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Remember the FallenMay 25

It’s been 20 years since Paul Ramon, president of Ramon Roofing Inc., hung out his shingle, so to speak, and

he knows the perfect way to celebrate the company’s anniversary: a raise-the-roof party. “We are possibly looking at having a nice 20th anniversary party with a band at my house this summer!” Ramon says. Hosting the party where he lives seems fitting – he started Ramon Roofing out of a former residence. “I remember when I first started, it was out of my apartment. I had a little computer and it was really just me by my-self,” he says, laughing. “I remember when I bought my first truck, rented my first office space and bought my build-

ing; I remember those days! It doesn’t seem like 20 years by any means. I never thought in a million years that this com-pany would turn out to be what it is to-day. It’s been a wonderful ride, that’s for sure. I could not be happier! “ Reflecting on the anniversary, the happy Paul Ramon of 2015 would offer the scrappy Paul Ramon of 1995 some business advice, however. “I would probably go back and tell myself to learn one aspect of roofing and become a true expert at it,” he says. “In-stead of trying to learn everything, really focus in on one thing. I wish when I first started I would have just focused on tile and slate and left everything else alone. I

Todd Templin grew up working at American Automatic Sprinkler (AAS), his father Willie’s fire protec-

tion business, but for years didn’t truly understand how important fire protec-tion really was. Then something hap-pened that made it hit home. “One day, when I was coming to work, one of the buildings that I had de-signed [fire protection for] caught on fire and the sprinkler system put it out,” Tem-plin remembers. “I went to go check on it and was told that the restoration people were there and everyone was getting ready to go back to work. I realized, “Wow, it saved the property and people’s jobs, and they were already back in business.” “That’s when I got hooked,” says

Templin, now the company president and co-owner. “That was the day I decided this may be a career for me.” Templin says with a laugh that no one really remembers his start date at the company because it was founded in 1967 – the year before he was born – and Tem-plin has almost always been a fixture there since “before child labor laws came into effect,” he jokes. He has never held job outside of the company, but has worked in every division at AAS. He en-joys the challenge of trying to keep up with the ever-changing products, rules and regulations and still learns some-thing new every day. “I love to get up and come to work,”

Todd Templin’s fire to run the family business can’t be extinguished.

They had worked together on another master-planned “Parc” in Irving be-fore: MYCON General Contractors

and developer Jackson-Shaw had previ-ously teamed up to bring business office project “Parc 114” to the city. This time, Jackson-Shaw had plans for a four-build-ing master-planned industrial warehouse project called “Parc Royal” and hired MY-CON to deliver that to Irving as well. MYCON project executive David Boyack, GSR Andrade Architects Inc. and civil engineer Halff Associates Inc. worked together to create and construct the 511,600-sf design-build project. The four separate buildings – measured at 217,800sf, 90,0000sf, 73,800sf and 130,000sf, respectively – sprawled over 30 acres located at 3700 W. Royal Lane. The tilt-up construction project be-gan in March 2014 and, because of effi-cient teamwork, was completed in less than nine months despite the many ob-stacles Mother Nature threw in front of it.

“Excessive weather and additional passes required for water injection de-layed the project by 47 days,” Boyack re-members. ”Fortunately, we had a great senior superintendent in Ken Hunter and a great team of subcontractors on this project. Working together as a team, we were able to work smarter, harder and faster to overcome these delays. We actu-ally exceeded the owner’s expectations on schedule by bringing in this job early.” Another challenge is making an in-dustrial warehouse appear unique. To solve this, the team chose a staining tech-nique for accent panels that broke up the exterior’s painted concrete expanse and gave the surface a textured look. ”One of my favorite features on Parc Royal is the stained concrete panels; the concrete stain was applied after they were erected,” he says. “We ended up go-ing with a dark gray color that makes the

A staining technique and stone pilasters set this Parc Royalindustrial warehouse project apart.

Paul Ramon celebrates two decades in the roofing industry.

Dallas/Fort Worth Construction News • May 2015


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To show her fellow Women Construction Owners & Executives (WCOE) members how much jobsite material ends up in landfills, Commodity Recycling Solutions owner Joan

Meeks organized a tour of the Denton landfill on Mar. 27. Meeks educated WCOE’s Dallas chapter on the importance of jobsite recycling and challenged them to find ways to

make their jobsites more “green.” –mjm

Tour of dutySubmitted to Construction News


Geoffrey GrossPresident

Concept Surfaces, LLC.Dallas, TX

(972) 459-4749www.pclbonds.com

Building suretyrelationshipsfor 30 years

PARTNERS IN CONSTRUCTION.BONDED BY TRUST.

Since he was young, Geoffrey Gross has had a blazing work ethic, a re-fusal to take “no” for an answer, a

desire to create work he would love every day and people who believed in his ideas. Ten years after he founded his hard-sur-face material business, Concept Surfaces LLC, in his garage and guided it to suc-cess, Gross still has all of those things and more.

Tell me a little bit about your family and background, Geoff. I was born in Chicago and moved here just as fast as I could get here! When I was at the age of one or two, we moved to Carrollton, where my father was trans-ferred and that’s where I ended up grow-ing up with my brother, mother and fa-ther.

Did anyone in your family work in con-struction? No, my father was in retail and my mom was a stay-at-home mother, but then actually got into selling table pads out of her house and getting into her own business making stationery. My fa-ther Donald worked for a company called Royal Optical.

You’re taking me way back, Geoff, I re-member going to Royal Optical as a child to buy eyeglasses! Well, my great–uncle started Royal with two other people; my father was one of the first employees for Royal, grew through the ranks and actually moved up to president. He ran the company for a few years when it was a public company. When it was bought out, he took over that role. After that, he started his own business with a similar concept to a Sun-glass Hut; it was called “Eyeland.”

Did you grow up helping out in your dad’s business? I didn’t help out at Royal, since I was too young at the time, but when he start-ed Eyeland, I was entering high school and was itching to work. To give you an

example of that, a friend of mine and I started a flag football league for the neighborhood one summer in the hopes of raising money, and it was a great suc-cess. We ran that for one summer and then I wanted to see if I could caddy at a golf course – unfortunately, they weren’t hiring caddies at the public golf course where I was trying! So when my father started his busi-ness, I wanted to work, and there was a position open in his store. But there was a challenge – you should have seen me when I was 15; I look now like I am 15, but when I was 15, I looked like I was 10! My dad made me interview for the job, which was part-time. The manager said I looked way too young and that I wasn’t the right fit.

What did Dad think of that? My dad said, “Well, why don’t you try just working on Sundays.” I had to work with somebody else and fortunately I was able to start outselling everybody. The manager was then forced to hire me on as a regular part-time employee. I would go immediately after school and work all of the time. By my junior year of high school, my dad was up to 20 stores throughout the state of Texas. One sum-mer, I went and trained a manager in Ty-ler, TX for a week. Here’s a 17-year-old kid going to Tyler, TX, training someone three times his age and staying at a Best Western all by himself. It was a great ex-perience and, as I always say to him, was probably the best thing for me because you show that if you work you’ll get re-sults. I worked there all throughout high school and winters and summers during college.

Where did you go to college? I went to Texas Tech University. I worked heavily in the media relations for the athletic department there and gradu-ated with a Bachelor’s degree in public relations with a minor in marketing. But, I graduated in the midst of the recession and didn’t have a job, even though I had great internships and a great resume for what I thought I wanted to go into.

That must have been hard for some-one like you, who enjoys working so much. I ended up finally getting an offer from a public relations firm to work in their media buying department. I was there just over two years and then decid-ed I wanted to go over to the PR side. However, I wasn’t as good with the writ-ing side of it, but I really enjoyed talking with people and I realized media rela-tions was much more than that. That’s when I got into sales, and hon-estly, it was almost like the movie “The Graduate” – I almost went to sell plastics. It was then that I met with a small com-pany that was selling tile, doing some-thing very similar to what I do now, and I was very fortunate to really get a grasp of the business. I was there for a few years and ended up going off on my own. That’s where my garage comes in.

How does your garage come in to the story? I had a one-bedroom condo and six months before I got married, I ended up starting the business out of my garage.

That’s a leap of faith, Geoff, for both you and your wife! Everybody says it’s the scariest thing, but I didn’t know any better. To be very candid, I was maybe 26 years old and I said, “If I screw this up, I’ll be okay.” Actually, I’ll never forget: I was sitting with my father, who asked what I was frightened of and I said that I was scared I was going to mess up. He said I was go-ing to be fine, and once I heard that, I knew I was going to be able to do it. I was so young that I figured if I screwed up, I would still have a shot. I gave my notice, and pretty much the day after I was no longer with the pre-vious organization, I started my business.

I didn’t even have samples. I sold out of a catalogue for three months! As you know, being in construction, interior designers are the most touchy, feely people and here I was selling texture and selling vi-sual color out of a catalogue – and re-member, we didn’t have the printing ca-pabilities 10 years ago that we have now! When we finally got the samples, on Friday and Saturday nights I would buy pizza and beer and my best friends and family would come over and help me put together chip boxes. We would put them together over the weekend and for the rest of the week, I would go and put them in architectural libraries.

You have good friends and family! I do and trust me, they reminded me of this every day! I was very fortunate to have them and a great support staff. That is extremely important to have when you are starting a business because you doubt yourself every day. Even today, 10 years in, I wake up worried because now it’s not just my wife and me; I worry about 15 employees who have families, houses, rent and cars. There’s that responsibility, if you want something that drives you. I’m more worried about failure than I am about success. There may be people out there who are smarter than I am, but I can tell you there isn’t anyone who is going to work harder than anybody in our office.

You sound very appreciative of those who helped you get your start in the industry. I can’t tell you how appreciative I am that, when we first started, so many peo-ple listened. I mean, who wants to listen to someone who comes around with a catalogue? Our first employee Maria’s Kebschull’s first day was in my garage la-beling tile – in July! My second employee, Donald, worked out of my house! When we got the office in 2007, there were cli-ents who walked in while it was still un-der construction. The people who came on board and took the vision that we had, that was a leap of faith, and they’ve been so great.

How has your company evolved since you started it? Our growth from there has been very fortunate. We’ve been profitable since year one and we continue to be profitable. We bought our office in 2007 and then bought the building next door in 2009, so we’ve been able to increase the warehouse and showroom space. One of the things I am proudest of is the tenure of our employees. Maria works for us in Denver now. Chris, a Dallas sales rep, has been with us now for eight years. Some of our support staff has been with us for multiple years. Also, my father joined us to help manage the sales staff. Compared to everybody else, we don’t have a lot of turnover and I think that re-ally speaks for the company. I have great people around me and the clients have just been amazing.

What do you enjoy about your work? I enjoy the people. Plus, it’s such an honor being part of the project no mat-ter what type of job it is, whether it’s cor-porate finish out, higher education, hos-pitality or healthcare. I enjoy this im-mensely.

How do you plan to celebrate your company’s 10-year anniversary? Make it to 20 years! We are still trying to figure that out!

What do you do when you’re not work-ing? When I’m not working, I’m working! I’ll say it again, I guarantee you there is somebody smarter than me whatever room I walk into, but they’re not going to work harder than I do! When I do have downtime, I have the opportunity to spend with my wife Ka-trina and my two daughters, 4-year old Abigail and 2-year-old Caroline. The two of them would probably run this business better today than I can do it! The other day, Abigail was sitting in the bath and she pointed to the boo-boo on her knee, looked at me and said, “Daddy, I’ve got a job for you. While I take this bath, why don’t you go to my bathroom and bring me a Band-Aid because I’m going to need that once I get out.” I was so taken off guard! I almost wanted to give her some money for it. Then, I came to the realiza-tion that delegation is wonderful but that she needed to be able to do it first for her-self before she could start delegating!

So I have to ask, since you started out in your garage: Do you have a lot of tile in your garage, even though you now have this nice office and ware-house? No more is there tile in the garage! But, my house is all tiled now. It’s a lot of hard surface. I practice what I preach! Dallas-based Concept Surfaces sup-plies high-quality hard surface materials, ranging from porcelain tile, glass mosaics, hardwoods and luxury vinyls. –mjm

In 10 years, Geoffrey Gross took his hard surface materials business from garage to greatness.

Publishing the Industry’s News . . .

TEXAS StyleHome Office: (210) 308-5800www.constructionnews.net

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Texas leaders take the reins TEXO’s new leader

On Mar. 26 at 10 a.m., Meloni Mc-Daniel was holding her breath: TEXO, The Construction Associa-

tion, was emailing members announcing that she had been appointed its new president and CEO. By 10:10, she had exhaled with relief; almost 350 congratulatory emails were sitting in her inbox. “It was an incredibly overwhelming experience to know that I was that sup-ported and that people want TEXO – and me – to succeed,” McDaniel says. “Our board wanted to take a progressive stance in the construction industry and they’re 100% supporting me.” For McDaniel, the position was the natural next step in a career that has played to all of her passions. Growing up as a math-obsessed student in Vinita, OK, McDaniel dreamed of an engineering ca-reer but soon discovered architecture and then construction management (her major and minor, respectively) at The University of Oklahoma. An internship at Dallas architecture/construction/devel-opment firm The Beck Group strength-ened her resolve to focus more on con-struction. After graduation in 2005, Beck offered her a job that allowed her to work on a job site within six months. She rel-ished it all – standing on scaffolding in the winter, waking up for 2 a.m. concrete pours and asking the superintendent ev-ery question she could think of. “It was so much fun,” McDaniel re-members. “It was a great experience be-cause I got to see the building go up, work with the people doing it and really got to know the culture of construction. I learned so much about the roots of con-struction and why it’s such a critical in-dustry in America.” In 2013, McDaniel joined TEXO and led the association’s Member Programs and Services. When the president/CEO position became available, she says she

jumped at the opportunity to help unite the industry and strengthen its leaders. “I’m passionate about two things – people and construction – and I think construction people are some of the best in the world,” she says. “I saw this as an opportunity to impact the industry and provide an avenue for companies to im-pact managers to be better leaders.” Her new position offers her a plat-form for another passion: educating youth about construction careers. She is involved with Fort Worth’s Young Wom-en’s Leadership Academy and the MacAr-thur High School AEC board, and her goal is to help TEXO members take a more ac-tive role in recruiting the next generation. She also serves as 1st vice president of the Ft. Worth Society of American Military En-gineers and will serve as chair in 2016. In her rare downtime, the Grapevine resident visits family and enjoys reading, running marathons, swimming and mountain biking, but TEXO trumps it all. “It truly is a passion of mine,” she says. “I love waking up in the morning and coming to work and so few people can say that. I get to serve the construc-tion industry and help make it better. If you could create a company that fits me personally and what I’m passionate about, TEXO is it.” –mjm

TEXO President/CEO Meloni McDaniel

The Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America held its 96th an-nual convention, 360 Degrees of

Construction, Mar. 18-20 in San Juan, Puerto Rico at the Puerto Rico Conven-tion Center. At the convention’s officer installa-tion dinner, Texas found representation at the national level of the association in two of its three highest offices. Chuck Greco, chairman of The Lin-beck Group, was installed as the presi-dent of AGC of America for 2015. Though the general contracting company is headquartered in Houston, Greco is based in San Antonio, his hometown. Lin-beck also has an office in Fort Worth. Greco earned his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, where he served as cadet captain, executive officer, in the Corps of Cadets. He is past president of the Construction Industry Advisory Council for Texas A&M’s Department of Construction Science, and he serves as regional director for the Texas Wildlife Association. “Thirty-six years ago when I started my career with Linbeck, I never imagined that one day I would be serving as presi-dent of the Association General Contrac-tors of America,” stated Greco. “During the course of my career, I had countless opportunities to observe just what a pos-itive impact the association had on our business and our industry. And more of-ten than not, those benefits were the product of years of work by involved con-tractors and association staff. Clearly, AGC was the place where people were fighting to improve the industry’s future. That is why the theme for my tenure as your president will be ‘AGC today for a better industry tomorrow.’” Art Daniel, president and COO of AR Daniel Construction Services in Cedar Hill, TX, was installed as vice president of AGC of America for 2015. The family-owned contracting company does high-way and utility construction in Texas and surrounding states. Daniels graduated from Houston Baptist University and went on to study civil engineering and landscape architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington. He also served as president of AGC of Texas in 2004. At the Alliant Build America Awards Luncheon, Greco stepped into the spot-light again, joining the Linbeck Zachry Joint Venture team when the Tobin Cen-ter for the Performing Arts, located in San Antonio, won Best New Construction Management Project. Sundt Construction also received an Alliant Build America Award in the High-

way and Transportation Renovation cat-egory for its $25 million 7th Street Bridge project in Fort Worth. The Willis/AGC Construction Safety Excellence Awards Breakfast was held that morning. Other events included a prayer breakfast, student chapters annu-al meeting and luncheon, the Education and Research Foundation Board of Direc-tors luncheon, a luncheon for spouses and guests, Celebrate Construction Night, the AGC-Willis Construction Safety Program, a board of governors luncheon and several educational sessions. –mh

The Linbeck Zachry Joint Venture team won an Alliant Build America Award for the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio.

Chuck Greco (right) accepts the position of president of AGC of America for 2015.

Art Daniel takes the podium after accepting the position of vice president of AGC of

America for 2015.

L-R: Linbeck Group’s David Adams and Mark Linenberger bond over shrimp.

L-R: Sandy Sipes and Linbeck Group’s Paul Sipes, Kevin Imming and David Stueckler at Celebrate Construction Night.


Scary IRS letterKathleen Dvorak, CPA, ShareholderRidoutBarrettSan Antonio, TX

How about that sinking feeling you get when you find an IRS envelope in your mailbox and you know

it’s not a refund check? With anxiety you slit open the envelope knowing it’s going to be bad news. “The IRS says I owe how much?”

Well I may have some good news for you. There’s a possibility you may qualify for penalty abatement. So, if a significant portion of what the IRS says you owe is penalty, and interest on that penalty, it may be worthwhile to work with the IRS in an effort to have the penalty abated. If penalties are successfully abated, interest related to those abated penalties should also vanish. Some helpful IRS agents will actually work with you or your appointed repre-sentative to maximize the abatement of penalties and related interest. When working with the IRS in an effort to have penalties abated for clients, some tax practitioners may even occasionally speak with very helpful agents who pro-vide guidance on how to get a bigger abatement. The IRS has programs in place to allow taxpayers, who are not ha-bitually charged with the same type of penalty, to receive a First-Time Abate-ment Waiver. Before using this get-out-of-jail-free card however, taxpayers as-sessed with penalties should first consid-er whether or not they may have the penalty removed “for cause” and save the first-time penalty abatement request for a possible future need. The IRS grants penalty abatements when the taxpayer can show just cause for the deviation from the rules or regula-tions. Unfortunately, being unaware of the rules and regulations is not just cause for abatement. The IRS often grants First-Time Pen-alty Abatements to qualifying taxpayers. Certain types of penalty assessments can be abated if the taxpayer has not been assessed the same type of penalty within the prior three-year period and if the tax-payer is otherwise in compliance with that same type of issue for subsequent and current periods. If a taxpayer has had, or does have, an installment agree-ment in place and he or she has been making timely payments according to the plan, the taxpayer is still considered to be compliant and may still qualify for the abatement.

Tax practitioners have available to them an IRS Tax Practitioner’s Hotline which allows practitioners to work on be-half of their clients with agents who are generally very knowledgeable, helpful and frequently authorized to correct is-sues and grant certain penalty abate-ments over the phone at the time of the call from the tax practitioner. Unfortu-nately, because of budget cuts and a re-duced staff of IRS agents, the tax practi-tioner is often on hold for great lengths of time, sometimes between one and two hours before the tax practitioner is able to speak to an agent. However, pa-tience is not only a virtue, but in these instances it can also be fiscally beneficial, resulting in the savings of significant dol-lars in penalties and related interest. Other options available to qualifying taxpayers are Installment Agreements and Offers-In- Compromise. If a taxpayer finds he is unable to fully pay a tax debt by the due date, he may be able to obtain an Installment Agreement and make monthly payments over time. Penalties and interest continue to accrue however, so the best option is to pay it off as quick-ly as possible. For those who may find themselves unable to full pay a tax debt over a 72-month Installment Agreement, the taxpayer may be eligible for an Offer-In-Compromise to have part of the tax li-ability removed. There are many issues involved with Installment Agreements and Offers-In- Compromise for which an-other article would be required. But know that these are possible solutions to con-sider when a taxpayer cannot immedi-ately full pay a federal tax liability. If you find the dreaded IRS envelope in your mailbox, know that you may have options for some relief.

Kathleen Dvorak obtained her CPA li-cense in 1988 while working in private in-dustry. Kathleen went into public account-ing in 2001 and joined RidoutBarrett as a department manager in 2005. She became a shareholder of the firm in 2011.

Compliance quick check:Top common group health plan issuesTerrell Taylor, PartnerChrist Taylor InsuranceHouston, TX

Affordability under healthcare reform: Wellness credits and surcharges cannot be taken into consider-ation when determining affordability under the em-

ployer mandate, unless they are tobacco-related. Additionally, small employers must determine affordability for purposes of the Marketplace Notice. Finally, individuals should be informed as to the affordability of coverage for purposes of the premium tax credit subsidies available in the federal marketplace.

Payment of individual policy premi-ums: Some employers have begun to explore the possibility of providing con-tributions toward health coverage pur-chased in the individual market, includ-ing coverage and employee purchases through either a private or public ex-change. In Sep. 2013, the IRS published Notice 2013-54, essentially prohibiting the payment, subsidy or reimbursement of the cost of individual policy premiums by an employer. The IRS requires that a participant in an employer-sponsored ar-rangement that is designed to pay for health coverage on a tax free basis also be enrolled in a group health plan.

Nondiscrimination: Corrections to any failed nondiscrimination test are not per-mitted after year end. This means that the status of the plan should be moni-tored during the year so that any adjust-ments can be made prior to year end. As a best practice, testing should be per-formed several times during the plan year to help a plan sponsor facilitate cor-rections and show, upon audit, that the plan passes the appropriate tests.

Failure to offer COBRA: If an employer offers benefits that satisfy the definition of a group health plan, the employer should also offer COBRA in connection with the plan. Commonly overlooked group health plans include flexible spending arrange-ments, health savings accounts, employee assistance programs and wellness pro-grams. Failure to offer COBRA may subject the employer to penalties under ERISA, an excise tax under the tax code, and penal-ties and remedies by the court.

Mixing up HIPPA and COBRA notices: The HIPAA Special Enrollment Rights No-tice and the COBRA Initial Notice are commonly confused, but the application and audience are different. Employers should ensure that the HIPAA document is provided to all employees (not just those covered under the plan) who are offered the opportunity to enroll. Con-versely, the COBRA document is only pro-vided to employees and spouses who are actually covered under the plan within 90 days of the beginning date.

Medicare/Tricare prohibition: An em-ployer with 20 or more employees may not offer to pay, subsidize or otherwise reimburse the cost of TRICARE or Medi-care coverage for employees or their spouses, as this could be seen as taking such coverage into account and incentiv-izing the individual to drop group health coverage.

FMLA: Final regulations released in Feb-ruary 2013 expanded the federal Family and Medical Leave Act to include leave for family members who are on or have been called to active duty. Extended leave is available for an employee to care for a fam-ily member with a serious illness or injury.

Advance notice of midyear plan changes required: Health care reform introduced the summary of benefits and coverage requirement. Under SBC distri-bution rules, if a plan changes informa-tion or design midyear, an updated SBC must be provided 60 days in advance of the effective date of the change. A sum-mary of material modification (SMM) may also be required on an expedited basis when a plan change is made.

Charging employees different premi-ums: In general, an employer is free to design their plan to charge employees different premiums as long as it is based on bona fide employment classifications or participation in a wellness program. However such plans must ensure they will pass nondiscrimination rules under both IRS code Section 125 and 105(h). Assess-ing premium differentials based on the satisfaction of a health standard (such as not smoking) is only permitted when it is part of a wellness program that satisfies the five criteria of the federal regulations.

Christ Taylor Insurance is an Employee Benefits and Insurance Brokerage firm do-ing business for over 50 years in southeast Texas, and long-time ABC member. The firm provides solutions to small and medium size companies for healthcare and benefit pro-grams, as well as life insurance and Retire-ment Plans. Contact the Christ Taylor team at 713-850-7747 or www.christtaylor.com

A wealth of healthSubmitted to Construction News

Several local construction companies were chosen as The Dallas Business Journal’s “Healthiest Employers in North Texas 2015.” Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors (pictured) nabbed the No. 2 spot, Rogers-O’Brien was honored at No. 4, McCarthy

Building Companies placed at No. 6, MHBT secured the No. 24 position, The Beck Group came in at No. 28 and Terracon scored No. 29. The companies were chosen for their

health-minded programs and how they benefit employees. –mjm


Your rights as a whistleblowerJoann NatarajanCompliance Assistance SpecialistOSHAAustin, TX

You may file a complaint with OSHA if your employer retaliates against you by taking unfavorable person-

nel action because you engaged in protected activity relating to workplace safety or health, asbestos in schools, cargo containers, airline, commercial motor car-

rier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health insurance reform, motor vehicle safety, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime, motor vehicle safety, and securities laws.

Whistleblower Laws Enforced by OSHAEach law requires that complaints be filed within a certain number of days af-ter the alleged retaliation.• Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (90 days)• Clean Air Act (30 days)• Comprehensive Environmental Response,Compensation and Liability Act (30 days)• Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (180 days)• Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (180 days)• Energy Reorganization Act (180 days)• Federal Railroad Safety Act (180 days)• Federal Water Pollution Control Act (30 days)• International Safe Container Act (60 days)• Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Cen-tury Act (motor vehicle safety) (180 days)• National Transit Systems Security Act (180 days)• Occupational Safety and Health Act (30 days)• Pipeline Safety Improvement Act (180 days)• Safe Drinking Water Act (30 days)• Sarbanes-Oxley Act (180 days)• Seaman’s Protection Act (180 days)• Section 402 of the FDA Food Safety Mod-ernization Act (180 days)• Section 1558 of the Affordable Care Act (180 days)• Solid Waste Disposal Act (30 days)• Surface Transportation Assistance Act (180 days)• Toxic Substances Control Act (30 days)• Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (90 days)

Your employer may be found to have re-taliated against you if your protected ac-tivity was a contributing or motivating

factor in its decision to take unfavorable personnel action against you.Such actions may include:• Applying or issuing a policy which pro-vides for an unfavorable personnel ac-tion due to activityprotected by a whistleblower law en-forced by OSHA• Blacklisting• Demoting• Denying overtime or promotion• Disciplining• Denying benefits• Failing to hire or rehire• Firing or laying off• Intimidation• Making threats• Reassignment to a less desirable posi-tion, including one adversely affecting prospects for promotion• Reducing pay or hours• Suspension

If you believe that your employer retali-ated against you because you exercised your legal rights as an employee, contact OSHA as soon as possible because you must file your complaint within the legal time limits. An employee can file a com-plaint with OSHA by visiting or calling the local OSHA office or sending a written complaint to the closest OSHA regional or area office. Written complaints may be filed by facsimile, electronic communica-tion, hand delivery during business hours, U.S. mail (confirmation services recommended), or other third-party commercial carrier.

[email protected] x232

Are you ready fornew union rules?Sewell C. “Spike” Cutler, PrincipalCutler-Smith PCDallas, TX

New union-representation election rules are effec-tive as of April 14, 2015; are you ready?

You may recall earlier efforts by the current administration's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to enact substan-tial changes to union-representation election policies and procedures, chang-es to substantially expedite union elec-tions and eliminate procedural protec-tions employers had when faced with union election petitions. The new rules, sometimes called "Rocket Election" or "Quickie Election" rules, were set aside af-ter a determination that the board adopt-ing the rules at the time included im-properly- appointed members. The prior reprieve has turned out to be temporary; a properly-constituted NLRB adopted a final rule in December, effective April 14, 2015, which imple-ments accelerated election rules. Not only does the new rule accelerate the union election process, it also has some real gems to assist unions in organizing workgroups. The Final Rule, as published in the Federal Register, is 182 pages long, but its most important impacts can be summarized as follows:

1. Union representation election peti-tions may now be submitted electroni-cally, including petitions, voter lists and statutorily-required notices; in the past, these had to be submitted by mail, in-person or by facsimile.2. Regional directors for the NLRB are now expected to set a "pre-election hear-ing" within eight days after hearing no-tice issues, and conduct a post-election hearing 14 days after the filing of any ob-jections; importantly, and critically, elec-tions will not be stayed (delayed) pend-ing resolution of most issues, whereas in the past, elections were not held until pre-election issues, including the validity of voter lists and potential bargaining units, were resolved.3. Employers must submit a position statement setting out issues with the prospective election at least one busi-ness day before the hearing, or waive such issues; previously, all relevant issues could be considered.4. Employers will now be required to give the union a list of possible voters, their locations, the job classifications, and will have to include personal phone num-bers and email addresses for all such em-ployees, and this list has to be provided within two days after the regional direc-tor directs that election be held. So, em-

ployers are required to actively assist or-ganizers in their efforts to line-up em-ployees against them. Bottom line, the process of going from the collection of expressions of in-terest (election cards) to actually con-ducting the election is vastly faster, and the employer is required to help the union get in touch with its people. While the new rules are couched in terms of "fairness," most press favoring the new rules is written with the assump-tion that all employers are large, well fi-nanced, and have only the worst inter-ests of their workers at heart, something most small business owners know to be false. Small businesses are required, as a matter of practical reality, to hire counsel to challenge elections, and they have to do it quickly – while unions already have full-time, trained professional organizers and counsel on staff. Congress passed a bill blocking the new rules, but President Obama immedi-ately vetoed the legislation. Challenges have been filed, includ-ing one filed by the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), the Associated General Contractors (AGC) and the Na-tional Federation of Independent Busi-ness (NFIB), in Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas. Employers must ensure that they know the rules governing representation elections. Most importantly, employers must maintain a clear line of communica-tions between the employees and com-pany management. Employees who know their employer has their best inter-ests at heart are less likely to call for a union election. If you learn of strangers hanging around jobsites or contacting your em-ployees, find out about what's going on so you can ensure that any decisions made are made with factual information in hand. Union organizers rely upon poor communication and misinformation and they are pros at doing this. At the first sign of difficulty, be sure you consult with counsel about what you can - and cannot - do in responding to a union organizing campaign.

Cutler-Smith PC focuses on representa-tion of construction trade contractors and the commercial construction industry. For more information on the firm and its indus-try advocacy, call 214-219-0800 or see the web site www.TexasConstructionLaw.com

Gig ‘em golfSubmitted to Construction News

Cadence McShane Construction Company’s health, safety and environmental vice president John Schmidt and assistant project manager Jessica Wilson showed their

Aggie alum pride recently, placing third in the Texas A&M Chapter of Associated General Contactors Golf Tournament. –mjm


Dustin Freeman had hoped to be-come a football player … but he

stopped growing. He tried his hand as a financial advisor, but found neckties too constricting. Good thing, then, that he had all of that construction experience. Dustin practically grew up in the industry. His maternal grandfather was a home-builder in Rockwall, where Dustin was born and raised. Needless to say, Dustin has fond memories of helping out on job sites as a kid. “I would hang sheetrock, or at least think I was helping!” he recalls. “I would help pour concrete and would write my name in it, cut pieces of wood and paint them. In the summers, I worked for my buddy’s dad who owned a small electrical company. My high school sweetheart’s dad owned a concrete company and I worked with him. It’s always been some sort of con-struction.” Still, it didn’t occur to him that con-struction would be his career. Dustin attended college and studied game management, but instead capitalized on his math skills to work as a hospital financial counselor and then as finan-

Dustin FreemanBusiness DevelopmentComplete Fire Protection

Industry FOLKS

cial investor. At the same time his an-tipathy toward ties grew, however, his desire to be true to himself was grow-ing. “I like being outdoors and being able to shoot straight with people,” he explains. “In the construction industry, no one wants to hear you speculate on what should happen. They just want to hear the facts.” Dustin has since par-layed his no-nonsense construction background and skills into a business development position for Complete Fire Protection. One youthful aspiration of his did come to pass: fatherhood. Three years ago, Dustin, who has known since high school that he wanted kids in his future, became a proud dad to son Dodge Luke. –mjm

There’s a new branch in the fast-growing city of Little Elm. HOLT CAT held a grand opening of one of the

largest Texas Caterpillar dealerships Mar. 26, with a ribbon cutting, barbecue lunch and tour of the 61,030-sf facility. Located at 27600 East University Drive (Hwy. 380) at the intersection of FM 1385, the new $14 million full-service store is a state-of-the-art parts, service, sales and rental facility for CAT machines and also offers industrial engine and generator sales and rentals. Sitting on a 42.7-acre site, the building dedicates 51,800sf to the new parts/service building and 9,230sf to CAT Support (undercarriage, welding and manufacturing). The facility boasts LEED features such as high-efficiency lighting and HVAC systems, water capture cisterns, drip irrigation systems and environmen-tally-friendly building materials. Little Elm was an attractive site to build for HOLT CAT, as it was named one of the fastest growing Texas cities be-tween 2000 and 2010, growing seven times its population. “Little Elm is one of the fastest grow-ing cities in Texas and investments in construction and infrastructure here are driving an ever-increasing demand for Cat heavy equipment and services,”

Budding Elm branch

Dave Harris, president and chief operat-ing officer, says. “With this new HOLT CAT location, customers can be confident of always having the right machine for the job, backed by knowledgeable advice and expert service delivered by the best-trained technicians in the industry.” Representatives from Little Elm, Denton County, partner companies and local employees turned out to celebrate the ribbon cutting. To commemorate the event and HOLT’s dedication to employ-ing veterans, Army Sargeant First Class Dana Bowman, a double-amputee and leading wounded warrior advocate, pre-sented Peter John Holt and Corinna Holt Richter with a Wounded Warriors plaque of veteran signatures. Holt, who is vice president of Power Systems Division commercial engine sales and Holt Rich-ter, vice president of the Machine Divi-sion product support sales, are the fifth generation of the HOLT family that founded Caterpiilar. Fifty-nine employ-ees, 36 of whom are new hires and many of whom are from the Little Elm commu-nity, will work in the new store. HOLT CAT sells, rents and services Cater-pillar machines, engines, generator sets and trucks in a 118-county Texas territory. –mjm

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held for the grand opening of HOLT CAT’s Little Elm location.

L-R: McCaslin-Hill Construction accountant Nadine D’Alessandro and project manager Adam Lasek joined their co-workers in putting together more than 100 bags filled with

food and toiletries for homeless persons in the metroplex. The Dallas-based general contractor partnered with the Pearls of Christ of Mt. Pisgah Missionary Church in North

Dallas on Mar. 21 for the Blessing Bags Outreach Project. –mjm

Helping with the bagsSubmitted to Construction News

The board of directors at Alpha Building Corporation elected Jon-athan Rogero the San Antonio-

based general contractor’s third genera-tion president. Kathy Acock, after serv-ing 25 years as president of the company her father, Gordon Kovich, started 45 years ago, stepped up to the role of CEO. The transition became effective Apr. 1. As Acock’s son, Rogero, takes on his new position and responsibilities, he is in-stituting a multi-faceted rebranding throughout the company, including its of-fices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Corpus Christi, Harlingen, Edinburg, College Sta-tion, Lubbock, El Paso, Conroe and Ste-phenville in Texas; Memphis and Murfrees-boro in Tennessee; and Fayetteville, AR. In 1993, Rogero started at Alpha as a laborer, and worked his way up the ranks through many roles, including carpenter, crew foreman, project manager and esti-mator. He earned his associate’s degree in construction project management and bachelor’s degree in business ad-ministration by going to school nights and weekends, and he joined the corpo-rate office.

Rogero has unveiled a new corpo-rate logo and says, “Our primary focus for many years had been Job Order Con-tracting. Over the last two or three years, we saw the need to go into the CSP, de-sign-build and CM at-risk projects. That is a big change for us.” He adds that they are switching to an enterprise software system to streamline internal communi-cation and operations. As part of the succession changes, Rogero also named his new executive leadership team: Andy Hicks, vice presi-dent of construction operations; Dan Perry, vice president of accounting and finance; and Rob Crow, vice president of business development. Acock has watched her son rise through the leadership of the company, and remarks, “He and I have worked to-gether since 1993. He started in the field. He had a lot of room to grow, and he did. I feel like the company now has transi-tioned to its third generation, and I know my parents would be very proud of that, very proud of Jonathan and probably a little bit amazed at what their small firm had grown into.” –mh

Kathy Acock and Jonathan Rogero

The third-generation Alpha


BAFFIN BAY –– LAGUNA MADRE –– LAND CUTSPECKLED TROUT –– REDFISH –– FLOUN DER

FISHING AND HUNTING TRIPS

STEVE SCHULTZ OUTDOORS, LLC

(361) 813-3716(361) 334-3105

www.baffi [email protected]

U.S. Coast Guard &Texas Parks and Wildlife Licensed

Pre-summerpatterns and tactics

by Capt. Steve Schultz

Sponsored by:Premier Yamaha Boating Center,

Majek Boats, E-Z Bel Construction, Power Pole Shallow Water Anchor, Aggregate ForEverlast Hunting and

Fishing Products and Columbia Sportswear.

High winds and an abundance of rainfall in April made fishing a lit-tle more difficult for most of last

month. There was also one storm where severe weather moved through and winds were clocked at 60 mph, catching some anglers by surprise and far from home. Despite some harsh weather and terrible water conditions in the upper la-goon, our bay system should prosper from the rains and recover for the up- coming summer months.

With May approaching, you should start seeing those croaker flag starting to appear at the local marinas. Fishing strat-

egies will change as we make the transi-tion from shrimp to croakers. Rock struc-tures, reefs, grass beds and potholes are areas which need to be keyed on. It is very important when approaching these areas to use a trolling motor or push pole. Anchoring up on the outside edges of these areas can be very productive on spawning trout. Setting up on these lo-cations is the key to catching fish. Always approach the intended area with the wind at your back, carefully estimating the length of your anchor rope and the distance of your cast. Once you have drifted over the area, you intend to fish because your anchor didn’t hold or you misjudged the wind. You might as well find a new area to fish and try that spot later in the day.

During the summer months here in the Coastal Bend, anglers can find some of the best fishing along the entire coast. Our bays are loaded with resident fish and tide runners, which constantly are ar-riving from the Gulf. With school being out for summer and the weather getting better everyday, that can only mean one thing . . . boating and fishing pressure will be one of the most important factors for not being able to find large quantity of fish or stay on those fish once you have a bite going. That is why I emphasize so much that the best fishing is usually dur-ing the week instead of on a weekend. Another alternative to getting away from the heat and crowded bays is late eve-ning and night fishing.

Fishing late into the evening and into the night during the full moon can get you out of everyday crowds and into some of the more popular fishing areas without being hassled by novice boat operators and inpatient anglers. I have

Davin Cox of George West shows his catch before getting back in theboat with Steve Schultz Outdoors.

experienced all aspects of these people trying to move-in on a set of rocks or a sand pocket you are catching fish from and scare all the fish away. It has reached a point where you have to do some homework and really think about how you will go about catching fish on any given day.

My tech-tip for the month keys on us-ing braided line when fishing either live

bait or artificial lures. Power Pro Slick 8 is this captain’s line of choice. It’s smooth as silk feel gives you extra long cast and is sensitive enough to feel every bite.

To schedule your next bay fishing trip give Capt. Steve Schultz a call at 361-813-3716 or 361-334-3105 or e-mail him at [email protected]. Good luck and Good Fishing.


Half or Full Day Fishing Trips

All Bait, Tackle & EquipmentFurnished

Your catch Filleted andBagged for You

Furnish your TPWD FishingLicense & Refreshments,

and WE DO THE REST!Ken Milam Guide Service(325) 379-2051

www.striperfever.com

Labor of doveSubmitted to Construction News

L-R: Don Weempe and Jack Hodges of Master Construction & Engineering enjoyed a successful dove hunt in Cordoba, Argentina. Blowing through

4,208 shotgun shells and scoring 3,237 doves, the pair hitan impressive 77% average. –mjm

Ken Milam’s Fishing LineSince 1981, Ken Milam has been guiding fishing trips for striped bass on Lake Buchanan in the Texas Hill Country,. You can hear Ken on radio on Saturday and Sunday mornings, 6-8

AM on AM 1300, The Zone – Austin, or http://www.am1300the zone.com

Ah, springtime in Texas! The Hill Country wildflowers are winding down, school is wrapping up and

the fishing action is heating up! We are off to a good start this year on Lake Buchanan. The old lake hasn’t caught much water over the winter months, but we have learned to fish the low lake and know how to cope with it. So far we are seeing lots of good healthy fish trending larger as fewer people seem to want to mess with a low lake. As with any other game animal, the secret to get-ting bigger trophies is letting them have more time to grow. I know I’m always on my soapbox try-ing to get people to realize the impor-tance of getting out and taking their kids hunting and fishing. I firmly believe the old adage, “Take your kid hunting and you won’t be hunting for your kid.” I once had an old judge on my boat who told me he never had a kid in his courtroom that had a hunting or fishing license in their pocket. I think it is the combination of time spent with our kids and letting them have a chance to learn the lessons nature can teach that can help them become more balanced and confident people. With that in mind, try to take a little time as school lets out for the summer to

look at your summer plans and go ahead and make your reservations for family travel and events. Try to book your hunt-ing or fishing trips through vacation time instead of having to settle for just doing anything you can still do at the last few days of vacation. Our schedule and I’m

sure that of most other recreational ser-vices looks like spring break all over again during the month of August because of the end of vacation panic. We do appre-ciate the business, but we really hate to turn families away because they all want to go at once. During early summer we see nice weather before summer heat really gets settled in and that makes outdoor trips more comfortable. As far as fishing is concerned the earlier trips will usually have better fishing and larger fish be-cause they are just ending their spawn-ing season. The fish will continue to bite well through the summer months, but sometimes if we have a really hot sum-mer they will start to slow down around mid-August. That is why trips earlier in the season are so good for bringing the kids along. You want to get them hooked on fishing with a good strong “catching” trip so they will want to continue fishing.As we get into the months of the year when we can see more rainfall we are all hoping that the El Nino pattern we are

moving into will bring the much needed rains to begin restoring our lakes and riv-ers to more normal levels. If that doesn’t actually happen, at least it should bring in some water to freshen up out water bodies and keep fishing good. At any rate its prime time fishing now and I hope you can find the time to join us – on the water!


Ameripipe Supply took its customers to a truly sweet spot to thank them for their support, treating them to a top tier time Mar. 30-31 at the Lajitas Golf Resort in Big Bend. As the first of three special customer appreciation outings planned for the year, the event took place on the 27,000-acre resort boasting an 18-hole, world-class golf course. The group flew into Lajitas on a chartered jet and played a round of golf Monday afternoon, enjoyed an outdoor cocktail reception and dinner that night, and

played a second round Tuesday morning. “The Lajitas trip was a fun way to say ‘thank you’ to a few of our best DFW customers who have partnered with us over the years,” says Blair Franklin, Ameripipe Supply’s President and CEO. –mjm

Customer a–tee-ciation

L-R: Fire Power Systems’ Tom Goodwin, Ameripipe Supply’s Hal Steinman, Fire Power Systems’ Charlie Durkee and

Fireguard’s Joe Roy

L-R: Excel Fire Protection’s Mark Mehmken, Ameripipe Supply’s Benny Shelly and Rachel Noblett and Diversified

Fire’s Brian Causey

L-R: Ameripipe Supply’s Blair Franklin, Jeff Obitz and Jack McKendrick and A&G Piping’s Bobby Grimes

Erick McCallum and Brad Smith of CG Environmental - Cleaning Guysrecently enjoyed some out-of-office time in the outdoors. McCallum hooked some mahi-mahi on his trip to Cozumel, and Smith nabbed this enormous elk on a game

ranch in San Antonio –mjm

By land and by seaWalking warriorsSubmitted to Construction News

More than 50 BakerTriangle employees, friends and family gathered on Apr. 11 to participate in the Walk MS: Dallas at Addison Circle Park. The group raised more than

$5,000 and awareness for the fight against multiple sclerosis. –mjm


Staff dreams are made of

L-R: Rigo Valle, Kristina Clement, Scotti Johnson and James Logue

Finding enough qualified labor is at the top of most North Texas con-struction companies’ wish lists,

which is precisely why Eastridge Work-force Solutions opened its newest loca-tion in Irving. The construction staffing office, lo-cated at 6210 N. Beltline Road, opened in February. James Logue, area vice presi-dent of the company’s construction divi-sion, says the need for staffing help has exploded, as many companies have trimmed their human resource and re-cruiting divisions and struggle to screen and hire qualified applicants. Providing benefits in the face of the Affordable Care Act (which Eastridge supplies all of its tradespeople) is also an issue for many companies. “I’ve heard clients say, ‘We can’t find tradespeople. We can’t take on the work we want to take on. We have to turn proj-ects down because we don’t have the people’,” he says. “What I advocate is: Don’t turn work down. Don’t give up.

There are tradespeople out there and we can partner with you to do that.” Logue insisted his own staff possess staffing and construction knowledge and, at a minimum, OSHA 10 certification. Business development rep Scotti John-son and staffing assistant Rigo Valle pre-viously worked with Logue at a skilled trades staffing firm. Staffing coordinator Kristina Clement grew up in the construc-tion industry and has staffing experience. “We place helper, apprentice, jour-neyman and lead capacity tradespeople who have been thoroughly screened, tested, qualified, reference checked, background checked, and E-Verified. Ev-erybody goes through our application and interview processes. We also do skill and tool assessments and a tool invento-ry.” He says Eastridge plans to expand. “Long term, we will have offices and our construction division in all of the ma-jor cities in Texas.” –mjm

Every day at work, Paul Tidwell, profit center manager for Sunbelt Rentals Inc. in Fort Worth, strives to

uphold his company’s motto, “Making it Happen for Our Customers.” He strives for that at home as well: When his wife (his most important customer!) asked him for a favor, he made sure he went above and beyond to make it happen for her and a few very happy pre-kindergar-ten early education class students. “My wife, Andrea, who works for Birdville Indepen-dent School District as a li-brary educational assistant and loves children, asked if I would bring some equip-ment out and talk to them with her assisting,” he says. “I of course said yes and then she set up the whole day’s activities. The kids loved it! The chance for them to touch the equip-ment, sit in it and take pic-tures was a big deal for

Fun-struction

them. Also, they were taking pictures for their personal traveling books to share with their families. It was a fun day and the kids really enjoyed it!” Teachers Nicole Nguyen and Andra Villegas and principal Dawn Demas en-joyed Tidwell teaching them about con-struction and the kids constructed a “thank you” poster for him featuring the equipment he brought. –mjm

Tidwell (in the black shirt) poses with the Green Valley Elementary School crew.

Tidwell received a “thank you” poster from the students.


Round-UpSurvey and engineering services firm Westwood Professional Services Inc. announces the following promotions:Bryan P. Powell, PE, has been ap-pointed to the posi-tion of director, Na-tional Land Divi-sion, a position pre-viously held by Ja-son McCarty, PE. In his new role, Powell will oversee West-wood’s national land division and work with offices to support local strategies. Powell joined the company in 2010 as a part of an initiative to establish a West-wood operation in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Robert Gonzalez, PE, PMP has been named senior proj-ect manager of wind energy in the company’s Dallas office.

General contracting company Jordan Foster Construc-tion welcomes JJ Williams as the new managing di-rector of business d e v e l o p m e n t . Based in Dallas, he will support both the Dallas commercial and residential divisions of the company.

Trinity Drywall announces: Scott Raines has been appointed vice president of es-timating for the company’s Plaster Division. Raines has been with the com-pany since 2010 and has led the Plaster/E I F S / S y n t h e t i c Stone estimating service efforts and has been key in the company’s growth.Stan Green has joined the compa-ny’s Plaster Division. Green brings 40 years of experience with government projects, high– and mid-rises, enter-tainment facilities, hospitals and retail projects to his role.

MYCON General Contractors in McKinney has pro-moted David Boy-ack, LEED AP, to project executive. Prior to joining MY-CON as senior proj-ect manager in ear-ly 2014, Boyack was a project manager for a San Antonio-based general contractor and held management positions with a Sacramento general contractor.

Julia Wiblin has joined IBTX Risk Services as director of business devel-opment. Based in the company’s Dal-las/Fort Worth of-fice, she will culti-vate and manage business relationships for that location and the San Antonio office. With more than 10 years in the insurance industry, she has specialized in sales support and business development for the past seven years. She is a licensed Property & Casu-alty general agent.


Region 7’s farewell forum

Tex-cellent

The American Subcontractors Asso-ciation (ASA) held its 2015 SUBExcel Conference Mar. 26-29 at the Re-

naissance Seattle Hotel in Seattle, WA. For 2015-2016, ASA National has a Texan taking over as president. Letitia Haley Barker, Haley-Greer in Dallas, will step into this role on Jul. 1 from her cur-rent office of vice president. At the awards luncheon, ASA pre-sented awards for Excellence in Ethics to 13 companies including Marek Brothers Systems and Holes Incorporated, both based in Houston, Dallas-based Haley-Greer and EyeSite Surveillance, which has an Irving office. The annual conference’s special events included a welcome reception, a spouses’ tour of Pike Place Public Market, an executive directors’ outing to tour Se-attle craft breweries, a national general contractor expo, an attorney’s council re-ception and dinner at Aqua Restaurant, and a reception and banquet on the last night. Some of the many education pro-grams included workshops on finding, training and motivating employees, sell-ing and negotiating jobs, building a backlog – regardless of market condi-tions – and financial management. –mh

Brian Johnson, 2014-2015 national president, with his vice president and successor for

2015-2016, Letitia Haley Barker

EyeSite Surveillance was one of 13 companies to receive an ASA Excellence in Ethics Award.

L-R: ASA Executive Directors Beverly Reynal, Francie Dix, Loni Warholicand Susan Phillips-Winkelmann sightsee at Pike Place Market.

The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) held its Re-gion 7 Forum Apr. 17-18 at the Hil-

ton Hill Country Hotel & Spa in San Anto-nio. This is the final Region 7 Forum be-fore Region 7 merges with Region 5 to form the South Central Region, which will include Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. Region 7’s last hurrah coincided with San Antonio’s Fiesta celebration, and Fri-day evening allowed guests to join the festivities with a hospitality suite and party bus to the Fiesta Oyster Bake and Riverwalk. San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor gave the opening remarks at the break-fast reception Saturday, where the key-note speaker was Heloise. That evening, Region 7 closed its fi-nal forum with the awards banquet fea-turing DJ Ray and fun with lipstick/palm reading, caricatures, psychometry and Urial the Magician. Many Region 7 members took home awards that make this forum even more special to them. ESC Safety Consultants won first place for Safety Excellence in the Regional Safety category. Regional Safety Awards also went to Austin’s Hensel Phelps and Vanguard Fire Systems. The DFW ladies cleaned up at the Women In Construction (WIC) Week Awards with Fort Worth taking the WOW Award, and the Dallas Chapter taking the Spread the Word Award. The Dallas and Fort Worth Chapters also took the PR & Marketing Re-gional Awards. Houston took the PR & Marketing Most Improved Award and the WIC Week Award for Most New Members. The Corpus Christi Chapter won the Mem-bership Consistency Award. The San An-tonio Chapter took home the Professional Development & Education Award. Dana Calonge, Vision Construction, received a 25-Year Longevity Pin.

The forum also hosted workshops with guest speakers, including “What to Do If OSHA Shows Up/Top OSHA Cita-tions” by Ted Dunnam, ESC Safety Con-sultants; “2015 Human Resources Up-date” by Cynthia Mergele, Padgett Stratemann; “Work It Out! Demystifying the Male Female Workplace Dynamic” by Marny Lifshen; and “The Dos and Don’ts of Social Media” by Summer Salazar. –mh

Photos by Mary C. Haskin Photography

The last leaders of Region 7 L-R: (standing) Sandy Field, national president; Judy

DeWeese, past national president; (seated) Riki Lovejoy, national president-elect;

Jennifer Swinney, regional director

The Dallas and Fort Worth chapters were honored with PR & Marketing regional

awards.

The Precast Concrete Manufacturers Association (PCMA) of Texas hosted the fifth annual Pull for Pompe Apr.

18 at the National Shooting Complex. Proceeds from the event benefit research into Pompe Disease, also known as acid maltase deficiency and glycogen storage disease type II, a rare neuromuscular dis-ease that affects approximately 1 in 40,000 people in the world. Approximately 400 construction in-dustry professionals from across the state brought in an early estimate of $100,000 for the 2015 fundraiser. PCMA of Texas has raised more than $600,000 for the Acid Maltese Deficiency Association (AMDA) since the event’s inception in 2011. –mh

Winners:Team1st: Summit Engineering – Jorge Hinojo-sa Jr., Caleb McCarty, Mario Cantu, Harry Williams, Colton Haun2nd: E-Z Bel – Ish Garcia, Ryan Garcia, Tra-vis Benke, Bruce Benke, Mike Oliver3rd: Frost Bank – Raul Barberena, Mark Maloney, Stephen Ethridge, Brandon Car-penter, Chris Wray

Pulling for a good cause

Lady1st: Tricia Kocurek, WMC #22nd: Kelsey Robinson, Nucor Steel #23rd: Brance Anderson, A.H. Beck FoundationJunior1st: Kolby Vacek, WMC #12nd: Orlando Garcia, Bexar Concrete #33rd: Brance Anderson, A.H. Beck FoundationLewisClass A1st: Colton Haun, Summit Engineering2nd: Stephen Ethridge, Frost Bank3rd: Mike Oliver, E-Z BelClass B1st: Scott Billingsley, AMDA2nd: Roland Garcia, San Antonio Rough Rider3rd: Willie Guerra, MancoClass C1st: Steven Rodriguez, San Antonio Rough Riders2nd: Jason Ochoa, Austin Bridge & Road3rd: James Bailey, Vulcan Materials #1Course HOARed: Ernest Taylor, Bexar Concrete #2Green: Harry Williams, Summit Engineer-ingYellow: Brad Frerich, Bexar Concrete #1

First Place Team L-R: Caleb McCarty, Jorge Hinojosa Jr., Harry Williams, Jorge Hinojosa Sr., Mario Cantu, Colton Haun


Concrete IndustryConcrete industry strong

William J. Sandbrook, President and CEOU.S. Concrete Inc. Euless, TX

Have cements changed?Dave Suchorski, Senior Technical Services Manager/Sales ManagerAsh Grove Cement Company, Ankeny, IA

Cement is one of the world's most popular building materials and has been used for over 2,000 years.

Structures such as the Roman Coliseum were construct-ed using a form of cement. Some are still standing today. Cements changed very little until 1824 when an English-man, Joseph Aspdin, received a patent for his new meth-od of proportioning and blending raw material based upon chemistry. He named his product Portland cement because mortar made with his product had a color simi-lar to a natural building stone that was quarried from the Isle of Portland off the coast of England. Improvements by Aspdin and others have led to the cement we are cur-rently using. Portland cement has not changed signifi-cantly in the last 100 years. In 2004, the Portland Cement Association surveyed all 123 cement plants in the U.S. and Canada (P. Tennis, J. Bhatty, 2005). This survey collected and compared ce-ment data in three different areas: chemical and phase composition, fineness, and strength. This data was then compared to survey data from 1994 and the early 1950s. These surveys proved there have been very few chemical changes. While cement is still made up primar-ily of calcium, silica, alumina and iron, there has been a slight change in the phase composition. Tri-calcium sili-cate (C3S), the compound primarily responsible for ear-ly strengths, has increased, while dicalcium silicate (C2S), the compound responsible for later age strength, has decreased. These phase composition changes, as well as an in-crease in fineness (Blaine) result in modern cements that have higher early strengths. There has been a de-mand in construction to increase early strengths to speed up construction processes, allowing wall forms to be stripped earlier and pavements and slabs to be opened to traffic sooner. Although cube compressive strengths between the cements from the 1950s and the 1990s are not directly comparable due to a change in the water content used to make the strength samples, the table shows an approximation of the strengths and how they have gone up since the 1950's. (See table.)

Blended cements One of the bigger changes in the cement industry is the increase in the amount and types of blended ce-ments being manufactured. Blended cements combine Portland cement with Supplemental Cementitious Ma-terials (SCMs) and other minerals to produce cements with specific enhanced properties. SCMs are materials

such as fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag, silica fume, calcined clay and volcanic ash. These materi-als are either blended with ground cement or inter-ground with cement clinker at the finish mills in tightly controlled proportions. The SCMs chemically combine with the hydration products of the Portland cement to reduce the permeability of concrete and increase con-crete durability. Blended cements can be formulated to mitigate Al-kali Silica Reaction (ASR) in concrete containing reactive aggregates. Blended cements can also be formulated to increase sulfate resistance in concrete exposed to high sulfate soils and water. Certain blended cements can be used to lower the heat of hydration in mass concrete, such as dams and large foundations. Blended cements can also have gypsum contents optimized for the blend of the cement and SCMs. Gyp-sum is used to control the setting of cement to prevent false and flash sets in concrete. The gypsum does this by controlling the alumina portion of cements. Some SCMs also have alumina compounds that can compete with the alumina compounds in the Portland cement for the gypsum. This can lead to rapid slump loss and setting problems in concrete. Blended cements can have in-creased gypsum to optimize the SCMs.Blended cements are manufactured to comply with ASTM C 595, Standard Specification for Blended Ce-ments. The blended cements are designated as Type IP(X) for pozzolan blended cements containing fly ash, or natural pozzolan SCMs, such as calcined clay or volca-nic ash or Type IS(X) slag blended cements, where (X) is the percent of SCM in the blend. For example, Type IS(25) is a blended cement with 25% slag. In recent years, another type of blended cement has been gaining popularity in North America, Type IL. This is a Portland cement type that contains interground limestone. Cements blended with up to 35% ground limestone have been used for many years in other parts of the world and are often the predominate cement used. By intergrinding limestone, the clinker content of the cement can be lowered. Lowering the clinker con-tent helps to reduce the CO2 emissions per ton of ce-ment and thereby per cubic yard of concrete.

Concrete is a green building material. Durable concrete has a long service life that ex-pends very little energy, giving it a long, sustainable life cycle. Reducing the CO2 emissions during manufactur-

ing helps concrete be an even more sustainable build-ing material. Research has shown that controlling the fineness and the particle size distribution during inter-grinding results in a cement that produces similar prop-erties as concrete made with other types of cements. The cement industry faces increasing regulatory is-sues and is constantly striving to reduce energy con-sumption. As the industry responds to these challenges, changes in the manufacturing process may result in slight changes in the cements produced. The cement in-dustry will be working with the chemical and admix in-dustry, concrete producers, researchers and specifiers to provide cements that will produce durable and sustain-able concrete that can last for centuries. Suchorski is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and a registered professional engineer in Kansas and Wis-consin. Dave has over 30 years experience in the cement and concrete industry. He is a Fellow of the American Con-crete Institute, a member of the Board of Directors and serves as the chairman of the Curing Concrete Committee. Dave is also a member of the Parking Lot, Pervious Con-crete and Hydraulic Cements Certification Program and Chapter Activities Committees. –cw

References:For more information on cements go to The Portland Cement Association website: http://www.cement.org.Bhatty, J.I., Tennis, P.D., “Portland Cement Characteris-tics-2004,” Concrete Technology Today, Vol. 26, No. 3, CT053, Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Illinois, De-cember, 2005, pages 1-3.http://www.cement.org/tech/pdfs/CT053_cement.pdfTennis, P. D., “Portland Cement Characteristics -1998,” ConcreteTechnology Today, Vol. 2, No. 2, PL992, Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Illinois, August 1999, pages 1–4.www.cement.org/tech/pdfs/pl992.pdf“Portland Cement: Past and Present Characteristics,” Con-crete Technology Today, Vol. 17, No. 2, PL962, Portland Ce-ment Association, Skokie, Illinois, July 1996, pages 1–3.http://www.cement.org/pdf_files/pl962.pdf

How would you describe the state of the con-struction industry in general terms?

The industry is strong around the country, but it is ex-ceptional in Texas. Our great state is very business friendly, which not only attracts big businesses to move here but generates population growth as well.

Have you experienced an increase in business? Slowdown? We have experienced increases in each of the markets we serve. The mar-kets we have chosen to participate in are not only dynamic, high growth areas, but we are also actively acquiring additional “bolt on” businesses to better position ourselves to serve these markets.

What factors are driving this increase? The economic recovery has released a lot of backlogged growth in all areas of construction. There is also a much-need-ed push for infrastructure improvement and replacement.

How has this increase affected your company and how you conduct busi-ness? The increase has affected us posi-tively and made it much easier for us to fulfill our strategic plan. More volume is always a positive for companies but it also requires companies to stay focused on how they conduct business. We try to limit how the increase affects the way we conduct business by focusing on our core products, our strategic plan, and lessons learned during the downturn. We know that the increase will not last forever so it is important that we focus on efficient operational procedures.

What are the major changes in the concrete industry in recent years? Innovation in concrete mix designs and admixtures have propelled the per-formance of our products in ways we never thought possible before. Our na-tional research laboratory is very busy developing their own innovative prod-ucts, mix designs and testing of the many admixtures available through our vendor partners. We are no longer expected to only provide only high-strength con-crete, but products that are sustainable and solve specific engineering challeng-es for our customers. Our customer interaction has also had major changes over recent years as well. Transparency through GPS tracking of our vehicles and the products being delivered to job sites has helped us and our partners improve efficiencies. Other tracking systems also help us monitor ma-terials costs and volumes on a real-time basis, improving costs and processes.

Have there been any recent changes in legislation affecting the concrete in-dustry relating to transportation or the environment? Environmental legislation and po-

tential legislation has propelled our in-dustry to improve our sustainability and create products that reduce the carbon footprint of projects where they are used. Due to environmental regulation, our na-tional research laboratory developed a low-CO2 concrete, through our proprie-tary EF® Technology. We have been at the forefront of sus-tainability in our industry. U.S. Concrete was the first company in the industry to produce Environment Product Declara-tions (EPDs) at the individual product level. EPDs include information on the environmental impact of the product throughout its lifecycle. This enables de-velopers to select the right products for their environment needs.

What is the most significant challenge your industry faces? Limited raw materials and availability of mixer trucker operators have been the biggest issues affecting our industry, not only here in Texas but throughout the concrete industry. In many markets some raw materials may be available but others are scarce or are difficult to come by due to transportation challenges.

continued on Page 16


Concrete IndustryMaking the cut

Patrick Harris, PresidentConcrete Renovation, Inc.San Antonio, TX

When cutting into concrete, Patrick Harris, president of Concrete Renovation, Inc., counts his 32 years of

experience as one of his most valuable and important tools.

“Experience makes a big difference in cutting concrete,” says Harris. “A good operator can make it look really easy, and a poor operator can get the job done but it would take a lot more time than some-body that had the knowledge. Being trained to cut concrete and learning the profession really is a lifelong process as with any other construction trade that the longer you work at it, the more you learn, and the better you become.” Harris notes that the aggregate with-in the concrete has an effect on the dia-mond-tipped blades, and depending on the aggregate, that can cause costs to in-crease or decrease. And project costs keep going up as he observes that the cost of concrete alone continues to climb at about 6 to 7 percent each year. For the most part, all concrete saws are diamond-tipped. There are different

mixes and hybrids of metals that bind the diamond tips to the blade. “You have to have the proper mix of metals and diamonds and diamond sizes to get the desired cut that you want,” he explains. “In the Houston area, where they have river rock aggregate, you get 4,000 to 5,000 feet of cutting out of a blade where, in other places that have limestone, you’ll get 10,000 to 20,000 feet of cutting. So, your blade costs in the Houston area are probably three times more than they are in a place that has limestone.” He emphasizes that while San Anto-nio has some limestone, there’s also some river rock since the area contains a mix of different rock. Since the rock in the San Antonio area can vary, the key to get-ting a longer life out of a blade is know-ing what you’re cutting, which means

knowing about the aggregate within the concrete. That information isn’t always known or available, making the process more in-tuitive based on a cutter’s expertise. “Usually, a cutting company has the knowledge of what they’ve cut in the past and where those lines are, and most contractors do not know what kind of ag-gregate is in their concrete,” he says. “If you had a larger job, you’d want to search that information out. On a smaller job, you’d probably use past experience for the concrete in that area. “There are maps of the different type of aggregates, but I have seen house slabs that had two different types of ag-gregates in the same slab, so it’s more of an experience of where the concrete is coming from and what aggregate the plant is using.” There are also proper speeds for dif-ferent blades. The ideal speed is not cal-culated in RPMs, but at 10,000 feet per minute. The smaller the blade, the faster you would turn its RPM, the bigger the blade, the slower it turns. As for the actual cutting, like any-thing else in construction, you have to have the right tool for the right job. There are three main categories of concrete saw types: a core drill, a slab saw and a wall saw. There are also curb saws, made

specifically for cutting curbs. The core drill cuts round holes and leaves the center part intact, which is called a core. This is used for pipes, plumbing, and sometimes, even win-dows. These cuts can range from 5/8 of an inch to around 60 or 72 inches. The slab saw or pavement saw is for flat sur-faces, cutting down into the concrete, typically for utilities, such as the trench drain Harris is doing right now at SAMC so they can run electrical conduit through the driveway. This cut can vary from .110 to 1/4 of an inch, which is .250 in width. The wall saw is bolted on and track-mounted, usually for making window or door openings through an existing wall. Having been in the field for three de-cades, owning his own concrete cutting company for almost 30 years now, and being an active member of related asso-ciations, such as the Concrete Sawing and Drilling Association and the Ameri-can Society of Concrete Contractors, Har-ris has accumulated a wealth of knowl-edge he uses every day in the field. “I’m always available to talk to people about concrete cutting,” he adds. “It’s a passion of mine and the more people know, the better educated they are. And we need more young people to learn, and to want to learn, the profession.” –mh

Paying attentionto the detailsKimberly Acosta, OwnerKDA Custom Floor Co.Katy, TX

What sparked your interest in stained concrete flooring?

In 1949, my grandfather and his brothers came to Dallas and opened a company installing all types of flooring, including stained concrete and hard-wood floors.

They were one of the first people to introduce concrete staining to the United States. I learned all about stained concrete from my family over the years. I asked my family members ques-tions about stained concrete at family re-unions and when we got together for the holidays. I opened KDA Custom Floor Co in 2005.

In your opinion, what is the state of the construction industry? There is plenty of work right now. We got really busy last year in April and we didn’t slow down. Normally there is a slow down in De-cember and January. We just kept on go-ing this year. We have stayed very busy with com-mercial projects in 2015.

What types of changes have you seen in your industry since you opened your company 10 years ago? We still do things the old school way, but I have noticed nowadays more peo-ple prefer a sealer for protection. Polished concrete and overlays are more popular these days. How do you stay up-to-date with new trends? It is my goal to attend the World of Concrete in Las Vegas next year to learn about new technologies and products in the industry. I get so busy it is hard to

leave for a few days. I want to go though! We recently took part in a polished concrete class to freshen up our skills. I went to a flooring convention this past year to gather new information about products and services as well.

In your opinion, what are the keys to success in your industry? First of all, you have to know exactly how to do stained concrete. It is impor-tant to do it correctly.

In addition, I think you have to pay attention to details, be professional and provide excellent customer service.

If a young person wants to do what you do today, what advice would you give him or her? I think it would be a good idea to be-come an apprentice and learn from a more experienced person in the industry. If you are just starting out, you can educate yourself by watching how-to videos online provided by a reputable manufacturer.

What is on the horizon for your indus-try? I think polished concrete will contin-ue to become popular in the future for both residential and commercial jobs. KDA Custom Floor Co. specializes in the in-stallation of stained concrete flooring, ep-oxy flooring and prefinished hardwood flooring for commercial, residential, interior and exterior projects. –ab

A KDA Custom Floor Co. crew member does a stained concrete project.

How are you dealing with these chal-lenges? We have aggressively acquired or greenfielded plants and aggregate facili-ties to help us supply our operations with the raw materials needed to produce high-quality products. Not all materials are made equal so we work very diligent-ly to ensure that we have the right prod-ucts to produce only the best concrete. As for the mixer operators, our hu-man resource teams have been exploring new ways of attracting skilled workers. The ways of promoting and recruiting employees in the past just is not viable in today’s world.

continued from Page 15 — Concrete industry strong

What are the cost increases relating to your industry? The scarcity of raw materials will con-tinue to drive up the costs in our industry. Fuel costs may seem low now but it con-tinues to be a major expense and will cer-tainly increase in the future. We take pride in compensating our employees well, and as a result we will continue to see increases in wages.

What is on the horizon for your indus-try? Technology and innovation will con-tinue to improve our operations and

products. We have seen great strides in both and it is becoming a major competi-tive factor for many of the ready-mixed concrete companies. Our partners push us for ways to make them more competi-tive as well. These advances will greatly enhance our business, our relationships, and will ultimately enhance the sustain-ability of our infrastructure.

What are the rewards of the industry? The ready-mixed concrete industry is rewarded by its irreplaceability for most of its applications. For the applica-tions that it can be substituted, concrete still has superior performance. Also, it is a product that will always be locally made. U.S. Concrete takes great pride in being

an American, publicly traded company that employs skilled local union and non-union professionals who daily supply in-novative products to build this great country.

What are the keys to being successful? We believe that our success stems from a continuous improvement model. Additionally, we have a relentless focus on our long-term strategic plan of both organic and acquisitive growth while si-multaneously positioning our company to successfully operate through the eco-nomic cycle. U.S. Concrete Inc. offers ready mixed concrete, aggregate products and addition-al building materials.


Association CalendarContent submitted by Associations to Construction News

ACCA North TexasAir Conditioning Contractors of Amer.

May 28: Brewery Bash. For more details: www.accanorthtexas.org

AIA - Fort WorthAmerican Institute of Architects

May 13-16: National Convention, Georgia World Congress Center, Andrew Young International Blvd. NW, Atlanta, GA.May 13: Acme Brick AIA/CSI Golf Tourna-ment, Waterchase Golf Club, 8951 Creek Run Rd., Fort Worth, noon

ASCEAmerican Society of Civil Engineers

May 18: 2015 Joint Dallas/Fort Worth Golf Tournament, Brookhaven Country Club, Farmers Branch

ASA North TexasAmerican Subcontractors Association

May 16: Poker Run for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital & Happy Hill Farm, Johnston Products, 604 Jealouse Way, Cedar Hill, 9-11am registration, cookout 2pm.May 21: Schmooze & Mingle Crawfish Broil, Morrison Supply, 3200 Irving Blvd., Dallas, 4pm

CSIConstruction Specifications Institute

May 13: Acme Brick AIA/CSI Golf Tourna-ment, Waterchase Golf Club, 8951 Creek Run Rd., Fort Worth, noon

CFMAConstruction Financial Mgmt Assn.

May 21: Membership meeting, Las Coli-nas Country Club

ICRI - NTInt’l Concrete Repair Institute

May 15-16: ICRI Texas State Conference, Hampton Inn & Suites, 240 Haisler Blvd., Bastrop, TX.

IEC - DallasIndependent Electrical Contractors

May 12: Spring Golf Tournament, Texas Star Golf Course, 1400 Texas Star Park-way, Euless, 7am morning registration, 11:30am afternoon registration.

IEC - Fort Worth Independent Electrical Contractors

May 12: Spring Golf Tournament, Texas Star Golf Course, 1400 Texas Star Park-way, Euless, 7am morning registration, 11:30am afternoon registration.

NARINat’l Assn. of the Remodeling Industry

May 12: Monthly meeting, Davis-Hawn Lumber, 1941 South Beckley Avenue, Dal-las.May 29: NARI 2nd Annual Clay Shoot, Elm Fork Shooting Sports, 10751 Luna Rd., Dallas, 1pm.

NAWIC - DallasNat’l Assn. of Women in Construction

May 5: Annual Golf Tournament. Visit www.nawic-dallas.org for more details.May 18: Dinner Meeting – Industry Ap-preciation, MCM Elegante Hotel, 2330 West Northwest Hwy., Dallas, 5pm.

NTRCAN. Tx Roofing Contractors Assn.

May 6-7: NTRCA Fishing Tournament, Lake Texoma Grand Pappy’s Point Mari-na, 132 Grand Pappy’s Dr., Denison. Visit www.ntrca.com for details.May 13: Lunch & Learn, International Bowling Museum Arlington, 621 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, 11:30am.

RBCARegional Black Contractors Assn.

May 28: 12th Annual Golf Tournament, Bear Creek Golf Course, 3500 Bear Creek Court, Dallas, 6:30 am breakfast and reg-istration, 8am shotgun start.

RHCARegional Hispanic Contractors Assn.

May 3: Annual Day of the Construction Worker, Fair Park, El Embarcadero Hall. Visit regionalhca.org for more informa-tion.May 22: RHCA Golf Classic, Indian Creek Golf Course, 1650 W. Frankford, Carroll-ton, 7am registration.

TEXOThe Construction Association

May 5: IMPACT Networking Series, Joe T. Garcia’s, Fort Worth, 5pm.May 6: 2015 Safety Stand-Down

UMCAUnited Masonry Contractors Assn.

May 5: Bricklaying Contest, North LakeMay 12: Member meet-up, Texas Rang-ers game.

WCOEWomen Construction Owners/Executives

May 28: Speed Networking Event, Coal Vines, 5407 Belt Line Rd., Addison, 5:30 reg-istration, 6:15 speed networking session. Register at www.eventbritewcoe.com

The foundations of a successful conference

continued from Page 1 — Goes by in a flash

continued from Page 1 — Fire control

continued from Page 1 — A Royal commission

was trying to do everything at the same time because I was really excited! But I’ve learned that over the years, to focus on one aspect of the industry and become the best at it. Become an expert; people respect that.” Ramon became such an expert that he was able to start, with a business part-ner, a secondary company specializing in commercial and industrial roofing sys-tems. That business, Ramon Franklin LLC, shares a building in Fort Worth with Ramon Roofing, but while he’s doubled his businesses, his staff size stays level. “We’ve stayed a consistent size,” he says. “I’m at the point now in business where I’ve gotten a lot smarter about it. People want to grow as big as they can and I understand that, but my specialty and what I do allows me to be where I’m at now and I can still provide a fantastic service for my clients. I really don’t plan

to grow Ramon Roofing any bigger than it is now. I’m happy.” His plans for the future are growing, however. “Right now, we’re going let the mar-ketplace know that we have a new show-room in our office where they can come in and take a look at all of the products,” he says. “Also, I’m going to put together some classes and invite builders and any-one who wants to learn about tile roof-ing, application, flashing and installation. A lot of my builders have superinten-dents and they want to learn the ins and outs of putting on a better roof. If I can help my clients, we all benefit. “We’re excited,” Ramon continues. “Twenty years! I plan on 20 more. I’m go-ing to retire doing this. I’m going to con-tinue to do what I do and keep my cus-tomers satisfied, keep everybody happy.” –mjm

he says. “It’s fun. Before I leave for work my wife says, ‘I guess you’re going to play!’ And I like the people that work around me. I have a few friends that I brought into the business who didn’t know anything about the fire protection business, but I liked their character. My father and I al-ways say, ‘If I can find someone with good morals, I can teach them a trade.’” It’s a motto that Hall Mechanical’s C.B. Hall apparently believed in when he tapped Willie, who worked at the City of Fort Worth at the time, to help him and other partners establish AAS. Over the years, Willie bought out the partners and now, Templin is poised to do the same with Willie.

“He says he’s retired, but he still comes in,” Templin says. “He said until I can pay for all of his stock that he wasn’t leaving because he needed to watch his nest egg! He said he’ll always work here.” Even as he patiently purchases his fa-ther’s remaining stock, Templin believes the company is where he belongs and is worth waiting for. “The good news is that Dad didn’t give this to me,” Templin says. “I worked my way up from dirt and I’ve worked ev-ery position. No one can say that I don’t deserve this.” –mjm American Automatic Sprinkler is a Fort Worth-based fire protection contractor.

building really stand out when you drive by it. We have stained concrete panels on the corner entries and in the middle of each building to help break up the long runs of painted tilt-wall panels. We also accented the entries with exterior stone columns and aluminum canopies. LED architectural lighting was also added at the canopies, stone columns and stained panels to create a warm and inviting look.” The communication between all parties helped the team weather the challenges and produce an eye-catching project.

“It was fantastic,” Boyack says. “We have a great working relationship with Jackson-Shaw, the architect and civil en-gineer. We developed relationships on past projects and brought it on to this one. We worked really well with this own-er and he wants to keep the entire team together for the next project in Fort Worth.” McKinney-based MYCON General Con-tractors serves diverse market sectors, in-cluding retail shopping centers, commer-cial office, industrial, religious and financial services. –mjm

The National Foundation Repair As-sociation (NFRA) hosted its 25th an-nual conference Apr. 16-17 at the

historic Menger Hotel in San Antonio. More than 220 members and guests came from across Texas and the country to attend the milestone event. With chapters based in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio/Austin, NFRA recently added the national desig-nation to its association name as there are now members in 18 states with more chapters being established. As celebrity spokesman for Olshan, a foundation repair company with loca-tions in many states and several in Texas, legendary pitcher Nolan Ryan was the special guest speaker at Friday’s lun-cheon. Ryan answered pre-selected questions from his audience and shared a few stories from his long and successful career in major league baseball. One lucky guest at each table won an auto-graph and got to have their photo taken with the Hall of Famer. The night before, Barney Fife provided entertainment – and character – at the dinner, which in-cluded mariachis and a silent auction.

On Thursday, during a construction tour of San Antonio with guide Ken Er-furth, members learned about the build-ing of the Tower of the Americas, the Guinness World Record move of the Fair-mount Hotel and the raising of the for-mer Liberty Bar house off its foundation by member Dodson House Moving. Other events included the board meeting and educational programs. The sessions covered a broad range of topics such as “Raising a Building,” “Engineering Ethics,” “Soil Types in Texas,” “Drought,” “Backfilling Methods for Tunnels” and “Underslab Insurance Coverage… It’s Baaack!” Crediting his team with organizing the conference, Paul Wolf, NFRA national president and owner of Perma Jack Foundation in San Antonio, comments, “Everything went really well. We had rave reviews. Half of the classes were changed from last year to new subjects, and we had a lot of good comments about the new subjects and new speakers. It’s a lot of work, but it sure came out good and it showed.” –mh

Pete Falletta, PE, Terracon, who was a speaker at one of this year’s sessions; and

comedian Barney Fife.Photo by Kyle Wolf, Wolfman Performance

Productions

L-R: Robert Foreman, Joleen Nocktonick and Neil Jaegers of Geotech Foundation Repair

The 25th Annual NFRA Conference brought a major league legend to podium. L-R: Joe

McCullough, executive director; Nolan Ryan; Paul Wolf, national president

Photo by Kyle Wolf, Wolfman Performance Productions

L-R: Joseph Grommesh, Mayra Rodriguez, Mariel Vasquez and Harlan DeBoer of 2000

Industries


Mart Inc. Journeyman Construction

Babcock-Davis and Nystrom

Ridgemont Commercial Construction

Hill Design Build

JC Commercial Inc.

Bartlett Cocke

Westwood Contractors

Austin Industries

Beck

Novel Builders

American Subcontractors Association

Lucky Construction Inc.

Azteca Enterprises Inc

Unified Services of Texas Inc.

Archer Western

The Blue Book Building and Construction Network

Tecton Services

The construction industry had all of its bases covered at the recent Blue Book Building & Construction Net-

work Showcase and Educational Events. Hosted Apr. 8 at Globe Life Park in Arling-ton, the showcase gave general contrac-tors, project owners, estimators and as-sociations an opportunity to set up booths to network with subcontractors, suppliers, manufacturers and architects. Attendees also could listen in on educa-tional seminars presented by the top hit-ters in the construction industry. –mjm

A clean hit!

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South Texas

There was a time when Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) requirements were in effect but not

thoroughly enforced. Those times are gone. Hefty fines are teaching construc-tion companies that responsible disposal of jobsite materials can’t be left to chance. Seattle-based Eco-Pan Inc., a LEED accredited concrete washout contain-ment system with offices in Arizona, Cali-fornia, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Oklaho-ma, and Oregon and Utah, recently ex-panded its operations into Texas due to the growing need for its services. General manager Paul Sulman explains that when companies need to perform con-crete pours on jobsites, Eco-Pan Inc. plac-es pans on site for under concrete pump hoppers and Redi-Mix chutes for wash-outs. Lids are placed on the pans, which are then hoisted by crane onto trucks and transported safely for recycling. “We help contractors meet SWPPP rules and regulations by containing the waste concrete washout on the job site,” he says. “It’s necessary to keep it away from the groundwater, to keep it out of sewers and rivers. By providing this pan on a job site it helps them to prevent leaks and spills from occurring in the dirt. The other way is it allows for the materials

Panning ahead

to be removed from the site.” Construction growth in Texas has in-creased demand for concrete recycling, which prompted Eco-Pan Inc. to open an office in Grand Prairie. “We brought a truck to North Texas in 2009 for a Dallas Area Rapid Transit project for 3i Construction. We came in on a part-time basis specifically for that project and we stayed in the area,” Sul-man explains. “It seems that the EPA reg-ulations have started to become more enforced now on job sites by building code inspectors than they have in the past. Plus, the fact that the construction and the economy are growing means the need for our product is growing. We needed to be there for the client full time in person, so we brought manager Pierre-Yves Briant into the area in Aug. 2014 to develop the business here.” Eco-Pan Inc. also established an of-fice in Buda, TX in Dec. 2014. Each office starts with a single truck and grows only as demand dictates. The Grand Prairie of-fice is already growing. “In the Grand Prairie office, we have the second truck ready to go. We just need to hire a driver and an operator to run it,” Sulman says. –mjm

Paul Sulman says Eco-Pan is now in Texas to help contractors meet SWPPP requirements.

Dallas/Fort Worth Construction News May 2015

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Transcript of Dallas/Fort Worth Construction News May 2015