Heavy Equipment Operations
HEO Newsletter
Volume 3 • Issue 2
SPRING 2022
in this
1 2
Issue: Featured Partner: Eddie Axner Construction Featured Student: Gary Perry CDL Graduates Cedar Creek Partnership Recruitment Team Roadtrip
3 4
Dean's Corner Featured Faculty: Dave Alvord Enrollment Media Corner
Heavy Equipment Operations
HEO TEAM Zack Zweigle Dean zzweigle@shastacollege.edu Clancy Mitchell Truck Driving Instructor tmitchell@shastacollege.edu Pete Dickerson Heavy Equipment Faculty pdickerson@shastacollege.edu Rebekah Davis Student Success Facilitator rdavis@shastacollege.edu Becky Roe Director of Forest Health rroe@shastacollege.edu Janis Logan Project Coordinator Forest Health jlogan@shastacollege.edu Sarabeth Angel-Towner Apprenticeship Coordinator sangel-towner@shastacollege.edu Angela Cordell Senior Project Coordinator of Employer Engagement acordell@shastacollege.edu Trena Kimler-Richards Logging and Heavy Equipment Consultant trichards@shastacollege.edu
OCT OCT
OCT | SEP
JUL JUN JUN
IMPORTANT DATES 13
Summer Classes Shasta College
22 25
Shasta District Fair Anderson, CA
03 09
Forest Institute for Teachers Lake McCumber Forestry Challenge Mountain Meadows
through
through
29 01
through
13
FFA Field Day Shasta College Farm
22
Harvest Fest Shasta College Farm
Featured Partner: Eddie Axner Construction Eddie Axner Construction, Inc. is our featured partner in this issue of the Heavy Equipment Operations (HEO) newsletter. This company has had a long history with Shasta College beginning with the inception of the HEO program. Keith Foster, Operations Manager for Eddie Axner Construction, Inc., and the newest HEO advisory committee member has been with the Axner family for 39 years and most recently with Eddie Axner Construction, Inc. for the last 12 years. He grew up in Millville and played baseball with Eddie in Palo Cedro. Keith and Eddie have worked together since graduating from Enterprise High School. Eddie Axner Construction, Inc. focuses on on-site work for both commercial and residential projects in the North State. The company develops large-scale commercial projects and new residential subdivisions. Eddie Axner Construction, Inc. has diversified to include a crushing yard to make aggregate road bases from concrete and construction waste. They also utilize the green waste material to compost and mulch, creating a marketable product that they sell to commercial landscapers. At the beginning of the HEO program, Axner Excavating gave $10,000 over three (3) years to assist the new program. In 2010, Eddie Axner Construction, Inc., working with theninstructor John Livingston (ret.), started recruiting Shasta College students. Information was shared to improve training within the program, including the addition of GPS systems and TopCon units. Today, Keith works with Pete Dickerson, heavy equipment instructor at Shasta College, along with students to put on the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference Excavator and Backhoe Rodeo. Recently, Pete recruited Keith to join the HEO advisory committee to assist the department as it navigates changes in the industry and program.
When asked what is the best advice that he could give to a student, Keith stated, “Showing up with a positive attitude is a game-changer. Job skills can be taught, but attitude is a choice.” Keith is married and has four grown children living all over the country. He is passionate about fishing, bird hunting, and spending time on his riverboat. He believes in putting in an honest day's work, treating your employees like family, and enjoying what you do. Keith’s motto is “Have a career where every day is living the dream.”
Eddie Axner and Keith Foster
Gary Perry Shasta College HEO Certificate and Commercial Drivers License 2020
Gary came to Shasta College through the StepUp Program, which utilizes restorative justice to provide a second chance for students. Gary tributes his success to finding the program through his parole officer, then becoming linked to the faculty and staff of HEO. He said that their belief that he could make and start a new life inspired him everyday to continue to work hard. After graduation, he worked for Hat Creek Construction as an equipment operator and later accepted a position with Cattaneo Trucking, where he is presently working. Cattaneo is a longhaul transportation firm that specializes in working in wildfire environments. Gary has been involved in many wildfire cleanup operations operating a fire dozer. He enjoys the work and the opportunity to reclaim his life.
New Truck Driving Partnership Enhances Training Site Cedar Creek Corporation near the Tehama Campus in Red Bluff signed an agreement with Shasta College to provide 5 acres of parking lot space for the Truck Driving class to operate. Katie Gove, President, and Gary Gove have been willing to assist the program and even provide a “yard” truck for “walk-around” practice. The federal regulations stipulate the size of the backing and docking range that must be set up for training. The new 8-week format for the CONS 140B Intermediate Driving Skills training is intense. The asphalt space provided allows instructor Clancy Mitchell to set up three truck and trailer combinations in the training range. This is an invaluable resource for Shasta College and the truck driving class in Tehama County. Interested in getting your Commercial Driver's License? Enroll in the online Permit Preparation course CONS 140A. Summer courses start June 13, 2022. www.shastacollege.edu/TruckDriving
8 Week CDL Course Successful Graduates
Gabriel Valencia
Gentry McClintic
Isak Larsen
Recruitment Team Hits the Road! Janis Logan, recruitment lead for the Heavy Equipment Logging Operations Program, has been busily exposing students and community to the Career Education offerings at Shasta College. Her team of faculty, paraprofessionals, and staff have presented at events such Sierra Cascade Logging Conference, In–Woods Education Day, and various high school career fairs. www.shastacollege.edu/academics/programs/heavy-equipment-operations/
James Genda
2
Lee Keys
Madai Cruz-Saavedra
Spring 2022
Volume 3, Issue 2
Dean's Corner
with Zack Zweigle
Spring semester has been busy in the Heavy Equipment, Commercial Driving, and Logging programs. Over the last few months we have continued to purchase much needed equipment to provide those additional layers of safety, taken part in recruitment events, added courses, and represented our programs at several statewide conferences and task force meetings. Trying to purchase equipment since the start of COVID has been fraught with numerous challenges in supply chain issues, computer chip shortages, and rising costs of all products. Yet due to the diligence of our staff - Tracy, Heidi, Andrea, Troy, Gage, Becky, Janis, Sara, and Rebekah - we have been able to secure the supplies and equipment needed for the program. We have added a Kenworth T-880 4000-gal Water Tender, Tri-Max 30 Fire Suppression Cart, Side-by-Side vehicle with QTAC System onboard, and Tri-Max Mini-CAF Extinguisher for each piece of our logging equipment. Also, since adding instruction on hand falling, we have purchased several new chainsaws and personal protective gear to support that instruction. Our logging program in particular continues to receive much attention, and with the addition of the CRAFT logging apprenticeship program, we have been traveling around the state and informing groups of our programs. In May, Becky attended the California Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force meeting in Santa Rosa while Sarabeth, Melissa, and I attended a Forestry Education Summit in Lake Tahoe, where the keynote address was given by California’s Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot. It was an honor to hear Secretary Crowfoot specifically praise the work being done by Shasta College to educate and prepare the next generation of Foresters, Loggers, and Natural Resource professionals. Finally, faculty and staff have been hard at work with recruitment and outreach. In this spring semester alone, instructors Pete, Melissa, Rick, and Dave, along with Janis, Troy, Gage and Becky, have showcased our programs broadly to K-12 students, teachers, school counselors, young adults, and stakeholders throughout the region. Some of these events included the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference, Redwood Region Logging Conference, California State FFA Conference, TRIO Event, Tehama FARMS Leadership Field Day, Non-Traditional Employment for Women (N.E.W.) Event, SCLC In-Woods Show, California Conservation Corps campus tour, and the Trinity Together Career Fair as well as onsite visits to area high schools. Wowzers, we have accomplished quite a bit over the last few months, and there is still so much great work to be done. Zachary Zweigle
Dave Alvord Heavy Equipment Program Instructor Dave Alvord has been with Shasta College for five years as an instructor in the Heavy Equipment program. Currently, besides teaching advanced equipment operations, he is teaching surveying and shop skills. Before his time at Shasta College, Dave spent many years in the trades. He worked himself up from being in a ditch as a shovel operator to a Job Supervisor/Project Planner and Manager in both the public and private sectors. Dave grew up in this area and graduated from Central Valley High where he lettered in Football, Basketball, and Track and Field. Then, after a few years of working, went on to earn an AA degree from Shasta College and a BA from California State University, Chico. Dave began his career as an operator when he was twelve; his uncle owned a small logging company and put Dave on a dozer to cut in a road and then a landing. He had no prior experience but eventually “figured it out” and from that point forward he was hooked and ended up working for heavy construction and pipeline companies. He also worked as a longhaul truck driver for a couple of years. His work took him all across the United States, even up into Alaska, but always considered northern California his home. A few years back, Dave was injured in an off-the-clock activity. During the time while rehabilitating from that injury, he discovered the Heavy Equipment program at Shasta College. He received certs in Heavy Equipment Ops as well as Watershed Restoration and then went back out into the work world. However, after his time going through the programs at Shasta College, he was excited to return to Shasta College and was fortunate enough to be hired on as an instructor.
Dean of Business, Agriculture, Industry, Technology, and Safety
Heavy Equipment Operations
HEO Newsletter
3
OPTIONS!
ENROLL TODAY
¡Inscribase Hoy!
APPLY NOW: ShastaCollege.edu/apply
Heavy Equipment Operations The Shasta College heavy equipment operators program develops students for high demand industry careers. For more videos on our programs please visit our www.youtube.com/shastacollege CTE playlist, and if you like what you see, drop us a like and subscribe!
Our Partners
Fall River Resource Conservation District
CEDAR CREEK
C O R P O R A T I O N
4
In compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Shasta College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, handicap, or age in employment, in any of its educational programs, or in the provision of benefits and services to its students. A lack of English language skills and/or visual and hearing impairment will not be a barrier to admission or participation in any educational program, including Career Technical Education.
Spring 2022
Volume 3, Issue 2