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A steak on the northwest side

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Beyer’s big picture Centennial metal

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www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 18 H Number 5 H MAY 2016

Visitors to the La Cantera area can dine at the new Ruth’s Chris Steak House at Eilan, and Structure Tone

Southwest was the general contractor that brought the famous restaurant’s new look and location to Northwest San Antonio. The project was an 8,500-sf interior finish out and some exterior building al-terations at 17803 La Cantera Terrace, Suite 8110. The final contract value was $2.9 million with substantial completion Nov. 10, 2015. The completion schedule was only 16 weeks, which included con-struction and time for the client to set up equipment and train staff for the Novem-ber opening. “The whole process was a challenge simply because of the timeframe and getting equipment,” explains David W. Baker, project manager. One example he gives involving the kitchen equipment is that the broilers are

specially made for Ruth’s Chris and had to be built, delivered and connected in that timeframe. He also mentions that the light fixtures, which he estimates can take anywhere from 90 to 120 days to be delivered, had to arrive and be installed in that timeframe. The HVAC equipment also presented a similar challenge. Though coordinating the subcon-tractors on this tight schedule presented its own challenge, Baker credits their subs with working with them on their scheduling and organization to ensure they were not working on top of each other. Sometimes, achieving this re-quired contractors to work evenings and weekends. The intricate design with high-end finishes was a progressive open floor plan, a new concept and design for Ruth’s Chris. With this being the first of the steak house’s restaurants to have this floor plan

Structure Tone Southwest completed the new Ruth’s Chris Steak House,located at Eilan along I-10, on a tight and complex schedule.

In more than 25 years of business, Bey-er Boys has grown significantly, chang-ing and evolving its operations and

services, constantly adding people and trucks, without ever leaving its original home. With his background in plumbing, Perry Beyer decided to start up the plumbing business, and it was just him and a helper. Then, Perry’s brothers, Pat Beyer and Jeff Beyer, brought the air conditioning side to the company through an acquisition, which also brought in eight employees. Beyer Boys has two departments, Beyer Plumbing, which does construc-tion and service, and Beyer Mechanical, which does new construction and ser-

vice. The HVAC side also breaks down into commercial and residential divisions. Having once been about 90 percent com-mercial, the company got more into the residential side 15 years ago and has since taken off to become its own divi-sion. “As an owner, you get to see the gift of watching something grow,” says Pat. “You have something very small, and then you put all your blood, sweat and tears in it, and probably today, we’re en-joying some of those benefits of working hard when we were younger. It’s been a blessing to see something go from what it was to where it is today, starting with hardly any employees to having close to

L-R: Pat and Perry Beyer along with their brother Jeff Beyer have brought their business up from a handful of employees to almost 250 today.

Wings Sculpture Botanical Gardens

To properly celebrate its 100th year in business, Monterrey Iron & Met-al began work on a couple of proj-

ects three or four years ago that have re-cently been completed and will now en-hance the scrap metal processing facility. One project was the installation of a new shredder, which David Vexler, who oversees major accounts and online pur-chases for his family’s company, de-scribes as “a 4400 HP beast that can turn a car into baseball-sized metal chunks in a matter of seconds.” The other project was a downstream sorting system that segregates multiple types of metal through complex computer-driven screen processes. This maximizes their metal recovery.

“In the past if a company were to get 85% recovery on a material throughout processing, the company would have been happy,” Vexler says of changes in the industry. “Nowadays, scrapyards shoot for 98 to 99-percent recovery. Los-ing material means lost profits as well as wasted resources. With the aid of com-puters, we can monitor our equipment’s efficiency and perform preemptive main-tenance. “Aside from the piles of metal and the men and women that work with it, the modern ‘scrap metal processing facil-ity’ has little resemblance to the ‘junk yard’ of 100 years ago. From processing equipment to magnets and material han-dlers, things have changed by leaps and

L-R: Jeff, Jack, Jordan and David Vexler are celebrating a centennial milestone as the fourth generation of their family’s company, Monterrey Iron & Metal.

San Antonio Construction News • May 2016

Deploying roofs to troops

Owens Corning Roofing and its Platinum Preferred Contractors started a new program in San An-

tonio: the Roof Deployment Project en-sures military families will have good roofs over their heads. Beldon Roofing Company, one of Owens Corning’s platinum contractors, volunteered to do the first build, which coincided with the annual Owens Corn-ing Platinum Contractor Conference, held in San Antonio during the week of Mar. 7. Partnered with Owens Corning and its platinum contractors to deliver and in-stall new roofs free of charge to deserv-ing military families, Sgt. Juan Rodriguez was chosen for the first build. Beldon completed work in three days with about six employees and a supervisor on the job. “Owens Corning wanted to do some-thing for the military, and we were inter-ested because my grandfather was on [Gen. George] Patton’s staff,” explains

Brad Beldon, CEO of Beldon Roofing. “We ended up having to replace virtually all the lumber around his house. It was all rotted. But we didn’t want to put on a brand new roof and not have a good sub-strate.” He comments that Beldon wanted to pave the way and set the example for the other platinum contractors who can do the same in their communities across the country. Bill Mabry, contractor network lead-er at Owens Corning Roofing and As-phalt, commended Beldon on its enthusi-asm and raising its hand first for this ini-tiative. “The beauty of this project is that while it’s national in scope, it really con-nects one contractor with one military family, very much one-on-one,” says Mabry. “We will support the Roof Deploy-ment Project as long as we have platinum contractors that are willing to volunteer and participate.” –mh

The Beldon Roofing crew and Bill Mabry (center right), Owens Corning, gave Sgt. Juan Rodriguez a new roof as part of a new program to give back to military families.

As an architect for the restaurant in-dustry for more than 30 years, Robert L. Herbage, principal of

Hospitality Design Group, keeps very busy with the fast-paced work his clients bring to him. Noting that in the restaurant busi-ness, owners are always trying to open as quickly as possible, Herbage recalls his record for building a building from scratch on raw land was a Taco Cabana in Killeen where the 1.5 acres of land was improved and the restaurant was built and opened in 64 days. Over the years, Herbage has worked long-term for Taco Cabana, Jim’s and Fuddruckers. He’s also done work for Las Palapas, Cheesy Jane’s and Mama’s Café. Currently, he’s doing work for Doug Horn at Dough. Originally from Southern California, Herbage grew up touring jobsites with his grandfather and great-uncle, who were general contractors. When he was in fifth grade, he designed a hotel with

A career in restaurant design

golf course, swimming pool and other amenities for a 3D perspective school project and realized he wanted to be an architect. His great-uncle encouraged him, giv-ing him advice on how to conduct and represent himself on a jobsite. He empha-sized listening to the tradesmen to hear their input on the drawings as the de-signs are being implemented. This stuck with Herbage, and he notes that he still does that. “I spend a lot of time out in the field talking to the guys who are actually do-ing the work,” he said. Though Herbage has done some other work, mainly for his restaurant cli-ents, his focus has always been restau-rants. Outside of work, he and his wife live in Stone Oak, and he has three kids. Founded May 5, 1984, Hospitality De-sign Group does architecture, interiors and foodservice design for the restaurant indus-try. –mh

Robert L. Herbage has been designing for the restaurant industry for 32 yearsas Hospitality Design Group.


PUTZ AROUND TOWN Facilities on site

When promoting worksite health and hygiene, the most impor-tant key to cleanliness is porta-

ble restrooms and the ability to keep workers hands cleans. Big John Site Ser-vices has been renting out portable rest-rooms since 2000 in South Texas, and in 2008, the company opened up in San An-tonio to serve the Central Texas region. With hand washing available in the restrooms or as stand-alone stations, these rentals help workers stay cleaner and safer while minimizing the spread of germs and sickness among workers on a jobsite. Having these services on site also prevents workers from needing to leave the site for facilities, which prevents time from being lost on the job. The company’s customers are a mix of homebuilders and general commercial construction within the industry, but there is a wide array of uses for these rentals. While construction accounts for 80 percent of the business, 20 percent is special events, including ranch galas,

weddings, spring carnivals, and Harley rides, for example. For construction sites, oil field ser-vices and disaster relief, basic portable facilities are often rented, but Big John Site Services also rents a trailer-mounted, air-conditioned facility that is fully en-closed that is best suited to these special occasions. Owner Matt Musgrove notes that during a recent interior remodel of a Sam’s Club in San Antonio, in which the restrooms were part of the remodel, they brought in the trailer-mounted units for the store’s customers to use the facilities. He says that the company has rentals go out for special occasions every weekend, and he notes that Ernesto Perales is the local manager for Central Texas. Big John Site Services provides rentals for portable restrooms and hand washing stations with locations in McAllen, Harlin-gen and San Antonio covering South and Central Texas. –mh

Big John Site Services offers rentals for a variety of needs and events.L-R: Ryan Cantu, Ernesto Perales, Marcos Fuentes

JC Putz here . . .

Life has not been the same around the Construction News offices since the boss hired marketing director Leslye Hernan-dez and account manager Dana Calonge. Nicknamed the “Evil Twins” by the rest of the staff, these two are always keeping everyone in stitches and of course driving the old man crazy. That might be why he’s been sending them out to cover events like last months trip to Austin for a cook off.

I really don’t know what to say about this photo so I’ll leave it up to your imagination.

The 2016 Construction Career Day brought in lots of kids and exhibitors and the event was a huge success.

Sure hope the Beyer Boys got this unit at the plumbing supply store and not off a remodel job.

Fiesta is here and even our publishers Buddy and Reesa took to the River Pa-rade for a night of food and fun.

You can’t see the full writing on her top he bought her last week but is says, “Classy Sassy and a bit Smart Assy.” Hey I didn’t say it . . . just reporting.

More Fiesta fun with Fiesta flower girls Nora Romero, Jennifer Swinney and Kelly Wilson from the AGC/ASA Joint Mixer at the VFW Post on the River Walk. Ain’t they purdy.

With that, I’m out’a here.


Insuring success

Having worked for a general con-tractor after graduating from col-lege, Tom Spencer, branch man-

ager for INSURICA’s San Antonio office, has experience in both the construction and insurance industries. The San Anto-nio branch has focused on the construc-tion market long before Spencer came along. After six months with a general con-tractor in St. Louis, Spencer saw a need for risk management and seized the op-portunity to become the company’s first risk manager. In 1993, he changed over from that position to being a producer in the insurance industry and his focus was construction. With full-time loss control and claims personnel and providing day-to-day in-surance services, Spencer describes IN-SURICA as a full-service broker. With con-struction accounting for 50 percent of their clientele, he says the staff under-stands the construction process and the challenges contractors face from start to completion on each project.

Though the branch has gone through a few transitions as agencies merged over the years, the office started as Rubiola Blair more than two decades ago, and many of its 23 people there to-day have been with the office since that time. About five years ago, the office be-came part of the INSURICA insurance network. Spencer credits the 15 to 25 years of experience that many members of the office have for its high renewal retention rate. He also notes that he couldn’t single out any key people, because, “quite frankly, it goes from the assistant account managers right up through the produc-ers. We’re very lucky to have the people we have.” Headquartered in Oklahoma City, IN-SURICA does work in seven states and has 25 retail offices. With one office in San Antonio, the company also has Texas offices in Houston, Austin, Baytown, Arling-ton, Plano and Tyler. –mh

The San Antonio team of INSURICA has a lot of experience working with constructionand construction-related businesses.

The San Antonio Im-pact Fire Services of-fices went a little mud

bug at its 4th annual craw-fish boil on Apr. 8. With more than 350 lbs. of craw-fish, 100 lbs. of shrimp, 150 lbs. of sausage and over 400 lbs. of fixin’s, the boil was a huge success. San Antonio General Manager Cody Brice declared, “This year’s Boil is the best ever!” –cw

Crazy for crawfish

Christopher Meeny, Academy Fire Protection; Cosmo, Academy; Anthony, Academy; Michelle, Academy; Fatima, Academy; Chris Holcomb, Impact; Mike, Academy; Shawn, Impact

Jason, Aaron Krueger, KGC Construction Services;Buck Taylor, Impact; Cindy Herrin, KGC Construction;

Marcus, Impact

Jesse Rios, Impact; Larry Appel, Impact;Mike Hernandez, Level 5 Retail Construction;

Patty Hernandez

Mico, Impact; Benjamin Fowler, VP Impact; Randall Mills, Impact safety director


Kicking off Fiesta early

CONSTRUCTION NEWS

©2016 Construction News, Ltd.

Construction News Ltd. Home OfficeP.O. Box 791290 • San Antonio, Tx 78279

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San Antonio

San Antonio Editor: Mary Hazlett — [email protected] — 210-308-5800

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Construction News, please call for a Requester Form, or visit our website.

The San Antonio Construction News (ISSN 1547-7630) is published monthly by Construction News LTD., dba San Antonio Construction News, and distributed by mail to construction-related companies of record in Bexar and 7 surrounding counties. All submissions should be mailed to our editorial offices. We reserve the right to edit any materials submitted. No fees for materials, copy or photographs submitted will be due unless agreed upon in advance in writing. Submissions will be published at our discretion on a space available basis. Construction News, Ltd. , dba San Antonio Construction News, will not be liable for errors in copy or in advertisements beyond the actual cost of space occupied by the error. Publisher reserves the right to reject any advertisement at any time.

Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buddy DoebblerEditorial/Production . . . . . . . Reesa Doebbler Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cyndi WrightAdmin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lacie CortezProduction Manager. . . . . . . . . . Sue JohnsonMarketing Director . . . . . . Leslye HernandezSales Representative. . . . . . . . .Dana Calonge

The IBTX San Antonio office hosted its annual Fiesta Open House Apr. 7 with colorful décor, homemade

food catered by a relative of a few staff members, and refreshments. The team welcomed more than 100 people to join the fun and fellowship. –mh

L-R: Patrick Coyle, Hanover Insurance; Joe Rust and Marla Rhodes, IBTX;Alex Szalwinski, Hanover Insurance

IBTX L-R: Bryan Moore, Marcia Lozano, Michael Bell, Marla Rhodes

IBTX L-R: Nicole Lozano, Morgan Rand,Drew Addison

Celeste Estep and Rick Smith,Keller-Martin Construction

On the left, L-R: Bryan Moore, IBTX, and Michael Schanzer, Argosy Floor Covering

With Boulder Contracting’s concrete crew on a two-story building on Hausman,Juan Balderas helped prepare for tilt-wall erection. The top floor will be

office space and the bottom floor will be retail. General contractorSearch Construction Services broke ground early this year and should finish this

summer, according to Wes Michalec, project manager. –mh

Ready to raise the wallsConstruction News JOB SIGHT


Jim FilipowiczCEO

JF&A

9018 Tesoro Suite 101San Antonio, Texas 78217

(210) 826-4123 Fax (210) 826-5801

WALLSA C R O S STE ASMetal Studs Drywall

Acoustical Insulation

“20 Years

of dealing with

General Contractors!”

For about two-and-a-half decades, Jim Filipowicz has worked in resto-ration construction. His company,

Jim Filipowicz & Associates (JF&A) does emergency disaster reconstruction of properties that have been damaged by disasters, such as fire and water. His company has more than a de-cade of work under its belt, recently opened a new branch office in Austin, and has 12 employees in San Antonio. JF&A does work throughout the South region of the U.S., focusing on commer-cial and multi-family, also doing churches and nursing homes. Filipowicz stays active in his business with no concrete plans for retirement and he works at a standing desk. But he’s also very involved with his family, with-out whom he says he could not have got-ten where he is today.

Where are you from originally? I was born in Buffalo, NY. I grew up in Richmond, VA. I graduated from the Uni-versity of Richmond with a degree in bi-ology, believe it or not. I’m good at math. I like the sciences and math. So, it came easily to me.

What did you do after college? My first job out of college I worked for Seagram’s doing wine and spirits sales. I was with them for a couple of years. It taught me a great deal about how to handle and take care of custom-ers, probably more than anything. Their training was good. I had a really good mentor there, and I still to this day refer to his advice in my head sometimes when I’m in a meeting or whatever it may be. At my company, we’re really custom-er-oriented, and I think a lot of that stems from that. And it taught me about cold calling and to not be scared just to walk in the door where you don’t know anybody, and that kind of stuff. It was a great expe-rience, but I was in California for a little while and Northern Virginia for a while, and I wanted to come back to the Virgin-ia-North Carolina area. I started looking for franchises. I met with a business broker to work on maybe buying a small business, and he led me toward the franchise angle. We bought a franchise in 1986, and it was a fire and

water damage restoration full-service franchise.

What made you interested in that spe-cific business? I don’t know. I didn’t know anything about it, but I liked the potential, and I met with the owners and spent a whole day with them. They were out of Charlot-tesville, VA. We went to a couple of their franchisees in that area, and I loved what they were doing. It was just very cool. One of the great things about the franchise – they had developed a com-puter estimating software system. No one else had anything like it in 1986. They really had it down to a science. It was a good opportunity, and the price was right. So, we opened up and we were real-ly successful. We were in the Outer Banks in North Carolina right on the beach. We were a little shop, just me and a couple of employees. The first couple of years, I did everything. I was pulling out carpets in the middle of the night, setting up dehu-midifiers, and all of that stuff.

Was a lot of your work related to hur-ricanes and storms in that area? Yes, we used to have a lot of storms. It was a resort-driven area. Year-round population was very small, 18,000 to 20,000 in the winter and then zoomed to 250,000 in the summer. So, there was a lot of absentee owners. Pipes break in the winter. We were always pretty busy, and I learned a lot. It was a good way to learn the business, because I had to do a lot on my own. But I had good support. There were folks there that I learned a lot from over the years, and a lot of what I learned in this business, I learned from them.

How long did you have the franchise? We kept it for about 10 years. We sold it to our employees, and then I took a job here in San Antonio in 1996. So, that’s when we moved here. I took a job with a local restoration company, and I was there for 11 years. But I wanted to make a change in my life. I was 48 years old when I opened this company. I had three girls that I had to send to college. It was a little scary.

Why did you want to strike out on your own? I like doing the bigger stuff – bigger-type losses, more commercial oriented. Our first five to seven years in business, all we did was commercial work. It was just me and a couple of guys. We traveled so much, and about four years ago, I made a conscious decision to try and build local daily work. I needed to get more stability, more reliability. So, we hired a few more key people. We started making more in-roads into the daily work. A lot of insurance work that you get today comes directly from the insurance company. They get claims and if the client wants to use one of their preferred contractors, they assign the claim directly to you. At 48, I’m lucky that I have an incredi-bly supportive family, even though the first couple of years, I was gone. I had a non-compete, and I had to leave the state.

Katrina gave me the opportunity to do work in that time. But you can’t do it unless you have the support of your family.

Tell me about them. My wife, Gay, and I have been mar-ried 27 years. She stayed at home, and my kids were all very active, and trust me, it was a full-time job. She does a lot of inte-rior design now. She freelances, and she just finished a project up in Schertz. She did our [JF&A] building here. There’s nothing in this office that she didn’t do. This [conference table] is a re-claimed bowling alley. See the markers [points to arrows in diamond pattern near the head of the table]. She’s good. She’s got a great eye. I give every bit of credit to my wife and to my kids. My oldest was 16 when I went off to work, and I was pretty scarce for a couple of years. I came home on weekends. One was 16, one was 13, one was 10, and that’s a hard time to leave, and my wife had to take over literally doing everything. So, if I didn’t have that, I wouldn’t have been able to do it, but they were all on board with it. That was awesome. I give them every bit of credit.

What are your kids up to these days? My oldest one, Grace, is 26, and got married last year in May. She is a hair styl-ist up in Austin, very successful, bought her own house. She’s done well. She loves it, and she’s good. She interned and starved for a year, and she’s moved up, and I’m very proud of her. My middle one, Sophie, 23, graduat-ed from Texas State last year with a de-gree in special needs education, student taught the first half of this year, and she got a full-time job right out of the gate. She’s a special needs teacher at Encino Park Elementary with NEISD. She loves it. That was her from the time she was little. You see all those inklings when your kids are growing up. Grace was always fixing everybody’s hair. When there was a prom, all the girls would come over and she’d do all of their hair and makeup. That was just her, and as a mom and dad, you support their dreams. If they can do what

they want to do, their lives are really good, because I’m like that. I’m very lucky to do what I still like to do. Sophie has done well. She’s got her own class. When she was a kid, for Christ-mas, literally she would want stuff – like one year, we bought her an overhead projector. In our first office, I had an extra office, and she had a classroom set up in there with desks and chairs. And my youngest one, Lucy, who just turned 20, is a communications/busi-ness major at A&M, a sophomore. They’re all three years apart, and they’re awe-some, really good kids. I think Lucy, of all the girls, might want to come into this one day, work with us in some capacity maybe, but again, you do what you want to, what you like.

What do you do in your spare time? Not that you have a lot of it. I don’t have any! We always have a project going on. We have an older house, 1950s, that we just really have started doing a lot of work on, and I’ve got a couple of years left on that, but on the weekends, that’s what we do.

Is that where you’re going to retire? That’s my last house [laughs]. You never know what the future will bring. I’m really a creature of habit. I get up early. I go to the gym every day. And we’re extremely busy here. Ev-ery year, we do a little bit more. We just opened up an office in Austin. We did that in January, because about half of our daily business that we had strived to get is up there. And it’s hard on my guys, the vehicles. You lose a lot of productivity sit-ting in your car four hours a day. You can make phone calls, but you’re not going to get a lot of work done. So, that was kind of a no-brainer. But you can tell, at age 57, I’m not ready to slow down. I’m really lucky. I like what I do. We have a great general man-ager in place, but I still stay involved with the larger projects. And I do a fair amount of consulting for insurance companies, attorneys, that kind of stuff. –mh

Jim Filipowicz, owner and founder of JF&A, a restoration construction company, is always on the move for one job or another and keeps a standing desk in his office.


Tapping into the arts

What’s the greatestcompliment you’ve

received?

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) San Antonio Chapter hosted its 2016 Beaux Arts Ball Apr. 9 at

Lone Star. With the theme [Un]Tapped Potential, the evening featured contem-porary refreshments, chic street fare, dancing and art produced during the event, which was auctioned off that eve-ning. –mh

L-R: Edward Cardona, Joey Sanchez, Veronica and Jesse Garcia, Randy Ortiz, Alyssa Saldivar, TTG

Councilman Roberto Trevino, architect, and Christine Viña, 2016 AIA San Antonio Chapter

president

Carol Warkoczewski, city architect for the City of San Antonio

L-R: Adam Bush, Overland Partners and party co-chair, and Lowell Tacker, LPA

Katherine McGuyre, Facility Programming & Consulting and Beaux Arts Ball Committee

member, and her husband, Glenn McGuyre, Fisher Heck Architects

The greatest compliment I’ve ever re-ceived probably had to be from my daughter just saying, “Thanks, Dad.” It was at her wedding about two years ago. You don’t hear that too often, and it meant a lot to me.David Baker, Structure Tone Southwest

“You did what you said you were going to.” I love that. That’s what you strive for. You’ve got to do what you say you’re go-ing to do. I preach that every day to the guys. If you tell somebody you’re going to have something by Tuesday or Wednesday, make sure it’s done. There are always times when you don’t, but communicate. Don’t ever dodge some-thing.

Jim Filipowicz, JF&A

I think it was my grandson, who just had his 14th birthday. One day, he was talking to his mother and referring to “gram,” and she asked, “Do you mean gram,” which is me, “or do you mean grandma?” which is his other grandmother. He said, “I mean the pretty one. I mean gram.” And I just thought that was the sweetest thing.

Judy DeWeese, Mauze Construction

We have some customers we’ve been doing business with for 25 years, and we’ve always believed that if you take care of the customer, they’ll take care of you, and we get compliments all the time on our guys from in the field – people writing in on our comment sheets.

Perry Beyer, Beyer Boys

I think the compliments we get are “We can trust your company. Your company is a company of integrity.” Those are com-pliments that we feel we base a lot of what we do on, because our mission statement is “We’re not in the plumbing and air conditioning business. We’re in the relationship business.” Compliments to us is anything that affirms that rela-tionship-building function.

Pat Beyer, Beyer Boys

That I’m a man of my word. I’ve had a couple of people tell me that concerning business issues and concerning personal issues. It means I’ve lived up to my rais-ing, I guess. My dad tried to instill that in all his children, me and my siblings, as we were growing up. Living up to that was very important to me.

J. Clayton KennedyKencon Constructors

I got a compliment from Ed Garcia, who’s retired now, about four years ago, where he said, “Your meeting minutes are excel-lent, almost like I was there at the meet-ing.” [laughs]

Bob Skrobarczyk Kencon Constructors

I guess the best compliment that I’ve re-ceived that I would take in the highest regard would be complimenting the fam-ily and how lucky I am to have such a great family. I have four kids from ages 8 to 15.

Matt Musgrove, Big John Site Services

It’s from my wife, Dede. We’ve been mar-ried 33 years. She told me a couple week-ends ago that I turned out to be a better husband and father than she ever ex-pected.

Tom Spencer, INSURICA

The greatest compliment I have ever re-ceived is that I raised two kind, polite young men. Parenting is hard and it feels nice for someone to notice when you’re doing it right.

Cherie FoersterBuilders Exchange of Texas

Art from the heartSubmitted to Construction News

Danny Zimmermann, a principal of Cleary Zimmermann Engineers, and his wife, April, are passionate volunteers with Child Advocates San Antonio (CASA). Because of their

involvement, the firm had the opportunity to do an “Art & Soul” event with CASA. Cleary Zimmermann team members spent an afternoon creating art projects with children in

the CASA program. L-R: Ben Hutchinson, Brittnie Werner, Jennifer Henriquez,Danny Zimmermann, Kevin Sibson, Dan Rodriguez, Crista Reed, Darren Schultz,

Thomas Watson, Joyce Fienman –mh Photo credit: CASA


The Hispanic Contractors Association (HCA) de San Antonio hosted a “High Roller” Casino Night Apr. 1 at

St. Joseph Society Hall. The evening in-cluded gaming, food, beverages, music, dancing, silent and live auctions, a live photo booth and no shortage of fun. While everyone enjoyed a good eve-ning, Dave Sanchez, executive director, notes, “The HCA de SA Safety Training Pro-gram was the big winner as funds raised

Letting the good times roll

L-R: Lisa Casarez, Emergency Services Restoration and committee chair; Jesse Torres, CPS and committee member; Nina Morales, F.A. Nunnelly Co. and committee member

Rafael and Mari Llera, Shorm Consulting, went for the big bucks – literally – at the HCA

de San Antonio Casino Night.

L-R: Vinnie Gonzales, VP&R Construction, and Randy Guzman, Davila Construction

L-R: Annette Nixon, S2R, andChristina Aguillon, SpawGlass

support free OSHA training in English and Spanish throughout the year.” –mh

Granting funds to charitySubmitted to Construction News

As the charitable arm of Sundt Construction, the Sundt Foundation gave more than $13,000 in grants to four local nonprofit organizations. The

nonprofits that received the grants were United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, Christian Senior Services, Eagles Flight Advocacy and Outreach, and

Family Endeavors Inc. The Sundt Foundation provides grants to charitable organizations in Texas, Arizona and California four times each year. –mh


Spring returns to the green

Sending their top techs

As Judy DeWeese marked her 30th anniversary with Mauze Construc-

tion, she was also preparing to retire from her role as office/business man-ager. After three decades working with the Mauze family, her last day with the company was Mar. 31. DeWeese started at Mauze in 1986 as a part-time clerk, but her position quickly evolved to fulltime. She worked with Jean Mauze, who founded the company in 1978, and Jim Bruner, who came into Mauze just a few months be-fore she did. With all of them getting along and working well together, she says the company has really become a family. She has worked closely with David Mauze, Jean’s son, since he came into the business. David has run the compa-ny since his father retired, and they have a staff of 12 people today. “I just told Jim the other day that we grew up together, because I came here when I was young, and the industry was very different than it is now,” DeWeese recalls. “I feel that I’ve had the privilege of growing with the industry in San An-tonio and seeing the changes and the huge improvements in the industry and a woman’s role in construction. So, it’s been a learning process, a growing pro-cess, and it’s been my family.” DeWeese has her own family, of course, and she is looking forward to spending time with them in retirement. Though she doesn’t have any “grand plans,” she wants to travel with her hus-band, Ben McGowan. She has traveled a

Judy DeWeeseOffice/Business ManagerMauze Construction

Industry FOLKS

lot in her career, but not with her hus-band, and to start, she has daytrips planned, including a search for the best barbecue joint in Texas and a trip to see the Marfa Lights in Marfa, TX. She would also like to do volunteer work with the elderly. But for a while, she assures that she will enjoy not do-ing anything. At 68, DeWeese notes that she is retiring now while she feels good and can enjoy being retired. However, she will remain active with another family she holds dear, the National Association of Women in Con-struction (NAWIC). Having joined NA-WIC in 1978, shortly after starting in the construction industry at Burke Con-crete Accessories as a credit manager, she had Jean’s and David’s support on her participation in NAWIC. Having climbed the ladder of ser-vice to the association, DeWeese served as national president in 2011-2012. “I’ll rejoin next year as a retired member, so I won’t be a voting mem-ber, but that really doesn’t matter at all,” she says. “The thing that I love about NAWIC now is the ability to men-tor other women and to help them grow and to see them grow and im-prove in the industry. It’s something I get a big thrill out of. So I’m not going to give that up.” –mh

The Associated Builders and Contrac-tors (ABC) South Texas Chapter held its Spring Golf Tournament Apr. 4 at

Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club with lunch and an awards dinner. –mh

WinnersBlackjack Course1st Gross: Bartlett Cocke General Con-tractors1st Net: Aerohead Mechanical2nd Net: Smithers Merchant BuildersClosest to the Pin:#17: Brian Ehrlich, Central Builders#7 and Men’s Longest Drive: Craig Jen-drusch, Bartlett Cocke General ContractorsWomen’s Longest Drive: Michelle Seward Davis, JoerisLive Oak Course1st Gross: Catto & Catto1st Net: IBTX Risk Services2nd Net: Hart Acoustical & DrywallClosest to the Pin:#7: Mike Sireno, Baker Triangle#11: Aldo Bravo, SpawGlassLongest Drive:Women: Michelle Curry, Cokinos Bosien & YoungMen: Austin Haeker, IES Commercial

1st Place Low Gross, Blackjack Course

1st Place Low Gross, Live Oak Course

1st Place Low Net, Live Oak Course1st Place Low Net, Blackjack Course

Four HOLT CAT technicians won a state competition and traveled to Little Rock, AR to represent the

heavy equipment dealer in the 2016 Tech Wars, a four-day competition with other Caterpillar heavy equipment dealers. From the Machine Division, Jarrett Payton, field service technician tech 5, San Antonio, took first place at the state level, and Autry Adams, field service technician tech 2, Longview, took sec-ond. From the Power Systems Division, Alan Lindow, shop service technician

tech 6, Longview, took first place at the state level, and Vince Jones, lead techni-cian, Longview, took second. The four state winners participated in three rounds of completion at the lo-cal, regional and state level against 400 of their HOLT CAT peers. This is the first year HOLT CAT competed in Tech Wars, and the company plans to expand the competition in coming years to include its Transport, Ag, Crane, and Electric Pow-er divisions. –mh

Machine Division state contestants L-R: Howard Schram, Steven Pinkerton, Jonathan Morrow, Autry Adams, Jarrett Payton, Grady Trainor, Paul Boubel

Power Systems Division state contestants L-R: Keven Leon, James Pardaen, Vince Jones,Alan Lindow, Ben Gallo, Wade Nagel


OSHA adopts new rule toprotect workers fromRespirable Crystalline Silica

Stan GregoryInsuricaSan Antonio, TX

Most people in the construction in-dustry are familiar with silica dust.

This is the dust that is produced when drilling or cutting certain materials, such as concrete or stone. The negative effects of this dust have been well documented since the 1930s, but OSHA’s previous ex-posure limits did not adequately protect workers. This much needed new rule will curb silicosis, lung cancer, chronic ob-structive pulmonary disease, and kidney disease in America's workers by limiting their exposure to respirable crystalline silica. The new rule has separate stan-dards for construction and general indus-tries. OSHA estimates about 2.3 million workers face exposure to silica dust at work, including 2 million construction workers and 300,000 workers in manu-facturing facilities, foundries, and energy production. It is estimated that the new rule will save more than 600 lives and 900 new cases of silicosis annually. In addition to this fantastic improvement, OSHA also estimates that the new rule will provide a financial benefit of about $7.7 billion per year. In addition to reducing the allowable exposure limit for silica dust, the rule in-cludes employer requirements such as limiting worker exposure through work practices and engineering controls, pro-viding respiratory protection when con-trols are insufficient, training workers, limiting their access to high exposure ar-eas, and providing medical exams to highly exposed workers. Most employers can limit harmful dust exposure by using equipment that is widely available – generally using water to keep dust from getting into the air or a ventilation system to remove it from the air. OSHA is also providing additional as-sistance through their free on-site con-sulting services for small businesses. As this rule goes into effect, specific materi-

als will be made available directly from OSHA. Insurance Pro Tip: many insurance carriers offer compliance and testing ser-vices for construction clients. Most of the time, you have to ask for these services directly, so check with your insurance car-rier to see if any free services are avail-able. OSHA defines the key provisions of this new rule as follows: • Reduces the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for respirable crystalline silica to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an 8-hour shift. • Requires employers to: use engi-neering controls (such as water or venti-lation) to limit worker exposure to the PEL; provide respirators when engineer-ing controls cannot adequately limit ex-posure; limit worker access to high expo-sure areas; develop a written exposure control plan, offer medical exams to highly exposed workers, and train work-ers on silica risks and how to limit expo-sures. • Provides medical exams to monitor highly exposed workers and gives them information about their lung health. • Provides flexibility to help employ-ers — especially small businesses — pro-tect workers from silica exposure. The compliance schedule for this rule will begin to take effect on Jun. 23, 2016. Businesses involved in the con-struction industry will have one year to become fully compliant. General indus-tries will have two years. Stan Gregory is a Safety and Risk Con-sultant and a leader on INSURICA’s Risk Management team. He has more than three decades of experience working with loss control, safety planning, and risk man-agement for clients within the construction and energy industries. He can be reached at 210-805-5915 or [email protected].

Creating spaceConstruction News JOB SIGHT

Colby Lewis, center, president of Alpine Contracting, discusses the final stages of expanding the office as his painting crew finishes work on the company’s new

estimating room. The finish out will include a conference table, corkboard and wall-mounted monitor for meetings. The general contractor did its own work on the

space, and expected the expansion to be completed in early May. –mh

It’s time to redevelop middle management development

Andy Ray, PrincipalPFK TexasHouston, TX

Recently, I polled a group of 200 execu-tives and owners of mid-market com-

panies. The question was this, “How many of you have a formal development program for your middle managers?” Only two people, or one percent of the group, acknowledged such a program. It should be no surprise then that when this same group of executives was asked if their middle managers had driv-en a significant and sustainable result into their businesses in the last 90 days, the answer was a collective sigh and a frustrated, “no.” The performance dis-connect here is clear - executives and owners are consistently dissatisfied with their middle management’s ability to change business results in a meaningful way, and yet there is little being done programmatically to change that dissat-isfaction. This performance disconnect is oc-curring while “millennials,” the most edu-cated generation to hit the workforce in the history of our nation, are rapidly back filling the middle management ranks be-ing vacated by baby boomers that are hitting retirement age at the rate of 11,000 people a day (a demographic trend that will continue through 2030). Executive and ownership’s reflexive response to this performance disconnect is to blame the millennials for the charac-teristics that define that generation. This shortcut prescription for middle man-agement underperformance is a misread, and we are long overdue for a reframing of the discussion. Hiring smart people and hoping they will “figure it out” is not middle management development. And yet, that is the predominant middle man-agement development methodology used in mid-market companies today. The root of the frustration between ex-ecutives and the middle managers that are trying to keep them happy is not gen-erational; it is developmental. Mastery in middle management, (the ability to create a significant and sus-tainable results change), is developed the same way mastery in music, or golf, or carpentry is mastered: through a broad range of experiences over time. The path to middle management mas-

tery, then, is not so much about explor-ing an unending supply of domain knowledge, but rather digging in and working through real business results change challenges in a tactile way. “Applied Development” is the pro-grammatic response to this managerial challenge that delivers both a high ROI to the sponsoring business and a path to mastery for the middle manager that par-ticipates in it. In an “Applied Develop-ment” model, middle managers journey toward mastery through solving real per-formance challenges in the business they are in in repetitive iterations over time. A successful “Applied Management Development” program rests on four pil-lars: 1) Guidance: Senior peer guidance is critical in any middle management devel-opment program. This is where real tacti-cal knowledge transfer can occur. 2) Technique: Lean, Six Sigma, and Design Thinking are all techniques that today’s middle managers need in their problem solving toolkit and “Applied Management Development” supplies training in these techniques. 3) Structure: Real deliverables in tight timeframes assure that develop-ment cycles deliver a sustainable ROI to the sponsoring company. 4) Practice: Applied development creates a framework for middle manag-ers to practice their craft repetitively and in different types of management chal-lenge scenarios. It is not a one-time fix but, rather, a change in management process. Taken together as a programmatic approach, the four pillars of “Applied Management Development” deliver mid-dle management capability improve-ment that can drive sustainable and meaningful change into a business in as little as 90-days, and change the way middle managers work forever.

Andy Ray is a principal with the Entre-preneurial Advisory Service Practice at PKF Texas. Contact him at (713) 860-1400 or [email protected].


OSHA Issues Silica Lawfor ConstructionJoann NatarajanCompliance Assistance SpecialistOSHAAustin, TX

About two million construction workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica in over 600,000 work-

places. OSHA estimates that more than 840,000 of these workers are exposed to silica levels that exceed the new permissible exposure limit (PEL).

Exposure to respirable crystalline sil-ica can cause silicosis, lung cancer, other respiratory diseases, and kidney disease. Exposure can occur during common con-struction tasks such as using masonry saws, grinders, drills, jackhammers and handheld powered chipping tools; oper-ating vehicle-mounted drilling rigs; mill-ing; operating crushing machines; and using heavy equipment for demolition or certain other tasks. The construction standard does not apply where exposures will remain low under any foreseeable conditions; for ex-ample, when only performing tasks such as mixing mortar; pouring concrete foot-ers, slab foundation and foundation walls; and removing concrete formwork. The law requires employers to limit worker exposures to respirable crystal-line silica and to take other steps to pro-tect workers. The standard provides flexible alter-natives, especially useful for small em-ployers. Employers can either use a con-trol method laid out in Table 1 of the construction standard, or they can mea-sure workers’ exposure to silica and inde-pendently decide which dust controls work best to limit exposures to the PEL in their workplaces. Regardless of which exposure con-trol method is used, all construction em-ployers covered by the standard are re-quired to:• Establish and implement a written ex-

posure control plan that identifies tasks that involve exposure and methods used to protect workers, including procedures to restrict access to work areas where high exposures may occur.• Designate a competent person to im-plement the written exposure control plan.• Restrict housekeeping practices that expose workers to silica where feasible alternatives are available. • Offer medical exams – including chest X-rays and lung function tests – ev-ery three years for workers who are re-quired by the standard to wear a respira-tor for 30 or more days per year. • Train workers on work operations that result in silica exposure and ways to limit exposure. • Keep records of workers’ silica expo-sure and medical exams.

Table 1 matches common construction tasks with dust control methods, so em-ployers know exactly what they need to do to limit worker exposures to silica. The dust control measures listed in the table include methods known to be effective, like using water to keep dust from get-ting into the air or using ventilation to capture dust. In some operations, respira-tors may also be needed. Employers who follow Table 1 correctly are not required to measure workers’ exposure to silica and are not subject to the PEL.

[email protected] x232

Practical tips for limitingdiscovery costs in construction litigation

Jessica NeufeldMunsch Hardt Kopf & HarrDallas, TX

Litigation isn't the first thing on the mind of most con-struction companies when considering their informa-

tion technology infrastructure. However, how an organi-zation stores and manages its data can have a major im-

pact on the overall cost of complying with preservation obligations related to lawsuits.

When litigation arises, parties are obligated to take good faith and reason-able measures to preserve unique data potentially relevant to the case. For the construction industry, this can range from emails and other forms of commu-nication, to CAD, scheduling and ac-counting files, as well as hard copies of the plans and specifications, RFIs and submittals. There are several ways a company can structure data to limit discovery costs without adversely affecting its business functions. Below are some practical data management suggestions construction companies should consider implement-ing to limit potential discovery costs:Avoid storing data on individual com-puter hard drives If each employee stores work on their individual computer hard drive, when it comes time to preserve and col-lect in litigation, relevant data may need to be collected from each computer sep-arately. This is a time- and labor-intensive process that also will likely result in a sub-stantial amount of duplicate data. This results in more data to cull through when it comes time to review and produce to the opposing party, which means greater discovery costs for the company. In contrast, if employees maintain their work on a shared server, preserva-tion and collection of that data can likely be performed just once on that server. This benefits the company by keeping collection costs down, limiting the chance of spoliation (the more individual collec-tions you need to perform, the greater the chance of technical issues or that rel-evant data is missed) and streamlining the review and production process. Though it is still best practice to inter-view key employees to determine wheth-er they’ve saved work on their individual hard drives, having a policy in place in-structing employees not to do so, and which the company can back up with regular compliance audits, will help to fur-ther ensure it can rely on shared storage locations for litigation data collections.Utilize an email archive An email archiving system captures email content in a central location, while storing and indexing the emails for easy searchablity in the future. This type of

product enables a company to reasonably limit the amount of email storage per user while providing employees quick and easy access to archived material. Maintaining a centralized and searchable database of company emails makes it easier to isolate, preserve and collect the emails of key employees when litigation arises. In addition, it en-ables more consistent preservation by centralizing the process instead of rely-ing on individual users to manage their email archives themselves.Be mindful of electronic communica-tions, beyond emails Do employees utilize instant mes-saging software or text messaging? These forms of electronic communica-tion have value for companies as they enable employees to communicate effi-ciently with colleagues, clients or cus-tomers, which can be crucial in the field. At the same time, they each generate ad-ditional potentially relevant data that may need to be produced in litigation. In addition, especially with respect to mo-bile technologies, they may pose unique security risks. Prior to implementing such tools, weigh the value of their use with the po-tential for related litigation costs. Bring IT, legal and other relevant stakeholders to the table for an informed analysis. Fur-thermore, develop policies regarding use and retention of this data to help mitigate discovery costs. If these tech-nologies are already in use, it is not too late to consider revisions to current poli-cies and protocols to minimize discovery costs and improve data security. Jessica Neufeld practices general com-mercial litigation with a significant focus on construction litigation and counseling on behalf of contractors, developers and design professionals. She has both defend-ed and asserted claims of breach of con-tract, negligence, professional negligence, DTPA, fraud and mechanic's liens foreclo-sure. Jessica is also a member of Munsch Hardt's eDiscovery task force. In that ca-pacity, she advises clients and other attor-neys on cost-effective and defensible strat-egies for the preservation, collection, pro-cessing, review and production of electron-ic information. [email protected] www.munsch.com


Shooting in the top of the classRocking the green at Republic

The San Antonio Masonry Contrac-tors Association (SAMCA) held its annual Golf Classic Mar. 31 at the

Republic Golf Club. –mh

Winners1st: San Antonio Masonry & Tool Supply – Troy Fabre, Josh Diaz, Marty Bostick, Eric Huedepohl

2nd: Alamo Cement – Jeff Windham, Rhett Morrow, Christian Snethkamp, Pat Kidder3rd: Headwaters Construction Materials – David Gonzales, Jeff Young, Steve Ken-ney, Greg West

1st Place Team

The Texas Air Conditioning Contrac-tors Association (TACCA) hosted its Sporting Clay Shoot Mar. 24 at the

National Shooting Complex. –mh

WinnersTop Team: You Name It Specialties – Terry Beck, Royce Graff, Tricia Kocurek, Jody Johnson, Jonny DruryTop Lady: Tricia Kocurek, You Name It SpecialtiesAA Class1st: Frank Tuttle, Texas Air Systems2nd: Edgar Gonzales, County Wide Ser-vice3rd: Johnny Drury, You Name It Special-tiesA Class1st: Perry Beyer, Beyer Boys2nd: Vinton Aldridge, United Rentals3rd: Don Kirchner, Ince Distributing

Top Team

B Class1st: Neil Boecking, IBTX2nd: Pat Freund, Comfort-Air Engineering3rd: Victor Jendrzey, Comfort-Air Engi-neeringC Class1st: Steve White, Americrane2nd: Juan Alvarado, Beyer Mechanical3rd: Pat Beyer, Beyer Mechanical

1st Place – AA Class

1st Place – A Class

1st Place – B Class

1st Place – C Class

1st Place – C Class


Building a firm presence

When Ian Vohwinkle came on board at MS2 Consulting Engi-neers in mid-2014, the process

began of transitioning him into the firm’s leadership. On Jan. 1 of this year, he moved into the role of president. Vohwinkle started at MS2 as a proj-ect manager for the design teams and oversaw day-to-day production and cli-ent interaction. Today, he is one of four principals. Two of the other principals, Michael O’Shea and Stephen Kovner, are two of the three original owners and founders of the firm. The fourth principal is Rick McHugh. With a total of 17 people with the firm, many members of the MS2 team, in-cluding the two founders and some of the designers and administrators, have been with the firm for anywhere from 10 to 22 years. Going forward, as an SBE certified firm, MS2 aims to maintain that certifica-tion while maximizing its base and hiring a few more people. The firm has done

work for Christus Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital, the new Cornerstone School campus and the University of the Incar-nate Word. Vohwinkle grew up in Michigan and earned his bachelor’s degree in architec-tural engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineers. When he graduated in 2001, he moved to San Antonio and worked as a designer until he received his license in 2009 and became a registered engineer. He has two daughters and a son. When he’s not with them or hunting, he is wrenching on hot rods. He has a ’41 Chevrolet and a ’37 Chevrolet he inherit-ed from his grandfather. With several family members who retired from Gen-eral Motors, he says that cars are in his blood. Founded in 1994 by Michael O’Shea, Stephen Kovner and Samuel Perez, MS2 Consulting Engineers provides mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering design services. –mh

Ian Vohwinkle (center), the new president of MS2 Consulting Engineers, aims to grow the firm and its presence in San Antonio. L-R: Rick McHugh, Ian Vohwinkle and Mike O’Shea


Nothing mini about this birthday

Construction News publishers Buddy and Reesa Doebbler wished a happy birthday to Dolly, one of their miniature horses, who turned 10 years old on Apr. 24.

This memory was captured when she was celebrating turning 1 month old. –mh

Send us your photos and stories.Outdoor activities and sports

Fishing • Hunting • Biking • RacingHobbies • Crafts • Entertainment

All content and photos are placed free of charge.Email to: [email protected]

or call Mary at 210-308-5800

Spring FishingStrategies!!by Capt. Steve Schultz

Sponsored by:Waypoint Marine, Majek Boats, Evinrude Outboards, E-Z Bel Construction, Power Pole Shallow Water Anchor, Aggregate

Haulers, ForEverlast Hunting and Fishing Products, MirrOlure, and

Columbia Sportswear.

As we approach the month of May, every one of my clients has been asking the same questions. “Is it

croaker season, or do you have croakers yet?” Well, as I write this column, croak-ers have not been really available on a regular day-to-day basis. A couple of the marinas have flown the bright yellow flag for several days, but most of the baits have been small and weak from the high winds and the transporting of these frag-ile fin fish. I got my hands on a few dozen last week and they were hand picked at one of the local marinas. I must say that it didn’t take long to put together a decent box once we located the right rock in Baf-

fin holding the larger fish. Some may ar-gue that it’s to early to start using these highly sought after summer baits that usually don’t show up till the first of May, but I beg to differ. Don’t get me wrong,

I’ve had some great days in the last few months using lures and shrimp under a popping cork. I think if you’re in the right place at the right time, and you’re a good fisherman, you will catch fish.

Ben Davis, San Antonio, caught this 26-inch Speckled trout south of Baffin Bay usingshrimp under a popping cork while fishing with Steve Schultz Outdoors.

Fishing pressure will increase dra-matically now and as the summer pro-gresses, I have not seen too many busy weeks on the water this season as of yet, but I’m sure they are right around the cor-ner. Late spring and summer months are very busy on the water. Tournaments will be starting this month and you can bet there will be one every weekend from May thru September. It is very important to stay focused in our conservation ef-forts. Keeping enough fish to eat is not a crime by any means, but stacking fish into your deep freeze to be forgotten about and discarded later because of freezer burn is a no-no. We rarely keep and fish over the 25-inch mark unless its survival is hopeless. These larger sows are carrying eggs ready to spawn and re-plenish our ecosystem for the future, so please do your part with these conserva-tion needs. Nuff said!! For the next few month my plan is to continue running south into Baffin Bay and sometimes further south. The rocks in the middle of the bay have been hold-ing good numbers of solid fish. Shore-lines with surface bait activity will also not go un-fished! Target thigh deep wa-ters while wading throwing large surface plugs early and switching to slow sinking lures or plastics as your action slows. If your choice is live bait, anchor or drift fish with live shrimp under a popping cork over deeper rocks and sand areas for specks and reds. Summer schedule is filling quickly but fall dates are still available. Don’t wait until the last minute to book your dates. To schedule your next bay fishing trip give Capt. Steve Schultz a call or text 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

A delicious rewardSubmitted to Construction News

David Tagaras, better known at HJD Capital Electric as “Safety Dave,” runs the company’s safety department and makes sure the staff members are all up to date on

the most recent training. On a recent occasion, after finishing a CPR class where they put in a little extra training time, Tagaras rewarded them with a back office grill session. –mh

Walking for all womenSubmitted to Construction News

Members of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) San Antonio Chapter walked in the Race for the Cure Apr. 9 in downtown San Antonio. Each year,

members walk in honor of Olga Barnett, a NAWIC member of 26 years who served three terms as president and lost her life to breast cancer in 2008.

L-R: Celeste Estep, Lori De Hoyos, Marie Benavidez, Sandee Morgan, Savannah Osborn, Robbie Nelson, Riki Lovejoy, Jan Meuth, Dana Calonge, Rebecca Pratt,

Heather Osborn, Patty Wylie and Melissa Flathers –mh

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

When Lake Buchanan started ris-ing last summer we were just happy to have our lake back.

We had no idea that it would be a lake so unlike the lake the drought took away. After the long dry years the lake bed grew up so many large trees that we now have a lake that takes a while to learn to navigate and fish. The lower part of Lake Buchanan is pretty much unchanged. There are more willows in the backs of the creeks that make bass and crappie fishing more fun, but other than that it is not much different. Upper Lake Buchan-an though is a whole different lake. From the Hi-Line and Canyon of the Eagles area up there is still heavy growth of willow trees that grew to 20–30 ft. high along the river banks when the lake was dry. It is these trees that have changed every-thing. It is now possible to tie your boat up and fish under a cool shady canopy of willow trees in the middle of the lake on the upper end. In many places the trees are too thick to get through and really hard to see through. You have to just fol-low along the narrow forks of the river channel and ease your way along. Even if you are familiar with Lake Buchanan you need to allow yourself some extra time to learn to navigate and do your best not to be on the water after dark. Use your GPS

to help you keep your bearings because I can tell you from experience, out in those willows it is possible know where you are and be completely lost at the same time!The nice thing about the willows is that they tend to gentle down the lake some-what. They break the brisk winds that Buchanan is known for and smooth out the waves. Even better than that, the wil-lows provide habitat for just about ev-erything that slithers, flies and swims. You can see the handiwork of the many beavers that we have now and even catch a glimpse of one basking in the sun. Be careful of the wasps that favor the willows to nest in though. It is worth a trip to the willows because much of the flood debris is still hung up in the willow thickets providing a double whammy of cover for fish to hide and feed in and op-portunities for anglers to catch them. We have seen some really nice size and num-

Happy New Lake!

Sally Nicholas caught a record hybrid.Beaver in the willows

Through the willows

bers of crappie, bass and catfish being brought in, and our charter trips are yielding good steady limits of solid fish. Just last week a lady came fishing with us on her 60th birthday with friends and caught the new lake record hybrid bass for Lake Buchanan! Sally Nicholas

caught one 26 inches long and 7.9 pounds! What a way to celebrate! This “new” Lake Buchanan makes us all feel like celebrating! Grab some friends and come see us!


Making the best of off-season

Between February and October, avid hunters lament the long wait until hunting season starts again. Jack

McKinney, president and owner of Vog-es Drilling Co., has found a way to keep his skills sharp and stay active during the off-season. Years ago, McKinney was invited to one of the monthly rifle matches at the Central Texas Silueta Association (CTSA) range in New Braunfels. He had com-plained to a friend that he needed a place to work on his long-range shooting skills. His friend’s invitation to the CTSA range introduced him to these matches that could challenge him to keep a keen eye as he counted down the months until the start of hunting season again. “Having grown up in East Texas – where a ‘long shot’ might be 75 yards through a pine thicket – I had just re-turned from my first antelope hunt in New Mexico where a short range shot was generally over 200 yards,” McKinney recalls. “Two weeks later, I found myself

at the CTSA range (just behind Dietz’s range in New Braunfels) entered in my first 500-meter F-class match. “All of the shooting was done from the prone position in one of two catego-ries. The Target Rifle category is for shoot-ers who use a military caliber (.223 or .308) with a bipod rest only. Open Class is for any caliber and allows for the use of both a front rest and rear bag for support. Most shooters, like myself, start out in the TR class but then move to open class after investing more in their equipment.” Today, McKinney still competes in the monthly rifle matches, which are typ-ically held the first Saturday of each month, with a format of 15-shot relays. He notes that NRA and TSRA members can have their scores monitored for rank-ing. Last year, the shooting club sent four shooters to the TSRA championship in Carthage, and they have shooters going to Houston and Midland for other com-petitions. –mh

Some hunters compete in rifle competitions during the off-season to keep their reflexesand equipment at the ready for the next hunting season.

Resourceful teenSubmitted to Construction News

Shawn John, the son of Sheet Metal Workers (SMW) Local 67 JATC training coordinator Doug John, brought a big win from the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo

in Junior Agricultural Mechanics. With the support of sponsors Sandee Morgan, Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (MCA-SMACNA), and Matt Janysek, Janysek Water Well Service, Shawn, a senior at La Vernia High School,

placed first in class 107, Resource Recovery, with his solar-powered pond aerator. –mh

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Partnering with the nonprofit Help-ing A Hero, Vintage Estate Homes broke ground Mar. 23 on the site of

a home the custom builder tailored to meet the needs of retired Marine Master Sgt. Blaine Scott, who sustained severe burns over 40 percent of his body from an IED blast while serving in Iraq. The development in New Braunfels, Copper Ridge donated the lot for Scott and his family, which includes his wife, Lilly, daughters, Adriana, 18, and Isabella, 12, and son, Blaine, 9. Dean Buescher, di-vision president for Vintage Estate Homes, estimates the build will take about six months. He says that they adapted one of their plans for Scott’s new home, which meant rearranging hallways, making them wider, making doors bigger and making a big room out back for Scott’s meetings. Buescher explains, “He volun-teers and spends a lot of time with other wounded veterans, and he has functions at his house. So, we made accommoda-tions for that also.” Meredith Iler, chairman emeritus and founder of the home program for Help-ing A Hero, notes that Scott served as the officer in the Wounded Warrior Battalion

Helping him to help othersat SAMMC, meaning that he was over al-most every Wounded Warrior that came through between 2012 and 2015 when he retired. He served as a mentor to hun-dreds of wounded veterans and their families. While the added air filtration, tem-perature control and expanded covered patio are adaptive features for Scott’s needs, Iler says Helping A Hero went the extra mile with wheelchair accessibility for the bedroom, bathroom and game room to allow Scott to continue to serve as a mentor to those Wounded Warriors and welcome them, though these fea-tures are not adapted for Scott’s needs. Scott’s current home is not accessible to many of the veterans that look to him for support. Iler says, “We’re doing more with him, because it’s his desire and his fami-ly’s desire to continue to pay it forward.” Scott was grateful to all those in-volved in this effort, commenting, “We have a lot of veterans come over to our house all the time. A lot of them are good friends of mine. So, to have them come to my house and feel comfortable and be able to get around in that house, that means a lot to me as well.” –mh

Helping A Hero and Vintage Estate Homes have teamed up to build a new homefor retired Marine Master Sgt. Blaine Scott.

Scott and his wife, Lilly, feel very fortunate for their new home, calling it “a dream come true.”

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Harding-Conley-Drawert-Tinch In-surance Agency Inc. (HCDT) can trace its legacy of providing insur-

ance and bonding services to the con-struction industry in San Antonio back nearly 100 years. In continuous operation since 1917, the agency was originally formed as Harding & Company. In the early ‘70s, the firm merged with Conley & Drawert In-surance Agency, and at its 60th anniver-sary, the firm became HCDT. Today, Maryanna Christensen, with the agency since 1980, and Paul Poettgen, with the agency since 1988, are its principals. “We forge long-term relationships with our clients,” says Poettgen. “We’ve been doing business with clients from new startups that are just forming to ones that we’ve had relationships with for 40 and 50 years. You become part of their team.” With the insurance practice largely concentrated in the commercial con-

Agents of a local legacy

struction industry and the bonding part focused on contractors, construction ac-counts for 97 percent of HCDT’s clientele. Aiming to keep a personal level of service, the firm’s clients are mainly based in San Antonio. One thing HCDT does for its clients newer to the construction industry is to educate them about insurance. As Chris-tensen notes, “Insurance is not always the number one thing in their mind when they go into business. They’re very con-cerned about their bonding capabilities, but they don’t realize sometimes how im-portant their insurance program is to their overall needs. So we try to educate them on that standpoint.” HCDT is also a member of an insur-ance network of agencies that expands the options available to its clients as far as placing their coverages. HCDT Insurance Agency offers proper-ty and casualty insurance for contractors as well as bonding. –mh

The HCDT Insurance team is based in San Antonio and focused on the local construction industry. L-R: (front) Lisa Tafolla, Maryanna Christensen,

(back) Paul Poettgen, Rick Jeter, John Poettgen

In 63 years of business, Central Air Con-ditioning has seen the evolution of air conditioning since the cooling indus-

try boom that followed World War II. To-day, Ronnie Bitterly is president and owner, and the company still services and upgrades machines installed at the time of its inception. In the early ‘40s, air conditioning sys-tems were designed for installation in military battleship infirmaries to dehu-midify the environment and better con-tain infection, Bitterly explains, noting that the air conditioning industry explod-ed after the war when the patents hit. In 1953, L.F. Haller, a pioneer in the air con-ditioning industry, founded the company. The oldest air conditioner the com-pany keeps going continuously was in-stalled in the late 1940s in what was origi-nally the Paul Anderson office building and is currently the Alamo Antique Mall. Bitterly notes it’s one of the oldest air conditioning systems still running today.

History is in the air

They also continue to service many old systems in churches around town, built in the early ‘50s, that use the same types of machines that were put into battleships. Central Air Conditioning works on these antique air conditioners and spe-cializes in upgrading these systems, 30-ton air conditioners, from being water-cooled to working off an air-cooled con-denser. Having partnered with Lonnie Haller, son of L.F. Haller, in 1972, Bitterly, and his wife, Laura, are proud to be part of the company and industry with its rich history. Lonnie is now retired. Laura heads up accounts receivable, and their son, Clinton, is a technician and shop foreman. Their office manager, Mary Whittaker, also has a long history of working in the AC industry. Central Air Conditioning installs, changes out, retrofits and services air con-ditioning systems, both commercial and residential. –mh

L-R: Chris Brehm, Clint Bitterly, Curt Bitterly and Ronnie Bitterly, Central Air Conditioningwith their 1923 Model T


Supply on demand

Construction equipment rental company Rental One has added a supply division and is now stock-

ing concrete-related products and con-struction supplies in their two San Anto-nio locations. In addition, rebar is now offered at the 4715 Rittiman Rd. location. Company president Mike O’Neal says a benefit that customers are sure to notice is the expertise in rental equip-ment and concrete-related products. ”We are able to serve our customers with excellence,” O’Neal explains. “Also, now we can offer our customers two ar-eas of expertise with rental equipment and a supply division. We have teams concentrating their efforts in both areas that work very well together to take care of our customers.” O’Neal says client reaction has been positive. “We have seen a lot of excitement with customers once they find out they can conveniently pick up contractor sup-plies and concrete-related products from our Rental One locations, and can also buy rebar from the Rittiman Road loca-tion,” he says. With 10 Texas locations, Rental One rents construction equipment and sells construction supplies including concrete-related products. –mjm

James Hamilton, David Newman, John Allison and Clayton Clower of Rental One

Quality Fence & Welding <3’s the ‘80s! Since the company was founded in 1980, that could be

one reason this year’s Customer Appreci-

Flashback to the ‘80sation Party, Apr. 14 at its Wetmore Road facility, sported a fun and colorful ‘80s theme. –mh

L-R: Colleen Carey, receptionist; Lori Klug, sales associate; Amy Avila, contract specialist; Jordon Brown, marketing coordinator; Jennifer Holt, gate dispatcher; Dora Rodriguez, HR;

Craig Noto, president

L-R: Scott Wiatrek, Dedicated Landscape; Teresa and Craig Noto, Quality Fence &

Welding; Barbara Newcomb, Trimble-Batjer Insurance

L-R: Lori Klug, Jamie White, Amy Avila, Quality Fence & Welding

Going forward with a vision for growth, O’Connell Robertson has put a new leadership structure in

place that will help the architectural and engineering firm to accommodate the changing marketplace and workforce. With the firm for about 30 years, Rick Burnight has served as president and CEO for the last 12 years. Under the new structure, he remains CEO. Now, Amy Jones has taken on the role of pres-ident, and Kim Cochran has taken on the role of COO. Burnight wants to remain active in the practice and some of the firm’s proj-ects. Jones and Cochran, with the firm for 19 and 22 years respectively, have been principals for several years and have been planning for this change over the last 12 to 18 months. “I think it was a good internal adjust-ment, if you will, that will really stimulate some positive things for the firm,” says Burnight, adding that he believes the

An ‘internal adjustment’

evolving marketplace and environment will respond better to and be stimulated by the new leadership and their ideas, goals and objectives. Of the new leadership structure, Jones comments, “I think it really takes advantage of the strengths of that lead-ership team, from Rick’s focus on the practice and always enhancing the work that we do, Kim’s focus on the operation-al requirement to support that practice, and then my focus on our firm vision and the relationships and people that we need to have to make it happen.” With a fairly long-tenured staff, Co-chran notes, “We’ve worked together, along with our other partners, for a num-ber of years as we developed our vision.” Founded in 1950, O’Connell Robertson is a full-service architecture and engineer-ing firm focused on the education and healthcare markets. Based in Austin, the firm also has an office in San Antonio. –mh

The new leadership at O’Connell Robertson will focus the firm on expandingand adapting to significant growth the firm has seen in its markets.

L-R: Kim Cochran, Amy Jones, Rick Burnight


A cause to hit the green

Rudy CarieloFacilities Maintenance ManagerTejas Premier Building Contractor

Industry FOLKS

Since joining Tejas Premier Building Contractor five years ago, Rudy

Carielo became manager of the facili-ties maintenance division two years ago. He is also in charge of merchant services. “I got involved in construction with my brother, Oscar Carielo, and Julissa, my sister-in-law,” he recalls. “I was doing it on the side already while I was at Pitney Bowes, and I enjoyed it. So I decided to make a career change.” Carielo had been with Pitney Bowes for 18 years and was district di-rector of customer service, but he had been doing home restorations on his own in his spare time. He started at Te-jas as a superintendent, but when the general contractor started a facilities maintenance department, they of-fered him the position to run it. The division does small projects, under $1 million, including minor re-pairs or small jobs, such as removing a wall or painting, to buildings Tejas has previously constructed or remodeled. His department also handles certain state and government work, such as TXMAS contracts and GSA schedules. Outside of work, Carielo describes himself as a very Christian person, staying very involved with his church, Restoration Door Christian Church. He has been going to the church for 15 years now, and he has been involved as a leader for the last 13 years. He does all of his work for the church on a volunteer basis. He serves

as the treasurer on the board of direc-tors, and he helps with their financials and reports to their CPA. He’s involved with the children’s ministry and the ushers. He serves as the church’s ad-ministrator, and he teaches a Bible class for couples. He even teaches a Bi-ble class at home, attended by friends as well as some members of the church who cannot make it to the class at the church due to their schedules. He also says that he tries to help out in any way he can and enjoys help-ing the elderly. When there is a need and a church member or family mem-ber needs help, financial or support, or a ride somewhere, he tries to help. He also volunteers coaching soccer with Kinetic Kids, an organization for disad-vantaged disabled children. “I love Christian music – that’s all I listen to,” he says. “I love hunting and fishing. I like to watch sports, especially the Dallas Cowboys and the San Anto-nio Spurs. I love barbecuing.” At 51 years old, Carielo has been married to his wife, Teresa Carielo, for 29 years. They have three children: Mo-nique, 28; Emily, 26; and Rudy Jr., who recently turned 15. And they have six grandchildren: Victoria, 6; Nicole, 5; Aidan, 4; Tiago, 2; Logan, 5 months old; and Jaco, 6 months old. –mh

The Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contrac-tors Association (MCA-

SMACNA) held its 23rd annu-al Golf Tournament Mar. 31 at SilverHorn Golf Club. The proceeds from the tourna-ment benefitted Habitat for Humanity. –mh

Winners1st Gross: Mike Cervera, Ken Gottardy, Zach McManus and Chris Vrana1st Net: Roger Ford, Brad Bright, Jeremy Jones and Chris Puig2nd: Jeff Morris, George Hall, Jeff Vogt and Scott Lam-moureax3rd: Baron Phillips, Andy Luke, Randy Nib-ert and William WilsonClosest to the Pin:Randy Nibert and William Wilson

1st Place Gross

1st Place Net

Longest Drive:Scott Wunsch and Michael Kelly

Keeping the past close byConstruction News ON LOCATION

L-R: Colby Lewis, Gabriel Gutierrez, Oscar Martinez, Margaret Pena, Franklin C. Harrison and Monica Cruz gathered in the Alpine Contracting office where Lewis,

president, has photos and items from the time his grandfather, Zac P. Russom, operated his contracting business of the same name. The canvas hanging on the wall features one

of the signs in front of a property his grandfather worked on long ago. –mh

www.constructionnews.net


The Associated General Contractors (AGC) San An-tonio Chapter held its an-

nual golf tournament Mar. 28 at the Club at Sonterra, drawing 224 golfers. This year’s event boasted an impressive new re-sult: two Hole-in-One winners on two different holes. –mh

WinnersNorth Course 1st Gross: Jamie Amoretti, Craig Noto, Jason Marcom, Clint Wurzbach1st Net: Bob McIntyre, Greg Mc-Daniel, Kevin McIntyre, Robert Gayle2nd Net: Chris Thiel, Greg Pa-dalecki, Nelson Froboese, Art Salinas 3rd Net: Matt Johnson, Paul Blackburn, Lee Mangum, Jim LundbladLongest Drive: Adam MatthysClosest to Hole: Al VasquezHole In One: Jason Marcom & Al Vasquez

South Course 1st Gross: Mike King, Mike Moynahan, Rocky Shoffstall, Logan Richter

Lightning strikes twice

As a Hole-in-One winner, Al Vasquez, SpawGlass, who also took Closest to the Pin, won a TravisMathew head-to-toe signature outfit and $500 online shopping spree.

Jason Marcom, Campbell Interior Systems, one of two Hole-in-One winners, won this truck.

1st Net: John Wright, Denny Crouch, Shaun Blumhoff, John Barbour2nd Net: Robert Rochelle, Kyle Penning-ton, Randy Blade, Jacob Bowen3rd Net: Michael Hellwig, Steve Morris, Jason Boney, Stephen SchuhLongest Drive: Ruben EstradaClosest to Hole: James Jedziewski

Photos by Mary C. Haskin Photography

A changing geotechnical world

As a consulting firm with more than 130 offices nationwide, Terracon invited members of the AEC indus-

try to a luncheon symposium on “Geo-technical Engineering in the 21st Centu-ry” Mar. 24 at Aggie Park. “We’re trying to explain how the on-slaught of millennials in the workforce is creating a different environment of work and technology-laced delivery meth-ods,” explains Vic Donaldson, corporate director of geotechnical services. “So, I’m explaining what Terracon has done to embrace that, and I’m also encouraging our clients to consider how their firms are embracing this change in the workforce.” The presentation was American In-stitute of Architects (AIA) accredited, and included a catered lunch and desserts by the San Antonio Aggie Wives and Gradu-ates Club. –mh

Chuck Gregory, a senior principal and vice president of the San Antonio office,

introduced the luncheon speaker. Gregory comments, “We hope to help inform our

clients and influencers about some ways we could do things better to help the industry

and their clients.”

L-R: Eduardo Anzueto and James Burnside, Vickrey & Associates, were just a few of

the attendees in line for lunch before the geotechnical presentation began.

At Terracon’s luncheon, Vic Donaldson (left), Terracon’s corporate director of geotechnical services, gave a presentation on the new generation in the workforce and how it’s impacting

geotechnical engineering. L-R: Donaldson; Gayle Elliott, Deana Somerville and Charlotte S. Hibner, Aggie Wives and Graduates Club; and Melynne Wulff, Terracon


Showing what we’re made of

The Texas Construction Careers Ini-tiative (TCCI) hosted its Construc-tion Career Day Apr. 6 at Freeman

Expo Hall to introduce high school stu-dents to the vast world of construction careers that are open to them. With 58 exhibitors, including trade schools and universities, the event welcomed 1,080 students from 36 schools in the surround-ing areas, including schools in Del Rio, Fredericksburg and Carrizo Springs. –mh

Comfort-Air Engineering & Primo Plumbing

United Tool & Fastener

HD Supply

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)

The Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (MCA-SMACNA) brought technology that allowed students to

experience welding virtually.

Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors (PHCC)

Gibson Plumbing

Wilborn Steel Co.

National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC)

Baker Triangle

BrandtThe Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) had fun

with the students demonstrating simple tricksand wonders of electricity.

Martin Marietta Materials

The Texas Air Conditioning Contractors Association (TACCA) invited students to fish for prizes while learning about the

skills needed to work in the HVAC industry.

Alpha Insulation & Waterproofing

Marek Brothers offered students the chance to try their hand at working with drywall.

Students from local schools with construction education programs participated in a build competition.

UA Local 142 brought the trailer to demonstrate the work itsapprentices train to do in the field.


continued from Page 1 — Beyer’s big picture

continued from Page 1 — Centennial metal

continued from Page 1 — A steak on the northwest side

and look, Baker notes that the project and construction teams had to make changes on the fly. This meant working closely with Hudson Advisors, a construction management representative for Ruth’s Chris, as well as representatives from Ruth’s Chris, including Christine Bondio, David Duke, and the new restaurant’s manager, Daniel Farias. Baker recalls that the owners and their reps were able to make timely decisions on changes that would affect the 16-week schedule. The interior finish out consisted of partial demolition of the existing build-ing foundation and construction of a new loading dock. The scope of work for the finish out also included drywall, paint, millwork, food service equipment, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and the fire alarm and fire sprinkler/Ansul system. The open floor plan has an open wine rack display as the centerpiece of the dining area, and the area includes in-dividual dining nooks for privacy. The new partitions are painted and accented with a retro wall covering and cove light-ing. Carpet and tile floors flow into an in-novative metal and glass wall, which separates the main dining room from a private dining area. Separated from a private dining area with patio access by a sliding wood wall, the bar area consists of a decorative met-al hanging element complete with media screens and an architectural wood ceil-ing. The chef’s kitchen was designed for maximum efficiency, complete with spe-cialized equipment, kitchen hood with Ansul fire protection, and walk-in coolers and freezer.

The finish out also included new rest-rooms, a mezzanine to be used as an office and storage area, and a suspended mez-zanine to be used as support for the high-efficiency air filtration system along with a chilled water rack system for refrigeration. The finish out also included an indepen-dent electrical system and a mechanical system that consisted of accessing the ex-isting chilled water supply and return sys-tem as well as providing and installing VAV devices and new HVAC controls. The exterior work included removal and installation of specific exterior doors and windows, and the installation of new decorative metal fence encompassing the patio area. The superintendent on the job was Mark Urrabaz. The architect was Doug-las Architects, and the mechanical engi-neer was TTG. The project team also in-cluded Craig Slaughter for Eilan and Tom Woodson for Hudson Advisors. Subcontractors on the job included Francis Electric, AIRCO Mechanical for the air conditioning, Team Mechanical for the plumbing, Dumas Hardware, F.A. McComas Painting, Myers Concrete, Sharp Glass, Spider Wall Systems, West-ern States Fire Protection, Circle C Mill-work, Summit Electric as a supplier of the light fixtures, Allied Fire Protection, Allegiance Floors, and Spectra Contract Flooring. Established in 1977 and headquartered in Dallas, Structure Tone Southwest offers a wide range of construction services, includ-ing renovation, expansion, new construc-tion, technology and infrastructure up-grades and sustainability initiatives. –mh

Built by Structure Tone Southwest, the new Ruth’s Chris at Eilan uses a modern and open design, a new concept for the steak house restaurant.

Ted DunnamVice PresidentESC Consultants

Industry FOLKS

Having started as a field consultant at ESC Consultants in 1991, Ted

Dunnam, now vice president, is cele-brating his 25th anniversary with the company. In his tenure with ESC, he has en-joyed getting involved with the local chapters of industry associations. He has served on the Safety Committee with the Associated Builders and Con-tractors (ABC) since 1998 and the Safe-ty Committee with the Associated General Contractors (AGC) for more than a decade. He is also currently serv-ing as the chairman of the American Subcontractors Association (ASA) Safe-ty Committee. Meanwhile, Dunnam has also en-couraged members of his staff at ESC to actively participate, too. He encour-aged Jennifer Swinney and Nora Romero to get involved with the Na-tional Association of Women in Con-struction (NAWIC). His support, rallying around the NAWIC members on his staff, earned him the honor of being named an In-dustry Leader at NAWIC’s recent Indus-try Awards night, and he gives both Swinney and Romero a lot of credit for the recognition. Born in Bay City, TX, Dunnam was raised by his parents, who were both attorneys, in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, learning to speak Spanish before he spoke English. “[My father] got polio in the early 1950s, and doctors told him that he

needed to pursue some sort of activity that was very vigorous, and for some reason, he decided to move us all to Ni-caragua in 1953,” he recalls. “My dad just packed us up, and we headed south on the Pan American Highway, and it stopped in Nicaragua, and that’s where we stopped. “I stayed in Costa Rica until I was about 7 years old, came back to the states and lived with my grandmother, and I went to grade school and high school. I went to high school in Port Lavaca, TX, and then I went to college at Texas A&I in Kingsville, and I gradu-ated in 1976.” After receiving his bachelor’s de-gree in political science with a minor in Spanish, Dunnam moved to San Anto-nio and began working for a heavy highway bridge building company in 1978 where he rose to safety superin-tendent before he left in 1987. In 1989, he moved back to Costa Rica to live with his parents and help his father run their ranch. He returned to the U.S. in 1991 when his dad was doing better, and went to work for ESC. Dunnam is an avid duck hunter and enjoys fishing with his friends and his son. Dunnam is the third, so as the fourth, his son’s name is Cuatro Dun-nam. Cuatro is 24 and recently gradu-ated from Texas A&M. –mh

Lighting the way for serviceConstruction News JOB SIGHT

L-R: Benjamin Rodriguez and Cole Richey, Triple R Electric, were pulling wire and making sure the new Red McCombs Toyota dealership on I-10 has power up and running in the

service department. General contractor Koontz Corporation broke ground on the project in January 2015 and expects completion in May. Ernest Gibson is the project manager on

the job and Marty Johnson is the superintendent. –mh

250 employees today. It’s a pretty big deal.” Perry adds, “God’s blessed this com-pany. Did we imagine that we would have this many people? No. It is bigger than we probably ever thought it would be, but that’s because of the employees. We’ve got great employees.” With people in place to run a large percentage of the day-to-day operations, the brothers focus on making the com-pany better as a whole, thinking of the big picture. One change that affected the big picture was technology. Seven years ago, the company went paperless, which Pat says took them to another level, as he ex-plains, “When you’ve got a hundred ve-hicles turning in seven to eight pieces of paper a day, it has to be processed by

somebody here in the office. It just be-came overwhelming.” Now without filing cabinets and in-ternal processing for paperwork, every-thing comes in electronically. Accounting was also converted to be a paperless pro-cess. These big changes saved not only time but space, which is important since Beyer Boys has always needed more space. As the business grew, the office needed to expand, too. The brothers have bought and remodeled several of the surrounding lots and buildings to stay in their original location on Broom Street. Founded in 1990, Beyer Boys offers air conditioning, heating and plumbing ser-vices in the residential and commercial markets. –mh

bounds.” Vexler is proud of the fact that the company is still family owned and oper-ated through four generations and has never laid off a worker due to lack of work. Monterrey also has a lot of history, such as surviving the Great Depression. “Like much of the country, Abraham Vexler was broke, but thanks to his repu-tation and a fine banker, Hans Groos, he made it through and kept the keys to the business,” Vexler recounts. “And in 1979, Henry Cisneros’ initiative, Vista Verde, es-sentially condemned our original yard overnight and turned it into a parking lot. We lost 70 percent of our customer

base with the move to our new location but managed to keep working and claw our way back.” Though Harold Vexler, the son of founder Abraham, passed away just shy of Monterrey’s centennial, there are still several Vexlers carrying on their legacy in addition to David. Jack Vexler, president, oversees daily operations. Jeff Vexler runs the sister yard, Toucan Recycling. Jordan Vexler makes sure everything runs smoothly and oversaw design and build of the centennial projects. The family re-cently welcomed the fifth generation, baby Jackson “Bexar” Vexler. –mh


Concrete Industry

It’s all in the tilt wallLuis Higadera, General ManagerNOVIDESASan Antonio, TX

While construction companies and owners search for ways to stream-

line the building process, save on costs, and create sustainable and energy effi-cient designs, Luis Higadera, NOVIDESA, believes that insulated concrete tilt wall can help achieve all of these goals. “The benefit is that you have three steps in one,” explains Higadera. “Once you lift your panels, you have your con-crete, your metal stud and your insula-tion, and as a system, it’s more cost effec-tive than conventional construction.” By doing these three steps in one, Hi-gadera says the panels save costs on la-bor, concrete and steel. In conventional

construction, once a concrete tilt wall is lifted, a subcontractor will put in the in-sulation and another subcontractor will put in the metal stud. Combining these three steps in one panel makes it less ex-pensive to install and more energy effi-cient in the long run. With expanded polystyrene (EPS) providing the insulation in these panels, they provide protection from hot and cold, and they mean lower electricity bills for the end user. Using the index that measures the heat transmission resis-tance of the wall, the R-value of the insu-lated concrete tilt wall is 20. Higadera cites the 2015 International Building Code as requiring continuous in-sulation with an R-value of 7 1/2, and points out that the panels exceed the code-required R-value by more than dou-ble. He also says that using conventional construction, if the builder or owner wants more insulation, will add to the cost of construction. In this sense, the NOVIDESA system is the same cost but has an R-value of 20. When the 2015 code was implement-ed, NOVIDESA came to San Antonio be-

cause the panels presented a convenient way to meet and exceed the code, Higa-dera explains. “The 2015 code requires a continu-ous insulation, and all of our products give you a continuous insulation,” he says. “What it means to have a continu-ous insulated wall with the R-value that we have is that you’re going to have a lower [electricity] bill on your building.” Another point Higadera makes is that the wall will be less thick than it would be in conventional construction, creating more space inside. The insulated concrete tilt wall will be 9 inches if you would use it in place of a 5 1/4-inch con-ventional concrete tilt wall. But as anoth-er benefit to having three pieces of the process in one, he says that when you add the metal stud and insulation to that conventional construction, the wall will be thicker than 9 inches. The insulated concrete tilt wall pan-els have been used for more than 20 years, he says, and NOVIDESA has been using them in Mexico and in the Rio Grande Valley, but this kind of panel is used across the world. The panels are

manufactured in Mexico, but the technol-ogy was engineered in Italy. When NOVIDESA started in 2006, Hi-gadera recalls having to convince cus-tomers of the benefits, but as the years have passed, he observes that insulated concrete tilt wall is becoming more popu-lar because of its advantages, especially under the 2015 code. One example of the product’s use is a recent project in San Antonio with MD Construction, a concrete contractor, where NOVIDESA supplied insulated con-crete tilt wall for a retail commercial build-ing on Potranco Road. Higadera estimates that nine panels used in the build totaled about 5,000sf and were done in two-and-a-half days. NOVIDESA started in the Rio Grande Valley, and since arriving in San Antonio, Hi-gadera has worked with Diego Rodriguez, owner of MD Construction, on supplying materials for jobs. Higadera notes that Ro-driguez was the first subcontractor in the San Antonio area to be trained to work with the insulated concrete tilt wall. –mh

Working togetherto achieve success

Wanda Lynn Gibson, president, andMarty Gibson, vice presidentGibson Concrete LLCPflugerville, TX

What are the “hot button” issues in the concrete industry?

The “hot button” issue that affects the concrete industry from the ground up is the labor force – finding and keep-ing workers, more so in the field, not in management roles. We recognize that nothing is accomplished until the first shovel hits the ground, so the men that have that job and the superintendents that run the crews are most important. How would you describe the state of the construction industry? The state of the industry is very good right now, there is a lot going on in devel-opment. What factors are driving this in-crease? There are several factors that contin-ue to keep our industry busy: the amount of bonds passed for schools, including a new movement towards the fine arts ed-ucation. Austin continues to be a desir-able place to live across demographics, which lends to an array of development, from schools to churches, to urban living communities, hospitals, education cen-ters, retail, entertainment, roads, etc. It’s a ripple effect. Has this increase affected your com-pany and how you conduct business? Our bidding has to be selective – otherwise if we are not careful, we can take on too much. Work is consistent, and scheduling is everything to keep projects happening on time and on bud-get. Other than that, we continue to con-duct business and operate with respect and attention to details, the customers, the work force, and Mother Nature. Are there recent changes in legisla-tion affecting the concrete industry? The legislation that continues to happen and affect the concrete industry on a daily basis has mostly revolved

around contractual language. I believe we can look forward to subsequent bills that will address global warming. This will encompass environmental concerns as well, in which Gibson Concrete will al-ways respect and support laws that both protect our Earth and balance healthy development. What is the most significant chal-lenge your industry faces? The labor force is again the topic of the day. In a nutshell, we are losing the tradesman generation. Young men and women are being educated in the con-struction sciences at universities, but many have not had the opportunity to grow up in or learn an actual labor trade – and so the application knowledge and wisdom that is gained with hands on ex-perience is missing from professionals that we employ on our jobsites or in the offices as project managers, etc. It’s im-portant that we utilize benefits from both, taking aspects from the books but applying it with the practical know-how on a jobsite, in the midst of jobsite vari-ables. We need both. There is a difference between building out of a book and building on a jobsite. This understanding is huge and must be respected in ways to build and foster the tradesmen vocation with the construction industry in order to maintain its health and integrity. That said, recent interest with high school cur-riculum offering trade certifications again is promising. How are you dealing with these challenges? For Gibson Concrete, it started a long time ago when Marty began the trade. Since then, he has not only respected it, he knows a tradesman when he sees one and hires them! From there, you manage a business well to provide a good place of employment and keep those great em-

ployees. It’s also nice when the long-term employees become your recruiters and bring in others that may possess the same work credentials and ethics. What is on the horizon for your in-dustry? Technology affects everything, al-ways on the horizon is a better, faster way of getting from point A to point B – in our industry, one personal experience is with surveying equipment for both layout and concrete placement. The instruments and software designed for the tasks are pretty good. What are the rewards of the indus-try? At the end of the day, you can look back and see productivity – literally, you can see a permanent foundation or build-ing that will contribute to the community in different ways: socially, physically, eco-nomically, spiritually…it’s an honor to be part of it and lend our expertise and tal-ents in this way. What are keys to being successful? First, let’s define success – Webster’s Dictionary defines success as: 1) the fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame; 2) the correct or desired result of an attempt. These definitions are not bad if they also consider the journey and conse-quence of such success! Success to the owners of Gibson Concrete would first take into consideration the goals which might be summed up to livelihood, con-tentment/happiness, and purpose. Thus far, as owners and employer, we have cer-tainly provided towards our own and oth-

er’s livelihoods; we have experienced many hours of contentment and happi-ness (along with frustration and sorrows); and we have come to learn and see how all has great purpose. So in this way, we are very grateful and successful people! We are successful because we have the eyes to understand what we already are and have. If you were to revise the question to how to run a successful business, I would elaborate on the last decade where we learned how vital the owner presence and direction is when it comes to leading a company, both administratively and in the field. In the same breath, a company is not run by one or two people or owners. You learn to strategically (and harmoniously) surround yourself with a great team of ex-perts in the different positions called for. You seek and maintain the good working relationships, both with your internal and external customers, and let go of the rest. You start and finish strong knowing that your name is on the product. The fruit: after working together for several years, the cohesiveness between the field and office has a profound impact on projects when it comes to communi-cation and decisions made that can either make it a good day or not so good day. Finally, Gibson Concrete takes the time to identify and recognize each per-son for the person they are, and for their contribution to the success of the com-pany. We do this in several ways, includ-ing, but not limited to: prayer, vacation benefits, monetary recognition, perform-ing charitable functions together, play and social time. –cw


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Concrete matters

Bill Cloyd, OwnerCloyd Concrete ConstructionMagnolia, TX

What is your background in the construction industry?

I have worked in the concrete busi-ness for about 30 years. When I first got started in the industry, I helped a few people do small concrete jobs back in the early ‘80s. I was just looking for a way to feed my family. I eventually had the opportu-nity to do larger concrete jobs. I learned the business as I went and things just took off from there.

In your opinion, what is the state of the Houston construction industry? I think the Houston construction in-

dustry is still strong. I have noticed in the last two or three months things are start-ing to slow up just a little bit. We have had a huge boom in the past couple of years. We still haven’t felt anything that is related to the downturn in the oil busi-ness. I think we are still doing OK.

What are a few major changes in your industry in the last few years? There are new products and tools to use for larger jobs. Laser screeds are now used on jobs and this cuts down on labor. These new products help us give a better product to

the customers. What are few challenges you have seen lately? I think with as many people laid off in the oil business, that we are going to see a slow down in the coming year. It is still a very diversified economy here in Hous-ton. I think established customers and contractors will continue to do OK. I have several builders I do work for as a subcon-tractor that are very established in the area. They are going to continue building because their name is out there. You have to have a good product, a good response to problems in the field and good relationships to keep your business going. You have to know how to ride the storms out.

What advice can you offer to a young person who wants to pursue a con-struction career? My advice to a young person would be to get with a reputable company that has been around a while. Learn the business. Start out as a la-

borer and work your way up. If you have aspirations to own a company, see about taking business and accounting courses. It is important to know all aspects of the concrete business, not just how to do the work.

What is on the horizon for the con-struction industry? I think it is still going to be a good market but I don’t think it will be as busy as it has been in the past two or three years. What does it take to be successful in your industry? I think the keys to success in the con-crete business is having good customers that pay well and pay on time. I have employees that have worked with me for a long period of time. You have to treat employees good because they are your business. They have to be taken care of and re-warded for the work they learn how to do. Cloyd Concrete Construction provides residential and commercial concrete ser-vices. –ab

Economy strong, but labor shortage a stressor

Lance Halfmann, Vice-PresidentConScape Inc.Fort Worth, TX

What are the “hot button” issues in the industry?

It seems like the problem for contrac-tors across the board is a shortage of qualified labor, because the work is defi-nitely there – it’s been there for two years – but the labor is the issue. I think right now, with there being so much commercial work available, some-times your eyes get bigger than your stomach and you take on more work, or you get more work because everybody is spread so thin. A lot of times you take on jobs and the schedule is demanding and your labor force is so short you find your-self behind the eight ball before the job starts. What we’ve learned to do is to back off and take the work that we think we can handle so that we’re able to properly man our projects. I don’t want our cus-tomers upset with us or to think we’re not

capable. We know the job, we know what we’re capable of and so we’re not going to extend beyond our means. We want to maintain quality and not just take on more than we can handle. I’ve heard that from many people, that there is so much good work out there that you almost have to rein yourself in and not get overextended, because then you’re into overtime hours and labor, which will eat up your profit margin.

How would you describe the state of the construction industry in general terms? I’ve been with ConScape 15 years, and business is as good as I have ever seen it. My dad, Charles Halfmann, who has been in this industry 48 years, said he’s only seen one other time that was comparable to this as far as the quality of work that’s available.

There’s definitely an increase in busi-ness. As I said, we’re trying to stay level in what we can do. It’s awfully tempting to bid a lot of work but I have to temper that enthusiasm.

How is this increase affecting your company and how you conduct busi-ness? We’ve increased our labor and we’ve increased the pay of our employees, which is good for them, too. We’ve con-centrated on our margins and have been able to pick the work that suits us better. We don’t have to chase work that we’re not suited for, and that’s what we’re lean-ing towards.

Have there been any recent changes in legislation affecting the concrete industry relating to transportation or the environment? I think change has been more local; with the increase in the amount of truck traffic, the Redi Mix suppliers are more conscious of the weight of their trucks going down the road; they seem to get stopped a lot [by police officers]. They have to be careful and conscious that they’re not overloading their trucks be-cause that could become a hazard. As far as legislation pertaining to us directly, nothing drastic has been hap-pening. All that has really affected us is the labor shortage.

What are the cost increases relating to your industry? Thank goodness fuel has leveled off. It has helped our bottom line, just with our day-to-day travels. I would say the general price increase as opposed to two years ago, by roughly 20-35%, is in labor, and 25-35% in material. Rebar has been steady and forming material has been good. Concrete has been the increase that we’ve seen the most, along with la-bor.

What do you think is on the horizon for your industry? What we are looking for is anything equipment-wise that can reduce labor cost because of the shortage right now. We try to make sure that we are up to par on that. We’d like to keep that equipment running so we’re not working our labor too much; we’re more productive and more efficient that way. In our industry, pretty much every-thing is labor-driven, and we’re dependent on quality people. We’re just trying to re-tain what we have. Anything that will take care of our people is what we’re concen-trating on. If they’re happy, we’re happy.

ConScape Inc. in Fort Worth offers pav-ing, tilt wall panels, foundations and stamped concrete. –mjm


Par is their friend

The American Society of Heating Refrigerat-ing and Air-Condition-

ing Engineers (ASHRAE) Al-amo Chapter hosted its an-nual Golf Classic Apr. 14 at the Canyon Springs Golf Club. –mh

Winners1st Gross: Bill Wurzbach, Clint Wurzbach, Amoretti, Jason Marcom1st Net: Father Mike O’Gorman, Jason Petry, John Winckler, Tom Gillette“Par Is your Friend” High Score – Most Room for Im-provement Team: Melendez, Gonzalez, Siller, Gaeta

1st Place Gross

1st Place Net

Long Drive: Blaine FallClosest to the Pin: Jason Marcom

Drawing 124 players to the green, the American Subcontractors As-sociation (ASA) San Antonio Chap-

ter held its annual Golf Tournament Apr. 8 at TPC Golf Course on the Canyons Course. –mh

WinnersGross1st: Custom-Crete – Matt Rivera, Ryan Helm, Pete Guys2nd: Jupe Company – Bryce Jupe, Vance Jupe, Rick Jupe, Craig Jendrusch3rd: Urban Heating & Air Conditioning – Pat Pellerin, Rick Kramer, Rick Mitchell Net1st: ESC Safety/Midco Sling – Dave Rober-son, Ray Garcia, Rafael Salas, Ryan Angui-ano

1st Place Gross

1st Place Net

2nd: Polygon & Joeris – Tim Young, Jeb Dixon, Ben Poraph, Jared Gold3rd: Alpha Insulation – Ismael Gonzales Jr., Jacob Shalley, Rick Nanez, Kyle Wis-niewskiLongest Drive: Bryce Jupe, Jupe Company

Hole-in-One (Hole #8) winner Ted “Tin Cup” Dunnam, ESC Safety Consultants, won a four-

day/three-night trip to French Lick, IN. He also took Closest to the Pin.

The legacy of HNTB in Texas can be traced back to 1910, when a found-ing partner of the firm worked as

part of the design team on Austin’s his-toric Congress Avenue Bridge. More than a century later, the firm bridges the gap in their clients’ needs with architecture, engineering, planning and construction services offered through offices in 27 states. Not forgetting its roots, one of those states is Texas, where HNTB has seven of-fices - one of them dedicated solely to the firm’s San Antonio clients. The office, located at 130 Travis St. #200, employs 36 professionals in the area. Heading the team, as well as 144 additional Texas-based professionals, is Central and South Texas Office leader and vice president Carlos Lopez, PE. Together, they offer engineering, in-tegrated planning, urban design and planning, business, rail/transit, project controls, procurement, CEI and disaster recovery, working on some of the area’s most notable projects. In San Antonio, HNTB is working closely with the TxDOT San Antonio District on several projects, including improvements to U.S. 281 – one of the area’s most congested road-ways – as well as improvements to South-west Loop 410 between I-35 and Culebra. HNTB also serves as the program man-ager for the VIA Metropolitan Transit Au-thority and the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority. “Like the rest of Texas’ major metro areas, San Antonio has experienced sig-nificant population growth over the last several years and the Austin-San Antonio Corridor is consistently ranked as one of the fastest-growing areas in the U.S.” Lo-pez says. “As a result, our focus is on ex-panding and better connecting highway systems and various modes of transpor-tation.” Even though the firm focuses on high-profile projects, Lopez says HNTB also focuses on the professionals who do the work, ensuring that there are plenty of opportunities for employee happiness and growth. Lopez, who has been in the

Driven to succeed

industry more than 30 years, has seen HNTB’s dedication to its employees first-hand since joining the firm in 2012. “Despite geography, HNTB’s South and Central Texas offices find opportuni-ties to grow as a team,” Lopez says. “Be-cause we have staff in San Antonio, Aus-tin, Round Rock, Harlingen and El Paso, we make it a point to have an annual gathering to celebrate our personal and professional accomplishments.” Within each office, HNTB has bi-monthly lunches, inter-office training op-portunities and informal happy hours. The team also supports various local charities, participates in community events and actively participates in pro-fessional organizations. The activities bond the Texas teams, despite being spread out through seven offices. “Staff are provided opportunities to work on multidisciplinary teams despite where they live,” Lopez says.” Work shar-ing allows us to provide more services to our clients and gives staff travel, career development and team building oppor-tunities.” HNTB is an employee-owned infra-structure solutions firm serving public and private owners and construction contrac-tors. –mjm

HNTB’s Carlos Lopez

A walk through the Canyons

L-R: National Utility Contractors Association’s (NUCA) national treasurer Dan Buckley presents Kiewit-Southgate’s Alex Kocher, National Trench Safety’s Fred Burlbaw, NUCA’s Deana Butorac, McLaughlin’s Kevin Wise and Driver Pipeline’s Ed “Whiz” Whisenant with acknowledgement of NUCA Texas’ charter at NUCA’s 51st National

Convention in March. –mjm

Chartered territorySubmitted to Construction News


Round-Up Association CalendarContent submitted by Associations to Construction News

ABCAssociated Builders & Contractors

May 12: Mixer at Topgolf; Topgolf San AntonioMay 20: Membership BreakfastMay 30: Memorial Day, office closedFor more information on these events, email Ruby Trejo at [email protected]

AGCAssociated General Contractors

All events are held at the AGC office unless otherwise stated.May 3: The Basics Module #6: Project Management, 6-8pmMay 4: Brown Bag Lunch: Active Shooter, noon-1:30pmMay 6: CLF Night Golf Tournament, Ala-mo Golf Club, 4pm registration, 5pm shotgunMay 10: The Basics Module #7: Financial Management and Job Costing, 6-8pmMay 11: OSHA 10-Hour, 8:30am-5:15pmMay 12: OSHA 10-Hour, 8:30am-12:15pmMay 16: Brown Bag Lunch: Heat Stress, noonMay 17: The Basics Module #8: Safety and Health, 6-8pmMay 20: AGC Fun Shoot & Mixer; The Na-tional Shooting Complex; noon-6pm; deadline to register is May 18; to make reservations or for more information, call Kelly at 210-349-4921May 24: The Basics Module #9: Insurance & Bonds, 6-8pmMay 31: The Basics Module #10: Market-ing/Business Development, 6-8pm

AIAAmerican Institute of Architects

May 9: AIA/ASLA ACME Brick Scholarship Golf Tournament, Quarry Golf ClubMay 19-21: AIA National Convention, Philadelphia, PAMay 23: Chapter Meeting; Luby’s Fiesta Room, 911 N. Main Ave.; OHP Preserva-tion Programs Update; speaker is Shanon Shea Miller, director of the Office of His-toric Preservation, City of San Antonio; no RSVP required; $20 for members, $25 for guests, $15 for interns and associatesFore more Information on these events, visit www.aiasa.org

ASAAmerican Subcontractors Association

May 3: Safety Stand-Down, 11am, Struc-ture Tone, SWBC ProjectMay 6: Subfest, Helotes FairgroundMay 17: General Membership meeting, The Petroleum Club of SA, 6:30pmMay 18: Safety Update meeting, Cham-berlin office, 11:30am May 19: Lunch & Learn, Anatomy of Law-suits, Gardner Law Firm, 11:30amJun 3-4: Annual Fishing Tournament, Rockport

CFMAConstruction Financial Mgmt. Assn.

May 24: SA Chapter Luncheon; Petro-leum Club, 8620 N. New Braunfels; 11:30a-1pm; RSVP to Stephanie at 210-828-6281, ext. 1575, or [email protected]

CMAAConstruction Mgmt. Assn. of America

May 3: Scholarship Golf Tournament; Onion Creek Golf Club; noon to 7pm; reg-istration available online; $125 per per-son, $500 per team; for more informa-tion, email Brent Millar at [email protected]

GSABAGreater San Antonio Builders Assn.

May 7-8, 14-15: Spring Tour of Homes, 11am-6pm; locations all over San Antonio and surrounding areasMay 19: Membership Mixer; GSABA Ball-room, 3625 Paesanos Parkway

HCA de San AntonioHispanic Contractors Association

May 13: 2nd Annual Top Golf Experience, 3-6pm; $60 for individual entry, $175 for a team of three May 18: Monthly Meeting/Mixer, The Quarry Golf Club, 6-8pmMay 20-21: Safety Fair, free OSHA 10 courses and CPR/First-Aid/AED , both in English and Spanish

IECIndependent Electrical Contractors

All events are held at the IEC office un-less otherwise stated.May 3: Journeyman/Master Prep Class, 5:30-9:30pm (third night)May 10: Journeyman/Master Prep Class, 5:30-9:30pm (fourth night)May 16: Continuing Education Class, 5-9pmMay 17: Journeyman/Master Prep Class, 5:30-9:30 p.m. (fifth night)May 21: Electrical Maintenance Techni-cian Class, 8am-5pmMay 24: Journeyman/Master Prep Class, 5:30 – 9:30 p.m. (sixth night)For more information on these event visit www.iecsanantonio.com or call 210-431-9861

MCA–SMACNAMechanical Contractors Association

Sheet Metal & A/C Nat’l Assn.

May 4: Regular & Associates meeting, Oak Hills Country Club, 11:30amMay 11: Joint Labor/Management meet-ing, MCA-SMACNA office, 11amMay 17: Joint Industry Fund meeting, Oak Hills Country Club, 11:30am

NAWICNat’l Assn. of Women in Construction

May 4: General meeting, Industry Appre-ciation Night, Petroleum Club, 6pm, speaker is Bexar County Commissioner Tommy CalvertMay 20-21: NAWIC South Central Region Forum, French Quarter, New Orleans

PHCC Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors

May 1: The 2016/2017 Department of La-bor-approved Plumbing Apprenticeship program applications availableMay 12: Plumbing Apprentice Gradua-tion Ceremony, 11am, St. Philips College SW CampusMay 14-15: Master Plumbers Test Prep Class, PHCC officeMay 31: Deadline to register for the Jun. 2 PHCC/ABPA/ASPE Joint Sporting Clay Tournament, San Antonio Gun Club For more information on these events and all TSBPE-approved Plumbers Con-tinuing Education & Specialty Classes, visit www.phcc-sanantonio.orgSAMCAMay 25: Membership meeting; Pap-padeaux Restaurant, 76 NE Loop 410; noon; $30 per person; for more informa-tion, call Debbie at 830-606-5556

SDASociety for Design Administration

May 12-14: SDA National EDSymposium, Cincinnati, OHMay 26: Monthly Chapter Luncheon; The Barn Door, 8400 N. New Braunfels Ave.; noon-1pm; IT Trends; for more informa-tion, email [email protected]

TSPSTexas Society of Professional Surveyors

May 19: Golf Tournament, Silverhorn Golf Club, 1pm shotgun start, all are wel-come

This is a monthly section for brief company announcements of new orrecently promoted personnel, free of charge, as space allows.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Email (w/digital photo, if available) by the 15th of any month,

for the next month’s issue (published 1st of each month).Email info to appropriate city issue, with “Round-Up” in the subject line:––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

San Antonio: [email protected] Austin: [email protected] Dallas/Ft. Worth: [email protected] Houston: [email protected] South Texas: [email protected]

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Abigail Shaver has joined MS2 Con-sulting Engineers as the firm’s direc-tor of business de-velopment. In this position, she will lead the marketing and business devel-opment efforts and be an integral part of strategic planning and representing the company within the community and key organizations.

RVK Architects announces:

Rosemary Hart-man, CPSM, has been promoted to senior associate. With the firm for more than 25 years, she serves as ad-ministrative man-ager and supports the marketing department. Since 2001, she has been a member of the Society for Marketing Professional Services and be-came a Certified Professional Services Marketer in 2008.

Stephanie Mc-Bride has been promoted to asso-ciate. With the firm for 11 years, she oversees account-ing functions relat-ed to a project’s fi-nancial details in-cluding billing terms, invoicing, consul-tant coordination, and resolution of com-plex financial arrangements. She earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Louisiana State University.

Karen Weiss has been promoted to associate. With the firm for 13 years, she serves as an admin-istrative team assis-tant. She earned her bachelor’s degree in management from Our Lady of the Lake University.

Liz Zeno, AIA, has been promoted to principal. With the firm since 1996, she has served as proj-ect manager for Valero Energy’s 1604 campus, the Methodist Health-care Ministries Child Development Cen-ter, and NuStar Energy’s corporate head-quarters. Currently, she is working on the new corporate campus for Security Ser-vice Federal Credit Union. She attended the University of Texas in Arlington.

David A. White was promoted to associate of Raba Kistner Consul-tants. Responsible for roofing and building envelope services, he has been with the firm since 2011. In his expanded role, he is re-sponsible for transitioning the building envelope consulting services to other geographic regions. He earned his bach-elor’s degree from Southwest Texas State University in business administration.

Ryan Aalsma was promoted to vice president at Skans-ka USA. With more than 20 years of ex-perience in con-struction, 15 of which have been with Skanska, he was named Project Manager of the Year for the company’s Texas region in 2011. He will be responsi-ble for pursuing and executing new busi-ness throughout Central Texas, with a fo-cus on San Antonio and Austin. He earned his bachelor’s degree in management from Tarleton State University.


A mother’s work

The gatekeeperConstruction News JOB SIGHT

David Jaramillo Jr., an automatic gate installer with Quality Fence & Welding,

installs an access control system for a subdivision. –mh

As May brings Mother’s Day, we’re reminded of what our mothers have done for us and how hard

they work at everything they do. Being a mother is a full-time job in and of itself, and yet there are many mothers who work or have gone back to work at some point. Just looking at the construction community, there are many women who are trailblazing in the industry while holding a permanent position as mom. These are just a few of the mothers who have made their careers working in the San Antonio construction industry. –mh

Hilda Ochoa, vice president of 8A Electric, and her daughter, Iza

Crista Reed, marketing director for Cleary Zimmermann Engineers, with new daughter,

Taylor, and husband, Adam

Nicole King, geotechnical laboratory supervisor at Terracon, and daughter, Bevyn

Barb Hrbek, Hart Acoustical, took this photo of her twins, Emil and Sisa

Judy DeWeese, office manager at Mauze Construction, with her daughter, Angela

Right: Anna Herrera, senior administrative

staff in the Materials

Department at Terracon, and her daughter,

Angelina

Andrea Wurzbach, vice president of Comfort-Air Engineering, and her son, Clint

Kristi Villanueva, government affairs and deputy program manager at HJD Capital Electric, with her mother, Janie, and

her sons, Donovon and Christian

Susan Brodbeck, Brodbeck General Contracting, with her family L-R: (front row) her granddaughter, Ainsley; mother,

Anna; (middle row) daughter-in-law, Ellen; Susan; daughter, Jennifer; (back row) son, Brandon; husband, Mark

Amber Gass, managing principal of 3P Engineers,with her sons, Karl and Levi

Cynthia Schluter, vice president of Beckwith Electronic Engineering, and her sons L-R: Eric and Stefan


Taking constructors to schoolA warm welcome to Converse

Submitted to Construction News

San Antonio Masonry & Tool Supply held a ribbon cutting ceremony Apr. 15 for the company’s second location, 9513 Kneupper Lane in Converse. The mayor of Converse, Al Suarez (left center), and San Antonio Masonry owner Robbin Bostick (right center) were

both on hand to do the honors. –mh

Bird’s eye viewSubmitted to Construction News

More than 1,000 high school students gathered for lunch and to hear speakers and the announcement of scholarship winners at Freeman Expo Hall on the Texas Construction

Careers Initiative’s Construction Careers Day. –mhPhoto by Mary C. Haskin Photography

President and founder J. Clayton Kennedy says that celebrating the 30th anniversary of Kencon Con-

structors makes him feel a bit older and wiser as well as appreciative of the com-pany’s success and the people he has been able to work with in the last three decades. After graduating from Texas A&M University in 1977 and working for a few different general contractors in Houston, Corpus Christi and San Antonio, Kennedy decided to pursue his goal of going into business on his own. “In 1986, I thought we were at the bottom of the economic woes and de-cided to start my company,” he recalls. “Little did I know we were right on the edge of the cliff.” Though starting out at that time was a big challenge, especially since he was trying to feed a young family, Kennedy has seen and survived several economic ups and downs since then. While based in San Antonio, Kencon started out with a few private clients, do-ing small office and retail buildings in the Austin area and soon had its first school job for Round Rock ISD. Today, the com-

pany has done work for almost all of the school districts in the surrounding area of San Antonio. With 25 employees, Kennedy has several key and long-time team mem-bers. His vice president, James Saenz, has been with the company for four years. His senior project manager, Bob Skrobarczyk, was his first hire and has been with the company for 30 years. Paul Ralston, also a senior project manager, has been with the company for 22 years, and Liz Mendiola, controller, has been with the company for 25 years. When asked about projects of which he was particularly proud, Kennedy re-sponds, “I’m proud of all of them. They all had their individual challenges.” He notes that the focus has always been on treat-ing clients and subcontractors right, and says, “I’m probably more proud of that reputation than I am of any one project.” Kencon Constructors is a general con-tractor, construction manager and design build contractor that does work in the South and Central Texas region. Projects in-clude mainly K-12 and charter schools, and some retail, warehouse and metal building. –mh

The Kencon Constructors team is celebrating 30 years working in the South and Central Texas construction community.


Sweet concreteConstruction News JOB SIGHT

Chase Bradford, center, owner of Concreations in San Antonio, and some of his crew, are working at Villages on Sonterra installing concrete and walkways. –cw

Reimagining the river barges

Three Texas architecture firms com-peted in San Antonio’s International River Barge Design Competition

with different design proposals for the new barges. On Apr. 1, the City of San An-tonio and the American Institute of Archi-tects (AIA) San Antonio Chapter an-nounced that METALAB, a Houston-based firm, was the competition’s winner. “The current river barge design was created for HemisFair ’68 to offer visitors rides up and down the length of the riv-er,” Councilman Roberto C. Treviño, who is also an architect, said in a state-ment. “METALAB’s design is modular,

San Antonio’s Luna Architecture + Design was one of three finalists in the competition to design new river barges for the

San Antonio River Walk. L-R: Sam Stevens and Robert Luna

Houston’s METALAB won the competition with their vision for San Antonio’s new river barges. L-R: Andrew Vrana, Joe Meppelink, David Richmond

modern, and offers the possibility for barge uses we couldn’t have imagined before.” As a finalist at the open house, META-LAB principal Joe Meppelink comment-ed, “We’re incredibly honored. For us, it’s the project of a lifetime, because we’re an architecture product design firm, and we’ve designed some products at or around this scale. We’re really interested in the intersection of architecture and product design. So, it’s really an ideal project for us in that way.” Luna Architecture + Design, based in San Antonio, came in second place

with its river barge de-sign, and Sadi Brewton and Jonathan Davies, Austin, came in third among the finalists. Designs were show-cased at a Mar. 28 open house at the AIA San An-tonio’s Center for Archi-tecture where members of the public could view the designs and submit comments about them. The winning design was presented to the city council late last month, and a test barge is planned for early 2017. –mh

Rental One opened its second San Antonio area location last year. The new venue came about due to demand in the local market. L-R: Rene Almanza and Brannon Taylor with

James Hamilton, district manager –mh

A second place to call homeConstruction News ON LOCATION


Celebrating in Fiesta fashion

When KFW Engineers & Survey-ing moved to its new headquar-ters at 3421 Paesanos Pkwy, the

firm decided to celebrate with a Fiesta-style grand opening. Soon after the move, the grand opening Apr. 14 fea-tured food from Frederick’s Bistro, Blanco BBQ, Tiago’s and Hot Burras and music by LC Rocks. “We are so happy to be back under one roof,” says Erin Ramirez, business development and marketing coordina-tor. “The morale is absolutely amazing in our new building. From the beautiful of-fice spaces to the super fun break room with ping pong tables and foosball, we

KFW Engineers & Surveying invited employees, family and clients to give the new headquarters a proper Fiesta-themed grand opening.

Attendees helped break in the foosball table in the break room at KFW’s new headquarters.

Members of KFW’s Commercial Development team L-R: Josh York, Joshua Spencer and

Antonio Bustillos

are truly grateful for such an awesome work family.” –mh

The Associated General Contractors (AGC) and American Subcontrac-tors Association (ASA) San Antonio

The joint was jumpin’

chapters joined together to host the “Viva Fiesta” Kick-Off Mixer Apr. 12 at VFW Post 76 on the River Walk. –mh

AGC and ASA came together to celebrate Fiesta and help out the VFW. L-R: Kelly Wilson, AGC; Mike Kaiman, Turner Construction; Jennifer Swinney, ASA; Doug McMurry, AGC;

and Tom Freund, Comfort-Air Engineering

L-R: Andi Galloway, Joeris; Hilda Ochoa, 8A Electric; Denise Dart, Marmon Mok

Architecture

L-R: Charles Poole, Allbrite Construction; Eddie Fischer, Fox Services

L-R: Forrest Wilson, Big State Electric, and Jackson Nahoum, Guido Construction

L-R: Don Watson, Watson Nunnelly; Mike Kaiman, Turner Construction; Curtis Winter,

Watson Nunnelly

L-R: Tom Guido, Guido Construction; Ruben Valadez, Manco Structures; Tommy Mangold,

Turner Roofing

Guido Construction, along with partners in the effort, donated this walk-in cooler to the

VFW Post.

Download - San Antonio Construction News May 2016

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