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Emcon Services Inc.
John Messent, Cortes Island RF, won a company prize—an Emcon cooler bag— for being caught doing something right ! John was instrumental in the successful completion of the pulverizing, re-gravelling and graded seal project on Cortes Is-land. The project entailed 11.5 km of re vitalized and resurfaced roads. Before and after the com-pletion of the project John
Life Time Achievement Award In October at the Transportation Association of Canada Gala held at the Vancouver Conven-tion, Frank Rizzardo received an Honorary Life Membership Award for his many years spent on the TAC Board of Directors and various com-mittees. Frank has been active in TAC since 1996. He continues to be a member of Mainte-nance & Construction Standing Committee, a Director, a Foundation Director & now a TAC Honorary Life Member. Congratulations Frank!
Grand Forks 2 & 3
Tips for Winter 4
Equipment 5
People Coming & 6
Helping Others 7
Training 8 & 9
A Letter of Thanks 10
Bursaries 11
Cell Phone Ban 12
Inside this issue:
Caught Doing Something Right!
The Link December 2009 Volume 4, Issue 3
worked diligently in public awareness and liaison on the Island as well as project coordination. Right along with John in this project was Bruce Erikson, Grader Operator. Bruce was also instrumental in keep-ing the production levels and flow of work to a high standard. Here Bruce also receives his recognition. Good Job John & Bruce!
Grinding Hwy 19A , Courtenay South to
Cook Creek
“The secret of life is not to do what you like, but to
like what you do.”
Installation of a backflow preventer took place in the Grand Forks yard as a result of the Walkerton Ontario Water Contamination issue and the
liabilities that ensued. The city of Grand Forks passed a bylaw requiring all industrial businesses to install a backflow preventer valve to prevent con-tamination to the city water.
Dave Johnson and Wade Wheaton of the Grand Forks road crew installed the man-hole and a subcontractor in-stalled the valve.
On Highway 3B heavy torrential rains during the summer months this year created large shoulder washes throughout. The Birchbank road crews worked hard to repair the dam-age left after the storms.
The Grand Forks Crew has been kept very busy
Shoulder Wash Repair
A yard cleanup in the Grand Forks yard was initiated and supervised by the new Road Superintendent— Rick Wright. The cleanup and organization of the yard greatly improved the ability to park equipment in the yard and also rid the yard of old
scrap metal and other items that were taking up space. A very positive environmental impact. Good Job Rick and Crew!
Page 2 The Link
The Paulson Detour Bridge was installed by the members of the Kootenays Bridge Crew, Mike Prystae, Jim Kastrukoff and Ian Stanchuk. This project entailed the reinstallation of a concrete bridge owned by Interfor Forest Products on the Paulson Detour. The concrete bridge had originally been in-stalled on top of an older wooden structure so that pine beetle wood could be hauled
out of the area. The old rotten wood structure settled under the weight of the new structure
and it was decided by MoTI to remove the old wooden struc-ture, build a new sill and rein-stall the concrete bridge.
conditions during the winter months. A special thanks to Dan Price, Emcon; Jason Odland, CVSE; Larry Ballard, MoTI and 3 Citizens on Patrol from the Midway/Greenwood area for braving the -15 c weather (at least it was sunny).
A joint safe winter driving cam-paign was held in Midway from 10 am until Noon on December 8th. Traffic was stopped briefly and handed tips on safe winter driving and winter prepared-ness. This was part of Emcon’s Winter Driving initiative to edu-cate the public that they also have a "shared responsibility" to drive safe and to the
All your efforts were greatly appreciated.
Paulson Detour Bridge
Safe Winter Driving Campaign
Safe Winter Driving Campaign
Installing the Paulson Detour Bridge
Castlegar Weigh Scales. This entailed lengthening the con-crete pad. The previous pad was a combination of concrete and asphalt but the asphalt was badly rutted. The old asphalt was removed, sub excavated, back filled with crush, rebar was installed and concrete
poured. There were also sev-eral new signs installed. This work was done under the direc-tion of Dale Nordstrom and work completed by the bridge crew and a subcontractor con-crete crew. A job well done!
MoTI requested some improve-ments to be done on the
Castlegar Weigh Scales
Volume 4, Issue 3 Page 3
Page 4 The Link
These pictures represent our ongoing program of keeping the condition of our equipment updated.
We have sandblasted and painted a number of units to date and plan to continue with the program as neces-sary.
Part of our ongoing commit-ment to provide updated, more efficient equipment for mainte-nance.
Dale Nunn, the Finning Trainer, goes over all the new features of the M type grader with operators, mechanics and supervisors.
The keys to the new unit are handed over to operators Luisito Serrano (Chito) and Brian Accles by Road Sup’t Darby Gildersleeve.
Equipment Facelifts & Fleet Renewal
New 140 M Grader for Port Hardy
Volume 4, Issue 3 Page 5
John Stone has been a employee for the past 35 years at the Port Alberni yard as a Machine Operator. John is pic-tured above with his
“Retirement Cake”. John is planning on visiting with his children a bit this winter and watching the Alberni Bulldogs play hockey. John is using up the last of his vacation before his official re-tirement date of January 15, 2010. Good Luck John with the next phase of your life!
People Coming & Going Neysa Sheldon has joined the Emcon Team. Neysa is a long time Merritt resident and has been hired to assist in the Administrative functions of the C o r p o r a t e Office.
W e l c o m e Neysa!
Page 6 The Link
People Working Safely
Ron Panton, Mechanic in Parksville working with all the required PPE. Good Job!
Kody Martel, Mechanic Ap-prentice working in the Parksville shop putting brine tanks on trucks.
Compacting in the Grand Forks yard.
The Grand Forks crew was rep-resented in this years Santa Parade on Friday, Nov 27.
Holly Borisenkoff drove the Em-
con Truck with three little Elves
aboard. The girls are Leena & Shian Corbeil and their friend
Sydney Gunther. The Santa in the picture below is Ken Law-son, along with the girls and Kasey Wodyga.
The Santa Parade
out donations and receiving them. Unfortunately I did not get his name. What I did get was a real picture of how many people use the food bank. They really appreciated the dona-tion.” The employees of Emcon Ser-vices throughout the many loca-tions are very generous people. Each year the different offices gather up funds to donate to those that are less fortunate and need a helping hand through this festive season.
Once again this year the Corporate Office in Merritt has adopted a family of 4 and is gathering gifts and food to make their Christmas just a lit-tle brighter. The hamper and gifts will be delivered to their home the week before Christ-mas. We must remember to share our good fortune with others. Happy Holidays to everyone!
Kathy sent a few words along with this picture:
“I dropped the donation from Emcon off on December 4, 2009. There was a drop in for people to have coffee and a hot lunch, distribution of groceries and people dropping off dona-tions. Deb Macintosh, who runs the food bank was taking the picture, the gentleman in the picture was helping to give
Helping the Less Fortunate
Volume 4, Issue 3 Page 7
Kathy Brodman, Birchbank Road Supt., presents a cheque to one of the
volunteers of the Castlegar Food Bank.
“Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.” ~Washington Irving
Two new QA Manager Trainees, Kent Porter and Alex Wang are going to take the ISO 9000:2000 Series Foundation Training Course Internal QMS Auditor Training Course this month.
Kent Porter has joined the team in Grand Forks. Kent hails from Kelowna and has a background in Business Administration. Kent has experience and educa-tion in marketing, management, accounting, financial analysis, public speaking and formal and business writing. Kent has worked in the construction industry as a framer and site supervisor prior to his employment with Emcon Services. Wel-come Kent.
Alex Run Wang (the camera shy guy) joined the Emcon Team on the Island and is currently working out of the Cumberland office. Alex is a Civil Engineer-ing Graduate from UBC. Alex has done field surveys using engineering equip-ment and has written technical reports based on the survey results. He also carried out site inspections for various construction site projects. Alex is a wel-come asset to our Island Division Team. Welcome Alex.
Those trained in Birchbank:
In house Avalanche Training, led by Gerry Popoff, has been ongoing in the Grand Forks and Birchbank areas this season. Grand Forks trainees:
New Quality Assurance Managers get training
Avalanche Training
Page 8 The Link
Peter Voykin Lynn Davey
Dave Johnson Wade Wheaton
Bill Champion Garry Campbell
Sid Bellamy John Priede
Martin Venables Rob Konkin
Ron Sparrow Mike Prystae
Jim Kastrukoff Bud Phelps
Mike Nadon Rick Llewellyn
Dave Stauffer Joe Anderson
Steve Wiesner Kent Porter
Dale Nordstrom Pierre Corbeil
Kathy Brodman Bud Stanchuk
Tony Griffiths Ken Santano
Bill Langman Fred Planidin
Wyatt Peebles Jack Pereverzeff
Ian Stanchuk
A review of the avalanche safety and procedures will better able our crews to deal with any avalanches that may occur in our areas.
Dennis Sarabia, the new Quality Assurance Trainee, in Parksville, is training Damian Girard on how to use the Total Station for surveying stock piles.
Ongoing Training—Keeping Our Employees Up To Date
Left—Dave Thorpe trains operators on the Brine
Truck Right—First Aid training in Parksville for crew
members!
Volume 4, Issue 3 Page 9
Measuring Stockpiles
Winter Awareness Training Winter Awareness Training includes a variety of items relating to the maintenance of the high-ways in winter. The new auxiliaries and regular employees are provided with training on items such as: Hands on instruction on How to Chain Up Winter Maintenance Standards Protocol for reporting various issues, such as road kill, accidents, unfavorable road condi-
tions, etc. Below we have a few pictures of the crew in Port Alberni during their Winter Awareness Session.
Sheryl Boire demonstrating how to “Chain Up” Mike Mintz & Oliver Watson
provide training on the Winter Maintenance Operators Handbook
Dave McConnel, Winter Road Foreman shows operators how to put chains on
Damian Girard, QA in Cumber-land, had his head shaved as part of the Elaine Daffurn fund raiser. Darby and Geoff Battimelli were the highest bidders so they got
to choose who cut the hair. Darby won out and is removing the hair as pictured here. The target for the donations is $1000. The monies are going to be raised from the Island Crews, the Corporate Staff and anyone else that wishes to do-nate. All amounts collected will be matched by Frank Rizzardo on behalf of Emcon Services. Elaine has had one Breast re-moved and is in recovery at this time. She will encounter more surgeries in the months to come.
People Helping People—The Emcon Family Helping it’s Own
family this past year; and now I'm overwhelmed by how much support you have given to me. I have a good prognosis—I have many medical appoint-ments and procedures, and at least two more surgeries, but I expect to be back to work by the spring of 2010.” Elaine Daffurn
Below Geoff Battimelli & Darby Gildersleeve present Elaine with a cheque for monies collected from employee donations & matched by Emcon.
“To all the people at Emcon who have been so supportive: Thank you for your generosity of money, prayers, and encour-agement. I have many times felt overwhelmed with the diffi-culties cancer brought to our
A Letter of Thanks
Page 10 The Link
Damian thanks Darby for
his new look.
Group Picture taken at Woss Yard presenting cheque to Elaine.
The Witches of Cumberland—Debbie Inman, Leah Hurrell, Tara Bursey and Gay Ann Mackay planning Barry Dales 50th Birth-day celebration.
On the right the Witches present Barry with his Cake .
Assisting with Educating Future Leaders with Bursaries
People Just Wanna Have Fun!
working in the Cumberland and Parksville shops as re-quired. Congratulations James! Left to Right: Geoff Battimelli, James Lysne TJB & Dave Thorpe, Equip-ment Supervisor.
The first of the Vancouver Is-land Division six (6) apprentices has successfully completed his apprenticeship and become a Trade Journeyman Mechanic. TJM James Lysne will continue to work in our Nanaimo shop this winter, but may also be
Employees for the Future—Receiving Recognition
Volume 4, Issue 3 Page 11
Nov 2009 in Nanaimo, Ryan Kloosterboer receives bursary from Rob Heaslip
Tessa Battimelli receives Bursary Cheque from Geoff Battimelli. Tessa is going on to North Island College for 2 years. She is working towards her degree in Business.
Thayna Wasiliew receives her Emcon bursary award letter for her post secondary education from Geoff Battimelli. Thayna is attending Douglas College part of the POCO Campus, taking Recreational Therapy.
105—1121 McFarlane Way Merritt, BC
V1K 1B9
As you are aware we have in place a Company Policy with respect to the use of cell phones, but here is an update on the Proposed B.C. Motor Vehicle Act changes: Prohibited actions and devices while driving:
No operating or holding hand-held cell phones or other electronic devices. No sending or reading emails and/or texting (e.g., BlackBerry, PDA, cell phone). No operating or holding hand-held music or portable gaming devices (e.g., MP3 players,
iPods). No manual programming or adjusting GPS systems, whether
built in to the vehicle or not, while driving. Settings must be programmed before driving.
Permitted actions and devices: Hands-free cell phones that are built in or securely fixed to
the vehicle, and used by pressing a single button — once only — in order to activate a hands-free device for incoming or outgoing calls.
Pre-programmed and voice-activated GPS devices. Two-way radios for industry (e.g., trucking, logging, oil and
gas). Any of the above devices can be used if the vehicle is legally
parked and not impeding traffic. 911 calls to report an emergency.
Phone: 250-378-4176 Fax: 250-378-4106
Email: [email protected]
Road & Bridge Maintenance
Cell Phone Ban—Coming January 2010
A little distracted!
Emcon Services Inc.
We’re on the Web! www.emconservices.org
Flu Season As you are aware this is Flu Season. And as such we should all be cognizant of some of the ways in which to protect ourselves, families and co-workers from the flu and the H1N1 that is prevalent this year. Some important things to remember: Cover your mouth & nose
with a tissue when you cough or sneeze
Throw tissue away immedi-ately
Cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve
Clean you hands often with soap and warm water or a hand sanitizer
Most importantly stay healthy & enjoy the season!
