San Antonio Construction News November 2015

The Industry’s Newspaper

™CONSTRUCTIONCONSTRUCTIONSan Antonio

The first resident of the North Rim

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Causes for rent No need to niche

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Better Built Enterprises recently finished the first business at the North Rim,Wangchao, a restaurant specializing in Mandarin cuisine.

Wangchao isn’t just a restaurant serving Mandarin cuisine; it’s the cornerstone for what will be

known as the North Rim, and Better Built Enterprises set it in place. It is the first of many new projects underway as a north addition to the Rim along the I-10 frontage road. With construction lasting nearly a year-and-a-half and completed this summer, building costs ran approximately $3.5 million on this project. Bob Rathburn, project manager, notes Wangchao is unusually large for a restaurant. The building is 11,000sf with a capacity of 422 people and sits on 2.5 acres, which includes 151 parking spaces. Getting started with the property was a bit of a challenge, since it seemed to have been setting a very long time and was a little bit low. The construction team built the property up 7 feet in its entirety. In order to accomplish this, they imported structural fill from other parts of the Rim

that were being dug up for other projects, which seemed only fitting since it is a former quarry. Rathburn comments that Wangchao is a one-of-a-kind concept, but perhaps a prototype for more in the future. The restaurant was in design for about two years before construction began. Owner Agustin Zurita, Oriental Development, collaborated with the architect, Charles William Pope & Associates. Rathburn recalls that Zurita was very specific and very knowledgeable about what he wanted, which helped the design team translate his vision into reality. “He was able to combine a rustic and a slick modern approach to a number of things inside,” describes Rathburn. “It has some rustic ceilings, hand-applied plaster on the walls throughout the dining areas, creating sort of an antique effect.” In addition to its dining areas, the restaurant includes three separate

Feeling blessed and wanting to give back to the community, B-C Equip-ment Sales has been renting cause

machines to raise money for three good causes. When those machines are rented from any of their locations, 10 percent of the rental for the month goes to the char-ity represented on the machine. The first machine, a Link-Belt 8030 Crane, was decked out in pink for breast cancer. Several people within the com-pany have mothers or wives who battled breast cancer, and the names of their rel-atives are on the crane. Bill Lathrop Jr., president of B-C, and Cathy, his wife and vice president, have a daughter, Melanie Lathrop, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 39.

Today, she is cancer-free, and the cause remains close to the family. Now, the do-nations from that machine go to MD An-derson in Houston. The second machine, a Link-Belt 210 Excavator, is for childhood cancer, and they call it their “Gold Digger.” Donations from the rental of that machine go to Brooke’s Blossoming Hope. When B-C opened its San Antonio branch, Lathrop already knew he wanted to do the next cause machine for the mil-itary. Brooke Matherne, assistant to Da-mon Bean, branch manager for the San Antonio location, was working on finding the right charitable organization when

L-R: Jeff Wells, founder of Wish for Our Heroes, and Bill Lathrop Jr., president of B-C Equipment Sales, stand with the company’s latest cause machine. A percentage of the rental for this machine goes to Wish for Our Heroes to help active duty military members in need.

When Shawn Kaarlsen started his own architecture firm in 2002, he knew he was taking a

chance hanging his own shingle out there. Today, Shawn Kaarlsen & Associ-ates (SK&A) has a client base that has been built up through word of mouth, repeat business and referrals. The first year was slow and tough. Beginning without any clients, Kaarlsen went out and hit the streets to find proj-ects for his new enterprise. He worked out of a barn behind his house in Helotes for the first year-and-a-half. As it grew, the firm drew steady cli-ents, Kaarlsen found good employees and the business found its own home on Bandera Road in Helotes. SK&A has 15

employees, and Kaarlsen estimates that 80 percent of SK&A’s business is from re-peat clients. He says the firm has grown every year since it started. Finding the right people for his firm was one of the challenges Kaarlsen faced, but two years ago, he realized he had one that he wanted to make a partner. Fernando Garcia joined the firm eight years ago, and Kaarlsen explains that the firm has grown a lot because of his hard work and dedication. Doing a little bit of everything, Kaarlsen emphasizes that they make it a point not to have a niche. SK&A has done

L-R: Shawn Kaarlsen, founding principal of SK&A, took on a partner two years ago, Fernando Garcia. Together, they keep the firm growing and running smoothly.

Page 2 San Antonio Construction News • Nov 2015

ONE MONTH TO GO!

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“Get-It-Done”Committee MembersBuddy DoebblerMike McGinnisJon MarekTom HewittSandee MorganBruce Johnston

We want to thank our donors for helping with this visionAffordable TrailersAlamo City Hydraulics Alamo Crane Service Inc.Alamo Stamp & EngravingAllen & Allen Co.Alterman Inc.Anthony’s Planet PickupBeth and John FelderComfort Air Engineering, Inc.Delta Steel, Inc.Don Young CompanyDumas Hardware Co.Facility Solutions GroupFire Alarm Control Systems, Inc.Honeywell Gamewell FCIJames Doebbler, CPAJW Dielmann, Inc.KCM Cabinets Inc.

Lynwood Building MaterialsM & M MetalsM. Jacks Fire & Safety Equip. Co.One Day SignsPadgett StratemannPrimo PlumbingQuality Fence & WeldingReliance Steel & Aluminum CoRiver City Steel & RecyclingSchneider Steel, Ltd.Sherwin-Williams PaintSouthern American Insurance AgencyTexas Sheet Metal & S/S FabricatorsTraugott Inc. Painting & DecoratingTriple-S SteelUnited Tool & Fastener Inc.Western States Fire Protection Co.Wilborn Steel, Ltd.

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San Antonio Construction News • Nov 2015 Page 3

Working the landscape

Casey Vickrey started landscaping at 5 years old, working with his father. Growing up with that

experience eventually led him to start Benchmark Landscapes in 2002. He expanded with an office in New Braunfels in 2008 and another in San Antonio in 2011. When farming took a downturn in the early ‘80s, Vickrey’s dad moved the family from their farm in Dickens to Midland, where he worked a schedule of seven days on and seven days off in the oil field. To help fill those days off with something he and his son could do together, Vickrey’s father started a small landscaping company on the side. Today, at 38, Vickrey’s company averages 400 employees total between its four locations. The company has a large commercial maintenance division, an arbor division with a certified arborist on staff, two licensed landscape architects and five designers. Drawn by customers asking them to work on projects in the San Antonio area,

Members of Benchmark Landscape’s team who cover the San Antonio area

Vickrey found the markets to be very similar to Austin. Initially, Benchmark serviced San Antonio out of the New Braunfels branch, but over time, the workload grew enough to necessitate another branch to serve the expansive Alamo City. The two locations have approximately 150 employees between them. Under Jose Ramos, branch manager, the New Braunfels office, covers San Marcos to Northeast San Antonio. Under Jason Connell, branch manager, the San Antonio branch located on the northwest side covers 281 and everything west of it. Recently, Benchmark finished work at Lockhill Crossing and has done a few minor emergency centers for Emerus. Benchmark Landscapes does exclusively commercial work, including hardscape and irrigation. The company is based in Austin with offices in New Braunfels, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. –mh


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Pretty supportive in pink

Team members at Quality Fence & Welding showed their support for breast cancer awareness by wearing pink. L-R: (back row) Daniel Lipscomb, John Hoot, Heber Ibarra,

Bruce Johnston, (middle row) Albert Castillo, Colleen Carey, Dora Rodriguez,(front row) Lori Klug, Jordon Brown, Samantha Pittman –mh

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10843 Gulfdale San Antonio, TX 78216210-829-1793

Serving the construction industry for over 28 years

Space to grow

In a move that brought the Windy City to the Alamo City, SPACECO Inc., a Chi-cago-based civil engineering firm,

opened an office in San Antonio in Feb-ruary. In July, the branch relocated from its original leased space on 410 to a 3,000-sf office on Broadway that offers room for the local team to grow. Tom McCabe, vice president of SPACECO, who is based in Rosemont, IL, came to San Antonio to establish the of-fice with Earl “Mac” McIntosh as branch manager and Tony Recine as senior en-gineer. McIntosh has been working in the construction and development sectors in San Antonio since the mid-‘90s. Recine came to San Antonio in 1994 as a military engineer with the Air Force, stationed at Randolph for four years. He has been in civil engineering and land development for about 16 years now. Part of SPACECO’s culture includes bringing staff up through the company

organically by taking on student interns who can potentially be offered full-time positions upon completion of their de-grees. The head office in Chicago takes on 30 to 40 summer interns from various schools. In March, McCabe and McIntosh met with members of the Engineering Department at UTSA to establish a rela-tionship with them. “Within 24 hours, they got us on their job board so all of their students could see who we are,” explains McIntosh. “And we’re looking for people right now.” McIntosh estimates that 50 percent of their workload is in the Eagle Ford Shale. Projects they are currently working on include mixed-use retail and subdivi-sions. SPACECO provides civil engineering, surveying, consulting and site development services in the residential, industrial and commercial markets, including retail, healthcare, office, and municipal and pub-lic infrastructure work. –mh

L-R: Tony Recine, Tom McCabe and Earl McIntosh have current projects on display in the reception area of SPACECO’s new San Antonio office.

The wide world of wood

In 1992, Bob Wexler broke off the hardwood floor business from the car-pet company he owned at the time to

start Advanced Wood Floors. He and co-owner, Glynn Nickerson, have watched the hardwood industry evolve as their company has grown. As the world has opened from a lo-gistics standpoint, Wexler observes, “An industry in the states that was really driv-en by oak in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s is now being driven by worldwide product: bamboos, acacia, and woods from South Africa, Central America, South America and Indonesia, and lots of wood coming out of Europe.” The artistic nature of wood and the role it plays in the design of a home in-trigued Wexler. As hardwood became more diversified, the product became more popular not only in the residential market but through commercial applica-tions as well. As the industry progressed, Ad-

vanced Wood Floors opened up a divi-sion called the Wood Doctor to serve as the maintenance and supply division. Growing the supply side allowed them to do quality control on all of their installa-tions down to the products used by their crews or subcontractors. Wexler empha-sizes quality control, citing high consum-er expectations due to hardwood being a high-dollar product. He estimates that 35 percent of their work is commercial, 35 percent is new home construction, and 25 to 30 percent is retail and maintenance. They worked on the restoration of the Comal County Courthouse. Last year, they did the entire restoration of the floors in the Bexar County Courthouse using wood that came out of the beams from the original Joske’s building. Advanced Wood Floors sells hardwood flooring and provides any service related to hardwood floors, including installation, maintenance, repair and recoating. –mh

Members of the team at Advanced Wood Floors L-R: Moira Gibbons, Chris Byrom,Katie Steinhour, Michelle Sanchez, Po Phommasenh, Sara Cook-Markgraf, Scott Williams,

Bob Wexler, Michael Schwarz, Fernando Ruiz

With the economy and construc-tion work picking back up over the last few years, Baker Trian-

gle has been keeping busy. Now, the big-gest challenge – for Baker and many oth-er companies – has been finding quali-fied people to work in the field and the office. Michael Sireno, president of Baker Triangle San Antonio, represented the area as a speaker for the Associated Gen-eral Contractors (AGC) of America’s re-cent phone conference. The media call released data obtained through a com-prehensive survey of various construc-tion companies nationwide. Sireno dis-cussed the state of the labor market in a bit more detail. In an interview with Construction News, Sireno notes that he gave first-hand accounts of workforce issues as a representative of the local industry. He explained that Baker is planning to hire for both the field and the office and is having a hard time finding people for po-sitions in both areas. Sireno’s comments were representa-tive of the survey results with an over-whelming 89 percent of respondents re-porting that they expected to hire and a staggering 86 percent of respondents reporting that they are having trouble filling positions. “Several years back, if we wanted to hire, we could just put word of mouth out and we’d have 100 guys coming to the door the next day,” says Sireno. “We’ve been trying to hire for about 50 positions over the last eight months, and now, we get two or three applicants a week some-times.” Sireno notes that Baker has been looking to hire mainly qualified drywall installers. They are also having a difficult time finding qualified salaried employ-

ees. In recent years, Sireno attended a construction management career fair at Texas A&M University in College Station. He observed that there were 112 compa-nies there to hire and only a little more than 60 graduates who attended the fair. One contributing problem to the lack of labor unique to San Antonio is the lure of the oil field. During the slowdown, any construction workers left San Antonio and the surrounding areas to work in the Eagle Ford Shale. Since work has slowed in the shale, many have not yet returned, even though the workforce is eager to re-ceive them. Many workers also left the industry to pursue careers in other fields during the slowdown. Over the last few years, Baker has taken measures to help the company re-tain its talent. Sireno says they have in-creased healthcare coverage and vaca-tion benefits. They also increased their match for the 401K plans, and their aver-age wage has gone up 20 percent in the last two years. –mh

Michael Sireno


Carter RamzelPresident

Benchmark Plumbing

Even though Carter Ramzel’s family tree had a pipeline to the plumbing industry, his experience in the

industry has been on the construction side. However, when his son became a master plumber, Ramzel started a plumbing company, Benchmark Plumbing, to give him his own business in the trade. While his youngest son is approaching the time to go for his master’s license, Ramzel is running Benchmark as well as representing and promoting the trade statewide in the Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors (PHCC).

Where did you grow up? I’m originally from Amarillo. My wife, Charlotte, and I went to school together in Amarillo. I certainly kept an eye on her in high school, but she played hard to get. Lucky me that we crossed paths afterwards and got married. We’ve been married 41 years. My first job out of high school was with the Santa Fe Railroad. I was a switchman/brakeman. I worked about eight years in Amarillo in the Plains Division. My grandfather on my mother’s side was a railroad engineer. My mother worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, and I had a number of cousins that worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, too. That’s how I got into it. One of my great-grandfathers on the Ramzel side was the water and sewer superintendent for the City of Amarillo in the early 1900s. And then Grandfather Ramzel went to work for him, took over and started a separate sewer department for the City of Amarillo. He laid most of the sewer mains that were done in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Did you enjoy working for the railroad? It was a great job. But, I had very difficult hours. I worked a lot of midnight shifts, and I would get called at 1 o’clock in the morning to catch a train at 2 o’clock in the morning that wouldn’t show up until 4 o’clock in the morning, and then would take 12 hours to get somewhere. So, it got old after a while, and I knew I wanted to get out of the railroad. My construction background emerged because I started doing side jobs, painting oil storage tanks in the panhandle area. I would hire crews and go out to do the paint jobs. I knew that I wanted to get into business for myself, and so I went to Amarillo College. I got some basic accounting, English and the basic hours behind me, and I decided that I wanted to go to a university.

I met the requirements to get in, and the University of Texas at Austin accepted me into the business school, which was amazing, because I had never taken any college entrance exam. I picked up my family and quit the railroad and moved to Austin. My wife and I had our two boys. Newman was 5 years old, and Spencer was 2.

What did you do when you got to Austin? To put myself through school, I had to work, and I started painting buildings on the campus at UT. I got into contracting out exterior paint jobs. I painted a lot of buildings on campus. I would look in on my crews between classes. During that same time, I got into doing asbestos removal. My dad came down from Dallas and had a job that he wanted me to do. So, I took those same painters and started doing asbestos removal. I was really making more money than I could justify going to school. I was making a lot of money taking asbestos out of buildings on the UT campus and in state office buildings. So, I quit school and just got into business as Ramzel Texas Services. It was an environmental remediation company.

Tell me about your first company? I ran Ramzel Texas Services from 1983 until 1993. I did asbestos removal, and I worked all over the state. I spent several years at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport taking asbestos out of a couple of the terminals there. I’ve worked in the State Capitol. I’ve worked in most of the state office buildings in Austin. One of my larger jobs was in the old Henry B. Gonzalez Arena, where the Spurs played back in the ‘80s. I also worked in the Institute of Texan Cultures and the old post office across from the Alamo.

What became of that company? In 1992, First City Bank went belly up. The FDIC came in, took over the bank and decided they didn’t really want to be a partner with an environmental company. So, they called my credit line. A company out of California had offered to buy my company just before that happened, and I took advantage of that and sold my business in 1993. I spent a year at an airport in Pflugerville, buying and selling airplanes. I had been flying since I lived in Amarillo. I have a multi-engine instrument rating. I’ve owned a number of airplanes, and that was always something that interested me.

Do you still fly? No. Really, 9/11 took the joy out of flying, made it just incredibly difficult to get on and off an airport. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I owned a 1960 V-tail Bonanza I restored. I owned several multi-engine airplanes. One of them I leased to the State of Texas. I flew for 20 years. I got my private pilot’s license when I was 20 years old. I maintain it today, but I don’t fly much anymore.

What did you do after the airport? We moved back to Amarillo, and I ended up working as a general contractor. I built some schools in Pampa. I built a field house in Dallas for a school district, and I came to San Antonio in 1998 to build an addition at the Children’s Methodist Hospital.

During that time, I got my catastrophe insurance adjuster’s license. In late 1998, a hurricane hit the East Coast, and we ended up on the East Coast for five years, starting in Wilmington, N.C. I was very blessed to have a company take me on as an independent adjuster. My wife and I worked together as a team. We traveled all over the eastern half of the United States. We stayed in Washington D.C. on one storm for two years. It was a great experience to get to see the nation’s Capitol. When 9/11 actually hit, I was working a storm in St. Louis in a hotel. We came back to San Antonio, and I worked for a couple more years as an adjuster on mold and foundation claims here in Texas. At that time, my son, Spencer, had been working as a plumber and had gotten his master plumbing license, and I thought, “What a great time to get off the road and get established in San Antonio.” So, we started Benchmark Plumbing in 2003. Spencer is the vice president and the master plumber.

What does Newman do? Newman is a journeyman plumber and should be taking his master plumbing test in about a year.

What does Charlotte do? She’s a homemaker.

How do you two spend your time together? We have a small ranch out in West Texas that we spend a lot of time on. We have projects there that we do. I reverted back to my railroad days, and I bought a caboose. That project has evolved. It was a very rough caboose that was brought in by the Union Pacific Railroad to San Antonio, transported from San Antonio to Junction and placed on the ranch, and I restored the caboose. That restoration is pretty much complete, and it’s our hunting lodge. It’s fully functional. We spend a lot of time out there, especially on weekends.

What do you have on your ranch? It’s an exotic game ranch. So, we have red stag, axis deer, black buck, aoudad sheep, fallow, whitetail and rather unexotic pigs.

What community organizations are you involved with? I have four grandchildren, and the youngest one, Spencer’s son, who is now

6 years old, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia three years ago. He underwent treatment, and the good Lord took care of us, and He’s blessed our family. He’s a normal, healthy, happy boy today. He’s cancer-free, and Spencer and I try to give back. There are giveaway houses built by St. Jude’s. There’s one underway right now in the Dominion, and we donate our labor, the plumbing services, to give something back to an organization that helps kids like that, and we’ve done several of those houses.

What else do you do in your spare time? For years, I’ve played in church bands. I play guitar and bass. I played in some rock-and-roll bands. I have kind of stopped, because I have another mission right now with the PHCC. I’ll probably get back into playing when my PHCC commitment is over. I’m currently the state president for PHCC, and that’s a one-year commitment, which began in July of this year. It involves a lot of travel around the state. It involves working to try to promote apprenticeship programs and awareness at the high school levels. I spend a good deal of time with the PHCC. I’ve had an opportunity to meet a lot of really good people. That’s consumed a lot of my time in the last two or three years. I’ve been involved with the PHCC for about seven or eight years, but I’ve served on the local chapter board about five years, on the state board about four years, and I served as the local president for two years. Perry Beyer is in that position now, and I took over as the state president.

Do you have any hobbies? I have a ’68 Camaro convertible that I thoroughly enjoy fixing up. I redid the interior on it a couple of years ago. My wife and I like to go out for a drive in it.

Do you have any goals for the near future? Obviously, in the next year, I’ve got a lot of goals that are PHCC-oriented to help the trades get some apprenticeship programs established and get young kids aware of the trade. Beyond that, it’s to transition this company over to my boys. I’m 60. My wife and I may want to go on to another adventure sometime down the road. I have no intention of retiring. I don’t understand that concept. –mh

When Carter Ramzel is not in the office, he and his wife escape to a hunting lodge hemade out of a repurposed caboose on their ranch in West Texas.


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Gaining ground

Electrical contractor JMEG, LP opened its San Antonio office in 2004, just two years after Jerry

Mills, Ray Naizer, Russell Ferraro and Gary Fraser started the company. Today, the branch has more than 70 employees, ranging at times as high as 100. Fraser and Ferraro were working for a publicly traded company when it went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The two then joined Mills and Naizer to form JMEG. Though JMEG also has offices in Dallas and Austin, Fraser emphasizes that the company built its foundation in each city from the ground up. “There’s very little customer carry over from one market [to another],” ex-plains Fraser, San Antonio division man-ager. “So, we have to establish ourselves as a full-service provider in each one of our locations, and our customer base is different at each location. We still pursue some of the same types of work in all three of our locations, but we certainly

have to establish relationships with a dif-ferent customer base.” In San Antonio, JMEG’s market sector is primarily commercial and light indus-trial. The office also has a facilities and service group. Most of the facilities work is for end user and is on specific sites, such as the Toyota plant. On the contract-ing side, JMEG recently started on the new Security Service Federal Credit Union corporate campus. Other leaders in the San Antonio of-fice include Alex Rivas, chief estimator, and J.R. Lopez, who oversees the facili-ties and service group. Wayne Gauntt is operations manager, and he is active in the Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) San Antonio Chapter, where JMEG has members on the board and a barbe-cue team that participates in the annual cook-off. JMEG, LP is an electrical contractor based in Dallas. The San Antonio branch is a full-service, self-contained office. –mh

L-R: Alex Rivas, Wayne Gauntt, JR Lopez and Gary Fraser lead the San Antonio operations.

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The Independent Electrical Contrac-tors (IEC) San Antonio Chapter’s 15th annual golf tournament Sep.

19 at Olympia Hills Golf & Conference Center drew 134 golfers. The fun and challenges included four hole-in-one prizes, a jalapeno drive, a crane ball drop and raffle prizes. –mh

1st Net: Bell & McCoy – Scott Shaver, Brian Zigrang, Ryan Hasbrook, Caney Hines

Wired to win

1st Gross: Summit Electric Supply – Allen O’Dell, Mark Metcalfe, Bob Walsh, Mike Valdez2nd Net: G&M Electric – Greg Bennett, Dave Barrows, Richard Flores, Dillon Mikes3rd Net: Elliott Electric Supply – Tanner Flowers, Justin McCrary, James Sandoval, Chase ArnoldLongest Drive: Allen JohanningmeierClosest to the Pin: Caney Hines

1st Place Net

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Richard Charles Powell, owner and founder of Indus-trial Systems, passed away

Apr. 22 at 70 years old. He was born in Houston Jul. 28, 1944. He was married to his high school sweet-heart, Jo Lynn Monroe, for 48 years. In 1963, Powell began working in construction with his father at Powell & Roberts, Inc. In February 1974, he started his own business, Industrial Systems, a manufactur-er’s representative for commercial and industrial HVAC equipment. His family has been involved with and continues to run the business. In the early ‘80s, he started a second business, Computer Sup-port, Inc., specializing in data cen-ter power and cooling along with the environmental systems, fire suppression and raised flooring. He recently developed the Stancor Oil Diversion System, resolving compliance issues with current el-evator code. He was a founding member and president of the Governors Club, the Olmos Kiwanis Club, and a member of the Lion’s Club, Downtown Rotary, Mechanical Contractors Association (MCA), American Society of Plumbing En-gineers (ASPE), Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors Association (PHCC), and American Society of Heating, Refrigeration & Air Condi-tioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Survivors include his wife, Jo Lynn; son, Richard; daughter, Kim-berly; brother, Michael T. Powell; grandchildren, Kaitlynn, Richard, James, Connor and Carson; as well as many nieces, nephews and oth-er family members. –mh

In memoriam

The Associated Builders and Con-tractors (ABC) South Texas Chapter held the graduation ceremony for

its 2014-15 apprenticeship class Sep. 26 at Dave & Buster’s. The graduates enjoyed a catered lunch and then walked across the stage to receive their diploma and certificates in front of friends and family. This year’s graduating class was comprised of 10 electricians, two plumb-ers and eight sheet metal workers, and represented 13 different construction

Apprentices’ big day

The ABC Apprenticeship Class of 2015

companies. The graduates were Jason Balderas, Edgar L. Baring Jr., Michael A. Cisneros, Gino G. Flores, Jesus Gallegos Jr., Sabino Gonzales, Luis A. Gutierrez, Miguel A. Junco, Jon M. Kutz, Edward Lares, Lance A. Leveque, Ricky J. Little, David Longoria, Carlos McCumber Jr., Michael S. Miller, Matthew Nieto, Jose L. Santibanez, Wil-liam T. Stewart, Travis C. Thomas and John C. Wiesner.


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Fishing, but not forgetting

The Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors San Antonio Chapter (PHCC) held its 22nd annual fishing

tournament Oct. 3 in Rockport. The tournament drew approximately 175 attendees with 130 anglers participating. They also had more than $5,500 in raffles, and Sonny Helmick won the $10 gun raffle. This year’s event was a memorial tournament honoring members of the PHC industry who have passed away in the last year: Mark Spiekerman, Gibson Plumbing; Les Tschoepe Sr., Guarantee Plumbing; Martin “Sonny” Bauml, Martin Bauml Plumbing; George Clark,

1st Place Team at the PHCC Memorial Fishing Tournament

Heavy Trout Winning Team

George Clark Plumbing; and Richard Powell, Industrial Systems. –mh

Heavy Stringer1st: Marbach Plumbing (14.13 lbs.)2nd: Moore Supply/Tietze Plumbing (12.43 lbs.)3rd: Southwest Sales (11.33 lbs.) Heavy Red: Pepco Sales (7.5 lbs.)Heavy Trout: PMI Sales (2.81 lbs., 20 3/8”)Heavy Flounder: National Wholesale Supply (2.31 lbs.)Most Spots on Redfish: Beyer Plumbing 3 spots)

Heavy Flounder Winning Team

www.constructionnews.net

Concrete fete

Three hundred forty-one design pro-fessionals, contractors, material suppliers and distributors from

around North America kicked it up in downtown Cowtown Oct. 14-16. Hosted at Fort Worth’s Hilton Hotel, the Interna-tional Concrete Repair Institute’s (ICRI) Fall Convention was the second largest ever held by the association. Attendees enjoyed a chapter party at Billy Bob’s Tex-as Club, a large group tour of AT&T Stadi-um, a golf tournament and a project awards reception. –mjm

The group took a tour of the AT&T Stadium.

L-R: George D. Alan Company’s Andy Bautz, Sika Corporation’s Leslie and Bill Light and

Texas Concrete Restoration’s Pete and Carol Haveron enjoy fajitas at Billy Bob’s Texas

Club.

WJE’s Doug Smith and wife Kim at Billy Bob’s for the North Texas chapter-sponsored party Friday evening.

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The small business owner’sretirement dilemmaKirk Quaschnick, PresidentMogul Wealth Strategies LLCMcKinney TX

You’ve poured a lifetime of sweat, time, and capital into building your construction business. You’ve

begun thinking about retirement, and your strategy is to sell your company for a good price, settle back, and enjoy a financially secure retirement. But, like many

business owners, you’ve made the mistake of assuming this scenario will happen, and you haven’t bothered to make other retirement plans.

You need to be realistic. What are the odds of a person showing up at the right time with cash in hand to buy the company for a fair price? For thousands of small business owners each year, no one steps forward. Perhaps the business is too specialized or is tied too closely to the owner’s unique personality and skills. Maybe possible buyers equate retirement sale with a distress sale and make only low-ball offers. Whatever the reason, many owners find that their company has suddenly become a white elephant that nobody wants.

Select and develop a successor. That’s why it’s so important to prime a replacement—someone who will buy your company when you’re ready to retire. Maybe this is a current co-owner (but be careful if he or she is about the same age as you, and planning to retire around the same time.) Or it’s your son or daughter active in the business, or a younger key employee. Business owners in the construction industry who successfully groom their own replacements leave nothing to chance. They realize that there’s no room for error at the point of retirement. Here are some steps you should take:Be cautious. Make sure your heir apparent is the right person in terms of temperament, personality, competence, and personal goals.Set up a probation period so you can terminate the relationship if you find that this person will not work out. During that period, keep everything informal, strictly verbal. Even when you go to a formal agreement, make sure it contains a termination provision.Offer incentives to ensure that your replacement stays until the baton is passed. An ambitious successor needs and deserves gradually increasing authority and benefits. Options include deferred compensation or the opportunity to acquire partial ownership prior to your retirement. This provides both parties with something to win by sticking to the agreement, and

something to lose if it falls apart.Create a buy-sell agreement. With the help of your attorney, lock in who does and gets what, spelling out all details and caveats, including how to establish the final valuation of the business. This formal agreement protects everybody.Build in a funding mechanism. This is crucial. No matter how good the terms of the buy/sell agreement, it will be worthless if the money is not there when needed to carry out the plan. Under one option, the successor may be able to purchase the company from ongoing profits. Other options include setting up a sinking fund or allowing the successor to simply borrow the money. These options may work but they leave much to chance. Instead, consider a funding vehicle that protects your family in the event of your disability or premature death, such as life and disability income insurance.Have a Plan B. As a business owner, you know that very few things go exactly as planned. What if your business hits tough times or your successor dies, becomes disabled, or leaves because of a personality conflict? Or what if there simply is no heir apparent waiting in the wings? Sometimes, it’s simply best to dismantle the business. Whether or not you have a possible successor for your construction company, you should begin mapping out your retirement strategy today. Your insurance professional or your independent professional advisors can work with you to help you develop a sound business strategy. Kirk G. Quaschnick, CLU, ChFC, ARPC, is the president and co-founder of Mogul Wealth Strategies, LLC in McKinney, TX. Since 1992, Kirk has helped his clients in financial, business, and estate planning, as well as financial advising, investment advisory and wealth management services to business owner executives and individuals. For additional information on the information or topic discussed, please contact Kirk at 214-420-7152, or email him at [email protected].

Revenue recognition –it’s time for changeLeslie Guajardo, CPA, CCIFPPadgett Stratemann & Co., PartnerSan Antonio, TX

Revenue is one of the most important measures used by investors and owners in assessing a company’s

performance and prospects. However, recognition standards differ in accounting principles generally

accepted in the United States (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). For years, we have been hearing about the potential effects of the proposed revenue recognition standards and Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2014-09 was issued on May 28, 2014. While the road to a final regulation is still being paved, the rule-makers are getting closer every day.

Earlier this year, the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted to defer the effective date of ASU 2014-09 for one year. As a result, public entities would apply the new standard to annual reporting periods beginning after Dec. 15, 2017; nonpublic entities in 2018.

The new guidance is aimed at removing inconsistencies and weaknesses in existing requirements; providing a framework for addressing issues; improving comparability of revenue recognition across entities, industries, and jurisdictions; and providing more useful information to users of financial statements through enhanced disclosures.

The key to understanding the major changes is to first understand the five steps to consider with each contract:

1. Identify contract with the customer 2. Identify separate performance obligations in the contract 3. Determine the transaction price 4. Allocate transaction price to performance obligations 5. Recognize revenue as performance obligations are satisfied

In most cases, entities would apply this five-step model to each contract awarded. However, in situations where the entity combines multiple contracts for purposes of revenue recognition, the standard states an entity can account for a portfolio of similar contracts together if the contracts are entered into at or near the same time, the contracts are negotiated with a single commercial objective, the amount of consideration in one contract depends on the other contract, and the goods promised are a single performance obligation.

Conversely, one contract could result in several performance obligations. If you determine you do not have separate performance obligations, the revenue recognition process remains basically unchanged. If you determine you do have separate obligations, you would continue with steps 3-5 above, which require the contract amount to be allocated among the performance obligations. Each obligation would then be accounted for as a separate job.

If a contract modification or change order arises, the contractor must determine whether it should be accounted for as part of the existing contract or a new one. If the modification changes only the transaction price, the entity would apply the requirements for allocating the new price to the existing obligations. If the modification changes the scope of the project so that a distinct obligation arises and the entity has a right to consideration that reflects the standalone price of the additional good, the change would be accounted for as a new contract.

The AICPA has formed 16 industry task forces to help develop a new Accounting Guide on Revenue Recognition that will provide illustrative examples for how to apply the new standard, with construction contractors being one of them. So, get your CPAs involved and be prepared to plan early.

Leslie V. Guajardo, CPA, CCIFP, is a partner at Padgett, Stratemann & Co., L.L.P. She can be reached at 210-253-1530 or [email protected].


Gasoline – On Road Diesel – Off Road DieselOn Site Fueling – Wet Hosing – Temporary Loaner Tanks

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New OSHA electronic resourcesJoann NatarajanCompliance Assistance SpecialistOSHAAustin, TX

OSHA has issued a number of downloadable re-sources on the osha.gov website recently to en-

hance workplace safety.

OSHA publication 3755, Protecting Roofing Workers, addresses fall protec-tion, ladders, scaffolds, lifts, electrical and roofing operations, roofing tools and personal protective equipment.

OSHA released publication 3825 Protect-ing Construction Workers in Confined Space: Small Entity Compliance Guide in September 2015 to assist construction employers in complying with the new confined space rule that was issued in May 2015. This publication covers con-fined spaces, permit spaces and duties of the competent person, entry supervisor, entrants and attendants.

A new publication, OSHA 3824 enti-tled Resource for Development and De-livery of Training to Workers concentrates on how adult learning and techniques to ensure an effective training session. In-cluded are best practices for training adults, best classroom layouts, a checklist of adult education, and program evalua-tion.

OSHA issued a Fact Sheet on All Ter-rain Vehicle safety. ATV’s are used to haul small loads and have been involved in 321 fatal accidents between 2003 and 2011. OSHA Fact Sheet 3758 gives some safety guidance on using ATV’s.

OSHA Info Sheet 3818, Health Effects from Contaminated Water in Eyewash Stations, addresses proper maintenance of eyewash stations to prevent bacterial eye infections.

OSHA issued three fact sheets on the proposed Beryllium rule. OSHA Fact Sheet 3821 provides an overview of the

proposed Beryllium law and what re-quirements OSHA is contemplating in the rule, OSHA Fact Sheet 3822 discusses the health effects of Beryllium, which is a hu-man carcinogen. OSHA Info Sheet 3823 discusses Beryllium Safety in the Work-place and the types of industries and pro-cesses where Beryllium is encountered, and ways to reduce and control exposure to this human carcinogen.

OSHA and NIOSH issued a Hazard Alert on Worker Exposure to Silica during Countertop Manufacturing, Finishing and Installation. Engineered stone, quartzite, sandstone, granite, slate and soapstone countertops contain varying amounts of silica, which when cut and worked can release silica if precautions are not taken.

OSHA publications 3780 and 3781 cover temporary workers. OSHA 3780 ad-dresses who is responsible for providing and paying for personal protective equipment. OSHA 3780 makes clear that both the host employer and temporary company are responsible for temporary worker safety. OSHA 3781 covers the Whistleblower protections afforded all employees. The host employer and tem-porary company are jointly held respon-sible in the event that retaliation occurs.

All of the publications mentioned can be downloaded from the OSHA web-site at:http : //www.osha.gov/dcsp/compli-ance_assistance/new_ca_products.html

[email protected] x232

210-587-7634www.GPSofTexas.com

“Pay-if-Paid” still means“Pay-if-Paid”Shelly Masters, PrincipalCokinos Bosien & YoungAustin, TX

In the not too distant past, construction contractors of all tiers were highly concerned about the enforceability

of “pay-if-paid” clauses in construction contracts, making payment by a general contractor to a

subcontractor “contingent” upon the general contractor’s receipt of payment from the owner. Many were confused about the difference between pay-if-paid and pay-when-paid clauses, with good reason, as even Texas courts were often split on their interpretation. Many others were simply concerned about paying without being paid (general contractors) or getting paid (subcontractors). Despite the passage of law aggressively sought by contractor groups defining contingent payment clauses and their enforceability, many general contractors and most subcontractors fail to use the law to their benefit even today.

Contractors often put contingent payment clauses in their subcontracts. Contracts without pay-if-paid clauses are dangerous to general contractors because they may be forced to pay subcontractors and suppliers without ever receiving payment from the owner. The contractor uses these clauses to avoid financial disaster, by spreading among the subcontractors the risk of nonpayment if the owner fails to pay the contractor. Pay-if-paid clauses are dangerous for subcontractors because these clauses shift the risk of owner nonpayment from general contractors to subcontractors. A “pay if paid” provision in a subcontract provides that the general contractor is only obligated to pay the subcontractor if it is paid by the owner. Subcontractors frequently attempt to negotiate the removal of such clauses or revise them to become pay-when-paid clauses. In reality, however, subcontractors often lack the leverage needed to completely negotiate away such clauses. Texas law does not prohibit the use of contingent payment clauses, but does restrict their enforceability against “innocent” subcontractors if the owner’s nonpayment is due to its own insolvency or the misconduct of the general contractor or another subcontractor. If the contingent payment provision is interpreted as a pay-if-paid, then there are four exceptions to the application of the clause: (1) the owner’s or upstream contractor’s refusal to pay is caused by the principal’s failure to meet its obligations; (2) the contingent payment clause is contained in a sham contract; (3) the downstream contractor provides timely notice objecting to the enforcement of the contingency payment clause; or (4) the enforcement of the clause would be unconsdonable The application of any of these exceptions will depend heavily on the facts and

circumstances of the claim. Pursuant to the law codified in Section 35.521 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code, the contingent payment clause is an affirmative defense of a general contractor to a claim for payment in a civil lawsuit for breach of contract. There are some exceptions and safe harbors of which subcontractors in Texas may take advantage so long as they meet some critical notice deadlines not unlike those required by the Texas mechanic’s lien statute. Also, §35.521(i) states that a contingent payment clause cannot be used to invalidate the enforcement or perfection of a mechanic’s lien for labor performed or materials furnished. Likewise, no party can be forced to give up its rights to object to the enforcement of a contingent payment clause. Despite improvement in the volume of Texas construction projects, lawsuits for lack of payment on construction projects are filed almost daily. The contingent payment law provides an avenue of collection for subcontractors and suppliers suffering from nonpayment. Conversely, it establishes a method to further protect their enforceability for general contractors or other upper tier contractors. However, it has no effect on those in the construction industry who unknowingly or intentionally fail to avail themselves of the protections of the law they worked so hard to get. Shelly Masters is a principal in the Austin office of Cokinos Bosien & Young. She represents clients in the areas of construction, labor and employment, commercial, and products liability law. Cokinos Bosien & Young has been representing the construction industry for over 25 years. Her firm has additional offices in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at (512) 615-1139.


Together, husband and wife Steven and Sherill Stanush have built S&S Plumbing Contractors with the

help of Steven’s experience and relation-ships in the construction industry and Sherill’s experience in customer service and the corporate world.

Partners in the trade

Though Steven dabbled in welding, his friendships drew him into the plumb-ing trade, where he tested the waters as an apprentice and then returned to weld-ing. He came into the plumbing trade full-time in 1989, and spent 16 years cov-ering a broad spectrum of work, includ-ing residential, commercial, service and insurance. Working as a corporate trainer for a mutual fund company, Sherill did a lot of customer service training. She put her ca-reer on hold to focus on their sons, Tyler and Spencer. When Steven decided to start his own business, she took business management courses at St. Philip’s Col-lege and supported him by joining the plumbing world. Steven notes that it has been reward-ing “seeing some of these apprentices who knew nothing of the plumbing in-dustry, and they came on board with us and worked their way up. To see them grow and get married or expand their families has been a real plus, because you can see that you’ve actually helped them to learn a trade.” S&S projects include convenience stores, banks, retail centers, shell build-ings, churches, gyms, restaurants and tenant finish out work. Outside the office, the couple is very active with the ACTS community at St. Ann Roman Catholic Church in La Vernia, where they live. They also enjoy fishing at the Texas coast and skiing in New Mexico. Based in Converse and started in June 2006, S&S Plumbing does new construction work exclusively in the commercial market, and 95 percent of their work on the service side is commercial. –mh

Sherill Stanush and Steven Stanush are the “S” and “S” in their company, S&S Plumbing.

What is yourfavorite movie?

“Last of the Mohicans,” I guess. I just en-joy it because of the excitement, the characters, the music and the scenery.

Jim Srp, Better Built Enterprises

My favorite movie is probably “Bull Dur-ham.” I like baseball, and Costner’s al-ways fun to watch.

Bob RathburnBetter Built Enterprises

It’s a gritty movie and I hate to say it, but “Pulp Fiction.” At the time it came out, I had never seen a movie that had the kinds of twists and turns it had. It was re-ally kind of a visceral movie, but it was edgy. It seemed to make comedy out of bad situations.

Michael Shanahan, Alterman Electric

I went from an engineering firm to an ar-chitecture firm, and that was quite an eye-opening experience. I told people it was like “The Wizard of Oz” movie, going from black and white into a world of col-or. And that’s actually one of my favorite movies, and it’s because it has such great childhood memories. Every year, my mom sat us down to watch that movie, and she made popcorn and all of these other special treats that we didn’t nor-mally have. I carry that in my heart al-ways.

Eva Ramirez, RVK Architects

Right now, of the ones I’ve seen over the last two or three years, probably “Ameri-can Sniper,” because of the overall story behind it, from the family to what he did. It’s just a good, inspiring story.Casey Vickrey, Benchmark Landscapes

I like “If You Could See What I Hear,” be-cause it’s based on a true story. It’s in re-gard to a gentleman who’s blind but makes his way through the world and overcomes his disability and is successful doing it.

Shawn Kaarlsen, SK&A

Probably “Big Lebowski,” because I can relate to it.

Carter Ramzel, Benchmark Plumbing

“Saving Private Ryan.” I think it’s the one war movie that shows the sacrifices and commitments our veterans and current servicemen make for our country. My uncles were in World War II, and I think it showed what war is really like. It just put things in perspective.

Francisco Valadez, SA Partnership

“Unforgiven” with Clint Eastwood. It’s just a really good Western.

Zach Hayes Baker, Solar Electric Texas

“Goonies.” It clicks with my younger days, and it came out at just the right time when my life seemed together.

Bobby Sidoma, Solar Electric Texas

My favorite movie has always been “Grease” with Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. I can watch it over and over again. I just love the music and the ro-mance about it.

Tammy Thompson, Traugott Inc.

My favorite movie right now is “War Room,” because there’s a real God out there and He’s there for us.

Brian RiebelAcacia Landscape & Design

Possibly “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” I’ve al-ways really liked it. I love the story. It’s comical, but it makes you cry. It’s Audrey Hepburn, and her character lives this wonderfully glamorous lifestyle that ev-ery girl wants to have.Brooke Matherne, B-C Equipment Sales

It’s a John Carpenter movie called “Big Trouble in Little China.” Kurt Russell was the lead actor in it. I’m a huge movie buff. In fact, I used to run kind of an amateur movie review website in my spare time. Movies are near and dear to my heart. And in that movie, there’s just something about blending the action, humor and a little bit of dark comedy that just sits re-ally well with me.

Chris Narendorf, O’Connell Robertson

Current and Past editionscan be downloaded at

www.ConstructionNews.net

Did youknow?

Going with the backflowSubmitted to Construction News

The Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors (PHCC) San Antonio Chapter awarded Bruce Rathburn, San Antonio Water Systems (SAWS) and part-time instructor for Bac-Flo

Unlimited, the Exemplary Citizens Award Oct. 8 at SAWS. He was chosen for his work in backflow protection. L-R: Heidi Trimble, PHCC San Antonio executive director; Bruce

Rathburn, SAWS; and Don Harrell, Harrell Plumbing, PHCC San Antonio board member –mh


A model team member

Michael ShanahanAltermanIBEW 60/NECASouth Texas Electrical JATC

Texas Apprentice

When Michael Shanahan was grow-ing up, his father would point out

bridges he built. Today, Shanahan has left his own mark on the world around him through his job in the electrical trade. “With my two sons, I can now drive around San Antonio, and say, ‘I helped build that hospital’ or ‘I helped build this plant’ or ‘this data center,’” he says. “There’s a lot of pride in that.” In the third year of his five-year ap-prenticeship, Shanahan has been learning the electrical trade through South Texas Electrical, a joint appren-ticeship program of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the National Electrical Con-tractors Association (NECA). For two-and-a-half years, he has also been learning in the field as an electrical ap-prentice at Alterman Inc. He likes being able to incorporate the hands-on learning and having a job while being able to learn in a classroom and have a dialogue with the instruc-tors and other apprentices about is-sues that arise while working in the field. He likes learning in two different environments that complement each other. Before he entered the industry, Shanahan was in healthcare. After graduating from high school, he spent four years in the Marines where he served as a bulk fuel specialist under the engineering section. He believes his time in this position prepared him

well for the physical demands of being in the trade, and now, at 35, instead of moving fuel from one place to another, he moves electricity. Shanahan was in the healthcare field for quite a while, but when he and his wife, Stefanie, had their second son, he began looking for something else that would help him provide better and with more benefits for his family. While he was in the Marines, Sha-nahan and Stefanie first met at the wedding of mutual friends and kept in touch for about 10 years before finally starting to date. With her legal back-ground, she works in risk management. They’ve been married for five years now, and they have two boys, Michael, whom they call Mikey, 4, and Colin, 2. Shanahan spends all of his spare time with his family, as he explains, “We’re just doing the fun things with the kids right now; teaching them how to ride bikes and trying to get them in-terested in the world. “Actually – a funny kind of thing we’re doing – my wife and I aren’t really originally from Texas. So we’ve got this plan of going around to all the court-houses in Texas and taking pictures with the kids.” –mh

More than a decade ago, Bill Kru-pa was at the same company as Jim Filipowicz doing insurance

restoration work. In March of this year, Krupa returned to insurance restoration, joining Filipowicz at his own company, Jim Filipowicz & Associates (JF&A) as a senior project manager. During the 11 years in between, Kru-pa served as vice president at Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio, running the construction department and site devel-opment for new building sites. With a de-gree in architectural design from St. Phil-ip’s College, he also designed the homes that the organization is building now. “I enjoyed working with all the vol-unteers and meeting a lot of different people from all walks of life who were there to donate their time and effort to build for other people,” says Krupa. He notes that restoration work is dif-ferent every day, which he finds exciting and has missed about it. Currently, he’s running jobs for JF&A in San Antonio, Austin, Lakeway, Round Rock, Leander, Bastrop, and Hot Springs, AR. Those jobs still appeal to his passion for helping oth-ers. “Even though a disaster or tragedy has usually struck [the owner’s property], it’s neat to be the one to put it all back together for them and to help them get their lives back in order,” Krupa said. Originally from Houston, Krupa moved here with his family in 1980 when he was in seventh grade. He grew up help-ing his father build and fix things around the house. As a sophomore in high school, he designed his first house, which was built by J.B. “Ben” Gammil, a builder in the Marble Falls area. After graduating, he worked for Gammil for a year before going

to college and eventually getting into resi-dential remodeling, repair work and pro-duction home building. At 47, Krupa has been married to his wife, Julie, for 25 years, and they have three daughters, Ashley, Emily and Amanda. In February, the couple started fostering 11-month-old twin girls. Krupa has been doing the MS 150 bike rides for about 20 years, and the last six years, his oldest daughter has done the MS 150 from Houston to Austin with him. About 25 years ago, Krupa started collecting diecast models of cars, trucks and construction equipment. Today, he has just under 500 pieces, about 25 of which are construction models. But the Porsche part of his collection, about 60 models, is his favorite. He also likes to invent things. He cur-rently has one patent issued to him and two more patents pending, both of which he is currently in negotiations with manufacturers to license and manufac-ture. –mh

Bill Krupa has several diecast models of construction equipmenton display in his office at JF&A.

Before her first deployment, Zully Andrade, stepdaughter of

Construction News sales rep Kent Gerstner, receives promotion to

Private First Class. A proud soldier in the Army’s 24th Composite Supply Company, Zully specializes in water

testing, treatment and purification. –cw

Army strongSubmitted to Construction News


It’s Construct A Kid’s Christmas, Charlie BrownThursday, December 3, 2015

5:30 to 11 pmThe Expo Hall at Freeman Coliseum

A Peanuts Themed Eventbenefi ting the Bexar County Foster Children

Tickets include Full Buffet, Beer & Wine • Cash Bar will be availableMusic by Texas Unlimited Band • Dancing • Casino Games

Everyone attending is requested to bring an unwrapped gift or toy for the kids.

Register Early Before10/31/15 and Pay:

Corporate Sponsor $1,650Gold Sponsor $550Program $275Table for 10 $700Individual Tickets $65

Beverage Sponsors $1,000Casino Sponsors $1,000

Diamond Sponsor $2,500Only 2 Available ONLY 1 LEFT!

Corporate Sponsor $1,850Gold Sponsor $650Program $325Table for 10 $775Individual Tickets $75

Register After10/31/15 and Pay:

Other SponsorshipLevels

For Registration, Sponsorship Opportunities or to donate Auction Items, please contact Gala Co-Chairs:Sandee Morgan [email protected] OR Karen Ridout [email protected]

A 501(C)3 non-profi t organizationwww.CAKC-SA.org

Rebecca RowellOffice ManagerAdvanced Door Control

Industry FOLKS

Rowell and one of her horses,“Deana Kardashian”

At Advanced Door Control, Rebecca Rowell is a jack-of-all-trades. As

office manager, she does all of the accounting, service, order parts, ship parts, and anything else that needs to be done. But, she says, everyone does their share around the office, including her friend and the owner of Advanced Door Control, Brad Maze. Previously, Rowell and Maze worked together at another door company. In her 12 years there, she worked with Maze for about 10, and then they both left the company. Then, they reunited at Advanced Door Control. Born and raised in East Texas, Rowell worked for a pharmaceutical company in the animal industry while she was in high school. She really enjoyed the job, and so, in the interests of pursuing a career in that field, she attended Texas State Technical College in Waco and Sul Ross State University in Alpine to get her degree in animal science. Though she didn’t enter the pharmaceutical industry after graduating, she ran a feed store for a while before entering the door industry. “I’m a registered animal technician,” adds Rowell. “I do the same thing as a registered nurse but for animals.” Though she briefly worked for Texas Trophy Hunters as a promotions buyer, Rowell has been working in the door business for more than 20 years. Her husband, Stewart, has been working at UPS for more than 30 years. Rowell has three children. Her daughter Carlie Rauschuber, is a registered dietician and recently

started working for Judson ISD. Her son, Justin, recently got out of the Navy and is working for HP. She also had a daughter, Randa, who passed away when she was 11. Today, Rowell and her husband have three grandchildren, and being grandparents is one of their two main hobbies. Their other hobby is riding competitively in their spare time. Rowell is a barrel racer, and Stewart is a team roper. Almost every weekend, they hit the road, headed to barrel races, team ropings or rodeos. They primarily stay in Texas, but every now and then, they travel to Oklahoma, Louisiana and even Mississippi to compete for big jackpots. Horses are one of Rowell’s biggest passions. At 52, she has been running barrels for 50 years, winning her first high point at age 2. Her mother rode, and she explains that her whole family was just raised riding. Rowell has two brothers and two sisters, and she is the only one who has stayed with it. She and her husband have six horses total, two roping horses and four barrel horses, at their home in Adkins. –mh

A mover and a smoker

Even though trailers and barbecue pits are two completely different products, there are some examples

where the two meet – in Helotes, for ex-ample. Helotes Trailers and Helotes Pits have co-existed for the past two years as subsidiaries of Gavin Steel Fabrication. Raul Morales owns all three companies, having started out as Quality Grills & Smoker in 1992. Soon, the company was renamed 3M Steel, and then, in 1999, it was renamed Gavin Steel after the birth of Morales’ son, Gavin. Helotes Pits began in 1993, and two decades later, in September 2013, Mo-rales also established Helotes Trailers. The trailer company sells new and pre-owned trailers, including utility trailers, dump trailers, water trailers, goosenecks, flatbed, and recently, they have begun selling military trailers, too. The pit com-pany offers barbecue pits from small home and backyard sizes to competition and business sizes.

Jesus Chavero, salesman for both companies, has been working for Mo-rales for a year now and says that he came on board because it was “a better job opportunity to grow as a person,” and he enjoys his job. He notes that the companies have been busy with custom-ers from all over San Antonio and the sur-rounding areas, as well as Houston, Dallas and even Mexico. He estimates that approximately 20 percent of the business on the trailer side comes from construction-related indus-tries, but the pit side has a wide variety of customers. Though the customer base doesn’t crossover, the products do have a point where they meet – the pit company sells trailers with a pit already mounted on it. Helotes Pits sells barbecue pits, smoker pits and trailer pits. Helotes Trailers sells trailers that can be used for a wide variety of needs and services, including landscap-ing, moving equipment and fuel. Both busi-nesses are located in Helotes. –mh

Jesus Chavero sells new and used barbecue pits for Helotes Pits,but he also sells for its sister company, Helotes Trailers.


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

FISHING AND HUNTING TRIPS

(361) 949-7359www.baffi nbaycharters.com

[email protected]

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

STEVE SCHULTZ OUTDOORS, LLC

The Change of Seasons

by Capt. Steve Schultz

Sponsored by:Premier Yamaha Boating Center, Majek Boats, E-Z Bel Construction, Power Pole Shallow Water Anchor, Aggregate Haul-

ers, ForEverlast Hunting and Fishing Products and Columbia Sportswear.

As we prepare to enter the winter season, look for changing patterns in speckled trout and redfish action. Starting in late October and early November, cool fronts will start arriving dropping water temperatures and barometric pressures. Contrary to popular belief, nice weather is not always the best fishing weather, therefore I try to avoid days right after a cold front when both skies and pressures are high. Planning your day prior to these pre-fronts and post-fronts conditions can pay off in big dividends. Be prepared to fish longer days, sometimes with fewer bites as fish tend to feed less frequently during cooler months.

By the time this column is in your hands, I will probably have made the transition from live fin-fish to lures or perhaps live shrimp when available. Wading the banks of the King Ranch shoreline from the JFK to Baffin will be the norm except when drifting the deeper rocks. Resident trout and redfish will begin their feeding habits preparing for the winter. I also expect the red tide conditions to be completely gone from our bay complex. and jigs should be changed or at least sharpened. Rods and reels, lubed and tuned and ready for countless casts.

Planning your outing on the water should be thought out before you get to the ramp, at least the first couple of spots you intend to fish. If things go as planned, pat yourself on the back and make some mental notes on what the conditions are. If the wheels start to fall off, be prepared to make a major change or grind it out if you have confidence in that spot. Topwater lures will be one of my early morning choices before water temps drop below the 70 degree mark. MirrOlure She Dog and She Pup are excellent choices because of the high pitch sounds they produce. The MirrOdine and Pro Dog Jr. are also very productive when your looking for a smaller presentation.

Before closing, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels. I would also like to give thanks to all the sponsors listed above for the support throughout the season. Without you, none of this would be possible.

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

Good luck and Good Fishing.

Bubba Storbeck of San Antonio still able to get it done catching this 27 in. redfishlast week on a fishing outing withSteve Schultz Outdoors.

Serving San Antonio & South Texas since 1984

Specializing inMachine Laid Curb

23306 Blanco RoadSan Antonio, Tx 78260

Email: [email protected]


Half or Full Day Fishing Trips

All Bait, Tackle & EquipmentFurnished

Your catch Filleted andBagged for You

Furnish your TPWD FishingLicense & Refreshments,

and WE DO THE REST!

Ken Milam Guide Service(325) 379-2051

www.striperfever.com

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

You know Texas is blessed with weird extreme weather. It is notorious for having just about every kind of

weather you can think of happening at once in the state on the same day. This year though has been exceptionally strange. We started out the year still suffering from the drought. Spring and summer brought good beneficial rains to some, devastating floods to others, and mostly skipped the rest of us. Thank goodness we did catch some good inflows for our Highland Lakes. A lot of the storms skirted the northwestern Hill County, but did drop enough moisture on some of the watershed to give us a couple nice shots of fresh water. Lake levels have improved, and even though they are on their way back down, we sure are thankful. Then late summer flipped the weather coin on us. An awful lot of Texas didn’t see more than a spit of rain for two or three months. All that wonderful moisture we gained earlier greened everything up, gave us back our wildflowers and made ranchers hopeful about restoring their herds. Our wildlife also reaped the bounty of new growth. Food and water and cover were plentiful for them, so the deer had a great fawn crop with lots of twins, and antler growth on the bucks for this year is really nice. By late summer all the overgrown vegetation started baking in the sun becoming nothing more than a fire hazard. You will need to take extra care about the wildfire threat at the hunting lease this year. The water tanks and creeks started drying up,

forcing every thirsty critter in the wild to have to travel further in search of water. If you are hunting this year, a good water trough might draw more game than a feeder. Does have been getting separated from the fawns (if not abandoning them altogether), so we see an awful lot of deer getting run over, as well as those darned feral hogs. If you are out on the roads for hunting trips or holiday travel, stay safe. Don’t speed or tailgate because you never know what might run out in front of you. So far on most lakes the fish haven’t been able to quite make out what they should do. The number of daylight hours is telling them they need to start feeding hard to get ready for spawning in the spring. They try to bite, but the water temperature is so high yet that it seems to spoil their appetite. Hopefully by the time you read this in Nov. summer will finally be over and everything will be back on its seasonal track. Then it will be “Fish on!” because they are gonna be hungry. I hope by the time you read this we will have cooled off and started getting some rain! Don’t forget to get out and vote for Proposition 6 on Nov. 3! We need to pass this amendment to protect our right to hunt and fish in Texas into the future! Some states have already failed to protect this fundamental right simply because nobody bothered to show up and vote for an amendment to keep what they already had. Please don’t let this happen in Texas!

Weather Roller Coaster….are we going up or falling down?

Kenneth Priess Construction, Fredericksburg, Tx, Oct. 3, 2015

Hot sun rising over Lake Buchanan


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Sandee Morgan, executive director of the Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (MCA-SMACNA), reeled in some very nice catches on her recent trip to the coast. She caught these two at the land cut about 50 miles

south of Corpus Christi. –mh

Going south for the big fish

Guide Johnny Mendeleski and Sandee Morgan with her 30” redfishGayle Reynolds, Parrish & Co; Carl Morgan, Builder’s Discount Appliance;

and Sandee Morgan with her 28” trout

It was too windy for the hot air balloons to fly, but they inflated them for a colorful and spectacular night burn at the Balloon Fest in Floresville, TX. the weekend of Oct 17. Sue Johnson and Kent Gerstner, Construction

News, attended with their families. –sj

Up and away

Mary Hazlett, (aka Snow White) editor for San Antonio Construction News, wants you

to know that it’s not too late to show off your Halloween photos! We want pictures

of you and your company or family dressed up for Halloween – from the fairest of the

fair to the ghastliest of ghouls – for our spooktacular coverage! Please send your

photos to [email protected] by Nov. 15 to be included.

Halloweenisn’t over!


If you haven’t bought your tickets, you might miss out on the best and biggest Construct A Kid’s Christmas (CAKC)

the San Antonio construction community has ever seen. The Peanuts gang has been pulling double duty, putting together the largest annual event in the industry, the Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, while building Snoopy’s barbecue trailer, custom made to be the gala’s largest raffle prize yet. This year is the 15th anniversary of the gala, which will be Dec. 3 from 5:30-11pm, and the gala now has approximately 67,500sf of space in Exhibit Hall C of the Freeman Expo Hall. That means it’s not too late to reserve your seats now, because there is more room than ever before to welcome guests who want to help Bexar County foster children while enjoying the ultimate construction community Christmas party. Mark Jones, Structure Tone Southwest, declares, “It’s the event of the year! As far as the construction industry pulling together for a great cause to help our underprivileged kids in San Antonio, there’s nothing like it. It’s so fulfilling, and we get the camaraderie of hanging out with all of our friends.” While the gala will feature many raffle and auction prizes, the hottest one is Snoopy’s Cook Shack Raffle. The custom-made 16-foot enclosed barbecue trailer will let everyone know, “It’s a Construct A Kid’s Christmas, Charlie Brown.” Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy and the gang rallied the construction community to donate materials to make this cook shack something extra special. The trailer has ruby red accents on the diamond plate exterior. The inside of the trailer features

The event of the yearis almost here!

all the comforts a grill master could ask for, including built-in cabinets, a custom pit and firebox, sound system, a 32-inch television with satellite TV antenna and more. See the ad on page 2 for a juicy sneak peek. Charlie Brown wouldn’t want you to spend the holidays with the world’s smallest, saddest Christmas tree when you could be dining, dancing and enjoying casino games at the gala. So, get your tickets now! Pricing is: Corporate $1,850, Gold $650, Program $325, Table for 10 $775, Individual Tickets $75. Guests are encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy that will be added to the annual Construct A Kid’s Christmas Toy Drive, held the next day, Dec. 4, from 10am-2pm at the Construction News office, 4047 Naco-Perrin Blvd. The unwrapped gifts and gift cards collected will be donated to Bexar County Child Protective Services for Bexar County foster children. Associations participating in the 2015 gala include the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), Associated General Contractors (AGC), American Subcontractors Association (ASA), Builders Exchange of Texas (BXTX) Education Council, Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA), Construction News Ltd., Hispanic Contractors Association (HCA), Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC), Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (MCA-SMACNA), National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors (PHCC), Surety Association of South Texas (SAST) and Texas Air Conditioning Contractors of America (TACCA). –mh

Rider with a causeSubmitted to Construction News

After only two months of riding, JR Trevino (left), vice president of business development for Treco Enterprises, rode in the MS Society bike ride Oct. 10-11. He and his teammates,

who are police officers for Castle Hills, where he lives, rode 71 miles on Saturday and 38 miles on Sunday. They raised $2,500 this year, and Trevino notes that the nonprofit

designates almost 79 percent of the funds to helping those affected by MS. –mh

The Architectural Division 8 barbecue team is serious about punishing people for having unapproved change orders. The stocks erected at the AGC BBQ Cook-Off put

forth their warning in no uncertain terms. L-R: Weston Harris, Matt Williams,Scott Cheney, Xavier de la Rosa, Stephen Hickman –mh

To the stocks with ya!

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As she waited at the airport for her son to arrive, thoughts were already going through her mind.

From the time she knew he was coming home, the plans began to develop. But this was no ordinary airport or homecoming. Betsy Reed Schultz was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware waiting for her only child, Captain Joseph William Schultz, to be brought home from Afghanistan. With that knock on the door two days earlier, Betsy had become a Gold Star Mother. How could she honor her son, who lost his life in the service of our country, and at the same time help other Gold Star families who struggle with the same grief she had just come to know? Reesa and I spent time with Betsy at her home in Port Angeles, WA in July. From her front porch you can see the first Captain Joseph House under construction. Being a Gold Star family ourselves, her vision for the foundation hit close to home. “There have been so many Gold Star families created since 9/11,” said Schultz. These families are sometimes referred to as the forgotten families. After the services, memorials and the first year of activities have come and gone, you try

The forgotten families

to go on with your life, but other people don’t remember that missing person anymore. “The Gold Stars continue to feel them, see them and care. They have a broken heart that will always be there and other people don’t see it. It’s different for everyone else. Sometimes it’s easier to let the families slip into the missing. Many times they are a forgotten family,” Schultz says. The Captain Joseph House Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation created to lend support to the 7,000 families of our military’s fallen heroes since the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism on 9/11. The remodel of the 1910 Tudor-style craftsman house is 55 percent complete and plans are being made for the first guests to arrive in 2016. It will be a place for Gold Star families to come and enjoy a peaceful setting. “There are other services for families but nothing quite like this. There certainly isn’t enough recognition and awareness of Gold Star families and the sacrifice their family member has made to provide the livelihood and freedoms that we have,” Schultz says.

The plans include keeping the setting small and intimate for families. “We are serving a much smaller group of families at any one time, unlike other Gold Star programs,” she says. “We will serve no more than three families at one time for the same timeframe Sunday to Friday so they have four full days and a travel day on either side. This gives them the time to bond with the other families who they will have with them throughout this journey.” The one-time visit for the family will be an expense paid five-night, six-day respite/retreat in the scenic Pacific Northwest. While there, each family will also have their own chauffeured van to explore the area. The families will be coming from all over the country and from all branches of the military. Long-range plans are to have four other Captain Joseph Houses around the country. I asked Betsy to tell me what it will mean to her when the first group arrives at the house next year. “The sense of knowing I have created an opportunity for the families,” she explained. “They have to take the risk of coming here and finding out they can

laugh again - they can cry - but they can laugh and have a good time. That takes risk because you have to step out of the life you have now been living. “I think everyone who leaves here is going to leave the Captain Joseph House more peaceful, not just because it made them feel better because they came here, but because of what I was able to give of myself to them. They are not taking away. They are giving a part of themselves. That is the healing. “I will feel like we have given people the step up to move forward in their lives from where they are when they came and when they leave,” concluded Schultz. The days we spent with Betsy were interesting and gratifying. Her endeavor in life is to care for other Gold Stars in a unique way that will help with their healing process. She’s a fast moving dynamo who has defined - and will - accomplish her goal. I have no doubt about that.

by Buddy Doebbler, Publisher

For more information or to help the Captain Joseph House Foundation,

check the website at: CaptainJosephHouseFoundation.org.

Captain Joseph House

L-R Betsy Schultz, Reesa Doebbler, Mary Stokes Cort(Gold Star grandmother) and Charles Smith (Captain

Joseph House Architect)

Gold Star Banner


A lifetime of lathing

Sundt Construction’s San Antonio team celebrated the company’s 125th anniversary while celebrating the branch’s fifth anniversary Sep. 9 at its Texas office on Central Parkway North. L-R: Eric Hedlund, COO; Dave Crawford, president and CEO; John

Carlson, Texas district president; Jeff Webster, Texas vice president –mh

Two milestones in oneSubmitted to Construction News

There are numerous uses for baking soda, and by using a cleaner meth-od of cleaning up building exteri-

ors, Alamo City Soda Blast adds another use for the fine powder to the known list. Karl Keene, COO, says that sand blasting may be fast, but it’s not safe since the silica gets into the air and can be a health hazard. He adds that soda blasting is an environmentally friendly solution to problems such as removing graffiti and pollution to restore the exte-rior of a building. The company, which was purchased by its current president and owner Ervei Alaniz in November of last year, uses 11 different types of blasting. One of those methods is sand, but Keene explains that they use a special machine to filter out the silica. With the soda blast, they also use a filter to keep the dust out of the air, making it “dustless blasting,” too. This summer, Alamo City Soda Blast used its soda blast to remove graffiti from Trinity Church with mere hours before a

The secret is in the soda

kids program was scheduled to start. Though Alamo City was booked solid for two to three weeks, a crew came out and removed all the tags that had marked the heavy stone with time to spare before the kids arrived. “Everywhere that we blasted to re-move the graffiti, you couldn’t tell that the graffiti had ever been on there. The stone that had been graffiti-ed didn’t look any different than the stone that had not.” They also did restoration work on the Tower Life building downtown, Keene adds. “It had nearly 100 years of old paint on it. With our blasting processes that we’ve come up with, we were able to re-store the roof in the Tower Life Building and now it has that copper look again. Alamo City Soda Blast does architec-tural services including concrete flatwork and preservation, industrial cleaning and restoration, and automotive restoration. The company also blasts, primes and paints oil field equipment. –mh

L-R: (back row) Felipe Flores, Ramon Mejia, Joel Salinas, (front row) Karl Keeneand Ervei Alaniz onsite at the Yanaguana Garden project downtown

Robert Cauble, better known as Bob, presi-dent of R.R. Cauble

Lath & Plaster, started his company 33 years ago, started in the trade 60 years ago, and will be 75 in Feb-ruary. With 53 employees and his family heavily in-volved in the business, he has no plans to retire. “I had lunch with a good friend last week, and he said, ‘Bob, I can see now when the Lord calls you home, you’re either going to be sitting at your desk or on your porch having a highball,’” recalls Cauble with a laugh. “Even though I have quite a few involve-ments, retirement has nev-er really entered my mind.” Cauble lives and works on 32 acres on Highway 87 in San Antonio’s China Grove. His house is situated a quarter-of-a-mile behind his house. He has tanks full of fish, and he does garden-ing and mows a lot of grass. Since he doesn’t do field work himself anymore, he observes that he could easily live with-out leaving his property. Though, if he wants to leave, he also has a ranch in Moore, TX. His wife, Carole Cauble, is his vice president. His oldest son, Robert Cauble Jr., is his field superintendent, handling all the outside work. His youngest son, Alex Cauble, is his chief estimator. He has one other estimator, his brother-in-law, Raymond Clauss. His daughter-in-law, Susan Cauble, is his main secretary.

Cauble’s family on his mother’s side was in the trade as metal lathers in the Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers Union, which had 29 members and not enough work to support them locally in the pre-Hemisfair days. When Cauble decided to join the trade, it took him a year-and-a-half to become an apprentice due to a lack of continuous work in town. He start-ed temporarily in 1955, nightly in 1960, and he’s been doing it ever since. R.R. Cauble Lath & Plaster was founded in 1982 and does a lot of school work, in-cluding Edison High School and a large gymnasium in Jourdanton. –mh

The Cauble family in the office at R.R. Cauble Lath & Plaster L-R: (back row) R.C. Cauble III, Robert R. Cauble Jr., Alex B. Cauble, Robert R. (Bob) Cauble, (front row) Susan Cauble,

Carole Cauble, Raymond L. Clauss

Submitted to Construction News

Team spirit

Members of the SpawGlass team, along with their family and friends, showed their support for the Roadrunners at the UTSA vs. Colorado State tailgate party. –mh


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.Approximately 60 volunteers spent

their Saturday doing quality of life repairs on four homes in the

Edgewood ISD area for Rebuilding Together San Antonio’s volunteer workday Oct. 3. The nonprofit organization coordinated First Assembly of God, Grace First Baptist and The Connection along

Help where it’s needed

Volunteers for Rebuilding Together, including these members of the nonprofit andvolunteers from PBK Architects and The Connection, helped improve the quality of life

for four local homeowners on the organization’s volunteer workday.

As part of the volunteer workday, members of Rebuilding Together, the First Assemblyof God and other volunteers helped build ramp access, pour a walkway, repair

unsafe structural issues and do weatherization work for this home.

Remodelers reloaded

The National Association of the Re-modeling Industry (NARI) San Anto-nio Chapter hosted its annual skeet

shoot recently at the National Shooting Complex with 46 shooters competing. –mh

1st: KM Builders/Masterbrand – Keith Moehle, Kevin Boriskie, Mark Bromagen, Bryan Beard2nd: Buffalo Contracting – George Dele-on, Daniel Sexton, Chris Walker, David Hildebrand, Joe Rosio3rd: CROSS – Kurt Lehr, Sam Hill, Gustavo Rodriguez, Ross Doege

1st Place Team

Best Shooter – Keven London,Bin There Dump That

with volunteers from companies within the construction community, including Monterrey Iron & Metal, PBK Architects and River City Waste. Projects included roof repairs, access ramps, lighting, secure walkways, structural safety, weatherization and painting among other work done free of charge to the homeowners. –mh

The Associated Builders and Contrac-tors (ABC) South Texas Chapter held its third annual fishing tournament

Oct. 9-10 in Rockport with 110 people participating in the fun. –mh

Unguided Division1st: Leonard Contracting – Michelle White, Jerry Graeber, Steve Black, Greg Grandjean

Rocking the boats

1st Place Guided

1st Place Unguided

2nd: Marek – Eddie Atnip, Matt Reicheneau, Ethan Reicheneau, Brett Patton Guided Division1st: Equipment Depot – Alan Thompson, Andy Stuart, Bruce Radford, Pistol Ahrens2nd: Hart Acoustical & Drywall – Lori Piepryzca, Tony Piepryzca, Cathy Bran-som, Hank Bransom


The Mechanical and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (MCA-SMACNA) held its 38th annual

Hunter’s Symposium Sep. 30 at Bexar Community Range with more than 100 shooters participating in the trap, skeet and rifle competitions. The event drew nearly 200 attendees for an afternoon of refreshments, catfish dinner, games and raffle and door prizes. –mh

WinnersSkeetExpert: Ken Brothers, SiemensMember1st: Louis Mosel, L.C. Mosel Co.2nd: Kyle Pennington, A.J. Monier Service Co.3rd: Deborah Wertheim, LC Mosel Co.Associate1st: Scott Hutcheson, Texas Air Systems2nd: Scott Wunsch, Larry Wunsch & Associates3rd: Doug Reeves, Larry Wunsch & Associates1st: Clint Ulman, SpawGlass2nd: James Tolleson, San Antonio Country Club3rd: Jim Rodriguez, James T. Rodriguez Consulting

The good, the bad,and the catfish

Shoddy Skeet Award:Sarah Bell, Service Mechanical GroupTrapExpert Trap: Rick Barrera, TTGMember1st: Jim Bellm, Brandt2nd: Bobby Robisheaux, Brandt3rd: Mike Furst, BrandtAssociate1st: Zach McManus, Texas Air Products (Photo 7223 Zach McManus and Simon Honig)2nd: Aaron Caldwell, Trane3rd: Jeff May, Mechanical RepsGuest1st: Bennie Malish, retiree2nd: Adam Vega, Christus Health Care3rd: Damon Williams, Capital GroupTerrible Trap Award:Dale McDonald, BrandtRifleBullseye: Jason Johnson, Christus HealthcareExpert Rifle: David Goetz, MJ BoyleMember1st: Jeremy Jones, M&M Metals2nd: Greg Butler, Service Mechanical Group3rd: Tim Butler, DSI

Expert Skeet Winner 1st Place Skeet, Member Division

Expert Trap Winner 1st Place Trap, Associate Division

Bullseye Rifle Winner

Associate1st: Mickey Mitchell, Siemens2nd: David Bugge, PMI3rd: Buster Williams, PMKGuest1st: Ian Vohwinkle, MS22nd: Erik Mosel, retiree3rd: Brian Goebel, MS2Ridiculous Rifle Award:Wally Bomhoff, Trane

Expert Rifle Winner

The San Antonio Pipeliners Association (SAPA) recently gave $25,000 to establish a scholarship

L-R: Mark Appleford, associate dean of Undergraduate Programs; Melynne Wulff, SAPA vice president; Michael Johnston, SAPA; JoAnn Browning, dean of the College of Engineering; Adam Lazar, SAPA; Lindsay Land, director of development for the College of Engineering

Funds coming down the pipelinefund for students attending UTSA’s College of Engineering. The $25,000 will be distributed as six scholarships. Two $3,500 scholarships, two $4,000 scholarships and two $5,000 scholarships will be awarded to undergraduates enrolled full-time with a 3.0 GPA or higher, who are actively pursuing a degree in engineering. SAPA wants to help ease the financial burden and to encourage local talent to attend college in the San Antonio area. The association also hopes to retain that talent in the local workforce. The scholarships will also make it possible for those students to be in the field and meet with oil and gas operators, introducing them to opportunities in the area. Established in 2012 to provide peer-to-peer networking opportunities for members of the pipeline and midstream

industries, SAPA aims to reach future petroleum engineers, but also mechanical, civil, environmental and

other types of engineers that are utilized and needed in the oil and gas industry. “We wanted to build a relationship in the community to the oil and gas midstream industry, and we want to build a sense of loyalty and pride that these students are coming out of our local colleges and they’ll be able to get jobs in San Antonio and the surrounding areas and stay here,” says Melynne Wulff, vice president of SAPA. SAPA gives 50 percent of its scholarships to members, including their family members who are pursuing engineering degrees. SAPA is allowed to give the other 50 percent of its scholarships back to the community. Wulff, who does business development at Terracon, says SAPA is committed to providing the scholarship every year. –mh


When air met water

The Texas Air Conditioning Contractors Association (TACCA) Greater San Antonio Chapter held

its 22nd annual fishing tournament Sep. 18-19 in Corpus Christi. –mh

GuidedHeavy Stringer: Beyer Mechanical, Team #1 – Laura Hay, Dena Delgado, Dedra Beyer, Jillian Spencer

Non-GuidedHeavy Stringer: Los Vatos Locos – Scott

Wiatrek, Preston Wiatrek, Chris Wiatrek, Nathan WiatrekWomen’s Heavy Trout: Lisa Barnebey, Amcon ControlsWomen’s Heavy Red: Jennifer Burkholder, Burkholder A/C & HeatingMen’s Heavy Trout: David Gutierrez, TD IndustriesMen’s Heavy Red: Anthony Garza, Beyer Mechanical, Team #9

Heavy Stringer – Guided Division

Heavy Stringer – Non-Guided Division

Inspired by their work

To celebrate the 65th anniversary of O’Connell Robertson, the firm hosted a companywide celebration

Oct. 23 at its Austin headquarters. Part of the festivities included the donation of amounts chosen by the employees to 501(c)3 entities related to three represen-tative clients. “Our staff is involved in a lot of com-munity activities and organizations that are related to the work that we do, and we think that really just goes back to our core mission-driven approach,” explains Amy Jones, principal. “We work really hard to make sure that the work that we do touches everyone who participates in it.” William O’Connell, the first archi-tect for the Texas Department of Health, founded the firm in 1950. With experi-ence designing hospitals across Texas, O’Connell started the firm designing medical facilities. After about 15 years, the firm began doing work locally in education. The first

client of the San Antonio office, opened in May 2000 during the firm’s 50th anni-versary, was Northeast ISD. Focusing on K-12, the firm currently has 25 school dis-trict clients Texas-wide. In 1978, Noel Robertson joined the firm, adding MEP engineering to its ser-vices. Today, the firm has more than 50 employees between its Austin and San Antonio offices, which both include archi-tects and engineers. “There are very few firms in our in-dustry that are at the level of commit-ment to sustain 65 years through the up and the down times, and so that longevi-ty means a lot in the minds of our clients,” says Chris Narendorf, principal in charge of the San Antonio office, which is proud to be celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. O'Connell Robertson is a full-service ar-chitecture and engineering firm that also offers planning, commissioning on the en-gineering side, and interior design. –mh

Employees from the San Antonio office held a toy drive for the University Health System last year. L-R: Gilbert Salinas, David Villarreal, Erin Cushman, Walter Marks, Jaclyn Lieck, Kim Pham,

Randy Huggins, Kristin Jones, Pete Pohorelsky and Chris Narendorf


continued from Page 1 — Causes for rent

continued from Page 1 — No need to niche

continued from Page 1 — The first resident of the North Rim

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meeting rooms, two bars, a private dining bar that can be utilized by the private spaces, and a patio that can be used as part of the private spaces. The restrooms have slate tile with polished concrete vanities. Rathburn believes Wangchao is the biggest restaurant they’ve ever built. So, naturally, it has a large kitchen to accommodate several chefs working on different things simultaneously. That also means the kitchen needed a lot of equipment that is unique to Mandarin Chinese cuisine, such as huge gas-fired woks. Guests can see the kitchen and all of its culinary activity through a glass in the dining room. Set by the mason, San Antonio Lath & Plaster, the exterior wall is ledgestone decorated with pastel-colored enamel and is applied over a CMU backup. The wall hides a Zen garden from the street. The interior and exterior lighting is all LED. The lights have drivers and timers

that change the colors – red, green and blue – that they cast across the landscape. The 10-foot-high entrance door to the restaurant is all steel, custom designed, and was implemented by San Marcos Doors. The superintendent on the job was Ernest Losoya. The structural engineer was Danysh & Associates. DR Contracting did the site work. The concrete subcontractor was Tri-State of San Antonio. The mechanical/HVAC subcontractor was Gary Harvey Air Conditioning, and E.L. Smith handled the plumbing. Absolute Power handled all of the electrical work. Main Glass & Mirror did all of the glasswork, and J&R Tile handled the specialty floors. Established by Jim Srp in 1978, Better Built Enterprises does commercial general contracting and design build. Bob Rathburn joined the company as a partner in 1980. –mh

The interior of Wangchao offers a décor where rustic Western meets elegant Eastern.

one of her contacts at the rodeo intro-duced her to Wish for Our Heroes. “It was a wonderful fit,” says Math-erne. “Between 95 and 97 percent of all the money that [Wish for Our Heroes] col-lects goes directly toward active duty military members.” Matherne observes that charities for the military are often centered around veterans or service members who have been injured. She explains that Wish for Our Heroes helps active duty members keep food on their tables, pay their elec-tric bills, and offer other forms of relief when they are in need of help to take care of themselves and their families. Sarah Baugh, marketing director, estimates that B-C has given close to $75,000 total to the three charities and their initial donation to Wish for Our He-roes was $5,000.

B-C makes sure that the cause ma-chines are rented out as often as possible to maximize the amount they raise. If someone calls for a LBX 210, they will send the Gold Digger or the Wish for Our Heroes LBX 210 before any other of the same machine. Also, they are often asked to bring the cause machines to events to help raise awareness. Opened in December 2013, the San Antonio location is fully staffed, but the ground was only recently broken on what will be their larger, permanent facil-ity that should be completed next spring. Based in Corpus Christi, B-C Equipment Sales has branches in San Antonio, Laredo and La Feria. Established in 1986, the com-pany is celebrating its 30th year in business doing sales, rentals, parts and service. –mh

medical office buildings as well as resi-dential projects in Alamo Heights. They’ve also done work for Southwest Research Institute and Dunkin’ Donuts. Outside of the office, Kaarlsen has been married to his wife, Laura, for 24 years, and they have three children. Mol-lie recently started at Texas A&M Galves-ton. Mallorie is a high school freshman. His son, Gehryt, whose name was in-spired by Frank Gehry, is in fifth grade. Laura was in architecture, but when they had their first child, she went back to school to get her teaching certificate. She has been a teacher for Northside ISD for

about 15 years now, most of which she has spent as an art teacher at Nicholls. At 48, Kaarlsen is an avid hunter and fisherman and diehard baseball fan. He still plays softball, and he coaches his son’s basketball and baseball teams. He and his wife stay involved in their chil-dren’s schools and activities. He has served on several Northside committees and was president of the John Marshall Orchestra Society for two years. Based in Helotes, SK&A is an architec-ture firm that does mostly commercial work with about 10 to 15 percent high-end resi-dential work. –mh


Architecture & Engineering

Legislative year brings changes to industry

David Howell, PE, Deputy Executive DirectorTexas Board of Professional EngineersAustin, TX

As with all odd-numbered years in Texas, 2015 brought with it a legislative session to Austin. The 84th legis-

lature of Texas made a few changes that affected the en-gineering community. Unlike the 2013 session, which

through the passage of the Sunset bill for the Engineering Practice Act, brought us the fingerprint-based Criminal History Records Check (CHRC), the bills passed in the 2015 session should be much more well-received. Some of the bills affecting the engineer-ing community in Texas are:

House Bill 7 – Tax reduction was one of the popular efforts during this session. HB7 was aimed at reducing the tax bur-den on a number of professions. The great news for the engineering commu-nity is that effective Sept. 1, engineers no longer pay the $200 professional fee as-sociated with license renewals or initial licensure. All licensees will see the reduc-tion automatically on renewals state-ments, starting with the September re-newal cycle. The Board is excited to help implement this change that will have a significant effect on thousands of indi-viduals and engineering firms in Texas. Senate Bills 807 and 1307 – Anoth-er topic that was addressed with several bills this session was related to military and veteran licensure. The legislature wanted to make sure that individuals

who served the U.S. would receive as much benefit for that service as possible. These two bills will change the Board processes regarding licensing and re-newal requirements for active duty mili-tary, veterans, and military spouses. House Bill 2439 – There were sever-al bills this session related to the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) Wind-storm Insurance program. As you may know, since the 2011 Texas Legislative session, the Engineering Practice Act has contained a section regarding Wind-storm Related Design Services. It estab-lished the process for the Texas Board of Professional Engineers to create and maintain a roster of engineers who are qualified to do Windstorm Design so those individuals could be appointed as inspectors by TDI. HB 2439 changed the

Act by repealing the Windstorm Roster section in the Act, but based on imple-mentation requirements for TDI, the ros-ter will remain in effect as it is until the end of 2016. House Bill 2049 – This bill prohibits state and local government entities from issuing contracts with engineers that re-quire a duty to defend. House Bill 2167 – This bill modifies limitations regarding unmanned aerial vehicles to allow their use by engineers and surveyors in their professional prac-tice as long as no people are visible in the images. This change will allow engineers and surveyors to safely access more re-mote locations. While most statutory changes are ef-fective on Sept. 1, any Board rules that needed to be modified for implementa-tion of these bills or others, were brought to the Board at its August meeting and were posted for comments and input. The earliest adoption of revised rules would be in November, with a potential effective date of mid-December. This is also a good time to look back at the previous session and give an up-date on the implementation activities since then. As I said above, one of the most significant bills of the 2013 legisla-tive session was Senate Bill 204, which was the Sunset bill for the agency. The bill reauthorized the agency for another 12 years and made some changes to the Board’s enforcement authority. One of the most contentious changes made by

the Sunset bill was the requirement for all active license holders and new applicants to obtain a fingerprint-based CHRC prior to renewal in 2014. Starting with the first renewal quar-ter in March of 2014 and continuing through the last renewals in December, we had roughly 46,000 PEs have their fin-gerprints taken for the CHRC. During that year, we also had approximately 4,200 new applicants go through the process. Almost 91% of those individuals had no criminal records at all. For the re-maining 4,300 records, TBPE was able to view the record in the DPS system. For security reasons, TBPE did not import criminal records into our system. Of the 50,000+ individuals that went through the CHRC process in 2014, there were six enforcement cases opened against li-censees and at least 50 applicants who have had to comply with additional re-quirements prior to approval. The CHRC process is only required to be completed one time for a PE license. While this process is still in place and will continue for new applicants and reactiva-tion of inactive licenses, the bulk of the CHRC for PEs has been completed.The Texas Board of Professional Engi-neers and staff continue to protect the public and look for ways to serve the reg-ulated engineering community as effec-tively as possible. Visit our website (www.engineers.texas.gov) and keep an eye on your email for news, updates and announcements. –cw

More BIM for your buck

Lorraine M. Dailey, PresidentLMD ArchitectsSan Antonio, TX

Lorraine M. Dailey, owner of LMD Architects, was an early adopter of Building Information Modeling

(BIM) and she has been a passionate advocate of the technology ever since.

“When it first made its debut into the architectural field about 10 to 12 years ago, LMD immediately recognized the value of the parametric modeling in BIM and switched from AutoCAD, which had been the main method for producing our documents electronically, over to BIM,” says Dailey. “The value of it is extensive.” One of the primary benefits, she says, is building a three-dimensional model that can be presented to the own-er. The owner can see the design rather than having to visualize from two-dimen-sional documents. This makes it possible to do 3D-gen-erated walkthroughs of the building and its design, which can cut down tremen-dously on the costs of changes later as it is being built. The architect can work through all of the systems and complex structures in the building prior to it being under construction.

Another benefit is conflict detection and risk mitigation, she adds, explaining, “As we’re doing our documents, if there is going to be a conflict between structural and mechanical or structural and one of our exterior building envelope compo-nents, we’ll be able to see that in the model and catch it prior to, of course, be-ing a costly modification out in the field. So, conflict detection is a huge value.” Dailey estimates that using the com-puter to calculate and catch potential conflicts increases overall project quality by 50 percent. She has also heard that us-ing BIM helps reduce risk as far as predict-ing outcomes by 30 to 40 percent. “Studies have shown that with BIM, you can achieve up to a 20 percent reduc-tion in building cost by making smart choices during the building modeling phase,” she adds. “You can achieve up to 33 percent reduction in costs over the

lifetime of the building, 50 percent re-duction in conflicts and rework during construction, because of the parametric modeling and being able to work every-thing out in the model. When you draw in 3D, it’s called a parametric model. “So, when we make changes in a door – say a door size changes – we change that door in the model, and it au-tomatically changes throughout our doc-uments. That door may be depicted in 15 other places in our documents on sec-tions and elevations and in schedules. So, we change it one time, and it automati-cally gets changed throughout. So, there’s less chance for human error of us missing making a modification or updat-ing the size or type of a component, be-cause it happens in real time with one modification.” This also saves the architectural de-sign team a significant amount of time. By streamlining the process, the team is able to be more efficient in its work. They can even do an upfront building lifecycle cost analysis and an energy cost analysis for the owner in switching out different components. The computer then calcu-lates how, for example, a wall that is all glass impacts the energy and solar loads

of the building, making it easier to exam-ine the sustainability also. “The cost of construction, designing and building a building, is only 10 per-cent of the cost of the building over the lifecycle of the building,” she explains. “So making smart choices upfront can save a tremendous amount of money for the owner in utility, operating and main-tenance costs. With BIM, since it’s all co-hesive, we plug in those systems and we’re able to tell the owner, ‘Yes, these particular air conditioning units are go-ing to cost you X dollars more, but here’s the value of what it’s going to save you over a 30-year period.’” Dailey notes that as more consul-tants and contractors get involved in the BIM process, the model encourages col-laboration between the design and con-struction team as they work together to make everything fit and function cohe-sively. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, LMD Architects is a WBE and HUB business. The firm primarily works on public projects, such as emergency medical ser-vices facilities, with a focus on criminal jus-tice architecture, such as correctional facili-ties. –mh

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Architecture & Engineering

Dedication in engineering

Bob Smith, PresidentGeoscience Engineering & TestingHouston, TX

In your opinion, what is the current state of the local construction indus-

try? Our experience is showing that the housing is starting to slow down from a breakneck speed. The housing industry is still in good shape. The commercial side appears to be in full swing. Just take a drive anywhere in Houston and you will see a lot of tower cranes. We used to joke in the 80’s that the tower crane was the state bird. It looks like it is coming back. There is also a significant amount of municipal working going on. The Grand Parkway is one of the largest projects be-ing constructed right now. There are also bond elections being held in both Harris and Montgomery counties. If these

bonds pass, there will be a lot of needed infrastructure work performed and will create construction jobs.

What are a few trends you see in your industry in recent years? We can usually see an increase in residential construction when apart-ments reach about 95% occupancy. When residential work increases, there has to be supporting businesses like convenience stores, grocery stores, dry cleaners, etc. We have seen a pattern of when the residential slows down, municipal work increases.

What are the rewards of working as a

geotechnical engineer? One of the responsibilities of design professionals is public safety. When we give a recommendation for a foundation, for example a bridge, the foundation de-signers rely on our information to design the foundation. Failure is not an option. We are currently working with Landry’s on a new 32-story hotel. The geotechnical recommendation for a high rise is very complicated and requires ad-ditional consulting during the construc-tion process. There is a sense of pride when the recommendations you give turn into a completed project.

What are the keys to being successful in your industry? You should find a mentor that is will-ing to work with you and never say no. It takes not only an education, it takes ded-ication. You might have to sacrifice time, salary, and probably a few weekends to rise to the top.

In your opinion, what is the most sig-nificant challenge your industry faces? The greatest and costliest is local,

state and federal government regula-tions. We spend a significant amount of re-sources to comply with all of the regula-tions. We have a full time employee dedi-cated to ensure we meet all of the re-quirements.

What advice would you give for a young person interested in pursuing a career in geotechnical engineering? I would advise that you should get your EIT immediately after graduating. Then work toward a master’s degree and find a medium size company to work for. This is also the time to start building rela-tionships within the industry. These contacts will be invaluable in the future. If you go to a smaller compa-ny, I believe your chances of finding a good mentor are better. When you find that person, stick with them for at least five years and then take the test for a PE license. I always tell my engineers that even-tually we all become salesmen. An engi-neer that can bring a project in is worth their weight in gold. –ab

Landmark event

Surveyors from Texas and beyond lined up to attend the Texas Society of Professional Surveyors (TSPS)’s 64th

Annual Convention & Tech Expo, hosted Oct. 8-11 at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel. “It’s a great opportunity for survey-ors to network and learn about new tech-nologies through our exhibitors as well as our through the education and classes that they get,” TSPS Executive Director DJ Kyle says. An Oct. 8 skeet shoot at Elm Fork Shooting Sport marked the event’s “point of beginning,” followed by a golf tourna-ment at Tenison Highlands Golf Course, a past president’s dinner and a TSPSA open house. Meetings for the board of direc-tors and the association’s membership were slated for Friday, capped off with an alumni reception.

Chester Varner, Alamo Chapter 11 director, and Trisha Lund, past president, accepted

the Star Chapter Award.

Easy Drive GeoShack Martin Instrument

The weekend got underway with ed-ucational sessions, a luncheon and a trade show with 65 exhibitors. TSPS hosted a “When I’m 64” awards gala Saturday eve-ning, featuring Beatles tribute band “A Hard Day’s Night!” The convention con-vened Sunday afternoon after a second day of exhibits and educational sessions. In addition to the Alamo Chapter re-ceiving the Star Chapter Award, Chapter 11 members received state awards as well. Mike Haber received the Hugh L. George Memorial Award, which honors retired members who have continued service. Chester Varner won Surveyor of the Year, and Trisha Lund received the Chapter President Award. Lund was also inducted to her second year as a director on the TSPS State Board. –mjm/mh

Duderstadt Surveyor Supply

Gorrondona & Associates Inc. G4 Spatial Technologies

United Geo Technologies LLC McKim & Creed

National Society of Professional Surveyors Western Data Systems


Well done, ye olde pitmasters

Hear ye, hear ye! The Associated General Contractors (AGC) San Antonio Chapter held its 22nd an-

nual Safety Fair & BBQ Cook-Off Oct. 10 at ye olde Helotes Fairgrounds with a medi-eval and Renaissance theme. To this chal-lenge, many teams did rise. Lords and la-dies enjoyed a variety of meats and mead as their noble families enjoyed ice cream, a moon bounce and a petting zoo. –mh

Chicken1st: Big State Electric2nd: Zachry Construction Corporation 3rd: AltermanRibs1st: Architecture Division 82nd: Crownhill Builders3rd: Bartlett Cocke General ContractorsBrisket1st: Crownhill Builders2nd: Midco Sling of San Antonio3rd: Baker TriangleShowmanship1st: ESC Safety Consultants2nd: Architectural Division 83rd: Satterfield & Pontikes ConstructionSafe General Contractor of the Year:Category I: Zachry Construction Corp.Category II: Sundt Construction, Inc.Safe Specialty Contractor of the Year: AltermanLarry Westbrook Safe Superintendent Award: Nathan Le Row, Bartlett Cocke General Contractors

ESC Consultants L-R: Raymond Rico, Melanie Romero, Ray Garcia, Janie Gomez and her 7-year-old son, Elias Gomez

Baker Triangle L-R: Argel Villarreal, Michael Sireno, Charlie Beasley, Ray Balandran, Dema Hanson

Allegiance Crane & Equipment L-R: James Garcia, Janice Gallegos, Roxanne and Joe

Valenzuela

Big State Electric was one of the BBQ winners, taking first place for their chicken.

Alamo Crane Service L-R: Henry Uriegas, Danny Delahunt, Freddy Waddell

Rene Avants, Joeris, manned the ice cream booth with her 7-year-old daughter Camden

Avants (center) and 7-year-old Savannah Hampton.

Zachry Construction Corporation:Trish Benavides and Todd Sutton

Alterman L-R: (front) Leonard Debraska, Karen Lawhead, (back) Guy Katz, Buddy

Theis, Carl Weyel, Brad Guillaudeu

Raba Kistner L-R: Oscar Barrera, David de Leon, Alex Tanguma


Round-Up Association CalendarContent submitted by Associations to Construction News

ABCAssociated Builders & Contractors

Nov. 12: 29th Sporting Clay Shoot; Na-tional Shooting Complex; for info, email Ruby Trejo at [email protected]. 3: Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 5:30pm

AGCAssociated General Contractors

Nov. 12-13: PMDP Module 5: Leadership, AGC office, 7:30am-5:30pmNov. 19: Casino Night and Construction Industry Awards; Oak Hills Country Club; 6-10pm; reservations or more info email [email protected] or call 210-349-4921

AIAAmerican Institute of Architects

Nov. 5-6: State Architects Convention, Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, DallasNov. 11: Committee on the Environment (COTE) Program & Tour, Tour of LED light-ing at Hemisfair; Building Enclosure Council Program on NFPANov. 12: Small Project Practitioners Pro-gram, Current Design Software UpdatesNov. 13: Health & the Built Environment Conference, SA Convention CenterNov. 17: Leadership Program GraduationNov. 18: Free Public Lecture Place, Craft & Community, speaker Brian MacKay-Ly-ons, San Antonio Museum of ArtNov. 23: Chapter meeting, Tour of SA Food Bank, speaker James Kissling, AIAFor info visit www.aiasa.org

ASAAmerican Subcontractors Association

Nov. 17: Speed Networking, Old San Francisco Steak House, 6pmDec. 3: Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 5:30pm

BXTXBuilders Exchange of Texas

Dec. 3: Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 5:30pm

CFMAConstruction Financial Mgmt. Assn.

Nov. 17: Chapter Luncheon; Petroleum Club, 8620 N. New Braunfels; 11:30am-1pm; RSVP to Stephanie at 210-828-6281, ext. 1575, or [email protected]. 3: Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 5:30pm

CMAAConstruction Mgmt. Assn. of America

Nov. 12: Owners Forum; Doubletree Hotel Downtown; 11:30am; for info, visit www.sctxcmaa.org

GSABAGreater San Antonio Builders Assn.

Nov. 5: Associate Members Appreciation, Casino Night, GSABA Ballroom, 6-9pmNov. 18: Membership Mixer, Spice of Life Catering & Event Center, 1746 Lockhill Selma Rd., 5:30-7:30pmNov. 20: Building Believers Annual Mili-tary Thanksgiving Luncheon; GSABA of-fice; 11:30am-1:30pm; donations needed; for more info or to arrange pickup, con-tact Walter Penny at 210-885-4018 or [email protected], Bryan Lee at 210-705-4714 or [email protected], or Wanda Herber at 210-913-5656 or [email protected]

IECIndependent Electrical Contractors

Events are held at IEC office unless otherwise stated.

Nov. 4, 18, 23: Journeyman Prep Class, 5:30-9:30pmNov. 12-13: IEC of Texas Meeting, HoustonNov. 16: Continuing Education Class, 5-9pmNov. 19: Labor Law Concerns Luncheon, TBD, 11:30am-1:30pmNov. 21: Electrical Maintenance Techni-

cian Class, 8am-5pmNov. 26-27: IEC office and school closedDec. 2: Journeyman/Master Prep Class, 5:30-9:30pmDec. 3: Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 5:30pmFor more info call 210-431-9861 or visit www.iecsanantonio.com

MCA–SMACNAMechanical Contractors Association

Sheet Metal & A/C Nat’l Assn.

Nov. 4: Regular & Associates meeting; Oak Hills Country Club; 11:30am; speaker Jesse Vasquez, Mechanical Inspections Supervisor, City of San AntonioNov. 11: Joint Labor/Management Meet-ing Plumbers, Pipefitters; MCA-SMACNA office, 11amNov. 18: Joint Industry Fund meeting – Oak Hills Country Club @ 11:30 a.m.Dec. 3: Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 5:30pm

NARINat’l Assn. of the Remodeling Industry

Nov. 20: Evening of Excellence; present-ing the Contractor of the Year and BUZZ (Marketing and Design) awards; Wynd-ham Garden Riverwalk; 6-9pm; members $60, non-members $70; reservations or more info visit www.remodelsanantonio.org or call Martha Bizzell at 210-826-7200

NAWICNat’l Assn. of Women in Construction

Nov. 4: General meeting; Petroleum Club; networking 5:30pm, meeting 6pm; speaker Martin Marietta ConcreteNov. 14: Education Day Workshop: Hang/Replace Light Fixtures & Ceiling Fans; Windsor Hill Home Depot; 10am-noonDec. 3: Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 5:30pm

PHCC Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors

Nov. 3-4: Customer Service Inspector trainingNov. 7, 21: Plumbers’ Continuing EdNov. 12: Membership meeting: CSST Tubing; Silverhorn Golf Clubhouse; 11amDec. 3: Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 5:30pm

SAMCASan Antonio Masonry Contractors Assn.

Nov. 18: Membership meeting; Pap-padeaux Restaurant, 76 NE Loop 410; noon; speaker Shauna Goodman, San Antonio Chamber of Commerce; $30/ person; for more info, call Debbie at 830-606-5556

SDASociety for Design Administration

Nov. 19: Chapter Tour, Hemisfair Rede-velopment; 11:30-1pm; for more info, email [email protected]

TACCATx. Air Conditioning Contractors Assn.

Nov. 4: Member Appreciation Mixer; Brickhouse Tavern + Tap; 5:30-8pm; free, all members are welcome; attend if inter-ested in joining TACCA; RSVP required Nov. 11: Seminar: “Contractor Legal Issues,” with Gardner Law; Carrier Enterprise, 12625 Wetmore Rd.; 2-4:30pm; members $45/person, non-members $60/personNov. 19: Member meeting; The Club at Sonterra; 11:30am; Planning for End of Year Accounting Issues, Jim Oliver & As-sociates; members and first attendee free; additional is $20/person; RSVP re-quiredDec. 3: Construct A Kid’s Christmas Gala, Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall, 5:30pmFor more info on these events, contact Dawn Thompson at 210-901-4222 or [email protected] or or visit TACCAGreaterSanantonio.org

TSPSTexas Society of Professional Surveyors

Nov. 14: Retraceable Legal Descriptions-4CEU’s and Business Metrics 4CEUS, Nor-ris Conference Center

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

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

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

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

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Brady Baggs, PE, has joined LJA as senior project man-ager. With more than 12 years of consulting and civil engineering design experience in the San Antonio and Central Texas area, his responsibilities include managing the firm’s San Antonio office, client retention and growth, production, quality control and employee mentorship. He earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M University.

Ed Mullins has joined Project Control as senior project manager. With more than 25 years of experience, he is responsible for day-to-day duties such as management of project team meetings, oversight of the project, preconstruction services, owner’s quality assurance and budget management. He earned his degree from Purdue University and holds accreditation as a LEED AP professional, a Certified Professional Constructor (CPC) and a Design-Build Professional (DBIA).

Larry Eastep has been promoted to building operations manager for Sundt Construction’s Texas team. In this position, he will continue to work with Sundt’s project teams and owners to coach managers, superintendents and engineers on current and future projects. A former field operations director, he joined the general contractor in 2014 with 36 years of experience in construction development.

Ted Zimmerhanzel has been promoted to business develop-ment manager for Yates Construction’s South Texas Division in San Antonio. Since joining the company in 2013, he has served as VDC/BIM manager, project manager and estimator. He has more than 15 years of experience in the construction industry, and among his new duties, he will lead the divisional efforts to develop new business to secure major construction contracts and strategically prospect, network, and research future construction project opportunities.


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When H&E Equipment Services hosted the grand opening of its new facility at 5327 Tex-Con Rd.

Oct. 15, the staff welcomed more than an estimated 550 guests for a catered buf-fet, raffle prizes, opportunities to meet more than 20 vendors and a chance to take the lead racing spot on the NASCAR simulator they brought in from Charlotte. H&E, which rents, sells and repairs equipment, outgrew its old facility. Now, the new location houses 40 employees and they are expecting to grow about 10 to 15 percent next year. Ed Allan, branch manager, says, “A building is only as good as your people, and we have absolutely incredible people.” –mh

H&E team members stand outside the new San Antonio facility. L-R: Lee Ramos, Clint Alford, Don Morgan, Ed Allan and Toby Hawkins

L-R: John Houchens and Frank Cabrera, Grapevine Group Concrete Contractors, and

Pickett Porterfield, H&E

L-R: Greg St. George, National Trench Safety; Jim Gorter, Larry Stewart, Brooke Matherne, Scott Newman, B-C Equipment Sales

L-R: James Barton, T&D Moravits; Rich James, Alamo Concrete;Duane McCartney, T&D Moravits

Not everyone can be as fabulous at 40 as Jennifer Swinney, execu-tive director of the American Sub-

‘18 with 22 years experience’

Swinney’s friends waited anxiously for the birthday girl to arrive. L-R: Nora Romero, ASA and MCA-SMACNA; Sue McNamara, ESC Consultants; Leslye Hernandez, Construction News; Tricia Mitchell,

Swinney’s mother; Martha Simpson, Frost Bank; Esther Wong; Robbie Nelson, Nelson Interiors; Jon Marek, MEMCO; Becky Wynne, Barridge Manufacturing; Heather Osborn, Nelson Interiors

When a mariachi band joined the party, Swinney donned a pink sombrero, shook some pink maracas and danced to the music.

Swinney was definitely surprised by the party her friends organized for her.

contractors Association (ASA) San Anto-nio Chapter and national treasurer for the National Association of Women in Con-struction (NAWIC). But when you’re that fabulous, your friends can’t let your 40th birthday go by without celebrating. On Oct. 12, under the false pretenses of an emergency ASA board meeting, a few conspirators lured her to the Alamo Café where they had gathered her friends and family for a surprise 40th birthday par-ty with balloons, cake and pizzazz. –mh


The Pre-Rodeo Bar-B-Que Cook-Off & Festival was held on the grounds of the Freeman Coliseum Sep. 25-26. Drawing more than 250 barbecue teams

each year, including several of the construction industry’s dedicated cookers, the event benefits the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo Scholarship Fund. –mh

Fun for the cooks, funds for the kids

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San Antonio Construction News November 2015