the property damage was attribut able to the subcontractor’s defective work, the subcontractor and its carrier owes indemnity as well.

Courtney has three dogs – Baylee, a Maltese, and two GSPs, TJ and Stella; a spotted gecko named Fasty, and one ball python whose name changes ev ery week. A date night in Gruene or Fredericksburg is her favorite relax ation thing to do and says that Gruene is her favorite little getaway town. - cmw

J. Curtis Stoddard, Founder & Owner, J.C. Stoddard Construction, San Antonio, TX

Growing up as a child during World War 11, J. Curtis Stoddard got his first taste of construction while his father worked in a shipyard, building ships. After the war, Stoddard’s family moved to Texas and young J.C. started from the bottom digging ditches to even tually owning his own successful con struction company.

Are you from San Antonio?

Born and raised. The first 10 years of my life were in Washington state where my dad was working in the shipyard building liberty ships during World War II for Henry Kaiser of Kaiser Aluminum in Se attle, WA.

How did you get your start in construc tion?

I started in construction working for my dad, literally digging ditches. Back then, most of it was dug by hand. Even when it came to pouring concrete, we put everything in wheelbarrows. We didn’t have concrete pumps then. We finally graduated to cranes with concrete buck ets.

How did you know you were ready to start your own company?

Starting my own company was forced on me to some degree. I was working for Jerde Construction Company as a super intendent running jobs all over the coun try. The owner ended up in several big lawsuits and shut down. But I was still working for him, primarily helping him prepare for his lawsuit. At some point, he just said, “Chris, why don’t you think about going into business?” With his as sistance, that’s when I went into business. It was either that or go back to work for somebody else.

Did you face any challenges after start ing your company?

No, it was smooth. The only real chal lenge was, you know, trying to grow bonding, getting bonding capacity. I started out doing little small jobs. This was back in the early ‘70s and, back then, a $100,000 job was a big job. A mil lion-dollar job was huge. So, our capacity at that time was probably a total of $200,000 - $300,000 worth of work that

we could do at a time. But it didn’t take long. We had steady growth from day one. We have never slowed down from that point on.

When you started, was it just yourself or did you have an established set of team members?

When I started, it was me, my dad, and my brother. I had the financing. I did very well. I was well paid and able to save a lot of money. So, I had the money, and my dad had the contacts and that’s what threw us together. Keith just became part of it.

We started doing very small work at the bases. What really catapulted us was doing work at the Audie Murphy VA Hos pital. We were out there doing small con tract work. We also did a lot of what they call purchase orders which is a very small amount. Back then, there was a max of $2,000 that they could write you for a pur chase order. They did not put out bids. What I think really got us off the high cen ter is we happened to be working out there for two or three years and, at the end of the fiscal year, like all government agencies, they had to spend all their sur plus money, and so they were writing pur chase orders like crazy.

How long was it before you had a crew outside of you, your dad, and your brother?

It was probably about two to three years before we first started hiring peo ple. By that time, I knew a lot of people in the industry who I had worked with for a long time and a few of them came to work for us. I have one guy working for me right now, Larry, who’s 60 years old now, came to work for us when he was 15 or 16 years old.

We have a couple more that came to work for us around the same timeframe with the same kind of situation. Dwight has been with us for 30 years. Larry never even finished high school. He came to work for us and has been here ever since.

Dan Highsworth came to work as a labor er.

I started out as a laborer, I was in the Carpenter’s Union for four years as an ap prentice. While I was an apprentice, I was running jobs for Jerde by the time I got in my third year.

How old were you when you started your company?

I was 32.

Did you, your dad, and your brother do all the manual work when you started the company?

My brother and I did most of the manual work. Daddy was up in age so he more or less supervised. My brother and I worked six days a week, 10 hours a day.

We did most of the work ourselves, but you’ve got to remember too, back then, when I was in this first getting started, general contractors did most of the work themselves. They self-formed almost ev erything. When I worked for union con tractors, they hired bricklayers, iron work

Antonio

ers; they hired everybody. They did not subcontract work.

When you started Stoddard Construc tion, Stoddard Construction operated the same way?

Yes

Do you still self-perform?

Yes, but it depends on several things. If the market dictates and subs are look ing for work and they’ll do the work for cost, we sub it out. But if it’s smaller con crete work, steel work, framing, or what ever, we do it ourselves. We do a lot of historic work with a lot of restoration work which we self-perform almost exclu sively whether it’s rebuilding steel win dows, wood windows, or flooring. Pretty much all that historic type of work, we do ourselves.

Historically, you did a lot of ground-up work. K-12, retail and commercial. Do you still do some of that, or is it primar ily historical renovation work?

We primarily do historical renovation, industrial and religious. We do little or no retail.

Your children, Trisha and Curt, work here at J.C. Stoddard Construction. Do you have any other children?

I have a third, Deanne, but she s does not work here.

When did Trish and Curt start working at J.C. Stoddard Construction?

Trish started working part-time during college helping with the office work and payroll. She came on board fulltime in 1992. Curt practiced law and is a licensed attorney. He came on board around 2007.

At 80 years old, you’re still very active in the company. What keeps you go ing?

I’m still very active. I come in every day. I don’t want to slow down. I like con struction. It gives me something to do. I mean, I don’t like to go out and pound nails.

What is your most memorable project?

Memorable, that’s a tough one. We

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did St. Peter’s Church in Boerne. You may not know this, but they went all the way to the Supreme Court trying to tear down their old church. They lost the battle, but we built them a new one, and we also ren ovated that historic church. I thought that particular building was very unique and is still unique in its construction. And I really enjoy it. We also built its Family Center much later.

We did a big food production plant addition while they were in production. It was huge. It was all precast and a big chal lenge. I remember them all.

St. Paul Square – when San Antonio started historical renovation work down town, St. Paul Square and the Staacke and Stevens buildings kind of kicked off part of our historical background. Our indus trial background got kicked off with Tyson Foods.

In the religious sector, we’ve done a lot of work for the catholic church. We’ve done over 150 church projects at last count. We’ve restored 15 county court houses in Texas. We’ve restored more county courthouses in the Texas court house program than any other general contractor in the state of Texas.

What makes you tick? Tell me about Curtis Stoddard.

I’ve been lucky. I only went to high school. I never had any plans to go to col lege. It was not in my family’s repertoire. They didn’t encourage. A high school ed ucation was good enough. I didn’t strug gle in high school. I started working when I was 12 years old with a paper route and have been working ever since. I worked on milk trucks. I worked on soda water bottle trucks. I worked as a dishwasher in a little Dairy Queen by Brackenridge High School. I’ve done just about everything. But my hard work, I owe it all to my dad. My dad drove me. I like work. I’ve always have! Don’t misunderstand me, I didn’t like digging ditches.

I think my real expertise in construc tion is that I have done just about every thing you can imagine in construction. I tell owners all the time, especially in reno vation work, and I have found this to be very true, we don’t always know what to do, but we always know what not to do. And that keeps you out of trouble. -cmw

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J. Curtis Stoddard, Founder & Owner, J.C. Stoddard Construction, San Antonio, TX

Expanding footprints

Breaking ground

Beginning his construction career at the age of 16 doing various sum mer construction jobs, Barry Wur zel found his calling. He landed his first full-time job in 1983 as a project manag er. Sixteen years later went out on his own making a name for himself in the construction community.

Wurzel Builders was founded in 1998 and began its focus on retail build ing and remodeling. Since then, it has ex panded its repertoire to include industri al, healthcare, hospitality, restaurant, of fice, and education. Offering services in pre-construction, general contracting, construction management at risk, and design-build, Wurzel Builders takes pride in completing projects on time and with optimal quality.

In 2022, the company so far has com pleted two QuikTrip (QT) locations in Central Texas, the Cambria Hotel in Aus tin, the Aloft Hotel in Austin, and a Target retail store in San Antonio. The compa ny’s other projects currently under con struction include the Hotel Indigo in Ir ving, the Lexington Multifamily complex in Manor, Magnolia Senior Living center in Flower Mound, the Natures Point Wed ding Venue in Lago Vista, and a retail cen ter in San Antonio. One of the compa nies’ newest projects is the Aztec Hotel and Theater on the San Antonio River walk.

“We are doing some hospitality work in San Antonio,” says Wurzel. “We have some boutique-type projects along the Riverwalk. We are also talking about do ing two hospitality projects and a third that is in the early discussion phase. We also doing work for a big box retailer in which we are doing a zero-carbon reno vation.

“We negotiate a lot of work. We’re very transparent. We do a lot of open-

book GMP-type work. Customers like it because we’re very transparent. We share information and we’re very much a col laborative team. A true team member working through the process of finding a lesser cost through value engineering. We leverage our subcontractor-supplier network to help us with the value-engi neering process. We’re very engaged in what we do. We help customers figure out how to get their facilities built on budget.

With a growing list of projects in San Antonio, Wurzel currently has a small team in the Alamo City and is currently looking for a project manager, taking steps to grow a team in San Antonio.

Wurzel Builders, a full-service gener al contractor and construction manage ment company. -cmw

On

Aug. 31, Kopplow Construction along with Worth & Associates held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Ridgewood Medical Office Buildings.

This will be Worth’s second medical development within Ridgewood Busi ness Park located on Hwy. 281 just north of Loop 1604. It will feature two sin gle-story office/medical buildings total ing 29,220sf, with WellMed as the anchor tenant leasing the entirety of building

one for 18,244sf and featuring 30 exam rooms. The groundbreaking launches site work for the buildings that are sched uled for completion in the second quar ter of 2023.

Prior to the ceremonial turning of the first sod, attendees heard remarks from Worth & Associates President of Leasing and Acquisition Clint Worth and WellMed’s leadership team and physi cians highlighting this newest location, its offerings, and growth strategy. -cmw

QuikTrip, a new project under construction

Barry Wurzel (front) reviews plans with Senior Project Manager John Mitchell at a new job site

Ridgewood Medical Office Building rendering

L-R: Kopplow President Tom Green, Sr. Vice President WellMed Enterprise Clinic Operations Jimmie Keenan; San Antonio WellMed Medical Director Dr. Dawn Rudd; WellMed San Antonio Market Sr. Vice President Clinic Operations David Parker and Worth & Associates Development and Brokerage President Clint Worth

An amazing journey

been a fast 15 years for Desi Valdez and Shelley Delgado, co-owners of Red Hawk Contracting, who started the company in July 2007. On Sept. 15, Red Hawk Contracting hosted a 15th-anniver sary celebration at Bluebonnet the Palace in Selma. Over 200 family, friends, custom ers, subcontractors, and employees of Red Hawk were in attendance.

It’s

“I think way back in the mind, Shelley and I were thinking about starting the company, but we were both working for someone else,” recalls Valdez. “When an opportunity came up after splitting ways with my other company, I had convinced myself I didn’t want to work for somebody else. Long story short, I visited with my now business partner. On July 4, 2007, I went to my in-laws, got online, and got Red Hawk Contracting incorporated. Then I went back to Shelley and told her she was my business partner and let’s get started.

She was ready and she’s been a great part ner all these years. We are so grateful to everyone in this industry. Our clients, our subs, our employees, they’re family and I just want to say Thank you!”

It wasn’t long before they hired their first employee, Desi’s sister-in-law Eliza beth. Soon after bringing on his sister-inlaw, Valdez and Delgado hired their first project manager and were on their way.

“It’s been a wonderful journey,” adds Delgado. “I feel blessed that he ap proached me about starting this wonder ful company. I’ve met so many people. I’ve had so many opportunities. The staff that we have, the clients that we serve, our sub contractors - it’s just amazing. It’s really a dream. I feel blessed. I grew up in the in dustry. I love going to work. I love my job.”

Associations & Education H General Contractors H Subcontractors H Service Providers H Subcontractors H Supplies H Truck & Equip Dealers

Service Providers General Contractor

Associations and Construction Education

Red Hawk Contracting is a general con tracting firm in San Antonio. -cmw

Red Hawk Contracting celebrates 15 years in business

Red Hawk Contracting team members

Desi Valdez welcomes guests at Red Hawk Contracting’s 15th anniversary celebration.

Fall Redfish Forecast

by Capt. Steve Schultz Sponsored by: Waypoint Marine/Waypoint Customs, Shoalwater Boats, Mercury Marine, Shimano Reels, E-Z Bel Construction, Costa Sunglasses, Simms Fishing, Columbia Sportswear, ForEverlast Fishing Products, PowerPro, Interstate Batteries, MirrOlure, JL Marines Power-Pole, and AFTCO Clothing

Some of the best fishing of the year is starting this month in October. Water temperatures are starting to fall and air temperatures are comfortable through out the day. This is one of my favorite times of the year to be on the water be cause of the various species that are available to catch. One of the most sought-after fish in our system is redfish. These fish make great table fare on the grill or even blackened in your favorite cast iron skillet. I have lots of clients that wait for this time of the year to book be cause of the awesome weather and the chance to catch reds. If you’re looking for some line stripping pole bending action on one of the hardest fighting fish in our bay system, this is your calling.

Most of you who have fished with me know that I primarily fish for speckled trout thoughout the year. Over the years, I have enjoyed chasing trophy size specks and enjoyed seeing my clients catch their

personal best trout over and over. Since the freeze last year and the regulation changes, we have had more opportuni ties to pursue other species of fish. Red fish have become a target fish, especially the closer we get to October. This is the time of year when these fish come to gether and start forming schools for their fall migration into the gulf. These schools can be found anywhere between nine-

mile hole and the JFK Causeway along the King Ranch shoreline in the east shorelines in the Meadows and Yar brough Pass.

One of my favorite methods of catching these fish is what I called the run and gun method. After spotting a school of fish, you need to try and position your boat where you can make a long cast down wind into the fleeing fish. It is important to have at least a quarter ounce jig head with your favorite plastic or a half ounce weedless spoon so that you can get a far enough cast. If the fish are willing to stick around, you can typically follow them with your trolling motor. If not, after a few casts, fire up your big motor and try

and locate the school again. Of course, the best time to do this is in the middle of the day when the sun is up high and pen etrating the water. Another great time is early in the morning before the wind gets up where you can see the wakes of these fish as you’re running across the flats. It takes a sharp eye to spot these schools and maneuver your boat into a striking position.

My fishing will come to a halt for this sea son at the end of October, and I will turn to hunting. If you need a referral for a guide, don’t hesitate to call me. My 2023 calendar is open, so if you have a date in mind, shoot me a text. I’m also booking South Texas whitetail hunts for the com ing season. Don’t wait ‘till all the good dates are gone!.

To schedule your next bay fishing or hunting trip give Capt. Steve Schultz a call at 361-813-3716 or e-mail me at Steve SchultzOutdoors@gmail.com. Good luck and Good Fishing.

Denise Bendele of San Antonio caught this redfish on a recent fishing outing with Steve Schultz Outdoors. October is a great month for chasing reds in the flats of the Laguna Madre.

Bubba Montalvo, Marcus Eagan and Danny Storbeck tripled-up on these schooling redfish several week ago in Corpus Christi Bay while fishing with Steve Schultz Outdoors. We hit the school several times before letting them return to their migration.

Winding down

Wellsummer is finally winding down for this year. The days are getting shorter and just a little bit cooler.

The stripers will cool off and their ap petites will pick up so they can feed all winter to be ready for spring spawning. While the fishing is always good, the catching will get a whole lot better. The deer will be haunting the oak trees in search of acorns and the bucks will lose their velvet. It won’t be long now until the hunters and the hunted resume their an cient dance.

Yes, things have changed an awful lot in the last two or three hundred years. We don’t have to make nets or sharpen sticks to catch a fish dinner, or hunt for miles on foot with a sling or spear to bring down our supper anymore.

Now we just point the boat to where we want to fish, take a look at ‘em with our fish finder and tempt those fish to bite with all manner of tasty seduction. They ought to just be waiting in line to hop in the boat and come home with us!

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 the radio as follows:

The Great Outdoors: 5-8 am Saturday on 1300, The Zone, Austin and

The Great Outdoors: 5-7 am Saturday on 1200 WOAI San Antonio The Sunday Sportsman: 6-8 am Sunday on 1300, The Zone, Austin

All on iHeart Radio

Hunting has come a long way too. Even in a hostile environment like south Texas, hunting is a whole new game. You can get in a nice big truck, ride out to a favorable spot, raise the whole top of the truck up a few feet and take your best shot with the pinpoint precision afforded by modern firearms and optics. No more running from the Javelinas and picking out prickly pear thorns by the campfire!

The thing is though, that’s not really how is goes, is it? Darned if nature doesn’t just take us in stride and keep on hum bling us. You see it when the feller with the $60,000 bass rig gets out fished by the kid in his grandpa’s hand-me-down boat. How many times have you seen the first time hunter bag the buck the whole hunting camp has been after.

That’s just nature I guess! We love to think it is all about us and how hard we try, but the fact is we are at the mercy of random luck and the ability of the wild to pit us against creatures that have evolved every moment of their existence just to avoid us and our predatory tendencies. Let’s face it – they are good at it and al ways getting better!

When you get right down to it, for all our great ideas and inventions, we hav en’t really changed at all. I defy you to tell me the high-roller drawing a bead on a trophy buck from a high rack is having any different buck fever than the 10-yearold kid has sighting in his first buck.

Whether you are shooting for excel lence or shooting for supper, you still get that old shaky, heart-banging, funny breathing spell. You can learn to control it, but you get it because you are made that way.

That is what I like about fishing. When something big gets on the other end of that line you just never know what it might be, and it sure gets you wound up!

Come on! Let’s get out there!

Quality fishing

Quality Fence & Welding (QF) held their 26th Annual Quality Fence & Welding Fishing Tournament and Beach Party in Port Aransas, TX. The event was held the weekend of Aug. 26. The tournament included six guided boats to accommodate 24 QF team mem bers which included managers, PMs, su

perintendents, and several key skilled employees.

After fishing, team members com peted against one another in a cornhole tournament. Winners from both the fish ing tournament and cornhole tourna ment won Yetti ice chests. -cmw

Truly blessed

Adan and Roxanne Silva, ARIVA Contracting, have been truly blessed. Their son Samuel Silva recently graduated from Central Catholic High School and will be attending Went worth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA on a lacrosse scholarship. Before leav ing for college, Samuel made some won derful memories and enjoyed a fantastic fishing trip in Copano Bay with his family.

Samuel’s focus at Wentworth is to obtain a civil engineering degree before returning to San Antonio. His dream is to own an engineering firm of his own. He has spent most of his time off working at ARIVA where he spent the past four years experiencing how ARIVA services and performs federal projects. “It was great mentoring him into our industry,” says Adan. -cmw

Over 90 fish were caught including all the undersized fish that were thrown back.

Quality Fence & Welding team members in Port Aransas for the company’s 26th Annual Quality Fence & Welding Fishing Tournament and Beach Party

Samuel Silva caught this stringer of flounder and speckled trout in Copano Bay on Aug. 19

Samuel Silva playing lacrosse for the San Antonio Tacos leaves for Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, MA on a lacrosse scholarship.

JOB

L-R: Juan Ibarra and Raymond Rios, CORE Electrical Group, prepare lighting joints at the Guenther Campus Renovation project for the San Antonio River Authority. -cmw

Subcontracted by Texas Sterling Construction Co., RAM2 Utilities ’ L-R: Juan Lara and Javier Ponce, install 18-in sanitary sewer pipe at the Tri-County Parkway project. -cmw

Air Today Service Technician Frank Osteguin services an air conditioning unit in Bulverde on Jul. 30. -cmw

All Service Air Conditioning & Heating team members L-R: Luis Martinez and Raul Espinoza arrive at a residence in Saint Hedwig to perform a seasonal service check. -cmw

Compañeros de pesca

there’s something special about the peo ple that work in this industry. My daugh ter is studying construction science and she says even her professors talk about it and say the people in construction in Tex as are just different. They care so much about other people, and we want to be a

reflection of that as an organization. So, we are focused on continuing to invest in our people and in communities across the state as we live our mission of transform ing people and places.”

Joeris General Contractors was founded by Leo Joeris in 1967 in San Antonio. – cmw

Members of the Hispanic Contrac tors Association de San Antonio (HCAdeSA) traveled to Rockport, TX Jun. 10-11 for the 6th Annual Tres Amigos Fishing Tournament. The event was held at Drifters Resort RV Park & Cab ins where HCAdeSA members were geared up and ready to fish. This year’s

Heaviest Stringer winners: 1st Place: Johnny & Sonny’s Glass Co. 2nd Place: A-Ram Plumbing Inc. 3rd Place: Central Builders Inc.

Calcutta was the highest Calcutta paid out ever for the association. -cmw

Johnny & Sonny’s Glass Co., winner of the Amigos Slam Heaviest Stringer –redfish, trout, founder, took home over $15,000

Woman’s Heaviest Redfish: Christa Lynch, Johnny & Sonny’s Glass

from Page 4 — Focusing on 55, Joeris Construction

Leo Joeris, founder of Joeris General

Boerne Stage Airfield

Daniel

Arredondo became familiar with Schweiss Doors as an aviator attending various air shows where he had seen advertisements for the doors in various magazines. So, when he was ready to build a hangar for his Lancair Evolution aircraft, he did his homework.

The 3,000sf, 50ft by 60ft hangar lo cated at Boerne Stage Airfield was re cently built with a Schweiss 56ft by 16ft hydraulic door. The hangar was built by Nueva Home Builders of San Antonio, TX.

Arredondo, the hangar owner, uses the hangar for his Lancair Evolution, an American pressurized, low wing, fourplace, single-engine light aircraft, and for his Cessna Silver Eagle. “Our installer, Karl Webin, who is familiar with Schweiss Doors and my brother, Daniel Arrendon do, did some research on the internet

and that’s how they came across the Sch weiss product,” said Nueva Construction Owner Alex Arredondo.

A total of eight 4ft by 3ft windows on the hydraulic door give ultimate use of available natural light to brighten up the inside of the newly built hangar. The door also has electric photo eye sensors and a remote opening system. The hangar has an adjoining loft tied into the hangar that will be connected to a yet to be built home.

“It’s fantastic! It’s an impressive onepiece movement. It’s really, really cool. It has great engineering. I saw that Sch weiss Doors was the first to put windows in the door; I thought it gave an aesthetic look for a hangar home. I’m a happy camper,” said Arredondo who works as a commodities trader in Mexico City. -cmw

Tri-County Parkway Reconstruction

InDecember 2020, LA Bankler Beck, current owner and president, took ownership of RAM2 Utilities, a 42-yearold wet utility contractor.

Early 2022, RAM2 Utilities was con tracted by Texas Sterling Construction Company to perform the sanitary sewer work portion for the Tri-County Parkway Reconstruction project located on Tri-County Parkway and Lookout Rd.

Located within the City of Schertz city limits, this project is partially within Guadalupe and Comal Counties. The project consists of the installation of new sewer lines including 18 in. pipe reaching depths up to 22 feet, a total of 2,349 lin ear feet. The project also included new manholes, some with extra depth up to 15 feet, manhole rehabilitation, 8 in. sani tary sewer pipe, 3 in. sanitary sewer force main, and 6 in. sanitary sewer laterals.

Project work began on Tri-County Parkway from Corridor Parkway to FM 3009 and on Lookout Road from Doerr

Lane to Tri-County Parkway. Construc tion activities began in April 2022 with the completion of sewer line upgrades in October 2022. Installation of the sewer line started east to Tri-County Parkway, then down Tri-County Parkway to FM 3009. RAM2 provided two crews with a total of 12 persons to complete the work. Superintendent Adolfo Fuentes and Foreman Moya Moran-Munoz provided experience and expertise to keep this project moving forward.

Site conditions were challenging at times with communication lines from eight service providers underground where work was to be completed and less than optimal soil conditions. The team worked diligently to ensure the crew’s safety was prioritized under the tough conditions and deep trenches.

RAM2 Utilities provides municipality, sub-division, multifamily, and commercial services for water, sewer, and storm drain age as well as open cut and boring. -cmw

Schweiss Doors Boerne, TX

Even with eight windows spaced across the 56’ wide hydraulic door, when wide open it still provides a large canopy to provide shade within the hangar.

Boerne Stage is an airfield located near San Antonio, TX is home to many Schweiss hangar doors. It’s known as the aviation gateway to the Texas Hill Country.

Connected to the hangar is a loft that leads to Arredondo’s Stage Airfield hangar home built by Nueva Construction of San Antonio, TX.

Tri-County Parkway Reconstruction underway

Meals on Wheels Project

also installed 4 inches to 6 inches cast iron hub and spigot for the grease waste system serving the kitchen.

Working on a very tight timeline, the Primo team began the interior work in February of this year. The interior work consisted of domestic water, natural gas,

The Walls

Atlas Floors Carpet One is a full-ser vice floor covering company serv ing San Antonio and South Texas. We offer a wide array of quality flooring products in carpet, hardwood, laminate, vinyl, ceramic & porcelain tile. Third gen eration family-owned and operated since 1948, our company has two flooring showrooms and a central office/ware house location, making us San Antonio’s premier flooring retailer.

This Boerne, Texas project was a unique 2,000-sf job in its transition away from engineered hardwood floors in the dining room along with tile take-up in the rest of the house to a wood look tile throughout the home. This transition will not only enhance and update the look of the floor but also offer greater perfor mance for a very active household.

When using our dustless removal system for their existing tile and stone, we found the family room and living room had poured concrete, the dining room had recessed wood subfloors, and the entryway and hallways had a mud bed. When the customer came in, they originally purchased an engineered hard wood floor which ended up not working over the existing substrates in their home, therefore they chose to change their selection to a wood look tile which could be installed over the various differ ent substrates found in their home when the existing floors were removed.

While on the job, a minor leak was discovered under the disposal at the kitchen sink along with a leaking toilet. These challenges, with the guidance of Atlas Floors designer Sandy Cheatham (Allied Member A.S.I.D. American Society of Interior Designers), gave the client an opportunity to start looking for a wood-

compressed air lines, and sanitary vents. The Primo team also installed a 3000-gal lon grease interceptor with an approxi mate weight of 23,000lbs. A crane was used to set the tank in place.

Currently, in the final stages of the project, the team has begun installing all the plumbing fixtures and making all the connections to the kitchen equipment. The project is expected to be completed in late October.

Since 1964, Comfort-Air Engineering Inc. | Primo Plumbing Inc. has made it their mission to always provide fast, high-quality HVAC and plumbing solu tions to residents throughout the greater San Antonio area. As a family-owned and -operated business, they believe in al ways offering the best customer service experiences.

Primo Plumbing Inc. is a full-service plumbing contractor in San Antonio. -cmw

look tile. This 9 inch by 36 inch Marazzi wood-looking porcelain rectified tile, American Estates in color Spice, is more water resistant and durable considering the client has young children and pets.

To complete this project and take into account the subfloor variations, a Mapei mapeguard membrane is being laid under all of the tile being installed. This membrane is used to provide uncou pling to prevent cracked tile and grout.

A laticrete permacolor grout was used for its improved stain resistance. Furthermore, to do a smaller grout joint inch requested by the customer, we are using leveling clips to prevent lippage. This in addition to other measures taken will ensure a perfect installation backed up also with our lifetime installation war ranty offered by Atlas Floors.

The final result is a project that the customer will have confidence in, easy to maintain and be very durable for years to come! Stop by one of our two retail show rooms today and see how Atlas Floors Carpet One can transform your home and make your dreams a reality! Atlas Floors Carpet One is a supplier and installer of flooring products. -cmw

Atlas Floors Carpet One San Antonio, TX

Original engineered hardwood floors are prepped to be covered by new flooring

Recessed wood subfloors is covered

Leveling clips

Marazzi wood-looking porcelain rectified tile

Primo Plumbing Inc. San Antonio, TX

In

November of 2021, Primo Plumbing Inc. began work on the new Meals on Wheels project. Located at 2742 Dan bury St. in northeast San Antonio, Primo Plumbing crew members installed PVC pipe ranging from 2 inches to 8 inches for the project’s sanitary sewer system. They

Comfort-Air Engineering Inc. | Primo Plumbing Inc. team members

The new Meals on Wheels under construction

Round-Up

Skanska is pleased to announce:

David Brewer has been promoted to Project Executive. Brewer is a 15-year in dustry veteran who joined Skanska in 2006 as an intern. He has played a vital role in the firm’s success by leading project teams through complex construction and development projects such as Alamo Col lege and Methodist Healthcare. In his new role, David will drive key downtown proj ects and strategic partnerships. -cmw

Ridout, Barrett & Co. PC is pleased to an nounce that Domi nique M. Hatzen buehler has joined the Ridout Barrett family as a Client Ac counting Consultant.

Hatzenbuehler will utilize clients’ account ing, tax, and financial reporting to help successfully manage their organizations. Growing up working with her family’s homebuilding business, Greater Texas Builders Inc., Hatzenbuehler is very famil iar with the construction industry. -cmw

Guido Construction welcomes Richard Reed to the Guido family. Reed has sig nificant experience drafting and negoti ating construction contracts on behalf of commercial developers. Prior to joining Guido, Richard focused his practice on all aspects of commercial real estate devel opment with Hornberger Fuller Garza & Cohen Inc. -cmw

Industry FOLKS

Matt McCaffrey has been promoted to Vice President – Ac count Manager.

Starting as an intern in 2003, he has led several landmark projects in San Anto nio, including City Tower and Hemisfair’s Civic Park. McCaffrey enhances the quali ty of services. In his new role, he will fo cus on business development while im plementing local market strategy and ensuring project delivery. -cmw

Chamberlin Roofing & Waterproofing is pleased to announce Chip Goode has been promoted of Opera tions Manager – Wa terproofing & Caulk ing. Goode joined the Chamberlin family after graduating from Texas A&M when he was hired as a Project Coordinator in Dallas. After being promot ed to Project Manager, he moved to San Antonio and later promoted to Senior Project Manager. -cmw

The Hispanic Contrac tors Association de San Antonio (HCA de SA) is pleased to an nounce Julissa Ramos has joined the HCA de SA team as Office Manager. Ramos will be responsible for handling all new and current membership, networking events, social media, and the overall day-to-day operations associated with running the or ganization. She is currently a senior at UTSA, working on earning a degree in com munications. -cmw

continued from Page 1 — Turner Construction

Turner was concrete,” says San Antonio Marketing Manager Kayla Wiggins “Turner was the first general contractor to use steel reinforced concrete, which is very commonplace, very normal, and kind of mundane now. It really helped Turner Construction got its start helping to build the early skyscrapers in New York and onto the skylines of some of the big gest cities across the country.”

Turner Construction built its first San Antonio project in 1980 and officially opened an office in the Alamo City in 2006. They built their first project in Aus tin in 1981. The company performed work in Austin through its San Antonio office until expanding into the Capitol city full-time in 2010.

Celebrating its 120th anniversary is a milestone few in the construction indus try have had the pleasure of doing, so for everyone at Turner Construction, it’s a big deal!

“We celebrated our 100 years in Tex as in 2019 in a pretty big way,” adds Wig gins. “But every year we celebrate our

anniversary on what we call ‘Founders Day.’ We celebrate that nationwide. All Turner employees take a day on our an niversary in May, and we commit a day of service. Sometimes we do a bundle of service throughout the month of May with multiple events, getting our em ployees out into the community. “This year we did multiple volunteer days. In San Antonio and in Austin, we volun teered for Habitat for Humanity. As a company, we select an area of focus for our philanthropic efforts to provide a unified effort across our business units. This year homelessness was selected and our motto, ’One Act of Kindness Can Change A Life,’ fell into full effect with the opportunity to partner with Habitat for Humanity in both Austin and San An tonio.”

The stone culture of Turner Con struction today, remains a true reflection of Henry Turner’s commitment to pro viding quality work. “We know that each office has different needs, different mar

on Page 19

Growing up, Les Hines thought San Antonio was like living in a small town. He attended and graduated from Winston Churchill High School, class of ’81. Later in life, Les went back to college and graduated from the University of Houston – Downtown (UHD). “Because UHD is a commuter college, I took my classes at multiple campuses and some online courses. UHD was, and may still be, one of the most diverse colleges in the state. This was obvious while at tending classes there. I ended up writ ing a report about it.”

He received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Computer Informa tion Systems in 2003 and graduated Cum Laude. “Not bad for a guy who struggled to finish high school.”

Les grew up in the roofing industry working summers for his dad in the ‘70s. Now, he works for Terracon Consultants Inc. where his focus is on the building envelope. “I like to tell people if it keeps water out of the building that is what I work on.”

His work entails diagnostic testing, forensic investigation, building assess ments of basements, waterproofing, roofing, and other exterior components of an existing building. He also works on reroofing and waterproofing design projects preparing drawings and speci fications. “I like working on existing buildings the most. When people have a problem with water intrusion from their building envelope, I love figuring out what exactly the problem is and helping them to solve it long term.”

He lived in Oahu, HI for seven years.

While there, he worked on the Disney Aulani Resort in Ko’Olina project from pre-construction to closeout.

Les and his wife, Angela Hines, have been married for 33 years. Angela is the director of new construction for G.W. Mitchell Construction. Together, they have two children. Their oldest, Dylan, was born in Houston and is now 25. He is into buying and selling stocks and gaming. Their daughter Abby was born in Hawaii. She is 12 years old and just started the 7th grade at Cornerstone Christian School. She is at that point where she is trying lots of things like sports, theater, band, etc.

Les has had many great mentors but says his parents, Patsy and Charlie, stand alone. “They taught me every thing, but it was my dad who taught me the most about business, mainly the roofing business. He taught me so much about how to treat and interact with people. I have had many great mentors and friends over the years in business that have taught me many lessons. I al ways try to take the best points of all those lessons and pass them on to the next generation.”

When it comes to interests or hob bies, Les says “The answer usually has to do with being outdoors with my family - snow skiing, hiking, fishing, and hunt ing. I like to get out and go for long walks while listening to some ‘80s music that helps to keep my pace quick.” -cmw

The annual Construct A Kid’s Christ mas Toy Drive will be Friday, Dec. 2 from 10am – 2pm. Unwrapped gifts, toys and gift cards will be collected at the Construc tion News offices located at 4047 Na co-Perrin. These unwrapped gifts and gift cards will be donated to Bexar County Child Protective Services and Child Advo cates San Antonio (CASA) for Bexar County foster children who might not otherwise have a gift under the tree this Christmas.

Ask your children or your friends’ chil

dren what they would like for Christmas. Chances are that the children in foster care might like the same type of gift. Get ideas on items in the $15 to $25 price range, and don’t forget to include the older children in foster care, kids from 12 to 18 years of age. They too need to feel the love.

Let’s bring Christmas to the children of the Bexar County foster care system as only the construction industry can do. -cmw

continued from Page 1 — Hollywood-Crawford Door Company dustry as well. Overall housing numbers have increased each year, and their cus tomers now include builders construct ing homes to rent directly to individuals. More multi-family homes are incorporat ing garages into their designs, some times attached to individual apartments. Word of mouth, always a vital source of referrals, has taken on a new significance with online reviews and social media. As the labor market has gotten more com petitive, the company has spent a lot of time and money increasing employee benefits and improving its culture, includ ing higher pay, more paid time off and a healthy profit-sharing program, among other perks.

Some things have stayed consistent

over the years. Customer service is the key to the company’s longevity. “We’ve re ceived the prestigious Angi (formerly Ang ie’s List) Super Service Award for the past 15 consecutive years – something no oth er garage door company in San Antonio can say,” says Oliver.

With more than 1,700 Google reviews with an overall rating of 5.0, the compa ny’s focus on happy customers keeps it ahead of competitors. The company also believes in giving back and providing sig nificant financial gifts to local nonprofit organizations each year.

Hollywood-Crawford Door Company provides garage door installation and repair services to residents and businesses in San Antonio and the surrounding areas. -cmw

Les Hines, Senior Facilities Professional, Terracon Consultants Inc., San Antonio, TX

continued from Page 1 — Construct A Kid’s Christmas Toy Drive

Association Calendar

Content submitted by Associations to Construction News

ABC

Assoc. Builders & Contractors Inc.

Oct. 1 - 30: Build Your Future – Careers in Construction Month. For more contact Erin George at 210-342-1994 or email egeorge@abcsouthtexas.org

AGC

Associated General Contractors

Oct.15: 28th Annual Safety Fair & Barbe que Cook-off, Helotes Festival Grounds, 12132 Leslie Rd., Helotes, TX For more info, call Kelly Wilson at 210-3494921

AIA

American Institute of Architects

Oct. 27-29: 83rd Annual Conference & Design Expo, El Paso Convention Center, One Civic Center Plaza, El Paso, TX. For more info, go to www.aiasa.org

ASA

American Subcontractors Association

Oct. 12: Fall Golf Tournament, Canyon Springs Golf Club, 24405 Wilderness Oak, 8am, $200 Per Member Golfer, $700 Mem ber Team of 4, $250 Per Non-Member Golfer, $900 Per Non-Member Team of 4 Oct. 19: Safety Update, ESC Safety Con sultants Offices, 12758 Cimarron Path #127, 11:30am

Oct. 26: Killer Contracts Seminar, ESC Safety Consultants Offices, 12758 Cimar ron Path #127, :30pm. For more info, con tact Jennifer Swinney at 210-349-2105 or email jennifer@asasanantonio.org

ASSP

American Society of Safety Professionals

Oct. 17: Chapter Monthly Meeting, South west Research Institute, 6220 Culebra, 11:30am-1:30pm. For more info, go to www.southtexasasse.org

CFMA

Construction Financial Management Association

Oct. 2-4: CFMA Lone Star Conference The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa, 111 N. Post Oak Ln., $345 Member, $395 Non-Member

Oct. 17: 19th Annual Golf Tournament benefiting the Cindy P. Dennis Scholar ship, Canyon Springs Golf Club, 24405 Wilderness Oak, 1:30pm, Free. For more info, contact Tom Whitney at 210-6499000 or go to www.sanantonio.cfma.org

CLC

Construction Leadership Council

Oct. 20: CLC View From the Top, Guido Construction Office, 8522 Vidor Ave., 4:306:30pm.

Oct. 27: CLC Golf & Mixer, San Pedro Golf, 6102 San Pedro Ave., 3-8pm. For more info, call Kelly Wilson at 210-349-4921

GSABA

Greater San Antonio Builders Association

Oct. 13: 3PAC Fundraiser, San Antonio Gun Club, 928 E. Contour Dr., 2-7pm, $300 Per Shooter, $1000 Team of Four. For more info, contact Haley King at 210-696-3800 or email hking@sabuilders.com

HCAdeSA

Hispanic Contractors Association de San Antonio

Oct. 19: Monthly Membership Meeting, Location TBD, 5:30-7:30pm. For more info, call 210-444-1100 or email admin@hcade sa.org

IEC

Independent Electrical Contractors

Oct. 26: IEC San Antonio, IEC of Texas, IEC National Update & Bonding Presentation, IEC Offices, 5511 Ingram Rd., 11:30-1pm. For

more info, contact Julie Tucker at 210-4319861 or email jtucker@iecsanantonio.com

MCA-SMACNA INC

Mechanical Contractors Association

Sheet Metal & A/C Nat’l Association

Oct. 12: Regular & Associates Meeting, The Petroleum Club, 8620 New Braunfels 7th Flr., 11:30am

Oct. 13: Town Hall Meeting TSBPE, Alzafar Shrine Temple, 901 N. Loop 1604 W, 6pm

Oct. 20: MCA-SMACA 70th Anniversary Celebration, Greater San Antonio Build ers Association (GSABA) Ray Ellison Ball room, 3625 Paesanos Pkwy. #100, 5pm

Oct. 26: Joint Industry Fund Meeting, MCA-SMACNA Office, 206 E. Nakoma, 11:30am. For more info, call Sandee Mor gan at 210-822-3763

NAWIC

National Association of Women in Construction

Oct. 5: General Meeting, The Petroleum Club, 8620 N. New Braunfels 7th Flr., Din ner & Program $45 Member, $50 Non-Member, $10 Program Only.

Oct. 8: Book Buddies, 311 N. Frank Luke Dr., 10am-12pm. For more info, contact Shenel Rimando at shenelrimando@ gmail.com or register at nawicsatx.org

NUCA

National Utility Contractors Association

Oct. 25: Uncovering Common Ground Coffee with OSHA, Vermeer Texas-Louisi ana, 16593 I-35 Selma, 9:30-11am. For more info, contact Mary Jane Debenport at 817-688-8347 or email maryjane@nu catexas.com

PHCC

Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors

Oct. 5: Training: 3 Steps to Attract & Re tain Top Team Leaders, PHCC Offices, 10103 Broadway, 11-30am-1pm

Oct. 13: Plumber’s Townhall with the TX Board, Alzafar Shrine Temple, 901 N. Loop 1604 W. For more info, contact Hei di Trimble at 210-824-7422 or email hei di@phcc-sanantonio.org

SAMCA

San Antonio Masonry Contractors Association

Oct. 25: Masonry Day, Downtown UTSA Campus for Architectural Students. For more info, contact Debi at 210-347-2423 or email thesamca@gmail.com

TACCA

Texas Air Conditioning Contractors Association

Oct. 19: Membership Meeting – How Contractors Can Prepare for Govern ment’s AIM ACT Phase Down of All Hy drofluorcarbon Gases (HFCs), Alamo Café, 14250 San Pedro Ave., 11:30am1pm. For more info, call Dawn Thomp son at 210-901-4222

TCA

Texas Construction Association

Oct. 11: TCA PAC Clay Shoot, Greater Houston Sports Club, 6700 McHard Rd., Houston, 1pm. For more info, email Pat rick Finnegan at pfinnegan@texcon.org

TXAPA

Texas Asphalt Pavement Association

Oct. 20: TXAPA Live! Expanding the Tx DOT Bituminous Rated Source Quality Catalog (BRSQC) and the Aggregate Quality Monitoring Program (AQMP) Oct. 31-Nov. 17: Engineering Asphalt Essentials. For more info, Beck Schaeffer at 512-312-2099 or email bschaeffer@tex asasphalt.org

Ready and able

kets, but what ties us all together as one company is the core values,” Wiggins states. ”We serve our individual markets as needed, but we all go back and share the same values of teamwork, integrity and commitment.”

“Henry was a visionary, says Austin Marketing Manager Alexa Walkerow “He set up Turner with a vision for what it could be, rather than what was capable at the time. Henry spent half a century at Turner and saw his dreams realized. Imagine if he could see how much more we have grown as a company: more than 10,000 exceptionally skillful and talented

employees engaged in steady and mean ingful work, and a portfolio of projects that have taken the built environment to new heights and forms. He created a place for him to belong and a place for our people to belong. What a history. What a legacy!

“We honor Henry for his vision and thank our people for continuing the pur pose and spirit of Turner for the current and future generations in our company.”

Turner Construction is an international contracting firm with offices throughout the United States and Texas. -cmw

Anthony Gonzalez , Longhorn Construction Materials, loads material for customers as they arrive for their orders. -cmw

Construction News

LOCATION

1919 Turner Construction personnel – company slogan, “Turner for Concrete”

continued from Page 18 — Turner Construction

Humble Oil – Turner Construction’s first Texas project, 1919

Load test in 1905 for Turner’s pioneering steel-reinforced concrete

CANstruction 2022

To elevate public awareness of the worldwide hunger crisis, the creative talents of design and construction professionals and the student they mentor come together the participate in CANstruction.

The San Antonio chapters of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Society for Design Administration (SDA) have partnered to host the creative CANstruction community event at North Star Mall for the benefit of the San Antonio Food Bank. The competition challenges teams of dedicated architects, engineers, and contractors as well as students from San Antonio College’s AIAS Chapter to build amazing sculptures using canned goods. These supersized masterpieces are

juried by a panel recognized community leaders who select the best from the en tries.

More than 18,000 cans of nonperishable food will be sent to the San Antonio Food Bank to help feed the vulnerable communities of San Antonio and southwest Texas.

This year’s CANstruction creations were on public display at North Star Mall for two weeks, Sept. 11-25. During that time the public was encouraged to cast its vote for the People’s Choice Award. The winner of that coveted prize remains on display at the San Antonio Food Bank for year. -cmw

Most Cans and Best Original Design: RVK Architecture, Lundy & Franke Engineering and FA Nunnnelly, “Roberta the Jurassic CAN Opener” – 5,200 cans

Structural Integrity: Luna Architecture, “Little Shop of Hunger – Feed Me” – 2,819 cans

Best use of Labels: HDR, “Structures of San Antonio” San Antonio’s three largest buildings

– Marriott Rivercenter, The Tower of the Armericas, and The Weston Centre – 4,293 cans

The Alamo – 3c: World’s Largest Cowboy Boot

For a job well done

Forty-five and going strong

When

Carl Keller and Chuck Mar tin decided to venture out on their, little did they know then that 45 years later, their company, Keller-Martin Construction would be come one of San Antonio’s notable gener al contractors.

Founded in 1977, Carl Keller and Chuck Martin enjoyed eight years togeth er building their company before Martin passed away in 1985. Keller remained committed to the vision he and Martin had shared before selling stock to long time employee Rick Smith and colleague Bill McCullough in 1992.

For the next several years, Smith and McCullough would continue to buy stock in the company until Keller retired and both were equal partners like Keller and Martin were before them. They remained committed to the visions shared by Keller and Martin, growing the company at a steady pace with a feel and understand ing of family.

“One of the reasons, Carl Keller and Chuck Martin started this company is be cause back in the day they were working for Churches Fried Chicken” recalls Smith. “They were both traveling a lot, working terrible hours, and they wanted to be here in San Antonio where they could be close to family and spend time at home. That’s

the reason they started the company. So, I liked to think that we still have that family dynamic working for us because we all feel like family.”

In 2017, McCullough was ready to re tire and began selling his shares of stock to Randy Reiley, Robert Hoyland IV, and Doug Neubauer. He later retired in 2019 as Reiley and Hoyland, respectively, took over his company shares as Vice President of Operations and Vice President of Esti mating. Reiley joined the Keller-Martin family in 1996 and Hoyland in 2001.

Celeste Estep, who joined the Keller-Martin team 17 years ago has prov en to be a valuable arm of the family dy namics of Keller-Martin serving as book keeper and office manager. “I’m so happy to be part of this team,” says Estep. “I can’t believe it’s been 17 years. It feels like only two.”

While the Keller-Martin team quietly celebrates their 45 years in business, they are grateful for everyone. “The construc tion industry is like none other,” says Smith. “We are thankful for our colleagues, our clients, suppliers, subcontractors, owners, and all the many friends we have made along the way.”

Keller-Martin Construction is a general contractor in San Antonio. -cmw

On Aug. 19, EquipmentShare host ed an employee lunch for reach ing a major San Antonio major milestone in July of $1.5 million in sales.

Employees enjoyed a delicious chicken fried steak meal prepared by Sales Man ager Zach Stinnet , Sam Erwin and Stan Rothman. -cmw

Keller-Martin Construction management team L-R: Rick Smith, Randy Reiley and Robert Hoyland

Paloma primer

The next generation

Members of the Hispanic Contrac tors Association de San Antonio (HCA de SA) came together on Aug. 26 for HCA de SA’s Annual Paloma Primer. The clay shooting event was held at the National Shooting Complex where over 120 shooters tested their shooting skills.

Paloma Primer winners: 1st Place Team: IBTX – Tom Quintero, Bruce Culver, Edward Pape and Clyde Culver

After the shooting competition was completed, the shooters and other guests enjoyed a delicious fajita dinner with all the trimmings, followed by the disbursement of door prizes and raffle items. A great time was had by all. -cmw

2nd Place Team: 4 Horsemen John Lynch, Gabe Hernandez, Juan Saenz and Michael Hampton, Sr.

3rd Place Team: All Texas Electrical Services Inc. –Pito Garcia, Brent Tomes, Michael Benavidez and Justin Dumas

Whilelooking for a way to transi tion out of new construction, Darren Gerloff started the Ger loff Company Inc. after working on a home damaged by fire. Within a few years after starting the company, Gerloff brought on James Gregory, a former co-worker, as president of the company.

Thirty-seven years later, Derek and Dustin Gerloff took the reins of the com pany. The second generation of Gerloffs began their transition into ownership in 2017 when Darren Gerloff’s sons began a five-year purchase of the company.

“Our dad and James Gregory fully re tired this year,” says Dustin. “We went through the whole transition plan that we put together and laid out.”

“We didn’t just step into this busi ness,” adds Derek. “Dustin and I have been involved in this business our entire lives. The business was not just handed to us. We worked our way up and eventu ally purchased the business.”

Although the boys are happy and charged with renewed energy to carry on for their dad, they admit it is bittersweet.

“Walking into this building on Janu ary 1 was strange,” says Derek. “Dustin and I just looked at each other. Walking into dad’s and James’ offices the realiza tion of it hit. Personally, it’s more emo tional for us because those two have been our mentors. We’ve grown up be hind them and along the way.”

Nowadays, Darren is enjoying retire ment and is happy spending all his newly found free time with his grandchildren and enjoying life. “As long as dad feels he can enjoy retirement, I think he feels we are doing the right thing here.” says Dustin.

While their father enjoys retirement, the boys admit they “sucked” James back in on a part-time basis. “He wasn’t com pletely ready to just stop working,” Dustin adds. “So, he’s doing some con sulting work to help some of our insur ance clients. He brings his experience to the table and helps people on both sides of insurance, whether it’s appraisals and consulting, or whether it’s for the insured or the insurance company.”

Dustin and Derek plan to keep busi ness as usual and continue to do what the Gerloff Company has been doing these past 37 years. “The biggest change is, there is no change,” Dustin stated. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

“We’re just going to wait and see where the market takes us. Everything in our industry is dependent on the insur ance companies,” adds Derek. “Coverag es have changed from the early days when we did a lot of plumbing work.”

The company has maintained a strong base of tenured employees, many of whom have been with the company for over 25 years. They have a combination of in-house technicians, carpenters, and painters along with a large subcontractor base from which they can draw depen dent on the job and are proud to serve the entire state of Texas.

“We’re born and bred Texans from San Antonio,” shares Dustin. “We take pride in that, and I think that shows in our quality of work. We started as a family business, and we plan to keep it a family business with a reputation for doing the right thing.”

Gerloff Company Inc. specializes in fire, water, and storm damage restoration, re construction, and structural cleaning. -cmw

IBTX

Female Top Shooter: Lisa Casarez, United Water Restoration – 55

Bent Barrel: Salina Raymond, Turner Construction, Team 3 – 7

Male Top Shooter: Rudy Baza, Terracon – 100

Second generation owners L-R: Derek and Dustin Gerloff

Fishing at

Golfing + communities

OnSept. 8, Alterman held their 5th Annual Golf Classic. The event was held at the beautiful J.W. Mar riott Resort & Spa TPC Golf Course for a sold-out tournament. Seventy-two teams for a total of 288 golfers hit the greens at the TPC benefiting the Alterman Founda tion where over $50,000 were raised and go towards organizations local to the Al terman communities.

“We want to give a huge Thank You to everyone who participated in our 5th Annual Golf Classic,” says Alterman Com munications & Engagement Specialist Ja mie Lambrecht . “We especially want to recognize our title sponsor, The Reynolds Company, as well as our other top spon sors Hill Country Electric Supply L.P., Southwire Company, Spectrum Lighting Inc., Eaton, Crawford Electric Supply, CBI

Group – Culture-Based Interiors, Brisk Worldwide, and Valero Energy Corpora tion. Although this is not the complete list of sponsors, it goes without saying that we appreciate your continued sup port and look forward to next year’s golf classic and hope to see you all there!”

Photos courtesy of Mary C. Haskin Photog raphy. -cmw

Alterman Golf Tournament winners: 1st Place: Lone Star Electric Supply San Antonio – Brian Zigrang, Stephen Shinn, Harris Sharawi, and Shaun Blumhoff

2nd Place: National Trench Safety –Aaron Stillman, Matt Rivera, Michael Thomas, and Derek Connally

3rd Place: Mission Controls – Chad Barborak, Chayce Cione, Daniel Paley, and Devin Nielsen

288 golfers participate in Alterman’s 5th Annual Golf Tournament benefiting The Alterman Foundation

The Reynolds Company with Alterman President Greg Padalecki L-R: Shaun Blumhoff, Richard Russell, Massey Brand, and Greg Padalecki

Lone Star Electric Supply San Antonio

1st Heavy Stringer: TNT Crane & Rigging Team #1

tors Association (TACCA) of Greater San Antonio held

29th Annual Fishing Tournament at Doc’s at

in

Christi TX,

and beverages. The registered 32 teams competed in a full day of fishing in the Saturday Tournament. After the

in,

awards,

2nd Heavy Stringer: Beyer Girls

1st Heavy Redfish:   AmeriCRANE Hookers

1st Heavy Black Drum:

Crane

Rigging Team

Most Spots Cash Pot: TNT Crane & Rigging Team #2