A PROJECT TO REMEMBER

By / Jessica Kirby

Local 83 and SMACNA Capital District partnered on a Memorial Park to honor Americans who have paid the ultimate price for their country

The Town of Malta in New York state wanted to honor those who have served and paid the ultimate price for America. In recognition, they built a Veteran’s Memorial at the entrance of the town hall to include a piece of the steel from the Twin Towers that fell on 9/11. In June, visitors paid respects at the expansion of that project to include a memorial brick walkway with benches and a future fountain for veterans, service members, and their families to enjoy.

Visitors included a gathering of community members, government officials, and veterans, and the dedicated tradespeople who volunteered their time to contribute to this place of recognition and remembrance.

Local 83 Organizer Phil Stenglein was approached in March by Renee Farley, chairperson of the the Malta Veterans Appreciation Program. She wanted to dedicate the Town Veterans Park to a decorated Marine captain and Vietnam veteran, who is also MVAP’s founder and who has been a champion of veteran causes for his entire post-war career and life.

“He was dying of cancer, and they wanted to do this before he passed away,” Stenglein says. “First, Renee had to get permission from the town to do this, and there was a lot of work to do in the park ahead of the tight deadline.”

Local 83’s part was constructing an entrance way to the park. Renee asked Stenglein to coordinate with the trades and he agreed, overseeing the entire project with three other trades and four contractors, which included signatory sheet metal workers, ironworkers, painters, and masons/bricklayers.

“I was given a rough sketch, a due date of June 6, and some old wrought iron fencing from the old town cemetery, which dated back to just after the Civil War,” Stenglein says. “The fencing was stacked up about 100 feet behind a resident’s house underneath a grove of pine trees. We had to trudge through over a foot of snow to look at it. Let me tell you, it was in rough shape. I picked out some sections of fence and the two or three finials or posts on the end, though no two pieces were the same or fully intact.”

A powder coating contractor completed the initial sandblasting on the fencing, the ironworkers completed building and welding the entire gateway at their union hall and training center, and a painting contractor sandblasted and painted the gateway. At the same time, masons and bricklayers were building the brick pillars to which the gateway was to be mounted. All parties had to coordinate the dimensions and timing, including time after it was mounted to pour the caps on the pillars.

Stenglein approached Josh Monahan, vice president with Monahan Metals, to complete the wording on the entrance way

gate, and he did not hesitate to get involved, Stenglein says. “He donated the material and labor for the sign that would be attached to the fencing plus all the wording.”

Monahan says becoming involved was a natural choice. “We feel it’s important to help support the community and people we share a home with,” Monahan says. “Everyday we send our products all over the country trying to make an impact on our market. However, more importantly, everyday our team members are part of a sports team, a fire department, or a veterans program. It’s important to to support and build those organizations up when possible because they bring purpose and unity to a diverse group of people.”

Monahan’s team needed to take the design and convert it to a usable format, then cut the letters and back plate so they could be mounted on the refurbished fencing. “With the help of AutoCAD, we converted and scaled their design to fit the desired dimensions,” Monahan says. “From there, the parts were sent to our laser table where our operator cut everything. The parts were then cleaned up and delivered to Phil for their final assembly. The trickiest part was getting the parts done in time to meet the schedule. At the time, we were very busy but felt this was an important cause and that deserved the support.”

It was painstaking work. First, arranging and taping, then welding, grinding, buffing, painting, and mounting the sign. “Josh did a wonderful job and even etched the outline of the letters onto the sign so they could weld every letter on straight and evenly spaced,” Stenglein says.

Once complete, Stenglein and two ironworkers installed the sign. Local 83 provided the Genie lift used to hoist the fencing onto the pillars and lag it down on a Thursday. The mason came and poured the caps on the following Monday, and the event was held that Saturday.

“I asked Renee if I could speak to thank all the union trades and contractors who helped with the sign and gateway,” Stenglein says. “I wanted to make sure that we got everyone's name, Local, and contractor names right.”

When the deadline is tight, emotion is high, and several trades are working together, strong partnerships truly shine. “Labor-management partnerships diversify and broaden your reach,” Monahan says. “We wouldn’t have known about this if it weren’t for Phil. He has a different agenda than I do, and that’s helpful in understanding our market.”

“As a Labor Representative, we have plenty of opportunities for volunteer work and helping our community members,” Stenglein says. “However, as a Union, there is only so much we can do. Most of our participation in these projects comes by the way of volunteer labor. When we need material, equipment, and product, we have to reach out to our contractors for all of, or most of that.”

This is one of the most important ways labormanagement partnerships can help communities, he adds. “Because of those partnerships, I can pick up the phone, without much hesitation, and ask our contractors, who are already busy enough, to volunteer their time and resources in order to make the project a sucess.”

This goes both ways, Monahan adds, because contractors can count on exchanging resources with their Locals. “Whether it’s meeting labor needs, a customer that may need a project quickly, advanced equipment, or a local charity organization, we can come together and provide quick top quality solutions.”▪ Jessica Kirby is a freelance editor and writer covering construction, architecture, mining, travel, and sustainable living for myriad publications across Canada and the United States. She can usually be found among piles of paper in her home office or exploring nature’s bounty in British Columbia’s incredible wilderness.