san antonio construction news january 2015

The Industry’s Newspaper

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Hosts at the Pearl

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A legacy in mosaic Digging into destiny

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www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 18 H Number 1 H JANUARY 2015

At J&R Tile, Erin Albrecht is prepar-ing to carry on the legacy that her father, John Kotara, and her uncle,

Raymond Kotara, began 30 years ago. Though her dad will remain involved in the company and will be consulting, Al-brecht will be the owner one day, keep-ing the family business in the family. When John got out of the service, he and his brother worked for Villa Tile. He went through the apprenticeship program that Burbank High School offered at the time and became a tile setter. In 1984, he and his brother heard the owner wanted to sell, and they leapt at the opportunity. Today, Albrecht’s mother, Christine Kotara, is controller. The chief estimator is Tammy Coiteux. Raymond passed

away about 10 years ago, and the vice president of the company, Merrill Moy, retired. Before Moy left, Albrecht appren-ticed under him for six months. “My dad taught me the field and Merrill taught me everything from how to read blueprints to how to talk to general contractors and estimate,” says Albrecht, who is a project manager and estimator. “So, really it’s the best of both worlds be-tween both of them. I’ve always loved construction and now I get to come in in a commercial aspect.” When Albrecht was growing up, she would act as her father’s helper on side jobs he did close to their home in Koscius-ko, TX, a heavily Polish community where

Erin Albrecht and her father, John Kotara, are continuing a legacythat he and his brother started three decades ago.

Renovations of the historic Pearl Brewery have created new spaces for a vast array of businesses, and

recently, Cambridge Contracting built a San Antonio home for PEER 1 Hosting in the historic garage building at the Pearl. In the old garage where the Aveda Institute was the previous tenant, Cam-bridge renovated 25,000sf at a contract cost of $950,000 for PEER 1, a Canada-based data hosting company. Rusty Hastings, president of Cam-bridge, estimates that the construction team gutted 75 percent of the existing space for the complete redesign and build for PEER 1. With the company operating out of Canada, PEER 1 hired eVOLVE, a third-party data center solutions consulting group in Houston, which acted as the MEP engineer and hired San Antonio-based Insite Architects for the project. Since a data hosting company would

be using the space, work was very heavy on the mechanical, electrical and plumb-ing sides. There were many accommoda-tions required for the data infrastructure, such as several server rooms and many cable chases. Hastings describes the finished proj-ect as a very data conscious, tech-savvy space for a high-tech, high-end user, adding that there are lots of computer screens, televisions and interactive screens throughout the space. “For example, the conference rooms all have their own interactive screens so you can see a picture of the person that is using the conference room at the time and what they are doing,” explains Hast-ings. “It’s a very interactive group, be-cause that’s what they do, and they’re high-tech. “The infrastructure of the data sys-tems was above and beyond the normal

Through renovations to the old garage building at the Pearl, Cambridge Contracting created an employee-oriented atmosphere, including this Fiesta-style café, for the team of PEER 1 Hosting.

When Wayne Rodgers founded Wayne Rodgers Construction in Castroville in 1992, he worked

out in the field and his wife, Pauline, took care of the books and the office. Through its 20th anniversary, the company was still just the two of them. Then their son, Ran-dall Rodgers, came onboard full-time. When he was in high school, Randall, now 24, worked with his father over the summers. While studying business mar-keting at Texas State University in San Mar-cos, he worked with his dad during week-days when he didn’t have class. After col-lege, he was in sales at Neff Rental in Aus-tin, but almost two years ago, he decided to get involved in his father’s company permanently - helping with the workload

and growing the family business. “We’ve been very blessed and had a lot of work in San Antonio,” says Wayne. “With Randall coming on with us, he has brought a lot of technology that he learned in college to our business and [helped] expand our business that way.” For example, the elder Rodgers cites significant reduction in the time it takes to bid jobs, doing tasks like takeoffs digi-tally. Today, at 54, Rodgers expects that his son and daughter, Devyn, will take over the business and keep it running. He notes that Devyn, 22, is very interested in coming into the business and just gradu-ated from Texas A&M University where she studied agricultural economics and business.

For the last two years, Wayne and Randall Rodgers have been buildingthe family business up as a father and son team.

San Antonio Construction News • Jan 2015

South of San Antonio, just inside the Bexar County line, Freddie E. Harris Sand & Clay has been family owned

and operated since about 1928, long be-fore any of its third generation Harris owners can remember. Leon Harris, president, recalls being told that their grandfather and their fa-ther, Freddie E. Harris, who was about 4 years old, went to town to get supplies, taking a buckboard and a couple of hors-es, and when they came back, they had dug a big hole in front of the house and were selling sand. Their grandmother made them move the sand to the back and fill up the hole in the front yard. Dorothy remembers that her father and her uncle, Herff Harris, were part-ners for a while, and they used to load trucks with a shovel. When her father married her mother, Frances, she came in and ran the office. Today, Leon’s sister Beverly Saun-ders is secretary, and his sister Dorothy

A Harris built upon sand

Harris is treasurer, but they are all co-managers. Beverly’s son, William Saun-ders, is the fourth generation. The company does mostly commer-cial construction, including foundations and underground utilities, and commer-cial use accounts for 35 percent of their business. Recently, they donated a job doing a parking lot for a church north of Poteet. They’ve supplied sand for sand-castles, hauling to Rockport and to Aus-tin for one customer who does sandcas-tles in malls. They do mixes, including special baseball clay for the infield and sand for rodeo arenas. The Harris family has also served their community as reserve deputies. For instance, Dorothy was reserve with the Atascosa Sheriff’s Department for more than 30 years. Today, she’s in a law en-forcement motorcycle club and does barbecue cook-offs. Her father was a re-serve with both Atascosa and the Bexar County sheriff’s departments. –mh

L-R: Dorothy Harris, Beverly Saunders, and Leon Harris

When Rick Stone started Rick Stone Masonry, his intent was to build a solid business that his

sons could have for the long haul, and that company just celebrated its 25th an-niversary with all three of his boys on board. Though Stone established the com-mercial masonry company in 1989, he started the business full-time Jan. 1, 2000, meaning that New Year’s will mark its 15th anniversary as the Stone family’s of-ficial entrepreneurial endeavor. When Stone first started, it was him and his son, who shares his name, Rick, and later his sons, Ryan and Derrick, came on board. Today, Stone’s wife, Pa-mela, and their sons all work together at the company he has kept gradually and steadily growing to where it is today with 58 employees. Since 2010, Stone esti-mates that business has tripled in volume. With the experience his sons have gained from working in the family busi-

The family Stone

ness, Stone says they will carry on the tra-dition and skill that Stone’s father taught him. Observing his sons’ work ethic and knowledge of the trade has made him proud. He enjoys having his family around him all the time. At 57, Stone notes that his sons have children of their own now and his sons’ involvement in the business keeps them all very close. Stone has six grandchildren, two boys and four girls, ranging from 21 years old to 4 months. His daughter-in-law, Florence, is also in-volved in the business as their office manager. In the industry, the Stones are active in the San Antonio Masonry Contractors Association (SAMCA) and the Texas Ma-sonry Council (TMC). In the community, they support O’Connor High School’s FFA program. Stone and his wife were in the FFA at John Marshall High School, and some of their granddaughters are still in-volved in the program at O’Connor. –mh

Masonry runs in the Stone family business. L-R: Ryan, Rick, Derrick, Pam, and Ricki Stone

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PUTZ AROUND TOWN

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JC Putz here…

. . .With that, I’m out’a here

The San Antonio construction industry came out in large numbers to support Con-struct A Kids Christmas and have fun at the annual gala…

And to watch Pat Freund of Primo Plumbing show off the moves that won him a spot on Dancing With the Stars . . . don’t think so!

Holiday spirits abounded throughout the town last month and good will was felt by all. Well, most. Roving photogra-pher Mary Haskin looks like she is going to bean someone with her camera! Watch out!

Ho, ho, hoCraig No-No-to

Guests of the 14th Annual Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala Dec. 4 were the angels of Bexar County

foster children. The event drew more than 700 attendees and raised approxi-mately $50,000 for Bexar County Child Protective Services. This year, the angels who organize the nonprofit’s big event brought the gala to the Freeman Expo Hall and gave it brilliant new wings. “Moving the gala to a new venue has opened up so many opportunities for Construct A Kid’s Christmas,” says Karen

This gala’s got wingsRidout, Ridout Barrett, co-chair of the fundraiser. “The larger venue enabled us to bring in more money and toys by be-ing able to seat more people and expand the number of auction items. Changing the location brought in new faces. This is by far the largest gala we’ve had. So many attendees stated that it was the best ever!” –mh

Photos by Mary C. Haskin Photography


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Santa’s elves had help in the toy department with the Construct A Kid’s

Christmas Toy Drive Dec. 5 at the Construction News office. Members of the industry dropped off truckloads of un-wrapped toys for Bexar Coun-ty Child Protective Services. The toy drive brought in a total of 1,416 toys to ensure that many Bexar County foster children will have a present under the tree this year. That total also includes contribu-tions from a few prior industry events, including the Con-struct A Kid’s Christmas Gala the night before and Alterman’s holiday party earlier that same week. The drive also brought in $935 in gift cards and $1,750 in other cash. At the gala, toys were collected and delivered in a trailer supplied by Ameri-can Roofing and Metal Company. Spe-cial thanks go to Urban Concrete Con-tractors for the bobtail truck and driver, Roman Samora, as well as Contractors Building Supply (CBS) for the two scissor lifts that held the banner above the toy drop-off site. –mh

To foster kids, from Santa

The Construct A Kid’s Christmas Committee presented a check to Bexar County Child Protective Services for double the amount of last year’s check.

Roman Samora, Urban Concrete, and Kent Gerstner, Construction News, loaded the truck with a mountain of toys

– and bikes!

Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC)

United Tool & Fastener

Mechanical Reps

San Antonio Association of Building Engineers (SAABE)

Lynne Grix, CPA

IBEW Local 500

Alterman

National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA)

Ridout Barrett


An idyllic Helotes holiday

The classy and cozy Grey Moss Inn made a charming venue for

the National Electrical Con-tractors Association (NECA) holiday party Dec. 5. After a choice of delicious dinners, guests gleefully stole pres-ents from one another in the annual white elephant gift exchange. –mh

Chris Thiel and Denis St. Pierre, Alterman;Bob Corbo; John Gueldner

Orvil Anthony, Fisk Electric Peggy and Jeff Howard, Klecka Electric

Billy and Zelda Chamberlin,Cheyenne Electric

Robert and Rosemary Livar, CDI Technology Services, stand next to one of the poinsettias

guests took home from the event.

New Year’s transitions at HOLT

The New Year brought tremen-dous change to

HOLT CAT. One of the pillars of the company, Allyn Archer, presi-dent and COO, retired Dec. 31. Dave Harris, executive vice presi-dent and general man-ager of HOLT CAT, has transitioned into his role at company head-quarters. Archer started with HOLT in April 1971 on the shop floor as a mechanic, working his way up through the company. In 1987, the same year he became general manager of B.D. Holt Company, the company merged with Holt Machin-ery in San Antonio. After 28 years as president, Archer counts several highlights in his tenure, in-cluding the creation of HOLT’s Vision Mis-sion and Values that continue to guide the organization today. Since ’87, the company has grown from one of the smallest Caterpillar dealers to the largest Caterpillar dealer in the U.S. representing 118 counties in Texas. At 68, Archer plans to get more in-volved running his family ranching and farming business in Uvalde County, fish more at the coast, and spend more time with his three grandchildren. “I’m leaving it in the worthy hands of Dave Harris, my successor,” says Archer. “We have set the foundation for much growth in the future at his direction, and

For Howard Hicks, the New Year

brings a major life change with his re-tirement from HOLT CAT as the equipment deal-er’s vice president of public affairs of-ficial as of Dec. 31, 2014. For Jim Campbell, the New Year finds him transitioning into HOLT CAT as senior director of public affairs. Having earned his master’s de-gree in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University, Hicks, now 68, be-gan his 38-year career at HOLT in May 1976. In retirement, he plans to be more involved in his church’s ministry, work on more projects at his family’s ranch in the Hill Country, and spend more time with his wife of 45 years, Helen, and their three children and six grandchildren. “While I’m still in good health, I want to do some different things,” says Hicks. “It’s been a great career. I love the com-pany. I love the people, but I don’t know how many years I’ve got left, so I thought I better take advantage of whatever time that is. To me, it’s more of a career change than it is a retirement. I don’t plan to slow down much. I just plan to devote my en-ergy to other things.” In the last few months of 2014, Camp-bell made his own career change joining

I’m very proud of that.” With the company since 1997, Harris started as regional manager at Peter Holt’s former dealership, Holt Ohio. In 1998, he came to Texas as general man-ager of the Machine Division, and three years ago, he was promoted to executive vice president and general manager. “I will continue to use our values as the basis for additional and stable growth going into the future,” says Harris, noting that a big job in the next few years will be continuing the transition to the fifth gen-eration Holts, Corinna Holt Richter and Peter John Holt, taking over as dealer principals. “Allyn has been a wonderful coach and mentor to me through the years, and that will serve me well as I take on his re-sponsibilities for a few years.” –mh

Archer stepping down after 43 years Hicks turns reins over to Campbell

HOLT. His previous role was consulting for public relations and marketing firm the DeBerry Group, and he had done consulting work for HOLT under contract with Hicks. He is excited to return to a public affairs role as he once held with the City of San Antonio and CPS Energy. Also an Aggie, Campbell holds a bache-lor’s degree in political science and en-joys being “one of those rare people that’s actually doing what I was trained for in liberal arts.” Campbell is already undergoing a sort of orientation program, meeting with 60 different individuals and familiar-izing himself with them and their roles at HOLT. He says this helps him better un-derstand the company and industry as well as build a rapport with people he will need to work with to be successful. –mh

L-R: Allyn Archer, president and COO of HOLT CAT, retired at the end of 2014 and passed the job on to his successor, Dave Harris,

who has previously served as executive vice president and general manager.

L-R: Howard Hicks, HOLT veteran team member, has now retired, and Jim Campbell is transitioning into his new position at the company’s

San Antonio headquarters.


Bennett ClosnerPresident

Closner EquipmentCompany

10843 Gulfdale San Antonio, TX 78216210-829-1793

Serving the construction industry for over 28 years

As the president and second-gener-ation owner of Closner Equipment Company, Bennett Closner be-

lieves we’re all lucky to be in America, and even more specifically, he’s thankful to be in Texas. In this state and in this country, the specialized equipment company allows him to participate in the construction in-dustry and build the infrastructure that affords us our daily commutes and ability to travel on paved roads. Today, from his office in the company’s Schertz head-quarters, Closner continues to help con-tractors pave the way. Tell me about your family’s history in the industry. My uncle and father, Jack and George Closner, started the business right after World War II in 1946. Both went to Texas A&M University, left A&M, went to World War II, came back after the war and started the business. Actually, it was based down in Edinburg, which is where our family is from, down on the Rio Grande. It became apparent that was too small a pond, because I think the economy was still pretty soft right after World War II. So, they came up here to San Antonio around 1947. They started down on Poplar Street in downtown San Antonio. It was a very small business – just a couple of people. It grew at a pretty slow rate until the sec-ond generation came in.

And that’s where you come in. Right. My brother, Frank, and I both went to Texas A&M and were commis-sioned as second lieutenants in the Army. We both did a short stint in the Army, be-cause the war in Vietnam was winding down then. After his tour was up, he came to the business, and I didn’t. I went to work for Alcoa Aluminum, and then I worked for Wheelabrator-Frye, now Al-lied Signal, up on the east coast. I came back in ’82, and then he and I worked to-gether until he retired in ’04, and now it’s just me.

What made you decide to venture into other parts of the business world be-fore coming into the family business? I had an MBA from A&M, and I was

excited about the corporate track. My wife was a supporter of that. We were in five states in the course of 10 years. At some point in time, you have kids, and you can’t move every two years. So, we came back to San Antonio in ’82 and de-cided to get into the family business, which was still very small at that time. And it ended up working out.

Tell me about your family today. My wife, Susan, and I have been mar-ried since April 1973. A&M had very few women at the time. It was a mostly male school. So, I came back home one week-end, and my sister, who was Susan’s age, fixed me up with her as a blind date. She works here, and we have three sons. Our middle son, Jon-Bennett, who goes by JB, is with the business at our Fort Worth store. Our oldest son, Kyle, lives in Bryan and is in the computer soft-ware industry. Our youngest son, Myles, works with Pepsi Co. He’s an account manager out in Los Angeles for a large California grocery chain. They range from their late 20s to early 30s. The oldest and the youngest followed me and went to A&M. My middle son didn’t. He went to the University of Alabama. He was a highly recruited football player, but unfortu-nately Texas A&M didn’t offer him a scholarship. We were hoping everything would work out in a perfect world, and he would play for A&M, but he played for the University of Alabama. So, whenever there’s an A&M-Alabama SEC football game, there’s a little bit of friction. It’s only once a year. Our sons all graduated with degrees in business. They’re all married, and we have four grandchildren.

What associations or organizations are you a part of? I’m very active in the industry. Mostly AGC [Associated General Contractors], but also really active in a group maybe a lot of your readers don’t know about called Texas Asphalt Pavement Associa-tion (TXAPA). It’s actually a big group, but it’s kind of specialized. It has to do with all the people that are involved with build-ing asphalt roads in the state of Texas. It’s a very dynamic organization. That’s on the business side. I play a little tennis from time to time and we are converting our yard to Xeri-scape. My wife is a gourmet cook, and that seems to fill out the daylight hours.

What personal goals have you achieved running the company, and what goals do you have for its future? We view it as a journey, not a destina-tion. That’s my personal view. You never get there. It’s all about being on the trip, on the journey. You say meet your goals, but there’s always another goal after the first one. Our goal is to advance the ball from what I started with as a company, which was a one-location store down in the near-west side of San Antonio. We’ve now worked through and achieved some of the mileposts. So, now we have stores in Austin and a store in Fort Worth. For me, that’s satisfying, to do what an owner is supposed to do, to take something small and make it incrementally bigger

before their time at the helm is up, to leave something bigger, better for our employees, for our customers, for our business partners and our manufactur-ers, make that entire circle bigger. It’s not just us. We have manufacturers that we represent. We have employees that de-pend on us for their livelihood and their families’ livelihood, and we’ve got cus-tomers that need our support to build that road in the middle of the night and have it opened by 6 a.m. So, just to get in that circle, participate in it, and make the circle bigger, and move everything for-ward.

Is one of your goals to have JB take over the company? I think every parent wants their kids to do what they want to do. He’s in the business. He’s excited about it. We’d like him to, if he chooses, to stay and advance the ball, and I’m sure he will. He’s the gen-eral manager of our North Texas opera-tion. So, he’s based up in Fort Worth. It’s a long way from here. We run San Antonio and Austin as a closely aligned operation, but Fort Worth is far enough away that he runs everything that’s happening up there.

Tell me about your journey from the time you started with the company through today. I have a marketing degree and that was a long way from what my father and uncle were. They were more industrial and engineering related. I had more in-terest in marketing, advertising, econom-ic tracking and planning. I was a little more interested in where can we go next and how do we get there, and they were better at doing something today. I think it worked out well. We had different skill sets – my father and my brother [and I] – and it worked well. I started out in sales, and then I took on some marketing and advertising re-sponsibilities. Then, I took on some plan-ning responsibilities. I became pretty ac-tive in our national industry association, which is called Associated Equipment Distributors (AED). That would be like the

AGC, which represents all the contractors in America that do infrastructure, and AED represents all of the equipment dealers in the United States and Canada. I was interested in that, and so I spent a lot of years active in that association. I was lucky enough to get in the chair pro-gression – started out as a VP and got to be chairman in ’09, and then did one more year as a past-chairman. So, I did a five-year stint in the national organiza-tion. That was very eye opening. We’re a small operation in the equipment distri-bution industry. We’re a specialty dealer. We deal with a very important, but unique, slice of the construction industry that has to do with paving. You get to spend five years with the elected leader-ship [in AED] and typically they are from larger companies – the fellow that was ahead of me was the dealer out in the Rocky Mountains. A big business span-ning several states. So, you have some-body like that ahead of you and similar people behind you, you learn what you don’t know when you hang out with peo-ple from other parts of the country with other business models. It was terrific.

Can you give me an example of some-thing you learned from that experi-ence? I think what surprised me was the bigger the company, how little time the president spends on the day-to-day ac-tivities. Here, at Closner, if a contractor comes in to buy a machine, I know it. I’m intimately involved. So, what I found was as these companies get bigger in scale, approaching a billion dollars in some cas-es, how strategic the thinking is of the guy at the top and how far he is removed from the customer and the man on the ground that’s running the machine and how little time they spend with what most of us spend time with and the ben-efit is that allows them to focus on the re-ally big picture. Coming from a different environment, it was interesting to see that kind of perspective. –mh

Since coming into the family business in 1982, Bennett Closner stepped up to pave his partof the path on the equipment dealership’s journey.


Caring for the community

Houston, TX (1913)713.868.6111Dallas, TX (1956)972.466.0900San Antonio, TX (1968)210.828.3325New Orleans, LA (1969)504.889.0811Las Vegas, NV (1989)702-435-5053Miami, FL (1997)305.884.5311Los Angeles, CA (2011)818.884.1166Customer Support Center713.868.6111

Over 100 years of building relationships

Since 1913, Fisk has been one of the nation’s leadingproviders for the design, installation and maintenanceof electrical systems, structured cabling applications,integrated electronic security systems, and buildingtechnology solutions.

At the Local #67 Sheet Metal Work-ers Joint Apprenticeship Training graduation Nov. 14 at Dave & Bust-

er’s, the Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (MCA-SMACNA), along with DeWalt, provided awards and prizes to the graduates. By completing the extensive four-year training program, 13 apprentices earned their journeyman status. –mh

Earning their metal

2014 Graduating Class, L-R: Derek Ross, Robert Carver, Jose Vergara, Pedro Carrasquillo, Michael Cape, Jose Cueller, Richard Ryan

Instructors, L-R: Doug John (4th Year), Roman Perez (3rd Year), Chris Vrana (1st Year),James May Jr. (2nd Year) and Matt Schauer (1st Year)

#1 Ranking: Michael Cape

#2 Ranking: Pedro Carrasquillo#3 Ranking: Pete Aceves III

Perfect Attendance: Jose Cuellar

When members of the industry team up and volunteer to help at-risk children, they can make a

difference while showing the community that the construction industry helps build the community, as well as the build-ings in it. This past fall, Michael McGinnis, Al-len & Allen Company, and Jon Marek, MEMCO, both board members for Ameri-can Subcontractors Association (ASA) San Antonio, partnered to help two local organizations dedicated to helping San Antonio’s children. In October, they assisted with the Boy Scout Golf Classic. Some of the proceeds from that event went to ScoutReach, a scouting program that serves more than 4,000 at-risk youth who came from eco-nomically challenged and often single-parent homes in South San Antonio. Then, Nov. 15, their efforts grew as they recruited fellow ASA board member Bert Mazac, Big B Construction, to help

cook for more than 50 children and 500 volunteers at the Rotary Club of San Anto-nio’s 13th annual Kingdom for Kids Play-ground Build, which aims to build play-grounds and other infrastructure into chil-dren’s environments for them to enjoy. The event was held in two locations, St. Peter-St. Joseph’s (St. PJ’s) Children’s Home and P.F. Stewart Elementary School, and the barbecue team cooked for everyone at both sites. The cooking team also included Paul Garro, principal of Central Catholic High School; Billy Bedford, Alamo Rainmaker; Jeremy Simpson, Coddy Pena and Ron Luhring, Allen & Allen Company; Gary Perez; and Dylan McGinnis, son of Mike McGinnis. To continue their help and support of at-risk children in the community, Mc-Ginnis and Marek served on the Con-struct A Kid’s Christmas Gala Committee for 2014 and they will serve on the com-mittee for this year’s Boy Scout Sporting Clay Shoot. –mh

Construction community members formed a volunteer cooking team. L-R: Billy Bedford, Bert Mazac, Jeremy Simpson, Gary Perez, Paul Garro, Mike McGinnis and son, Dylan, and Jon Marek

Minding the overhead

Husband and wife team Terry and Susan Powell have been running their own business, Superior

Roofing & Construction, for more than three decades, keeping roofs over their clients’ heads and their own. Terry’s father was a residential roof-ing contractor who transitioned to hav-ing his own roofing supply company. Making a transition of his own, Terry was working at Frost Bank when he decided to make a career change and his father brought him into the field. In 1983, Terry started Superior, and he and Susan were married in 1984. About 15 years ago, she came into the office. “Terry and I are together pretty much 24/7, and it works for us,” explains Susan, who has an accounting degree from the University of Houston, and is Su-perior’s accounting manager. Terry earned his business degree from UTSA, and these days, he works mostly in the office. When Terry founded the business,

building up a customer base was tough. About six months after he started Supe-rior, there was a major storm that got him very busy with a 50-house backlog. He continued to do residential roofing for about five more years, and then an old friend in commercial roofing got him into small commercial jobs. Today, residential projects account for less than 20 percent of their workload. Superior has done work for the San Anto-nio Children’s Museum, Texas Center for Athletes and Alamo Heights Municipal Complex. A few years ago, the company streamlined a bit, moving from a large facility to their Cimarron Path location. Now, they are building up again, growing their personnel and business. Their two sons are also active in the business. Cory, 25, recently graduated from UTSA with a degree in finance and does residential estimating at Superior. Kevin, 20, is a sophomore at UTSA and interns there in the summer. –mh

The Powell family does roofs together. L-R: Cory, Susan, Terry and Kevin Powell

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Did you keep last years new year’s

resolution?

Hopping on opportunities

The Hispanic Contractors Association (HCA) de San Antonio, in conjunc-tion with VIA Metropolitan Transit,

hosted its annual VIA Bus Hop Dec. 11. After boarding the bus at the Cross-roads Park & Ride, members were driven to Turner Construction. Eric Wildt, se-nior project manager for Turner, greeted them with coffee and breakfast tacos, and talked to them about Turner, its up-coming projects, and registering to be a subcontractor. Members also heard from David Dorrough, DES Business Solu-tions. Then, members hopped back on the

bus for their next destination, Spaw-Glass. Lucy Cisneros, Frost Bank, spoke to members about simple IRAs, and John Devaney, project executive at Spaw-Glass, discussed the company and its up-coming projects and how to register to bid. Then, members rode the bus back to Crossroads. Dave Sanchez, HCA executive direc-tor, states, “This type of event fits right in with our mission statement in providing training, education and networking op-portunities so our members can grow and prosper.” –mh

Members of the HCA hit the road in a VIA bus to visit two general contractorsfor a daylong learning and networking event.

My resolution was to have a better year than 2013, because the first half of the year started not that great, but it ended awesome – I got married. But in 2014, I started a new career, and that was my goal. January of 2014, I knew that I had to make a change for my family, and I did. I kept my resolution.

Joshua Fosmire,Monterrey Iron & Metal

I don’t make [New Year’s resolutions]. I try to live my life the way the good Lord wants me to live. I take good principles from the Bible, and if you do that, you don’t really have to worry about that kind of stuff.

David Gardner,Mission Controls & Supply

I told myself I wanted to lose 10 pounds, and I’ve lost 15 pounds. So, I did actually for once in my long life keep my promise to myself. My son moved out of the house and away from home. So, I don’t eat out all the time. My wife and I eat at home and eat much healthier, and it’s really paid off dividends.

Terry Powell,Superior Roofing & Construction

I don’t try to fool myself into thinking I’m going to do something I’m not. So, I don’t really make resolutions [laughs].

Susan Powell,Superior Roofing & Construction

Of course not, because nobody ever keeps theirs. I don’t think I’ve known any-one to ever keep a New Year’s resolution. I was going to quit smoking, and I still smoke. It’s been kind of a crazy year, and I just really wasn’t ready to do it yet.

Mary Sweet, Surmac, Inc.

My New Year’s resolution was to get my business profitable, to grow the busi-ness. It was simply that. That’s the obvi-ous one when you’re an entrepreneur and you have a new company. And this year, I’ve been blessed with success. I’ve got a good backlog of work, and it’s working.

Bill Norton, Norton Company

I didn’t make one. I rarely do and proba-bly haven’t in a long time. I don’t believe in them.

Bennett Closner,Closner Equipment Company

Sorry, but I don't make New Year’s resolu-tions. I have found that they are easy to make, but [it’s] much harder to stick to them.

Melissa Haefy, Midco Sling

To become more prepared – I’m not go-ing to say we kept it. We got better, but we’re still not there yet. I guess that will be our continuing New Year’s resolution.

Tim Doege, Big State Electric

Yes, I did. I tried to commit myself to in-creasing our gross sales to try to help Randall get started in this field and this business, and we did very well. We had probably our second best year out of our lifetime of the business.

Wayne Rodgers,Wayne Rodgers Construction

I did not keep it. I actually think my New Year’s Resolution was something along the lines of needing to be more patient with people, and that went out the win-dow after about two weeks, I believe. Ev-ery day is a growing process. Still work-ing on it. I think I made some progress this year. So, it wasn’t totally lost.

Randall Rodgers,Wayne Rodgers Construction

On Feb. 1, Construction News will be launching a brand new version of its website at construc-

tionnnews.net. “We are delighted to be able to up-grade our site for our readers and cus-tomers,” said Buddy Doebbler, publish-er of Construction News. “Additionally, we will bring in new readers from around the state and nation.” Construction News, with five papers in Texas’ growing areas, now enters a new age, taking advantage of technolo-gy to bring the content its readers have come to expect to the web. “The staff at Construction News has spent many months working on the new site,” Doebbler said. “What is really excit-ing about this is that now we can bring

our readers some of the late-breaking news as it happens. And while you will still look forward to receiving your Con-struction News monthly in order to get all the full news and advertising it contains, you can now expect to find photos and information quickly from the events we cover, as well as much more.” One thing the editors of the five pa-pers will accomplish is to bring news from home to those who may be far from their homes, such as military men and women. “We encourage our readers to check out our new web site. Please let us know what you think,” Doebbler said. “We will continue to work to upgrade the site to make it a better viewing experience for our readers, so your comments and sug-gestions are always welcome.” –cw

‘Web’-site construction

Alpha Building Corporation held its office holiday party Dec. 19 with a potluck buffet. In the spirit of the season, Alpha team members donated 34 winter coats

to Five Star Cleaners Winter Coat project. –mh

Giving the gift of warmthSubmitted to Construction News

New & Used Equipment2008 Heli Warehouse Forklift $12,500

2006 JLG 644E-40 High Reach Forklif $33,500

20010 Wacker Neuson Plate Compactor $1095

New 2014 Wacker Neuson Plate Compactor $1975

Certifi ed Wacker NeusonDealer for South Texas6380 Randolph Blvd.San Antonio, Tx 78233

Direct 210-749-5588 [email protected] Offi ce 210-590-2445

www.tejasequipment.com

January Feature of the MonthReg: $1398 Sale: $998

Happy New Year


We do custom rebar fabrication for alltypes of projects, including shop drawings.

Striving to be greater builders

A power tool show and tell

Though the Hilti store on 410 has been opened for a while, the loca-tion hosted a grand opening and

open house Dec. 4, inviting customers in for lunch, demonstrations and special deals. –mh

L-R: Randall Scholl, Scholl Remodeling & Roofing; Hilti’s Doug Schriever and Marvin

Mitchell, store manager

Shawn Crane, right, talks to members of the San Antonio Fire Departmentabout Hilti’s power tools.

On the left:Hilti’s Billy McCabe demonstrates a gas saw by cutting into a concrete wheel stop.

The Greater San Antonio Builders As-sociation (GSABA) hosted its annual holiday party and awards gala Dec.

5 at Oak Hills Country Club. The event included the installation of officers: Frank Sitterle, president; Steve Louis, first vice president; Wayne Moravits, vice president treasurer; Bryan Smith, vice president secretary; Domi-nick Alongi, associate vice president. The incoming council chairs are Bertha Luna, Sales and Marketing Council president, and Amy Marie Lederman, Young Pro-fessionals Leadership Committee. –mh

No photo:Distinguished Single-Family

Builder of the YearTerry Jermolojevs, Chesmar Homes

Builder of the YearGary Wilkerson,

Gary Wilkerson Custom Homes

Associate of the YearJan Meuth, You Name It Specialties

Associate Legend of the YearGilbert Sanchez, HomeWerks

Builder Spike of the YearAdolfo Canales, Armadillo Homes

Associate Spike of the YearDominick Alongi, Pest Shield Pest Control

Spirit AwardMcNair Custom Homes

James I Campbell AwardJerry Smith, Jr.

North Park Subaru 2015 Subaru Outback Membership Prize

Mike Hollaway


New standards for revenuerecognitionLance Trammell, Principal - Assurance ServicesLane Gorman Trubitt, PLCCDallas, TX

In May 2014, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) released the new accounting standard on rev-

enue recognition with the intent to provide a compre-hensive, and consistent, method of accounting for reve-nue across entity, industry and geographical lines. While

there are some exceptions, most industries are subject to the new standard.

The reasoning behind the change is to reduce inconsistencies and the risk of recognizing revenue incorrectly, to re-duce the options of industry-specific U.S. GAAP guidelines and to create a collabo-ration between FASB and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) for improved and converged rules. The guidance is based on the overall premise that the entity should recognize revenue in an amount that reflects the ac-tual consideration that the entity expects to be entitled to. In order to determine the amount of consideration that the entity is entitled to, the standard provides for a five step pro-cess that includes:1) Identification of the contract2) Identification of the performance ob-ligations3) Determine the transaction price4) Allocate the transaction price to per-formance obligations5) Recognize revenue upon the satis-faction of performance obligations Contracts, whether written, oral or implied based on the entity’s customary business practice, create the enforceable rights and obligations. Consistent with the current standards relating to contract accounting, some contracts can be com-bined if they are negotiated together or if successful completion is interdependent on one another. Additionally, contracts can be modified due to change in scope or pricing. The performance obligations within the contract are the determinants for rev-enue recognition. The performance obli-gation is the promise within the contract to deliver goods or services to the cus-tomer. Revenue is recognized when or as the performance obligation is satisfied. Multiple performance obligations within a contract may have specific costs or may be satisfied at different periods in time, therefore, contractors will be required to determine distinct performance obliga-tions within the contract in order to prop-erly allocate the transaction price among the obligations. Transaction price is the actual amount that is considered probable to be collected from the customer upon satis-faction of the performance obligation. Transaction price is not necessarily the

stated contract amount, but instead the contract amount net of any variable con-siderations. Revenues are recognized upon satis-fying the performance obligation. This is considered to occur either 1) over a peri-od of time or 2) at point in time. These methodologies can be considered similar to the current percentage of completion and completed contract methods of ac-counting used by contractors. Revenues recognized over a period of time must meet one of the following:1) The customer simultaneously receiv-ing and consuming the benefits of the entity’s performance as the service is per-formed2) The entity’s performance creates or enhances an asset that the customer con-trols as the asset is created or enhanced3) The performance does not result in the creation of an asset with an alterna-tive use to the entity and the entity has a right to receive payment for performance completed to date If the above criterion is met, the “pe-riod of time” is measured based upon in-put or output methods. If choosing at a point in time, the ownership of the project under contract will transfer once the performance obli-gation has been met. The new five step process may not be so “new” to contractors, as many of the considerations regarding performance obligations, transaction pricing consider-ations and timing of revenue recognition are all points that many contractors cur-rently use in their bidding, estimating and performance activities. For public companies, the new regu-lation goes into effect on Dec. 15, 2016 and on Dec. 15, 2017 for nonpublic com-panies. Founded in 1950, Lane Gorman Trubitt PLLC (LGT) is one of the largest certified public accounting firms headquartered in the South-west. Dedicated to serving the middle market, the firm represents a broad range of clients, from individuals to public companies, in a variety of industries. LGT offers traditional accounting, au-dit and tax services, as well as various other spe-cialized services. LGT has launched three affiliat-ed companies, LGT Financial Advisors, LLC, LGT Insurance Services Inc. and LGT Retirement Plan Solutions.

Specializing in Industrial Scrap Metal& Container Service

We buy Aluminum, Brass, Copper, Iron, Stainless Steel,Steel, Brass & Radiators

2300 Frio City Rd. 210-927-2727 www.monterreyiron.com

Invisible exclusions, part ICharles E. Comiskey, Sr. V.P.Brady, Chapman, Holland & Associates, inc.Houston, TX

Many insurance policies today include “invisible” ex-clusions – exclusions that may not be brought to

the attention of the insurance buyer and that will not be declared on a certificate of insurance. This article will address three of the more dangerous such exclu-sions and what to do about them.

But first, a little background: Con-struction agreements include provisions requiring indemnification of the up-stream party (the party requiring the coverage). In Texas, it remains permissi-ble to require indemnification for the up-stream party’s joint, concurrent and/or sole negligence at least with regard to an injury to an employee of the downstream party (the party being required to pro-vide coverage) or their subcontractor, and for any municipal or residential work. General liability insurance customar-ily provides “contractual liability” cover-age applicable to such provisions, cover-ing liability for bodily injury and physical injury to tangible property arising from a contractual assumption of these expo-sures. Beware: This contractual liability coverage is being deleted or eroded in a variety of manners that are sometimes difficult to recognize. CG 21 39 10 93, Contractual Liability Limitation Endorsement Contractual liability coverage is pro-vided in a general liability policy through a series of six definitions of an “insured contract.” These definitions are applica-ble to an exception to an exclusion of the coverage provision. Confusing, right? What’s critical to know is that the sixth definition is the one that provides cover-age for liability assumed in an indemnifi-cation agreement. The Contractual Lia-bility Limitation Endorsement deletes that sixth definition, completely eliminat-ing insurance funding for that indemnity, and should be avoided at all cost.

CG 24 26 07 04, Amendment of Insured Contract Definition This endorsement modifies that sixth definition, eliminating claims based upon allegations of the sole negligence of the Indemnitee (the upstream party). This is problematic for two reasons:

1. As stated above, most indemnifica-tion provisions do require that the up-stream party be held harmless for at least some portion, if not all, of its sole negli-gence. The downstream party will be held responsible for such protection, whether funded by insurance or not. 2. The most common type of claim aris-ing from ongoing work is what attorney’s refer to as a “third party over action.” This

occurs when an employee of a down-stream party is injured on the job. He can make a workers’ compensation claim against his employer, but also retains the right to bring litigation for that injury. That said, he cannot sue his employer due to the exclusive remedy rule of work-ers’ compensation, so suit is brought solely against the upstream contractor or owner, who then demands protection from the downstream party under the in-demnification agreement. That type of claim is usually funded by general liabili-ty insurance, but this endorsement elimi-nates coverage for the assumption of an-other party’s sole negligence.

Modification of the Employer’s Liabil-ity Exclusion Another way that insurance compa-nies eliminate cover for suits brought by employees of a downstream party is to change the wording of the Employer’s Li-ability exclusion. This provision, part of every general liability policy, excludes coverage for injury to an employee of the insured, but has an exception stating that the exclusion does not apply to liability assumed by the insured under an “insured contract.” Some insurance companies de-lete the exception to this exclusion, there-by eliminating the very provision that would otherwise provide coverage. Discuss these exclusionary endorse-ments with your insurance broker, and verify that they are not included in your insurance program. But what if you are the upstream party depending on a cer-tificate of insurance? Two steps can be taken:

1. In your insurance requirements, state that these endorsements are pro-hibited on the downstream party’s insur-ance program; and2. Require a copy of the Schedule of Forms and Endorsements page verifying that they haven’t been included in the underlying insurance program.Charles E. Comiskey, CPCU, CIC, CPIA, CRM, PWCA, CRIS, CCM, is Sr. V.P. of Brady Chap-man Holland & Assoc. and is National Chair-man of the Construction Insurance Practice Group of RiskProNet International, the 5th largest brokerage organization in the U.S. He can be contacted at 713-979-9706 or [email protected]


Free transportationtraining resourcesJoann NatarajanCompliance Assistance SpecialistOSHAAustin, TX

Every 12 minutes someone dies in a motor vehicle crash, every 10 seconds an injury occurs and every 5

seconds a crash occurs. Many of these incidents occur during the workday or during the commute to and from work. Employers bear the cost for injuries that occur both on and off the job. Whether you manage a fleet of vehicles, oversee a mobile sales force or simply employ commuters, by implementing a driver safety program in the workplace you can greatly reduce the risks faced by your employees and their families while protecting your company’s bottom line.

Fatal transportation incidents accounted for about 2 out of every 5 fatal work inju-ries in 2013. Of the 1,740 transportation-related fatal injuries in 2013, nearly 3 out of every 5 (991 cases) were roadway inci-dents involving motorized land vehicles.Non-roadway incidents, such as a tractor overturn in a farm field, accounted for an-other 13 percent of the transportation-related fatal injuries. About 16 percent of fatal transportation incidents (284 cases) in 2013 involved pedestrians who were struck by vehicles. Forty-eight of these occurred in work zones.

Motor vehicle crashes cost employers $60 billion annually in medical care, legal expenses, property damage, and lost productivity. They drive up the cost of benefits such as workers’ compensation, Social Security, and private health and disability insurance. In addition, they in-crease the company overhead involved in administering these programs. The average crash costs an employer $16,500. When a worker has an on-the-job crash that results in an injury, the cost to their employer is $74,000. Costs can exceed $500,000 when a fatality is in-volved. Off-the-job crashes are costly to employers as well.1

The real tragedy is that these crashes are largely preventable. Recognizing the op-portunity that employers have to save lives, a growing number of employers have established traffic safety programs in their companies. No organization can afford to ignore a major problem that has such a serious impact on both their per-sonnel and the company budget.There are a number of free resources that provide training and written programs for driver safety. The National Safety Council in partnership with the Texas De-partment of Transportation is offering free training in Texas to employers and employees on driving safety. To sched-ule a free training session, contact Lisa Robinson at 512-466-7383 or [email protected]. Free resources are avail-able at http://www.txdrivingconcern.org.

Another resource for training resources is the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety. There is a free toolkit for employ-ers to download at http://www.traffic-safety.org/drivesafelyworkweek/. The tool kit has sample policies and training materials to educate workers on trans-portation safety.

[email protected] x232

Responding to worksiteaccidentsMarc Young, Founding PrincipalCokinos, Bosien & YoungAustin, TX

The construction industry routinely leads all other in-dustries in the total number of deaths per year,

therefore it is imperative to understand the role of your company and your legal representative in the event of a fatality or major incident on the construction worksite.

Having a plan of action can assist your company and your legal team in preparing for, and handling, a major incident, should it become necessary.

BEFORE AN ACCIDENT OCCURS• Create an Emergency Response Plan (ERP)• Have your risk manager and safety committee review the ERP with your at-torney so there is no confusion during a response. • Your attorney should have in his/her vehicle a “go-bag” containing tools nec-essary to document and investigate an incident at a moments’ notice. IMMEDIATE STEPS IN THE EVENT OF A MAJOR ACCIDENT• The immediate response should al-ways begin with a 911 call at the first indi-cation of a major injury or fatality. • Remove all non-essential workers from the area. Secure an area around any continuing danger or hazard to workers.• Notify key corporate personnel as soon as the area is secured and individu-als are no longer in danger.• The attorney should be called to the scene to assist with the investigation and OSHA visit.• Notify insurance carrier.• Once your attorney arrives at the site, meet in the company’s work trailer as soon as possible. Confirm that Emergency Response Plan has been followed thus far.INVESTIGATION Your attorney should begin con-ducting the investigation before the site conditions change, witnesses leave and equipment is moved. Designate a private place to talk - typically the job trailer is the best place to perform interviews. Your attorney may need someone with technical expertise from your company to participate in the interviews. Some attorneys don’t pursue record-ed statements at this stage because any party in the subsequent litigation will be entitled to that recording. Your attorney may take photographs to document the scene and everything relevant to the in-cident, but avoid any conditions such as blood or medical waste. If equipment in-volved in an accident was moved prior to emergency responders arriving, it is im-perative to establish exactly where it was at the time of the accident. OSHA OSHA must be contacted within 8 hours of a fatality, or within 24 hours of a work related in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. OSHA has a 24-hour fatality contact number at 800-323-OSHA. However, it’s not uncommon for OSHA to hear about the incident through media accounts and drive di-rectly to the site. Before OSHA investigators arrive, your attorney may advise you of any ob-servable conditions that may result in vi-olations of various OSHA standards so they may be immediately corrected. An OSHA investigator is not limited to the

site of the injury when investigating an accident, and may identify numerous cit-able conditions unrelated to the acci-dent. Consult with your attorney about drafting and implementing a written policy regarding whether to allow war-rantless OSHA investigations before it is ever needed. MEDIA• Understand what deadlines the me-dia are under and advise them that you will get back to them after you have had an opportunity to conduct a reasonable investigation. • Answer questions as directly and as completely as possible. If you don’t know the answer to a question, be honest. False information can damage credibility and the public’s perception of your abili-ty to tell the truth and convey accurate information. • Avoid using “no comment” as an an-swer. • Never give “off-the-record” informa-tion.• Give the facts as you know them and cite sources. • If the emergency or disaster is long term in nature, it is important to hold fre-quent briefings or press conferences. • Advise all employees not to speak to the press or give statements. Provide em-ployees with a designated individual or telephone number to refer inquiries. While no plan can foresee every de-tail of a catastrophic event, being pre-pared with the basic elements and secur-ing legal representation before an event can mitigate further injuries to workers and protect the legal position of the company in subsequent litigation.

Marc A. Young is a founding principal of Cokinos, Bosien &Young, a full service law firm with offices in Houston, San Anto-nio, Dallas and Austin. For more informa-tion on our services, please visit www.cb-ylaw.com

Past editions can bedownloaded at

www.ConstructionNews.net

Did youknow?


This holiday light shines bright

Center for celebration

Like the tree at Rockefeller Center is to New York City, the holiday season isn’t official in San Antonio’s con-

struction community until Alterman electrifies the industry with one of the biggest celebrations in town. The employee-owned company hosted its annual holiday open house Dec. 2 at its Jones-Maltsberger head-quarters, where they also collected toys for the Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala. The event featured luxury shuttles from Blossom Athletic Center, a photo booth, and delectable catering by Saltgrass Steakhouse. –mh

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) San Antonio Chapter hosted its holiday party at the Center for Architecture on South Flores Street. –mh

The AIA holiday party attendees included the womenof the Society for Design Administration (SDA).

Lewis Fisher, AIA, Fisher Heck Architects; Janis Maldonado and Natasha Kay, PE, Turner Logistics, an affiliate of Turner Construction

Ellen Berky, AIA, and Debra J. Dockery, AIA, have their own architecture firms.


The quality spirit was bright for the Quality Fence & Welding holiday party Dec. 3 at the GSABA Center.

–mh

The glow of a quality Christmas

L-R: Bruce Johnston, vice president; Jordon Brown, marketing coordinator; Pauline Jurina, HR; Shelly Sheffield, sales assistant; Craig Noto, president; Amy Avila, contract specialist; Lori Klug,

receptionist; Samantha Pittman, accounts payable; Jamie White, controller

Craig Noto and his wife, TeresaJohn Hoot, general manager,and his wife, Morgan

The San Antonio branch of CG Envi-ronmental – Cleaning Guys opened Sep. 1, 2013. The local crew

is four men: Weston Lothringer, geolo-gist and business development; Randy Orttman, field technician and heavy equipment operator; and field techni-cians Saul Navarro and Jason Horn. Little did they know their company would draw international attention when the cleaning crew in Dallas was brought in to help deal with the first cases of Ebo-la in the United States. After working in industrial cleaning and later law enforcement, where he says he “saw it all,” owner Erick McCallum started his cleaning business in Fort Worth 23 years ago because he saw a need for equipment to clean environ-mental issues on a large scale. He built and patented his own equip-ment to handle spills 8 feet wide and 50 feet long in 30 seconds. The business grew from one man to a 50-employee team with offices in DFW, Austin, Hous-

Ebola eradicator

ton and San Antonio. Since his team excavates and dispos-es hazardous construction site materials, the call to decontaminate the apartment inhabited by Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was a surprise. Recommended by three different agencies, he received the call and was put on stand-by before the public even knew of Duncan’s Ebola diagnosis. After cleaning the apartment, the company was hired to decontaminate all of the spaces Duncan and fellow Ebola patients Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vin-son impacted, including emergency rooms, vehicles, closed schools and offic-es of people who shared Vinson’s air-plane ride. McCallum didn’t flinch at suit-ing up for the dangerous tasks with his team. “We’re always ready,” McCallum says. “Our bread and butter is construction work, but we also respond for emergency responders. We do it all.” –mjm/mh

Though the San Antonio team for CG Environmental – Cleaning Guys didn’t do Ebola clean up, they deal with hazardous clean ups in the Alamo City and surrounding area all the time.


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When Allyn Archer, president and COO of HOLT CAT,

calls the new state-of-the art machine service facility “the largest capital project we’ve ever built here in San Antonio,” there is obvious cause for celebration upon its completion. The Caterpillar equip-ment dealer hosted an open house and luncheon Dec. 3 to mark the occasion and debut the largest headquarters expansion in the company’s history. The new facility, which took about nine-and-a-half months to build, had been in operation for approximately two-and-a-half months at the time of the event. The original facility was opened in 1957, and HOLT strived to make it more vi-able and energy efficient, including solar panels on the roof that Archer estimates generate about $16,000 worth of power, providing electricity for the new facility. The new shop allows HOLT’s technicians to service more heavy equipment for the

Now bigger and better

San Antonio and South Texas region. “This facility is 44,000sf,” says Dave Harris, executive vice president and gen-eral manager of HOLT. “We’ve incorpo-rated what we call the superbay design, and about two weeks ago, we had 57 ma-chines in this shop at one time.” Harris believes that the employees benefit from the safe and fulfilling new workspace. He also observes that the ef-ficiency of what they do and how they

work has been significantly improved due to extra tool-ing, 10- and 15-ton cranes, and other investments to ensure repairs are done saf-er and faster, which means their repair bills and time will reflect that efficiency. He adds that they’ve already started adding jobs - and hiring more people allows them to grow, making it a win-win for the company and the community. –mh

L-R: Joseph Willrich, BEFCO Engineering, the engineer for the new facility; Neal Carmichael, Mike Puryear and Tony Shedrock, HOLT CAT; Scott Shaheen, Hooker Contracting Company,

the general contractor for the project

HOLT hosts L-R: Dave Harris, executive vice president and general manager of HOLT; Allyn Archer, president and COO; J.K. Baxter, senior vice president and general manager of the

Machine Division

L-R: Ron Craft, HOLT CAT vice president of product support; Dave Thomas, HOLT CAT major account rep; Lance Griffin,

CEMEX; Steven Smith, HOLT CAT CEP manager

After working out of a temporary lo-cation in Jourdanton since Novem-ber 2013, engineering, consulting

and testing firm Braun Intertec opened its first permanent office in San Antonio in October. The Minneapolis-based, employee-owned firm followed existing oil and gas clients from the Bakken Shale in North Da-kota to the South Texas Eagle Ford Shale. “We do a lot of work in North Dako-ta,” explains Dan Holte, vice president. “We’ve been there a long time, and a lot of the clients are the same. So, we contin-ued to support them with our testing ser-vices in the Eagle Ford. We thought that was a natural place for us. It’s common for us to support our clients, to move with them into other regions of the coun-try, and we thought that this market just fit us.” The oil and gas markets will be a sig-nificant part of what the firm offers from

North to South

the new San Antonio location, but Holte adds that it will also service San Antonio with geotechnical services, construction material testing, environmental consult-ing and building sciences, which entails various reviews and forensic work. These other areas will take a bit longer to be-come established. “Right now, we’re doing non-de-structive examination, or NDE, inspection services in support of our oil and gas cli-ents, and that’s through pipeline inspec-tions and fabrication inspections at local facilities,” he says, adding that the firm’s NDE in the oil and gas market is doing very well in the area. “Our San Antonio office is going to be used as the hub of work in South Texas and really through-out the Gulf region as well.” There are nine people working in the new location, and the San Antonio office is able to pull resources from the firm’s other facilities to supplement them. –mh

The team at Braun Intertec’s new San Antonio office

Moore Erection, LP, held its Christmas gathering before beginning the workday on Dec. 12 at its facility in Garden Ridge. –mh

Moore holiday mornSubmitted to Construction News

Rejoice and relaxSubmitted to Construction News

The team of Fisher Heck Architects enjoyed a cool, low-key office Christmas lunch Dec. 12 at Capparelli’s on Main. –mh


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

FISHING AND HUNTING TRIPS

STEVE SCHULTZ OUTDOORS, LLC

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

www.baffi [email protected]

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

Looking into theNew Year

by Capt. Steve Schultz

Sponsored by:Premier Yamaha Boating Center,

Majek Boats, E-Z Bel Construction, Power Pole Shallow Water Anchor,

Aggregate Haulers, Interstate Batter-ies, Pure Fishing, Mirr-O-Lure and

Columbia Sportswear.

Well I hope everyone had a won-derful Christmas and a great New Year holiday. I am very ex-

cited to start the year off on a good foot, or should I say a good leg after missing out on most of last years fishing. I was able to get in some trips in September and October as the fishing seemed to pick up after a mediocre summer. Hope-fully things will be much different this season with the new changes on speck-led trout regulations implemented by Texas Parks and Wildlife that took effect on September 1st last year. I am also looking forward to seeing all my clients and friends this season and continue making memories in the outdoors that seem to last a lifetime.

As most of you already know, winter fish-ing is by far the best time of the year to catch trophy size specks. Although our winters sometimes may not feel like win-ters you see up north, there is definitely an inconsistency in the weather that trig-gers fish to feed as the barometric pres-sure changes. Most of the larger specks tend to feed up before major changes in weather and may go for several days be-fore feeding again. Larger trout don’t do

real well in colder water temperatures; they tend to stay in deeper water and in soft mud bottoms trying to keep warm and conserve energy. As water tempera-tures progressively warm, they will ven-ture out in search of their next meal. Larger mullet, menhaden and other fin-fish typically are the choice of diet for hungry specks, subsequently keeping them satisfied until the next cold snap ar-rives. This is the reason so many anglers use larger baits and plugs in winter trying to imitate a wounded fish that make easy prey for lethargic trout.

I’m by no means a psychic knowing when fish will eat, what they will eat and how big they will be. There is also no way any-one can guarantee you will catch a tro-phy trout on any given day. I have many clients that have fished many days each year and have never caught a trophy quality speck. Then there are the clients that catch one on their first outing, and say, “That’s the biggest fish I’ve ever caught.” I can tell you that your chances are better if you put in some sort of an effort during the prime months.

Every month this year in my column I will feature a product that I believe will help make you a better angler. From boats, tackle apparel or electronics, I will discuss the advantages you will gain by using these products. While we are on the sub-ject of winter trophy trout fishing, let’s start with the lures of choice this time of the year.

Starting with the most popular will be the Corky line of lures by MirrOlure. There are several styles of Corky’s avail-able, Original, Fat Boy and Devil. All are slow sinking mullet imitations that boost big results when presented in front of feeding fish. These lures became popu-lar in 1996 when James Wallace of Hous-ton landed a 13-lb. 11-oz. speck on the original corky. This is one lure I will not leave without as I ease over the edge of the boat this winter!

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

Already booking for the 2015-fishing sea-son. Good luck and Good Fishing.

Children who will be stuck in the hospital during the holidays will have a surprise from Christy Rhone, Cram Roofing, and other members of the industry who are involved in the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS). Collected at the San Antonio Chapter’s

holiday luncheon, members donated hundreds of toys to the University Health System Foundation. L-R: Donovan Rhone, Knight Office Solutions; Eva Ramirez, RVK Architects;

Christy Rhone; Vicki Garrett, Brandt Companies; and Charlie Jakubisin, Element Thirty –mh

Hospital for the holiday

TexasStyle

San Antonio Austin Dallas/Fort Worth Houston South Texas

www.constructionnews.netpublishing the industry’s news


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

The passing of the holidays always reminds me of a passing storm. It’s exciting and engaging while it’s go-

ing on, but always a relief when you get to the blessed calm after the storm. It is always nice to get back to normal and start looking forward to what’s next – Spring! I know, not yet. We still have a little more football to go, some more cold fronts and time to pass. I always figure any time after winter solstice is getting closer to spring bit by bit. The tournament trails are getting started so the bass boats will start mov-ing again. If you really get lucky and land a 13-lb. or better largemouth bass – you still have time to get in on the Toyota ShareLunker program until April 30th. These nice warm sunny afternoons are starting to make me wonder how long it will be until the crappie start mov-ing up into shallow water around struc-ture to start wanting to bed. All you need is some frisky minnows or your favorite jigs to catch a nice mess of crappie. If the weather gets cloudy and cold they will go back deep and wait for the next nice spell to come shallow again. You just have to catch them when the catching is good. Stripers and hybrids are loving the colder water. They are chasing shad in open water under the birds and feeding

hard so they can be as strong and healthy as possible for their spawning run, later in the spring. Except for Lake Texoma, strip-ers can’t successfully spawn in Texas be-cause we don’t have the right conditions for the eggs to hatch. Don’t tell the strip-ers though, they don’t know the differ-ence and they will put all their energy into trying to reproduce. As they school

up and chase shad they will give us some of the best freshwater fishing to be had! If white bass are more to your liking, then get ready! As mild as the winter temperatures have been this year I wouldn’t be surprised if they start run-ning upstream on their spawning runs a little early this year. This usually happens around Valentine’s Day, give or take a

week or three depending on the weath-er. Keep in touch with your tackle shops and fishing reports. When the run begins the word spreads like wildfire. On low lakes and rivers the run may not happen in the usual places for lack of water. This is where good current information is re-ally important. If you love jug lining for blue catfish, get those jugs ready. From now through February is when you can catch the big ones. You want to concentrate on areas where the river and creek channels con-verge. Spring’s acoming! Be sure you have your boat running good and always get good weather information before you set out. Weather changes fast this time of year. Fishing the day before a cold front comes through will usually be much bet-ter, and you want to avoid those old windy days as a front moves through. High pressure systems tend to keep fish from biting. f you plan on booking some guided fishing trips this spring, you need to get your reservations pretty quick. It looks like we are getting ready for a nice sea-son! Fish On!

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Not the droids he’s looking forSubmitted to Construction News

At the Texas Renaissance Faire, even storm troopers get dressed up for Highland Fling weekend. Mary Hazlett, editor of San Antonio Construction News, and husband David Hazlett, left, and brother-in-law Shane Hazlett came upon this member of the Imperial

Forces in their travels. –mh

Brown, silver and goldSubmitted to Construction News

The children of Robert and Bridgett Brown, Brown Excavation & Utilities, went on a hunting trip and bagged themselves some bucks. –mh

Their daughter, Raygan, shot this fallow silver and 189 7/8 whitetail deer.

Their son, Blaze, shot this fallow gold and 144 whitetail deer.

Greg Allen, owner of concrete contracting company T&D Moravits, shot this buck Dec. 1 at the Catto-Gauge on a hunt with Craig Noto, president of Quality Fence & Welding. –mh

Hart of the Hill CountrySubmitted to Construction News

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – duck season, that is! Jon Marek, MEMCO, attended a duck hunt in Rockport where he was the only San Antonian among other duck hunting enthusiasts from Houston. L-R: Ross Berlin, Southern Shingles; Frank

Giordano, Endurance Builders; Jon Marek; Trey Everett, Precision Foundations; Travis Roby, Pioneer Natural Resources; Matthew Morgan, Occidental Petroleum –mh

Got their ducks in a rowSubmitted to Construction News


The halls were decked and the pres-ents stacked high when Timms Trucking hosted its holiday party

Dec. 12 at Paulina’s Mexican Restaurant. –mh

A truckload of holiday cheer

Have an outdoor photo or storyyou’d like to share?

Send to:

[email protected]

or call Mary at 210.308.5800

‘His dad would be proud’Submitted to Construction News

Shane Schirmer, licensed irrigator, general foreman and safety coordinator for C&K Lawn Services and son of Starr Schirmer and the late Sonny Schirmer, shot this buck,

which scored 160 3/8 and had a 26-inch spread, at Lazy Fork Ranch in Tilden. –mh

A Major trophySubmitted to Construction News

Kylie Major took a break from college

studies to go hunting with her dad, George

Major Jr., owner of Holes of San Antonio.

She bagged this 7-and-a-half-year-old,

10-point buck that tipped the scales at 195

pounds. –mh


Five days after Alamo Beer hosted its ribbon cutting at its Burnet Street location, Guido Construction, the

general contractor for the new facility, hosted its holiday client appreciation party Dec. 10 at the brewery. –mh

Brewing up a celebration

L-R: AJ Heidelberg, Maryanne and Tom Guido

On the right:L-R: Cosmo Guido and Gonzalo Mendez

The SMPS crew L-R: Eva Ramirez, Christina Taylor, Christy Rhone, Jennifer Soto, Erin Ramirez, Abigail Shaver, Crista Reed, Lauren Guido

Raba Kistner and Project Control hosted a joint Christmas party Dec. 12 at Hacienda Santa Maria with dinner and dancing. Santa Claus, A.K.A. Paul Lampe, executive vice president of

Raba Kistner Consultants, led the group in an exercise to earn door prizes. –mh

Raba’s reindeer gamesSubmitted to Construction News

Founded in July 2013, Mitchell De-sign Group is a fairly new firm, but its founder and president, Mary

Ann Mitchell, AIA, is hardly new to the industry. She has 30 years of experience in the San Antonio architecture and de-sign community. A registered architect and interior designer, she started working for a struc-tural engineer while she was still in high school at 16, growing up on the South Side. She worked there until she gradu-ated. While attending San Antonio Col-lege, she decided structural engineering was not for her, and switched to studying architecture. Work and family took her away from school for a while, and when she finally went back, she studied business. Though she does not have a degree in architec-ture or interior design, she earned her li-censes for both. She has worked at many firms over the course of her career, including Brad-ley McChesney, Ford Powell & Carson,

A firm and a foundation

Saldana & Associates and Garza Bomb-erger & Associates. In 1988, she was hired as a design architect for HEB and worked her way up to director of design. Today, HEB is her primary client. Focusing on private-owner retail, the firm also does work for Starbucks and consulting for Wal-Mart. Outside of work, Mitchell is devoted to helping teens and young adults over-come the effects of cancer. Having sur-vived cancer five years ago, she started the BeFEARLESS Foundation in 2011. The nonprofit corporation works directly with the University of Texas MD Ander-son Children's Cancer Hospital – Child Life Program in Houston, providing fund-ing and gear from the foundation with the message “Strength – Courage – Atti-tude.” The foundation visits with patients three times a year and delivers branded beanies, caps and T-shirts for patients un-able to be at home with their families for Christmas due to illness and treatment protocol. –mh

Mary Ann Mitchell’s firm is based in this limestone house, circa 1846, on Presa Street. The property was part of the Alamo farmland.


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Jordon Brown, Quality Fence & Welding, and Jennifer Feeler, San Antonio Apartment Association, donated toys to the SAPD Blue Santa Toy Drive, which provides presents to

the children of families identified as being in need. –mh

A blue ChristmasSubmitted to Construction News

Metropolitan Contracting Company hosted its holiday party Dec. 12. –mh

Very merry and Metropolitan

L-R: Frank Robinson, superintendent, received congratulations from Steve Schuetze, president, on his 15-year

anniversary with Metropolitan Contracting.

Annie and Tim Swan

Ernest and Rita Campos

L-R: Juan Olvera, Jennifer Lee,Lupe De La Rosa

LuAnne and Steve Schuetze

Monterrey Iron & Metal hosted its holiday celebration Dec. 11at El Progresso on Guadalupe Street. –mh

Holiday metal

L-R: Joshua Fosmire, customer and public relations for Monterrey Iron & Metal, and Jack

Vexler, CEO and third-generation owner.

L-R: Zulema, Maryann, Alan, Marylou

Art Ramos Jr. and family Lorenzo and his wife

With holiday décor and dancing, Galaxy Builders hosted its annual party Dec. 5 at Canyon Springs Country Club. –mh


Worthy of framing

The San Antonio branch of Big Red Dog Engineering hosted its holiday party downtown with guests enjoying a boat ride along the San Antonio River and then dinner at Acenar. –mh

Big river bashSubmitted to Construction News


210-587-7634www.GPSofTexas.com

Holiday jingling and mingling

The Associated General Contractors (AGC) San Antonio Chapter hosted its holiday open house Dec. 11 at its

Gulfdale office. As is tradition, Ericatures was on hand to sketch caricatures for at-tendees as souvenirs. –mh

L-R: Joeris’ Melissa Salas, Ellen Ward and Nancy Pena show off their group caricature.

L-R: Rick Nanez, Bartlett Cocke,and Mike Sireno, Baker Triangle

L-R: Victor Cedeno, EasyDrive; Jonathan Piedra and Luis Berumen, Bartlett Cocke; Annette Mollere and James Rodriguez, EasyDrive; Pedro Ibanez, Bartlett Cocke

L-R: Glen Young and Rick Glover, Zachry Construction Corporation;Charles Lugo and Doug McMurry, AGC

Where Bexar meets small

The 14th annual Small, Minority, Women and Veteran Business Own-ers Contracting Conference wel-

comed an estimated 3,000 visitors on Dec. 10 at the Freeman Expo Hall. Every year, Bexar County hosts the daylong event, which includes a networking breakfast, and workshops and exhibits representing approximately 140 vendors, businesses and agencies. “One of the things that we’re really focusing on this year is the Veterans Busi-ness & Resource Center, because we find that there’s a lot of opportunities for vet-erans to grow their business,” says Renee Watson, SMWBE/DBE program manager for Bexar County. “The second part of [our focus] is the technology, having the opportunity to have Fernando Hernan-dez come into this community [and con-ference. He] is director of supplier diver-sity for Microsoft.” –mh

Hunt

Byrne Construction Services

Tejas Premier Building Contractor

Austin Commercial

Whiting-Turner

Turner Construction

Cude Engineers hosted its holiday party Dec. 13 at Rosario’s in Southtown. –mh

Southtown for the winter


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KEEP HAULING MY FRIENDS

The San Antonio Masonry Contractors Association (SAMCA) held its holiday celebration and banquet complete with casino games Dec. 4 at the Christopher Columbus Italian Society Hall in Piazza Italia downtown. –mh

The Plumbing Heating Cooling Con-tractors (PHCC) San Antonio Chap-ter hosted its Christmas on the Patio

holiday party at Mexican Manhattan with tables overlooking the Riverwalk. After dinner, guests were treated to one-hour boat rides on the river, which was beauti-fully lit for the season. –mh

Ride on the river of lights

Moore Supply L-R: Caren and Billy Musick; Tara and Ken McKeown

Carter Ramzel, Benchmark Plumbing,and his wife, Charlotte

Donna and Stephen Schneider, Albert Sterling & Associates

Allie Perez, Mr. Plumber/Mr. AC,and her husband, Charlie Cindy and Perry Beyer, Beyer Boys


Risky Christmas businessThe team at Baker Triangle puts on holiday celebrations so nice that they partied

twice, once on Dec. 10 and once on Dec. 17. The first party featured awards given to fellow team members and presented by Baldo Guardiola and Michael Sire-

no, president of Baker Triangle San Antonio. –mh

Twice as nice

Unsung Hero AwardMia Perez

Employee of the YearArgel Villarreal

Foreman of the YearRay Balandran

President’s AwardMarco Ortiz

Guests got to join in some reindeer games – casino-style!

As the year came to a close, MEMCO celebrated its newly renovated fa-cility with a grand opening/open

house Dec. 10 at its Hillpoint location. In addition to grabbing a bite from the Dirty Dawgs food truck, guests were able to tour the new classroom that can seat 30 to 40 people and a new applicant room that can fit eight people. Jon Marek, branch manager, notes that the event not only showcased the successful remodel, but was also a gesture of cus-tomer appreciation. –mh

Open for class

L-R: Christina Vargas, MEMCO; Glenda Dupler, Marek Bros.; Jon Marek, MEMCO; Juliet Montes, Stephanie Canales and Martha Meyer, Marek

L-R: Joe Garcia and Harvey Jones,The Trevino Group

L-R: Jordon Brown, Quality Fence & Welding; Jon Marek and Mari Hernandez, MEMCO;

Megan Gold, Marksmen General Contractors

L-R: Larry Ybarra, Service Shade Shop; Lisa Mochel, eESI; Dave Sanchez, HCA

Supply of holiday season spirit

The San Antonio branch of Associat-ed Supply Company, also known as ASCO Equipment, hosted its holiday

party Dec. 13 at the Rivercenter Marriott. Daryl Mackin, founder of A Soldier’s Child (ASC) Foundation, was on hand to receive the final check from ASCO’s com-panywide charitable efforts this year. The total was an amazing $262,708, which is the combined total of employee funds raised and the donations matched by the company. –mh

L-R: Tammy, Amanda Vongpachan and Katelinn Harrison, Amarillo branch; Kim

Wigley

L-R: Set Hernandez and George Villarreal

On the left:Kim Wigley’s husband, Mike Wigley

L-R: Penny Torres, Manor branch in the Austin area, and Kim Wigley

The San Antonio branch of IBTX Risk Services hosted its holiday party Dec. 19 at Paesanos on Loop 1604. –mh

L-R: Katie Hille, Paula Henson, Stephen Smith, Cindy Tangye, Marcia Lozano, Emily Contreras, Nicole Lozano

L-R: Marla Rhodes, Sergio Varela, Gary Wheatley, James McCoy, Leti Lively, Bryan Burrows, Joe Rust, Bryan Moore


continued from Page 1 — A legacy in mosaic

continued from Page 1 —Digging into destiny

continued from Page 1 — Headline

her parents still live, commuting an hour back and forth every day for work. Later, during summers and breaks from the school year, Albrecht spent her time flip-ping homes, doing it all herself. In April, at the company’s 30th anni-versary, Albrecht decided to come on-board and help take over the business, allowing her father to start taking some time off. She emphasizes, however, that her dad is not leaving the business and will continue to be a part of the company. Before coming into J&R, Albrecht was in public education as a varsity bas-ketball coach for eight years at Marshall High School. During the summers, she came in to help with the family business.

With a workload that is 99-percent commercial, that business includes proj-ects such as the cattle barns behind the AT&T Center and the Seafire Grille reno-vation at SeaWorld. Outside of work, Albrecht is out-doorsy. She has a younger sister and old-er brother who are not involved in J&R. She loves to hunt, fish and help with the cattle and the family property in South Texas. With great-grandparents who came here from Poland, she and her mother both speak fluent Polish. She’s also involved in CrossFit, working out at 5am and heading into the shop right af-terwards to get the guys started for the day. –mh

space, and then the architectural elements give it that hip vibe for the younger gen-eration of employees to keep them happy. They have beanbag rooms where they get to go and take breaks. Full shower sys-tems, so after they’re done working out, if they want to work out during lunch or be-fore or after work, they can do that. I think that’s pretty unique. There’s not a whole lot of companies in town that have that.” He observes that PEER 1 is a unique space in San Antonio, with an employee-oriented company culture that includes lounge rooms, weight room and workout facility. They have an arcade room with pinball machines and old PAC-MAN ar-cade games. The arcade is also decorated with arcade PAC-MAN carpet tile flooring in the pattern of the classic video game. There’s also a commercial kitchen with a small cafeteria built to emulate restau-rants downtown near the river with tradi-tional Fiesta colors and style. “The project was unique in the first place because the building is historic, and we had to do some exterior work,” he says. “We had to cut in some new win-dows. So, preserving the integrity and the historic feature of the building was the top priority for the City and for the Pearl.”

The project took four months to complete, and the timeline presented a bit of a challenge due to the amount of infrastructure involved with the data sys-tems. While the tight schedule presented a challenge, the project was further com-plicated by multiple change orders. With eVOLVE in direct contact with the client, Cambridge was only in contact with the client’s consultant out of Houston, who came to the job site about once a week. Hastings points out that Cambridge ad-justed to those changes on the fly and not only met the deadline, but finished two weeks ahead of schedule. Chris Mangus was project manager/superintendent on the job. Subcontrac-tors included Alterman, Satex Plumb-ing, J.E. Travis Millwork, J.E. Travis Painting, Corporate Floors and San An-tonio Inside Story for the metal stud framing, drywall and ceilings. Rusty Hastings established Cambridge Contracting in 2011. The commercial gen-eral contractor does office, medical, hospi-tality and retail finish outs, as well as ground up construction. Cambridge has negotiated more than two dozen jobs at the Pearl, including high-end restaurants and retail. –mh

The PEER 1 Hosting sign stands in front of the data hosting company’s new office in the historic garage building at the Pearl.

Before starting his own company, Rodgers worked as a superintendent for 17 years at his grandfather’s general con-tracting company, W.R. Griggs, but he wanted to pursue his own interests in do-ing site work, excavation, concrete and paving. His business got off the ground when he started working with Tom Turn-er Sr. doing several Tetco stores in San Antonio and Austin. “The best part of having my own business is I’ve been able to control my destiny,” he says. He appreciates that when they are caught up on work, they take time off, making their own hours, and when they have jobs to do, they work long hours and get them done. As a saltwater enthu-

siast, he adds that they spend a lot of time at their house in Port Aransas. One of the company’s most recent projects was the Questar Fueling Station, a compressed natural gas plant on East Houston for 18-wheelers converted from diesel. They also did the additions for Central Catholic High School’s new park-ing lot, a four-year project that wrapped in August. Estimating jobs with his dad, Randall enjoys the machinery and equipment they get to work with, as well as helping his dad so that he doesn’t have to do ev-erything. He says that he’s been learning a lot and wants to help grow the compa-ny. –mh

Cooking up something bigSubmitted to Construction News

L-R: At Big State Electric’s holiday party Dec. 18, Forrest Wilson, John Miller and Vincent Real, president, seasoned and grilled 280 1.25-inch ribeye steaks with all the fixings. –mh


Construction ForecastWhat shape will the frame take?

Neilesh Verma, PresidentGalaxy BuildersSan Antonio, TX

With ongoing labor issues and economic factors up in the air, Neilesh Verma, president of Galaxy Build-

ers, shared some thoughts on how the future might be framed as the industry builds up again, particularly regarding multifamily projects.

What markets do you expect Galaxy Builders and the industry will see in-crease over the course of 2015? The multifamily industry will contin-ue to remain strong in 2015. Individuals continue to be challenged with the pro-cess of getting approved for single-fami-ly home loans due to tightened credit re-quirements. People need to live some-where and multi-family has become the biggest beneficiary of such.

What do you foresee as the biggest challenges your company and others like it in the industry will face in 2015? And how does Galaxy plan to address or overcome this challenge? The availability of skilled labor con-tinues to be the greatest challenge to our industry today. There is no short-term fix to this problem, as many in the labor

force left during the recession and have not returned. The solution is to make a dedicated effort to promote students in trade schools. Show them that they have a future in our industry, provided with opportunities through internships and scholarships. Another challenge is the continued rise in construction costs. At some point, these costs will no longer be feasible for the developments to make sense. When interest rates rise, and I suspect they will, we will truly be tested in how creative we can be to make the numbers work. Are there any potential wild cards, or variables, that you think might be a factor in the construction industry and economy in 2015? How could they affect the rebounding climate? It will be interesting to see how the

sharp decline in oil prices will impact our industry. We are all connected one way or another, so the impact to us will surely be felt. What do you think will be different for Galaxy and the industry in 2015 from 2014? That is what is exciting about this business. There is always something new to work through on the horizon. The Af-fordable Healthcare Act, Immigration Re-form, pressures from the Fed to raise in-terest rates and the upcoming 2016 presi-dential election are some of the issues that we will have to watch closely as we position ourselves into 2015 and beyond.

What are Galaxy’s plans for 2015? How does the outlook for 2015 seem as compared with 2014? The outlook for 2015 is bullish, with anticipated growth in revenues from 2014 to 2015. We have a pipeline of proj-ects that are strong, supported with a backlog that is healthier than we have seen in the last few years. We have work statewide, all of which is in multifamily. How would you sum up the last five years for business at Galaxy, and what would you predict for the next five years? In the last five years, we have seen

how important it is to operate your busi-ness conservatively by thinking with your head and not your heart. We braced our-selves for impact when opportunities were not as readily available as they are today. I consider us one of the fortunate ones to stand the test of time. We are certainly on an upward trend; however, I believe you are always in the first year of a five-year plan. Only time will tell and market conditions will dictate how the next five years are. For now, we have to be willing not to bite off more than we can chew.

What is the most important takeaway you’ve learned in this past year? Great question! This has arguably been the busiest year many of us have had to be a part of. With that, I will defer to answer this until the end of the year when I take appropriate time to reflect on what went right, what went wrong, and how we can be better in 2015.

Established in San Antonio in 1991 by Arun Verma, Galaxy Builders specializes in multifamily, institutional and governmen-tal projects. Arun’s son, Neilesh, started in the company in 2005 as director of business development and marketing and took on his current role as president in 2012. –mh

The Lone Star State is a leader in job creation, among other things

Anirban Basu, Chief EconomistAssociated Builders and ContractorsWashington, D.C.

We are now in the sixth year of economic recovery and the U.S. economy finally looks like it is expand-

ing with conviction. The winter of early-2014 was brutal, robbing the U.S. economy of the momentum it enjoyed during the final six months of 2013. But the nation’s economy rebounded nicely as the final snows melted, particu-larly in the form of expanding business investment. Construction projects that were delayed by the harsh winter are now underway, auto sales are surging, the nation sup-ports 2.734 million more jobs than it did a year ago, and for the first time in six years, unemployment has fallen below 6 percent.

The quality of jobs being added has improved of late as well, with more mid-dle-income jobs being produced in con-struction, manufacturing, energy, profes-sional services and IT. After shrinking dur-ing the first quarter, the U.S. economy bounced back with a robust 4.6 percent annualized performance during the sec-ond. Third quarter growth stood at 3.9 percent on an annualized basis and the year’s final quarter should be decent. The most recent International Monetary Fund upgraded its growth projection for the U.S. from 1.7 to 2.2 percent for 2014, par-ticularly impressive given the fact the economy spent the first three months of the year shrinking. What does all of this mean? Associ-ated Builders and Contractors believes that the U.S. economy is approaching the peak of its business cycle. We are now in a period in which the economy is gaining momentum while the Federal Reserve acts as if that’s not occurring, and there-fore is expected to maintain low short-term interest rates well into 2015. Keep in mind that many companies have managed to grow profits in recent years through aggressive cost-cutting measures. Even in the presence of a more active mergers and acquisitions market, that can only continue for so long. To

grow earnings, businesses will increas-ingly have to bulk up top-line revenues, which implies faster capital spending and inventory accumulation. For residents of the Lone Star State, however, the economic numbers were headed in the right direction long before the remainder of the country. Already a job creator while the rest of the U.S. was struggling to stop the economic bleed-ing, Texas was the economic outlier that quickly shrugged off the lingering ef-fects of the 2008 financial crisis. Looking ahead – 2015 will be good for Texas So as the rest of the country finally gets back onto its economic feet, what’s in store for Texas? There are reasons to believe that the Lone Star State’s economy will face some new headwinds even as the U.S. econo-my settles into a period of relative prog-ress. Consumers, who represent 70 per-cent of the nation’s economy, have be-come far more confident of late, in part because of falling oil and gas prices. Most of America benefits from cheaper fuel, but Texas is easily the nation’s largest oil producer, and the impact of falling oil and gas prices on the Texas economy re-mains unknown.

Presuming that oil production at least holds its own, Texas’ economy should be in for a terrific year in 2015. By October 2014, the state’s unemployment rate had declined to 5.1 percent, a 1.1 per-cent decline from the same period one year prior and 0.7 percent below the na-tional average. Among the state’s 25 statistical ar-eas, nine recorded unemployment rates of 4 percent or lower recently, with un-employment rates of 2.5 percent and 3 percent in Midland and Odessa, respec-tively. The state’s major metropolitan areas all posted unemployment rates below 5 percent as well (Houston, 4.7 percent; Dallas, 4.8 percent; Austin, 4 percent; and San Antonio, 4.5 percent). Over the past 12 months for which data are available, Houston has created 120,000 jobs (an increase of 4.3 percent), Dallas roughly 112,000 (3.6 percent), and Austin has added more than 29,000 (3.4 percent). Overall, the state added 436,700 jobs over a recent twelve-month period, a 3.9 percent increase from the year before and roughly double the national rate. Demand for industrial construction in Houston is surging as well. Total net absorption of industrial space totaled more than 2.6 million square feet during the third quarter of 2014 alone, with the industrial vacancy rate sliding to 5.4 per-cent. Over the first three quarters of 2014, net absorption exceeded 5.8 million square feet. The region presently has more than 6 million square feet of indus-trial space under construction. While en-ergy production still drives a significant portion of Houston’s economic expan-sion, the city also acts as a transportation hub for its region, with more steel being shipped through the Port of Houston Au-thority in July 2014 than in any other month since 2008. With oil prices falling recently, it is conceivable that some of the edge will

be taken off the Texas economy over the near-term. A few months ago, several government and private reports indicat-ed that it would take a further drop of $10 or $20 a barrel, to as low as $60 a barrel, to slow energy production even modest-ly. Oil presently sits below $60 per barrel, though that price could rise next year due to the onset of the driving season or other factors. While lower prices mean that taxes and royalties on oil production will de-cline, potentially impacting the finances of oil producing states like Texas, Alaska, Oklahoma and North Dakota, current lev-els of output are likely to be sustained in the shale fields of America in 2015. The U.S. Energy Department recently report-ed that only 4 percent of shale-derived oil production in North Dakota, Texas and other states required an oil price above $80 dollars a barrel for producers to break even on their investments. Therefore, the dip in oil prices should not affect the majority of production across the U.S., and in particular, Texas. Moreover, while low oil prices nega-tively impact some, they represent a boon for the majority. Texas’ drivers, whether commuters or truckers, stand to benefit next year as do consumers. Manufactur-ers are also a beneficiary of cheaper en-ergy, which is important because Texas is home to the second largest number of manufacturing positions in America. Correspondingly, even if oil produc-tion slows more in Texas than is expect-ed, there are other segments that are po-sitioned to more than compensate for the associated loss in construction vol-ume, including both manufacturing and commercial segments. Leading indica-tors also indicate that all of the state’s major metropolitan areas, including Aus-tin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio ap-pear positioned for meaningful growth in nonresidential construction spending next year.


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2015Schedule

2015 big year in Houston

Brad Flack, PresidentStorm-Tex ServicesSpring, TX

What is your opinion about the current state of the Houston construction industry?

I think that the current schedule of construction activi-ty in Houston is growing at what appears to be a more sustainable rate than in 2006-2008.

I also think that there are more green infrastructure and low impact develop-ments, which are better for long-term water usage, as well. We have grown by over 25 percent this year in new clients. We have been successful in getting people the help they needed in their construction, post-construction and in-dustrial storm water permit needs. We recently opened an office in Cen-tral Texas to help clients out there keep up with the changing regulations.

What do you think is on the horizon for the Houston construction industry in 2015? I think 2015 is already shaping up to be a big year for construction in Houston.

Why do you think so? I have had some GC’s telling me they were booked up through the end of the year already and having to turn away work or face expanding their current op-erations.

That tells me that the near future is bright for construction in Houston!

How do you stay up-to-date in your in-dustry? I attend several conferences around the nation to stay up-to-date on my in-dustry. I pick up a lot of information at these conferences. The other way I stay up-to-date is I read several industry publications and I read emails from the Environmental Pro-tection Agency (EPA) and the State of Texas on new changes. I have a great relationship with the city inspectors and city engineers. They keep me abreast of things coming down the pipeline. Why do you enjoy what you do today? My favorite part about my job is helping and interacting with the people. Since this type of work is a legal re-quirement with the county or state, folks are required to do this. I want to help them along the way. It

is very rewarding.

What advice would you give a young person who wants to work in the con-struction industry in 2015? If a young person wants to work in the construction industry in 2015, I’d say jump right in and start doing it. Get good job training and learn as you go!

Brad Flack has been nominated for a 2015 TCEQ Texas Environmental Excellence Award and awarded the 2015 International Erosion Control Association (IECA) Young Professional of the Year Award. He is now Region 6 chapter president for EnviroCert International and president of the South Central chapter of the IECA, Co-Chair of the Stormwater Management Track for Region 1 IECA Education Committee, TCEQ Enviromentor, TCEQ Small Business and Government Assistance Committee for Houston Region, Certified Erosion, Sediment and Storm Water Inspector (CESSWI) Instructor and Certified Professional in Erosion & Sediment Control CPESC Instructor-In-Training. –ab

“A great year” aheadKevin Butler, PresidentMerrick Butler, Vice PresidentButler & Butler ConstructionLancaster, TX

What markets do you expect your company and industry to see an increase in over the course

of 2015? Kevin: As far as the forecast from the bids com-

ing out, I see a lot of educational, retail – there’s a little bit of everything going on right now. 2015 looks to be a great year. Merrick: I would say schools, federal jobs and airports. We cover a mixture of them all; we’re diverse. I think there is going to be a considerable increase over what we were doing in revenue for the past few years. This will be our greatest year.

What do you foresee as the biggest challenge your company and others like it in the industry will face in 2015? Kevin: One, a labor shortage, and two, getting materials on time; with so many projects going on, the lead times on materials are exceeding job sched-ules, they’re getting pushed back further and further, especially specialty items. Merrick: It will be personnel, finding qualified people as the industry has bounced back so rapidly. People who filled those positions before in the down-turn have gone to other places. Now we’re flooded with projects, and there are more projects than there are people. Finding people – qualified people – is the challenge, as well maintaining job

schedules due to the increase in work that has been presented.

What do you think will be different for your company and the industry in 2015 compare to the previous year? Kevin: 2014 was a great year for us and a great year for the economy, so I hope not too much will change. I hope that there’s an increase in opportunities there, and I think there will be. Merrick: I would say the increased revenue and the potential revenue that we stand to capitalize on based on an in-crease in workflow is going to be great for our company. It will give us the capital we need to reorganize the structure and to stand on more firm ground.

Is there anything that might present a challenge unique to the new year? Kevin: Laws; there’s an election com-ing up. Immigration is probably one of the biggest issues that could affect our industry. Merrick: As new laws are passed, whatever those laws encompass could affect us. There are a lot of things going on with immigration, so that could be a factor.

What are your company’s plans for 2015? Kevin: We’re actually trying to grow our office; we need to add a couple of more project managers and estimators because we want to make sure we cover everything we need to cover. We also will be showing the value of our company to potential clients – [general contractors] and owners – to grow our company in that capacity. Merrick: We want to be one of the elite masonry companies out there. For us to do that, we’ll be doing some in-house strategizing. With the increased workflow and profitability, we’ll be able to do that. We’ll be able to train more per-sonnel and be able to retain the same core people for longer periods of time. The problem until this time has been the high turnover rate, so we want to mini-mize that.

What is the most important take-away or lesson you’ve learned in the past year? Kevin: In the past year, I’d say the most important take-away would be to manage what you have going on. Don’t overstep your bounds, just stay in your lane and be in a comfortable position. There are a lot of opportunities out there, but make sure you can handle those op-portunities as you take them on. Also, just take care of your people; your people are on your front line. They make the en-gine work, so make sure you have quali-fied people and take care of them as your company grows in the direction you want it to grow in. Merrick: Be patient. When you have a lot of opportunities coming in, you can inundate yourself. You have to know where your balance point is. You don’t want to exceed that with employees, payrolls, job schedules and all the factors that play into trying to perform a project. When we perform a project, we want it to have our signature on it, to put the quali-ty into it. We do that by maintaining our balance point. Brothers Kevin & Merrick Butler reincor-porated Butler & Butler Construction, a fam-ily business for more than 30 years, in 2006. The company, registered as a general con-tractor in cities throughout the Metroplex specializes in commercial masonry with a focus on brick, block and stone. –mjm


The Independent Electrical Contrac-tors (IEC) San Antonio Chapter host-ed its sixth annual Member Appre-

ciation Casino Night and holiday party at its Bandera Road office. The evening fea-tured homemade food, refreshments, games and raffle prizes. –mh

Subbing out Santa’s work

Luck and potluck Charity is a nonperishable material

L-R: Lynne Grix, CPA; Julie Howard, IEC executive director; Katherine Vasquez

On the right:L-R: Michelle Hernandez and Briana Mendez,

IEC assistant training director

L-R: Alfred Flores, Five Point Electric; Katherine Vasquez and her father, Raul

Vasquez, IEC training director

L-R: Ruby Rafferty; Pam Patten, IES Commercial; Paul Himes, VA Electric and IEC instructor, with Caren and Sarah Himes

The American Subcontractors Asso-ciation (ASA) San Antonio Chapter hosted its board and volunteer ap-

preciation holiday party Dec. 11 at Palo-ma Blanco complete with the traditional white elephant gift exchange. –mh

L-R: Greg Kanning, Dumas Hardware; Tom and Kresta Wright, Padgett Stratemann

Lisa and Robert Stewart, Hill Country Materials

L-R: Steve and Patti Martin, Wortham Insurance; Tony and Karen Ridout, Ridout Barrett

L-R: Patti Martin, Wortham Insurance, and Britta Ramirez, ASA San Antonio, show off

the most popular white elephant gift of the evening.

While Martin Marietta Materials supplies aggregates and heavy building materials to the con-

struction industry, the company also sup-plies food to the hungry in the local com-munity through its annual charity golf tournament. In its ninth year, the event raised $31,200 for the San Antonio Food Bank. These funds will help the food bank provide 218,400 meals this holiday season. In addition to helping provide meals to the hungry at a time of the year when food is bountiful for many, Martin Mari-etta donated $1,000 each to the Epilepsy Foundation, Family Life Center, and Bat-tered Women’s Shelter. The company also donated $1,928 to SAMMinistries, which helps the homeless in the San An-tonio area.

“In the spirit of the holiday season, we are proud to be able to donate to such wonderful charities,” stated Chance Allen, regional vice president of Martin Marietta - Central Texas Aggregates. “Our annual charity golf tournament is a great way for us to give back to our community and make a difference. We’re also ex-tremely thankful to our customers and partners for their continued support in making this event a success year after year.” –mh

Winners1st: CEC Crushers of Texas2nd: Anthony MachinesLongest Drive: Jason JonesClosest to the Pin: Randy Payne

Players were cold at the ninth annual Martin Marietta Charity Golf Tournament, but their hearts were warm. L-R: Bart Chevreaux, Martin Marietta district production manager;

Johnathon Sustaita, Buckley Powder; Jim Densberger, Beckman Plant manager;Jason Mims Buckley Powder


Round-UpAssociation CalendarContent submitted by Associations to Construction News

ABCAssociated Builders & Contractors

All events are held at the ABC office unless otherwise stated.Jan. 1: New Year’s Day, Office closedJan. 5: Future Leaders Task Force meet-ing, 4pmJan. 14: Safety Committee meeting, noonJan. 21: Apprenticeship Committee meeting, noonJan. 28: BIM Luncheon Seminar; Joeris General Contractors Conference Room; $20 per personJan. 31: ICRA Class; Parkland Hospital, Dallas; $957 per person

AGCAssociated General Contractors

All events are held at the AGC office unless otherwise stated.Jan. 12: General Membership and Instal-lation of Directors Luncheon; San Anto-nio Airport Hilton; noon-1:30pm; speaker is Chuck Greco, Linbeck Group, the in-coming President of AGC of America; for more information or to make a reserva-tion, call 210-349-4921Jan. 15: Safety and Health Committee meeting, 11:30am; Chapter Leadership meeting, noon-3pmJan. 21-23: Safety Management Training Course, 8am-5pmJan. 27: CLF Steering Council meeting, noonJan. 28: OSHA 300 Recordkeeping Class, 11:30am-1pm

AIAAmerican Institute of Architects

Jan. 26: Monthly Chapter meeting; noon-1pm; The Fiesta Room of Luby’s, 911 N. Main Ave.; no RSVP necessary; cost is $25 Jan. 27: Emerging Professionals and Con-struction Leadership Forum Tour of the Children’s Museum; for more informa-tion, visit www.aiasa.org

ASAAmerican Subcontractors Association

Jan. 28: Texas Construction Association Walk on the CapitolASA Advocacy Day (Date TBD)For more information, call 210-349-2105

CFMAConstruction Financial Managm’t Assn.

Jan. 27: Chapter Luncheon; Petroleum Club, 8620 N. New Braunfels; 11:30am-1pm; to RSVP, contact Stephanie at 210-828-6281, ext. 1575, or [email protected]

HCA de San AntonioHispanic Contractors Association

Jan. 21: Monthly meeting/Mixer/ Instal-lation of HCA 2015 Board of Directors; Paesano’s Restaurant, 555 E. Basse Rd.; 6pm; for more information, visit www.

hcadesa.org; to register or RSVP, contact Patty at 210-444-1100 or [email protected]

IECIndependent Electrical Contractors

All events are held at the IEC office un-less otherwise stated.Jan. 5: Office reopens, 8am; School re-opens, 5:30pmJan. 12: Continuing Education Class, 5-9pm; Accelerated class begins, 5:30-9:30pmJan. 13: A&T Committee meeting, 11amJan. 17: Electrical Maintenance Techni-cian Class, 8am-5pmJan. 21: Board of Directors meeting, TBD, 11amJan. 29-30: IEC of Texas meeting, AustinFeb. 9-12: IEC National Business Summit, New OrleansFor more information on these events, call 210-431-9861 or visit www.iecsanan-tonio.com

MCA–SMACNAMechanical Contractors Association

Sheet Metal & A/C Nat’l Assn.

Jan. 7: Regular & Associates meeting; Oak Hills Country Club; 11:30am; speaker is Cherie Foerster, Builders Exchange Ed-ucation Foundation Jan. 21: Joint Industry Fund meeting, Oak Hills Country Club, 11:30am

NAWICNat’l Assn. of Women in Construction

Jan. 7: General meeting; Petroleum Club; 5:30pm; CEU hosted by Tim Heide, Work-place ResourceJan. 15: Board of Directors meeting, Ur-ban Concrete, 6pm Jan. 24: Holiday “After Party”; Gustology, 1856 Nacogdoches Rd.; 6:30pm

PHCC Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors

Jan. 8: Membership meeting; Barn Door Restaurant, 11am-1pmJan. 10, 17: Plumbers Continue EdJan. 21-25: OSHA 10 for Plumbers, 8-Hr Res Code, 18 Com CodeJan. 28: Walk on Capitol/Bus TriJan. 29: PHCC-National Contractor Greet & MeetFor more information on these events, visit www.phcc-sanantonio.org

SAMCASan Antonio Masonry Contractors Assn.

Jan. 28: Membership meeting; Pap-padeaux Restaurant, 76 NE Loop 410; noon; $30 per person; for more informa-tion, contact Debbie at 830-606-5556

SDASociety for Design Administration

Jan. 22: Monthly Chapter meeting; noon-1pm; The Barn Door, 8400 N. New Braunfels; for more information, email [email protected]

Dale B. Martin, PE, joins Raba Kistner Infrastructure as Materials Engineer III for the Energy Sector Roadway Re-pair project, includ-ing roadways in Corpus Christi, Yoa-kum, Laredo and San Antonio districts. He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M University and is a registered professional engineer in Texas.

Chamberlin Roofing and Waterproof-ing announced the following:Bill Lawson has been promoted to vice president of roofing operations for all Chamberlin markets. Having joined the company 17 years ago as a roofing mechanic, he has natural leadership skills and ex-tensive knowledge of commercial roof-ing installations.T.R. Mayfield has been promoted to vice president of roof estimating ser-vices for all Cham-berlin markets. With the company for 14 years now, he was previously a roofing estimating manager and has roofing sys-tem expertise and commitment to pro-viding clear and detailed cost estimates.

Structural Steel ProductsPipe, Tubing, Plate & SheetsMetal Building MaterialsOrnamental Iron & AccessoriesCast Iron SpearsFittingsDecorative Castings & DesignsWeldersWelding Supplies & AccessoriesPower ToolsAbrasivesShop & Safety SuppliesPaint & MachineryTrailer ProductsAccess Control ProductsGate & Door HardwareGate Operators–Farm/Ranch Residential/Commercial

210.431.0088 Toll Free 800.725.4776

Fax 210.431.0701www.sss-steel.com

2042 W. Thompson @ Port San AntonioSan Antonio, TX 78226

Pipe BollardsPrecut – Painted

6-5/8” OD X .188 wall X 7 Ft

Baker Triangle San Antonio announced the following:Mario Ortiz has been promoted to project manager. His previous posi-tion was project foreman, and he has been with the company since 2009.Jon Randolph has been promoted to vice president. He has been with the company for nine years, and he has been in the industry for 32 years.

Tania Tressler has joined the company as a project manag-er. Her previous po-sition was with Den-ver Drywall, and she has more than 17 years of experience in the drywall in-dustry.Rozmin Yazdani has joined the com-pany as a junior es-timator. She recent-ly graduated from the University of Texas at San Anto-nio’s construction program.

Leti Lively has joined IBTX Risk Services as an ac-count manager. She will be involved with the firm’s Select Cli-ent Group, which is focusing on retain-ing existing com-mercial accounts. With more than 25 years of experience in account management, underwriting and as an account executive, she is a past president of Insurance Wom-en of San Antonio (IWSA) and is working toward her Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation and her bachelor’s de-gree in business management.

Raba Kistner announced the following:Rick Klar, PG, has been promoted to vice president of Raba Kistner Envi-ronmental. With the firm since 1996, he currently serves as manager of opera-tions and corporate discipline leader for geosciences services. He is a member of the Alamo Air and Waste Management Association in addi-tion to the National Ground Water Asso-ciation. He earned his bachelor’s degree in earth sciences from St. Mary’s Univer-sity and his master’s in applied geology (hydrogeology) from UTSAMark Luzmoor, MA, joins Raba Kist-ner Environmental as an archaeologist. Now with more than five years of experience in ar-chaeology, he was at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Center for Archae-ological Research (CAR) for two years be-fore coming to the firm as a graduate stu-dent. He worked on the San Pedro Creek and HEB Arsenal projects. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Wyoming and his master’s in anthropology from UTSA.Kristi Nichols, MA, has joined Raba Kistner Environmen-tal as an archaeolo-gist. With more than 16 years of experi-ence in Texas ar-chaeology and a particular expertise in the Spanish Colonial era, she worked for the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) prior to joining the firm. She earned her bachelor’s in anthropology from the Uni-versity of San Diego and her master’s from UTSA. She is also an active member of the Council of Texas Archaeologists.Fitzgeraldo San-chez, PE, has joined Raba Kistner Infra-structure as a proj-ect manager II. With experience working in three TxDOT dis-tricts, he will be re-sponsible for man-aging the owner verification services on up to half of the TxDOT Energy Sector Road Repair Project. He earned a bache-lor’s degree in civil engineering from Texas A&I University – Kingsville and a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Uni-versidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in Monterrey, Nuevo León.Richard E. Evers has joined Raba Kistner Consultants Inc. (RKCI) as direc-tor of business de-velopment. Previ-ously, he was vice president of busi-ness development and marketing for Koontz McCombs Construction and Browning Construction. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engi-neering from Texas A&M University.

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Cleary Zimmermann Engineers held its office Christmas party Dec. 19, and

each year, they play a lot of “minute-to-win-it” games. L-R: Licensed PEs John Teeter, Brian Perlberg and Thomas

Watson try their hands at engineering a red solo cup pyramid. –mh

Feats of engineeringSubmitted to Construction News

Alamo Crane Service hosted its hol-iday party Dec. 13 with a chef on hand for dinner and a live band for

dancing. –mh


Eat, dance and be merryMore than 150 regular and associ-

ate members of the Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contractors

(MCA-SMACNA) of San Antonio gathered Dec. 17 at Oak Hills Country Club for the annual Christmas party and installation of 2015 officers and board of directors. At the event, Service Mechanical

Ready for the New Year

The new officers and board members L-R: John Gargotta, Service Mechanical Group, president; Roger Ford, Dynamic Systems, vice president; Ron Wilson, Mueller & Wilson,

immediate past president; Andy Rodriguez, Mechanical Reps, director;Kyle Pennington, AJ Monier, secretary/treasurer

L-R: John Gargotta presents an award to Alison Gragg, PCI Trident

L-R: John Gargotta receives the gavel from Ron Wilson, Mueller & Wilson

Group received the Regular Member 2014 Perfect Attendance Award. Associ-ate Member 2014 Perfect Attendance Awards went to Holland Equipment, Mechanical Reps, Performance Con-tracting Inc. (PCI)/Trident, PMI Sales and Marketing and Steve Mechler & As-sociates. –mh


Vision Construction held its annual Christmas celebration Dec. 12 at the Granada Ballroom downtown.

–mh


Having a Christmas ball

‘Bin’ to a toy driveSubmitted to Construction News

Bianca Garza, executive assistant, Neenah Marie, owner, and Ruben Aguirre, Bin There Dump That, which rents trash bins to commercial and residential construction, as well as

remodel and rehab projects, dropped off a bin the company donated for the Salvation Army Toy Drive at the San Antonio Event Center. –mh

PoolsideConstruction News JOB SIGHT

Marco Vasquez, Freddy Martinez, Cesar Martinez and Ramon Martinez, Varsity Pools, a subcontractor of SRO Associates, worked on the pool at the Do Seum, for general

contractor Guido Construction. The pool will have a fountain and a stream only a few inches deep in which children will be able to walk and play. Tom Sanchez is the senior

superintendent on the job, Casey Pearson is the assistant superintendent,and Cosmo Guido is the project manager. –mh

Lots of children have seen “The LEGO Movie” and thanks to the National Association of Women in Construc-

tion (NAWIC) San Antonio Chapter, 24 children from Madison Elementary School got to construct projects with Legos Nov. 21 in their annual Block Kids competition. This year was the first time the school included gifted and talented third grade students in their selection process, which also includes perfect attendance, the ex-pressed interests and motivational bene-fits to each child. Guest speakers from Skanska, Tere-sa King, Matt McCaffrey and Teresa English, spoke to the kids about the dif-ferent types of jobs in the construction industry, including architecture and engi-neering, and jobsite, as well as everyday, safety. In addition to connecting them to the real world and future career possibili-ties, principal of Madison, Barbara Black notes, “What I really liked is the way we included not just our gifted and talented kids, but some of our special ed kids were

Building kids up

L-R: Giselle; John; Isaac; Rachel King, NAWIC and ESC Consultants; Elijah; Emily; Genesis

L-R: Third Place: Federico Lopez, fourth grade, made a wrecking ball; Second Place:

Ford Leal, fifth grade, made a swimming pool; Myrtie Austin, Satellite Shelters and first-time chairman of NAWIC’s Block Kids committee; First Place, Deborah Johnson, fifth grade, made a drive-in movie theater

participating. Some of the kids who don’t normally get to do some of these kinds of things were here, and they did a great job. It’s really important that we allow as many different kinds of kids to partici-pate, because you never know what’s go-ing to spark an interest in them.” –mh


Kicking off the holiday countdown Texas-style, Bartlett Cocke Gener-al Contractors hosted its annual

party Dec. 4 at Gruene Hall. –mh

Deck the dance hall

L-R: Randy Pawelek, chairman and CEO, with past Bartlett Cocke leadership, Earl Noble, former superintendent; Arlon Bruemmer; former senior vice president; Nelson Jonas, former vice

president; and Duane Pozza, former chairman.

L-R: James Anderson, regional manager – Central Texas, and Randy Pawelek

Attendees brought their dancing shoes and kicked up their heels.

Alamo Architects hosted its holiday party Dec. 19 at GS1221 on Broad-way. The festivities included a con-

test where the principals of the firm tried to make famous buildings out of “ginger-bread,” A.K.A. graham crackers and can-dy, in four minutes. –mh

Craft and gingerbread


continued from Page 3 — This gala’s got wings

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Kids get a lift with a treeSubmitted to Construction News

H&E Equipment and Klecka Electric Company donated lifts, manpower and material for the East Side Boys and Girls Clubs Christmas tree. –mh

san antonio construction news january 2015

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