December 9-10, 2020

AGC/DOT Fall Meeting

VIRTUAL

Webster Scale will be

closed Thursday, De-

cember 24th—Jan.1st.

Report back to work on

Monday, Jan. 4th.

January 13-14th, 2021

SD Ag Expo

CANCELLED

January 17-19, 2021

ND Grain Dealers

Assoc. Convention

Fargo Holiday Inn

POSTPONED until

March 21-23

DEC/JAN

2020/2021 Volume 4 Issue 9

Shawn Charlson is one of the big equip-ment operators for Webster Scale, and as many of you know, he has also been deal-ing with a big personal health challenge. Shawn shares about his life with the ‘big stuff’ as our Dec/Jan spotlight employee.

Shawn grew up in Belle Fourche, SD with his parents and one brother. Right after graduating from high school he went to work for his cousins doing concrete labor, and then driving truck and digging base-ments. After that start, Shawn went to work for an old Russian man in Sundance, WY who taught him how to run equipment. Shawn notes that his Russian boss would scream at him all day at work, and then in-vite him in for a beer and tell him how well he was doing!

Next, Shawn moved to the Twin Cities for industrial and commercial dirt work. He worked on the 35W bridge project after it collapsed and the Minnesota Gopher and Minnesota Twins stadiums. Shawn also worked with Hazmat and train wreck cleanup in that area and up into Canada. In 2009 he traveled into Canada and Russia for oil pipeline work. By 2011 Shawn was ready to stop traveling for work, so he moved back home to the Black Hills area. He found work as a superintendent of a house building company and built 36 houses a year. Shawn met his future wife Mindy in 2012 while there, and four years later agreed to move to the flatlands and Mindy’s home town of Webster. He went to work near Williston, ND with the oil pipeline, but later tired of the commute and long weeks and months away from home. After driving by Webster Scale many times on his way out to the in-laws farm, and not-ing what a nice operation WSI was, Shawn decided to apply for a job. He was hired in 2016 and says he couldn’t be more happy with his decision.

As a large equipment operator, Shawn’s day-to-day work can vary from running a blade, to dozer work, to hauling equipment, running excavator or driving a truck. His fellow employees voted him the 2019 Con-struction Division Employee of the Year.

Shawn has been struggling with a medical condition involving an unexplained loss of

Shawn Charlson handles the ‘big stuff’ blood since before he came to work at Webster Scale. This condition pre-sents itself with a whole list of symp-toms that affect him on a day-to-day basis, like con-stantly feeling lightheaded, ex-tremely tired and drained, brain fog/memory issues, and the list goes on.

Shawn has been to many medical profes-sionals and a variety of different facilities, and still continues to be a medical mystery. He currently gets iron infusions about once a month as a band aid to keep him function-ing. Shawn can go weeks or even months without having any major issues, but then at the drop of a hat he can be down for a day here or there, or even several months with no explanation as to why. His medical team continues to study his case looking for an-swers. Shawn is very thankful for all the care and support from everyone at Webster Scale while he has been dealing with this. “Couldn’t ask for a better place to work!”

Shawn and Mindy were married March 10, 2017 and live in Webster. When not working, Shawn likes to spoil his nieces and nephews and likes to travel to new places with Mindy. Their new-est family member is Ruby, a Jack Russell terrier, a birthday gift from Mindy. Ruby is good com-pany for Shawn on the days he does not feel well.

Hopefully 2021 will be the year that Shawn gets some conclusive answers and the right treatment plan for a future without this big health challenge. We certainly wish him well!

Page 2

VERY MUCH

I would just like to thank everyone who contributes to the Special Needs Fund for helping me out when I was gone from work due to the Covid-19 virus.

It is truly a blessing to have such an awesome group of people to work with.

Thanks again!!!

Jason G.

Webster Scale employee Owen

McGregor was missed being

listed in the November newslet-

ter as serving in the military.

Owen served in the US Marine

Corp from 1990-1994. He was

part of the security detail on air-

craft carriers and traveled all

over the world.

Anyone can get tested for COVID-19 BUT SHOULD THEY?

FACT: 80% of people who get COVID-19 will have mild to moderate symptoms and re-cover without medical care.

FACT: A negative test result does not mean you will not get COVID-19.

FACT: Test materials and per-sonal protective equipment are needed to care for the very sick requiring hospitali-zation.

FACT: A positive test for the virus that causes COVID-19 will not change your health-care provider’s recommenda-tions for medical care unless you are very sick and require hospitalization.

Seasonal and Temporary Employees,

When you are done for this construction season, it is your time to enjoy

some well-deserved time-off. You have faced not only the stress of some

challenging projects, but also the stress of working during a global pan-

demic and all the extra concerns that added to your work.

Thank you for your dedicated and safe work throughout our busy construc-

tion season! Take care, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you again

when it is time for the 2021 construction season.

Note: Please keep the office updated with any changes in your contact information.

YOUR DAILY WORKPLACE

REMINDER:

1. Don’t get hurt.

2. Don’t break anything.

3. Watch out for each other.

4. Be productive.

JASON SHOEMAKER

Vice President Scale Division

July 22, 1973—Dec. 20, 2017

Page 3 Dec 2020 /Jan 2021

Rob Kading, Scale Division Manager

We have some good pandemic year

news to report! A new WSI 70 x 11

portable vehicle scale has been sold to

Prairie States Trucking out of Sioux Falls, SD. This

company purchased the scale with an unattended truck

management system with a cellular connection. Prairie

States will expect delivery around the end of February.

The Shop 2 crew will start the frame construction soon,

and will assemble the components as they go. It will

only take them about three weeks to complete putting

this scale together!

December is the month for the quarterly Valero run.

This will take our scale crew of Jamie Sturdevant

and DJ Blue Dog about four days total to check all

the scales at each of these locations: Aurora SD,

Hartley IA, Charles City IA and Welcome MN.

This Valero run is also when Jamie and DJ will need

to take and pass an annual safety test to show they

fully understand the plant safety rules before they can

enter these Valero facilities. They have access to a

video to review before taking the test. Once they pass

the test, they are given a certification card that will

allow them entrance to all the Valero sites for the

next year.

INJURY

REPORT

Dawn reports that there has been one employee injury in 2020 that met the requirements of a recordable injury that had to be reported to OSHA.

The number of recordable inju-ries each year affects insurance costs and our ability to qualify for construction jobs.

Besides financial costs, our goal is always to have zero injuries, because keeping employees safe is a priority at Webster Scale.

Thank you for working safely!

As you enjoy some days off this holiday season, you may

be gathering with others who do not live with you. It will

be important to consider these CDC guidelines for

house gatherings:

1. Remind guests to stay home if they are sick.

2. Encourage social distancing in the house.

3. Wear masks when you are less than 6 feet apart.

4. Clean hands often. Provide hand sanitizer too.

5. Limit the number of people handling or serving food.

6. Limit contact with commonly touched surfaces or

shared items and sanitize as needed.

Gather safely with family/friends

Page 4

Day County Rd 17 (Fort Sisseton Road)

Everyone here at the grade raise has been doing their best

to get this built. We have already hauled 150% of the

plan’s quantities of fill dirt, and we may end up hauling

double that amount when completed. As we all know in the

northeast corner of the state, Mother Nature can be difficult

and we have dealt with what is thrown at us.

We finally got towards the middle of the lake to a point

where we could build an approach for trucks to use to turn

around. This saves us from having to back up the trucks for

over 1/4 mile in order to dump the loads.

Reported by Mike Berg

Project Manager

A view from the north half of the grade raise. In the background are a couple of loaded trucks waiting their turn as an empty truck leaves to get another load.

Misty Berg is pushing dirt while Dawson Mathison starts dumping another load.

Shawn Charlson and Eric Olson have the cut (borrow pit) looking great. Bruce Martin in a blade also worked in the cut area.

Faith Shoemaker, on college break from SDSU, has been helping out on this project. Faith submitted these photos (and on the next page) from the haul truck she was operating.

Dec 2020 /Jan 2021

Day County Rd 17 (Fort Sisseton Road)

Page 5

Riverview Clark Dairy. Hauled 2 large piles of

gravel for a 30-acre gravel base for the new dairy.

Lemmon Airport. Reconstructed runway, taxi-

way and miscellaneous items. Milled off old runway

and prepared runway bed for repaving.

Watertown Airport. Air carrier ramp reconstruc-

tion. Concrete crushed and blended, then laid down

as base course for the repaving company.

Central Region Co-op Fairfax, MN.

Rice Lake 40’ x 12’ electronic scale installation.

Highway 83. 11-mile road project with Foothills

Contracting from the big White River going south to

the town of White River in Jones & Mellette counties.

Day County Grade Raises. Yellowstone

Trail, including Waubay, Roslyn and Grenville

(5 total).

Hillhead Substation. Disassembled the old

power substation and finished the site work.

#1903 SD DOT - Sanborn County

This project had been on hold from last year due to

flooding of the Jim River by Forestberg. Webster

Scale is currently laying rip rap long the riverbank

for erosion control, and should finish up around mid-

December.

#2012 Tri-State - Ortonville, MN

Mike O’Farrell continues to haul material for the

Tri-State power poles in the Ortonville, MN area.

#2102 BPI - Lyman Co.

Last month Tim’s crew repaired the box culvert

on Highway 248 east of Presho so that Bitumi-

nous Paving could pave first thing in the spring.

Currently, WSI truck drivers are stockpiling ma-

terial for the asphalt BPI will need in the spring.

Highway 18 & 83 Bennette, Mellette

and Todd Co. Milling, hauling base course in preparation for paving by BPI.

WALT—Webster Area Living Trail.

Site preparation and finishing topsoil. .

Shown at right is a listing of the

bigger projects completed during

the 2020 construction season.

Webster Scale, Inc. PO Box 127 14012 SD Highway 25 Webster, SD 57274

Family owned business since

mid 1960’s

Full line of scale products,

services and parts

Wide variety of heavy

construction services

Committed to providing

superior products and services

at a reasonable cost

As 2020 comes to a close, may we all look back and find rea-sons to be thankful—

Employees and family members who had COVID-19 recovered; Webster Scale was able to keep employees on the payroll with work deemed essential; numerous projects were completed and done with our expected high standards; and employees worked safely with no serious injuries or accidents, just to name a few.

We can look forward now to 2021!

Congratulations to Donald, Jacquie and big brother Hunter!

Eriqua Kathryn Fellbaum November 30, 2020 * 4:19 PM

6 lbs. 12 oz. * 19 1/2” long

Prairie Lakes Hospital, Watertown Angela Shoemaker will be celebrating the holi-days with her two little grandsons this year.

Jorah is now 1 1/2 years old, and baby Gryffin is almost 3 months old.

The boys belong to An-gela’s oldest son Baron and his wife Emily from Clark, SD.