riggs newsletter.indd

The
POWER LINE
Message From The Safety Group
-Donald L. Masters, Director
Our Commitment to Safety
Although we’ve visited the subjects
of “commitment & culture” in the past,
I think it worthy to mention that the
company has recently embarked on the
design and delivery of a new Supervisory Safety Orientation Program that
has proven in these early stages to be
extremely beneficial. You might recall
that I’ve given high praise to everyone
that has in any way contributed to our
being able to achieve our statistical
goals for each of the past 4 consecutive
years. Safety is not a destination. It’s a
journey. It’s a living program that can
never be set aside, but rather something
that everyone needs to pay close attention to, on and off the job. Safety has
to start at the top, and having said that,
September/October 2007
PROUD
TO BE SAFE!
the “top” is responding to this challenge by making it a point to meet with
virtually every level of supervision at
every job site. As that information is
brought to the attention of your supervisor, he or she will then meet with
each of you to convey this same message. Thank you for your commitment
to work safely.
Save the Dates
Safety Training / Meetings
October
Baltimore - Tuesday 10/16
Cherry Hill - Thursday 10/18
November
Recently our Over Head crews in Miami attended a training class
on reading prints and understanding staking/surveying. After the
class was completed, the guys got together in the yard for a group
photo. Much was learned which will benefit them with present and
upcoming projects.
5 days worth of touring in DC]
Q: What is the maximum
number of stories a building
can be erected in Washington, DC?
A: No building in DC may be taller
than 13 floors. This is so that no
matter where in the city you are,
you can see the monument to our
first President, Washington. [Source:
Trivia Question
Baltimore - Tuesday 11/20
Cherry Hill- Thursday 11/22
Safety Training / Meetings are
held from 4PM until 6:30PM
**Please note - Cherry Hill office
meetings will actually take place at
the IBEW Union Hall Local 654 on
Chichester Avenue **
Computer Corner
-Scott Zemaitatis
Be sure to keep your E-mail box
limit below 200000KB. To view your
E-mail box size while in outlook,
go to the tools menu, click mailbox
cleanup, then select the top option to
view mailbox size.
Below: Nothing quite says “thankyou” like cookies. Riggs’ Crews assisted in restoring power to thousands
of residents in the Greater Chicago
area after storms and tornadoes
ripped through their community in
late August. The crew from left to
right: Jose Rosales, Scott Dutton,
Mustafa Payne, Mike McKinnon (sitting), Curtis DeVeaux, Dave Schatz
and Robert Humphries.
Above: Crews work to restore power
after storms tore through the Maryland area leaving approximately
20,000 customers without power.
Project News
Outage Hat Trick
Paul Bizon, Vice President, Electrical Group
The demolition project at a Delaware
area producer of gasses and chemicals
is complete and the terminal is ready for
its new process. We also installed power
drops and alarm notification devices for
the delivery trucks throughout the site.
In Philadelphia, the condo units on
three floors (14,15, and 16) have been
turned over to their owners and the 17th
floor is well on its way to completion.
Work is progressing on the rough-in of
the 19th & 20th floors and we are waiting on revised layouts of the penthouse
units of this hotel to condo conversion.
We continue to support the owner/
general contractor with temporary power
at a Philadelphia area refinery for the
upcoming renovation of their 859 Unit.
A fall outage at a 35 acre liquids
facility will be keeping us busy in the
Philadelphia area. We will complete
the installation of a major portion of
the new electrical switchgear that will
provide additional capacity and reliability to their overall plant operations. The
new ethanol railcar unloading facility is
progressing nicely, and we continue with
on-going capital improvements throughout the site.
We are currently providing maintenance and instrument tech services for
various projects at a chemical producing
facility in the greater Northeast. Previously we had installed new feeders to the
exhaust fans in their warehouse building
and connected several new instruments
in another building.
Two outages are scheduled this fall
in the Garden State. A cement based
shingles and siding products manufacturer will be upgrading their carbon
canister process with new instrumentation and controls, as well as calibrating
all the active instruments throughout the
facility. We will also provide substation
Page 2
maintenance during the outage. We
are currently providing a multitude of
services to assist their maintenance, instrument tech, and construction services
to keep the facility running.
At the moment things are jumping at
a South Jersey refinery in preparation
of their fall outage. We are working on
nine separate projects related to the fall
crude #7 upgrade turnaround. We are
working on various instrumentation and
electrical projects throughout the unit.
We will be returning to a steel producing facility later in the fall once their
new fiscal year begins. We previously
completed several electrical and instrumentation projects at this site.
At our new Cherry Hill office we
continue to wire the new building for
new lighting in the warehouse area and
in preparation of the new office area.
SAFETY CELEBRATIONS
The Whitemarsh and Gambrills yards were
transformed from work to play during the
safety celebrations which took place during the
end of August. Our crews have worked a phenomenal amount of man hours without incident
during the last two years. Thank you all for
your hard work and commitment to safety.
Top Left: No celebration is complete without
the guest of honor - Porky, our roasted pig.
Above: CEO Leo Sniger addresses the men
and congratulates them on jobs well done.
Left: Reggie waits for Manfred Konrath to let
go of his new 40” TV.
page 3
Above: Bret Banghart, Larry Burks, and Tim
Wilcyzinski sit back after a delicious lunch.
Left: Alvin Council and Manfred Konrath
take a break ftrom their food long enough to
say “Cheese”.
Employee News
Delicate Surgery Ahead for
Sean McQuade
Ralph McQuade’s son Sean continues his rehabilitation after the Virginia
Tech shootings. He has met with doctors in New York and the latest operation is scheduled for early fall. This
surgery is very delicate and will repair
nerve damaged in his face. We wish
him and his family the best of luck
Good Luck Connie
~ We’ll Miss You!
Connie Cooper, the Administrative
Assistant & Internal Claims Coordinator that has supported the Company
and the Safety Group for more than 10
years, has elected to vacate her position in order to better meet the needs
of her family. The short term impact
of Connie’s September 21st departure
will be understandably significant at
first, but I ask that you all join me in
thanking Connie for the value, professionalism, and commitment that she
has perpetually exhibited to all of us.
We certainly wish her, and her family
the very best that life has to offer, both
now and well into the future.
Welcome
We would like to take the opportunity to welcome the following people
to the Riggs Family:
~Tom Sroka has joined the Baltimore
office as a Project Manager. Tom has
30 years experience in the field where
he has supervised Boilermakers, Iron
Workers, and Pipefitters.
~Laura Davis is our new staff accountant in the Cherry Hill office. Laura
brings to us 10 years experience in the
accounting field.
~Marc Lacovara will be working
for us in the capacity of Warehouse
Laborer at the Cherry Hill office.
~Donald Smith has joined us a mech-
On the Mechanical Side
- Joe Seaman, VP of the Mechanical Group
In general, I look for the Riggs
Mechanical Group to get very busy in
the near future. After a slow summer,
the large jobs are finally beginning to
come out for bids, as Mike Fitzpatrick
is finding out. He has been busy with
estimates in the tri-state area, and he
plans on putting together the winning
bids and packages.
We are starting the second half of
the first year of our five year extension
of our Mid Atlantic Alliance contract.
We have boiler outages starting at a
southern Maryland power plant which
will include upper slope, water walls,
and reheater loops. This project will
keep us busy through November of this
year. Also in Maryland we are currently working on burner panels and
superheats at another power generating
station. This project is scheduled to
wrap up in October. Over in Virginia,
our crews are involved in a stack
recovery project for yet a third power
generating station. The work here is to
run new duct from five boilers to the
stacks. This job is expected to continue
through February of next year.
After eight months of working seven
days a week, work is winding down
at a major steel producing facility.
Congratulations to Dan Shirk and Mike
Tomick for their efforts in keeping this
project running smoothly.
Bill Fischer has been working with
a Philadelphia area power house for 5
months to land their ongoing maintenance contract. Dedication and determination paid off as Bill shook hands
and finalized the agreement. Great job
Bill!!
Mark Glowacki celebrated by
way of a safety lunch with Bruns and
McDonnell group for contributing
the majority of 250,000 man hours
worked on the 859 unit with out so
much as a first aid. Mark handed
out safety awards during the morning safety meeting congratulating
the men of their accomplishment
and a job well done.
Gary Barson continues to hold
down the fort at a Philadelphia area
refinery with his right hand man
Roger Linebaugh. They are starting a new fire suppression foam
system 610 Tank which will involve a lot of welding.
Mike Boyd has his hands full
organizing the new shop with
shelving and tools. What a difference a month has made, as the
shop now looks almost brand new!
Thanks for your hard work!
Rick Mellwig and two other
plumbers continue to keep the
pipes flowing smoothly at a Philadelphia refinery. It may sound
routine, but think about the volume
of waste that flows through those
pipes. Amazing!
In addition, we are starting the
planning process for the spring 2008
outages at three generating stations in
the Mid Atlantic Region. Sure looks
like we’re in for a busy fall!
chanic at our Gambrills yard.
~Mary Ann Sanchez has joined the Miami
office as an administrative assistant.
~Christopher Mucerino is a co-op sophmore at Drexel University who will be assisting Paul Bizon in the Electrical Group.
We are looking forward to having everyone on our team!
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