Manatt Mirror - Manatts, Inc.

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Permit No. 30
Reflections of Manatt’s and our Family of Business
P.O. Box 535
Brooklyn, Iowa 52211
Phone: 641.522.9206
Fax: 641.522.5594
www.manatts.com
Return Service Requested
There is a great new compilation of stories that has been printed by Bev Vaverka,
former editor of the Manatt Mirror.
These are all the stories that Junie wrote during the first years of our company
newsletter.
If interested in a copy of this spiral bound book, the cost will be $10.00 and can be
picked up at the Brooklyn office. If you need the copy mailed the total cost will be
$15.00.
Please fill out the form below and return to the Brooklyn office:
Attn: Deb by Friday, November, 1st.
Please include your check along with the form below.
NAME: _______________________________________
ADDRESS:____________________________________
____________________________________
PHONE: _____________________________________
__________________
__________________
______________________________
______________________________
Volume 25 Issue 3 • Fall 2013
Turn to page 11 for
the details about
these logoed Ready
Mix trucks!
Reflections of Manatt’s and our Family of Business
2
FALL 2013
Table of Contents
Communication is Key.................. .4
Metro Update.................................6
Wellness Reminder........................7
Newton Update..............................8
Celebrating 25 Years....................… 9
South Ready Mix Update.............10
Concrete Cares........................... 11
Ames Update...............................14
Subdrain/Sealcoat/Stabilization....17
Nat. Mixer Driver Championship.. 20
Determann Update........................23
50 Years of Blending Cutbacks.......27
Sec Northey Visits Wendling....... ..29
Teamwork.......................................31
Quarry Run....................................32
In July, The Man-Att Work in your Community committee
hosted its 2nd annual co-ed slow pitch softball tournament. This year, the cause we chose to raise money for
was the Big Hearts for Tiny Hands Foundation. The tournament was an overwhelming success again this year.
The slow pitch tournament was played at the Manatt Field
in Brooklyn July 12-14. There were ten teams that entered the tournament, making it a very fun and competitive weekend! The money that was raised for the charity
came from the team registrations, concession stand sales,
a raffle, and donations from our wonderful sponsors and
vendors. We also had a few companies that are part of the
Manatt family decide to sponsor each home run that was
hit over the fence during the tournament. There were a
total of 64 home runs hit over the course of the weekend!!
The Big Hearts for Tiny Hands Foundation is a non-profit
organization in Poweshiek County that provides emotional, spiritual, and financial support for families who
have a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
The founding members of the organization have all experienced life in the NICU first hand and have formed a great
support system for local families going through the same
situation. Big Hearts for Tiny Hands is the glue that keeps
the local efforts informed and working together to assist
local families while their baby is in the NICU.
The Man-Att Work in your Community committee is very
pleased and excited to announce that we were able to
raise nearly $11,000, all of which will be donated to this
great cause, from our slow pitch softball tournament this
year! We would like to thank all the teams, sponsors and
volunteers who made this possible! We look forward to
helping out another great cause next summer! M
FALL 2013
3
SAFETY UPDATE
by: Adam Grier, Safety Director
T
he safety department is excited to inform you that we have made another substantial investment in the
safety of our fellow employees at Manatt ’s, Inc. We have purchased 9 AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillators) to aid in the response of a fallen employee. Stats show that properly using an AED during a cardiac arrest
event has a much higher success rate than just relying on CPR alone (http://www.wikihow.com/Treat-SuddenCardiac-Arrest). We hope the AEDs will never have to be used, but it is reassuring to know we have some of
the best equipment money can buy in a moment’s notice if that need arises in many locations.
The locations we chose for the AEDs were based on concentration of employees and potential response time
for professional rescuers that would already be equipped with AEDs. They are listed in no particular order:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Kenny Alexander’s PCC crew
Kevin Hogan’s PCC crew
Dale McCammant’s Portable Asphalt crew
Steve Armstrong’s Portable Asphalt crew
Brooklyn Truck Shop (on wall outside Truck Dispatch)
Ames Shop
Johnston Office
Ankeny Office/Shop
Brooklyn Products/Tire Shop/QC
We will be consulting with each crew or facility to determine the best location to store our AEDs. When the
road construction crews are done for the year, we will strategically place their assigned AEDs in the Brooklyn
and Newton shops to maximize coverage.
Here is a link that describes the AED we are providing: http://www.cintas.com/reviverviewdemo/
YOU MUST BE PROPERLY TRAINED TO OPERATE AN AED. The First Aid/CPR/AED training we’ve provided for
the past few years has included AED training. If you are not trained through our training or as an EMT, DO
NOT USE THE AED. Future training though Manatt ’s will be available to willing and able employees during the
upcoming winter. First Aid/CPR/AED training expires every two years. M
Consider These Facts:
•The average EMS response time is
8-10 minutes after the 911 call.
•After 10 minutes have passed, SCA
victims have little chance of survival.
•CPR alone will not save a victim of
SCA, only defibrillation will.
Every minute the chance of survival
decreases 7-10%.
4
FALL 2013
Communication is Key
by: Brian Manatt
Sympathy
Virg Heishman – loss of father
Nate Hopwood – loss of grandfather
Doug Thompson – loss of mother
Jerry Malloy – loss of brother
Darrell Brunko – loss of mother
Chris Kappmeyer – loss of mother
Ronnie Hocken – loss of brother
Greg Hansen – loss of brother in law
Art Truitt – loss of mother
Nick Ketchum – loss of grandmother
Chris Ketchum – loss of grandmother
Dan Young – loss of father in law
Theodore Krabill – loss of grandmother
Brent Arvidson – loss of father
Rod Arvidson – loss of father
Geno McCammant – loss of brother
Jeff Jenkins - loss of mother
Congrats
Ashley Lint married Craig Plants 9-7-13
Miracles
Brandie & Jeremy Flathers
Chase Alan 6-5-13
Travis & Hannah Snodgrass
Mackenzey Snodgrass 8-15-13
Brynnleigh Snodgrass 8-15-13
As an ownership team, we feel
that communication with our
employees is important, both
from us to you as the employee, and from you to us as
the managers. We also want to
make sure that the message we
are sending is clear and consistent. Our mission statement
says it best: “Safely doing every
job we do better than anyone
else.” There are currently two
projects in the works to make
sure that those goals are met.
The first project is a new employee orientation video series. This initiative was started
to make sure that when a new
employee is hired at Manatt’s,
regardless of which division or
location they are hired for, they
hear the same message. The
video series will cover our history, safety requirements, and
the human resources information. The time to complete the
orientation will vary depending on the job the employee
is hired for because there are
specific videos for different job
types.
The goal is for all new employees- no matter what division or
location they start in -to start
with an understanding of our
safety procedures and expectations, our benefit package,
and a look at our history.
With the second project, we
are conducting a survey of
employees that evaluates how
our safety message is being
received. We feel that this is
a good tool to help facilitate
communication from the employees to management. We
want to make sure we are
hearing what our employees
are saying. The evaluation
will be administered by Chuck
Goodman from A.J Gallagher
and is a three step process
that consists of gathering data,
analysis of the data and a presentation of the findings. The
process is designed to identify
issues at a management level.
It’s not to evaluate individual
supervisors. The results will
be used as a resource to help
provide direction and in developing our safety plan for
the future. We plan to provide
feedback and share the results
in our weekly managers meetings. Most of you will participate by simply filling out a
survey. Some supervisors will
be interviewed by Chuck and
completing the survey.
We are three fourths of the way
through the year. So far, knock
on wood, we are having a significantly better year in safety
than the previous two years.
Our CSA scores continue to
decline. Everything is trending in the right direction. We
are doing everything we can to
provide all our employees with
the training and equipment to
get the job done safer and better than anyone else. You have
responded by continuing to be
productive and cutting accidents. I look forward to building on the momentum that has
started as we continue to prove
our mission statement. M
FALL 2013
New Asphalt Plant
by: Brad Manatt
Thursday, September 12, I was
invited to attend the official ribbon cutting of the new asphalt
plant constructed last fall and
winter in southwest Cedar Rapids.
The L.L. Pelling Company made
this investment for their future
growth on the land south of
Wendling’s CR South quarry.
Having been involved in an ownership role with L.L. Pelling Co.
since 1985 (almost 30 years now),
I have witnessed the original three
batch plants that were originally
purchased, be replaced with the
latest, most advanced drum mix,
recycled asphalt plants available
on the market. I have also seen
the relocating and building of
their corporate offices at the present day location in North Liberty.
The L.L. Pelling Co. is constantly
on the move, not afraid of change.
Ribbon Cutting Chuck Finnegan, Gerry Gaffney, Lee Johnson,
Rod Haerther, & Brett Finnegan
It has been a privilege and a pleasure to be able to work with the
fine people of the L.L. Pelling Co.
over the years. M
Old asphalt plant
New asphalt plant
5
6
FALL 2013
METRO UPDATE
by: Drew Manatt
The Metro is plugging along. This year we have had a couple notable projects that we supplied ready mix to
and the paving crew has been able to keep fairly busy throughout the year. As fall approaches, we know there
is going to be an end of the season push. The similarity to football and construction would be that the game
is won in the fourth quarter. I feel we are prepared to win the game as long as we stay productive, work hard,
and focus on working smart and safe.
Ever since our paving crews got out of the gate this season, they haven’t hit their full stride with the exception
of a couple weeks. We took on three projects from our competition because their schedules were full at the
time when we needed work. Things have seemed to work out pretty good and I would have never expected
we would be able to be as busy with how little backlog we had on the books at the beginning of the year. My
sense is we are comfortable to take on more work if needed, but we should be able to have a good finish with
what we have now. Unfortunately, the work we have put out hasn’t resulted in quite as many cubic yards for
our ready mix trucks compared to most seasons.
We have had a boost in yardage from a Wells Fargo’s parking lot expansion at the Jordan Creek Campus. Our
Wells Fargo bankers already provide us with excellent service and competitive lending rates, who would have
guessed they would be one of our biggest customers too! Special thanks should go out to Casey at Wells who
made sure we were given a fair shot at the work.
Another large project that we are excited to be a part of is the Facebook Site in Altoona. We have a plant very
close to that location and we would like to supply as much of the concrete as we can. There are two more
buildings of equal size in the near future out there. All the more reason to do everything we can to provide the
best and friendliest service that we can give them.
Best wishes to all of you and your families! M
Metro crew paving in Ankeny
Metro crew paving in Ankeny
WELLNESS REMINDER
FALL 2013
7
Principal Wellness Co. operations have become part of Accountable Health as of July 1, 2013,
going forward our Principal Wellness will be known as Accountable Health Solutions.
In order to be eligible for the 2014 premium reduction, each insured employee must have 60
Wellness Credits and each insured spouse must have 60 Wellness Credits by December 31, 2013.
Check to see which activities you have completed and how many Wellness Credits you have:
• Go to www.myhealthymac.com and login
• Click “My Activities” across the top of the page
• Click “Completed” to see which activities you have completed
• Each activity you have completed will have the date of completion and number of
Wellness Credits earned
Make sure all your completed activities and Wellness Credits are updated on this site no later
than December 31, 2013. Updates or exceptions will not be made to Wellness Credits after
this date.
If you have any questions about the wellness website or have trouble logging in, please contact Accountable Health Solutions Customer Support Team at 877.475.3442.
Idea Center - Need to earn some extra credits? Visit www.fitnesssports.com for a list of 5k
runs, fun runs, warrior runs, and walks that are being held across Iowa. Besides benefiting you
(worth 5 credits as a community event), many of them are fund-raisers for a very worthy cause!
MIS Happenings
by: Nate Hopwood
Summer has gone by pretty quickly out here in the IT/MIS department.
Most of our time has been spent putting out the
day to day fires that pop up and lately planning for next year’s budget. We anticipate a pretty heavy workload beginning
in December and running through the beginning of next spring’s construction season.
One project we have really been working hard on is the conversion of our email system to an Exchange Mail environment.
Microsoft has been offering a hosted Exchange option within their Office 365 lineup for a few years now. We have done
extensive testing with this platform and are in the midst of moving several of the smaller subsidiary email domains up to
the cloud. My plan is to complete the conversion for manatts.com sometime in December. This will have at least some
sort of effect on most of our employees, but I’m confident the new features and scalability will be a welcome addition for
us all.
John has been building a batch of new PC’s the past few weeks. We actually had some great help from Brandie in getting
the machines assembled and had a nice workflow going the past week or so. We will be working on moving the new PC’s
into place through October and are hoping to get a batch of laptops run through before the season comes to an end.
As of last week, we are all on a beta version of Viewpoint’s latest release. Candace has been spearheading the troubleshooting and issue management required to keep fixes moving forward between their company and ours. Manatt ’s has
been a beta tester for Viewpoint since 2003...I can’t imagine now many of the features within that software have been
tailored to our company. It’s a feather in the cap of every employee to be able to provide such great feedback.
With our long stretch of hot, dry weather I haven’t seen much of the guys on the crews. It won’t be long before its time to
start thinking about cold weather and slowing down. If there is anything IT can provide for you or your division please call
us. Work safe and work hard. M
8
FALL 2013
Update From our Newton Divisions
by: Joe Manatt
There are two words to describe
this construction season: slow
start. I think with the heat of
the summer, people forget that
it snowed in May. Our subcontractors couldn’t get their work
done and that ended up pushing
our work back. We lost about a
month of production this year,
which means more overtime and
Saturday’s trying to get caught
back up. Fortunately for us, (but
not for the farmers) it hasn’t
rained much in July and August
and we’ve made up some time.
I tried something new this year
with the portable asphalt plant:
we are only moving our asphalt
plant one time in the middle of
the season in 2013. Usually we
move four to six times a summer meaning that the plant is
not producing asphalt four to
six weeks during the summer. I
thought if we could get four jobs
within 30 miles of our plant, we
could crank out the asphalt in a
hurry. But things did not pan out
as I expected. Equipment breakdowns, weather, or site conditions all delayed our progress in
May and June. It took us until
mid August to produce 100,000
tons out of our 1999 Cedarapids
plant and now we have September and October to produce the
other 100,000 tons from this plant.
3.5 months to produce the first
100,000 T; 2 months to produce
the next 100,000 T. I’m not a
mathematician, but I would say we
have a little ground to make up.
It gives this crew of Steve Armstrong, Denny Pfantz, and Curt
Chambers a hefty goal – two near
record breaking asphalt production months for two months in a
row. Should be easy, right?
Our commercial crew – who has
turned portable due to lack of
work in Jasper and Poweshiek
counties – experienced similar
delays to start 2013. We literally
had a few days worth of commercial work to start the year,
but managed to fill the schedule
with three highway jobs in Boone,
Tama, and Hardin counties. As
we got into the season, Steve Illingworth has been able to sign
Grinnell College’s running track,
a paved shoulder job on Hwy 21,
and a decent patching job in the
City of Grinnell. He tells me he
has quite a few quotes outstanding, but we might not have time
to get to them after we finish the
year paving in Hardin County.
On the milling side of the house,
Bob Burnett retired in April of
2013 after 30+ years of service.
He was with Iowa Road Builders in Ames back in 1982 when
Manatt’s bought the operation.
He was well respected and liked in
the asphalt industry and we, as a
company, have lost a lot of good
experience. However, with every
spot that opens we look for a
person ready to make the most of
the opportunity. Bryan Wacha, a
milling superintendent for a number of years with Manatt’s, has
accepted the position of assistant
milling manger. Bryan comes with
all the road experience necessary
and the skill set to expand our
market share in the stringless construction industry. Many PCC jobs
are being built stringless, and the
milling machines start the process
using the same technology. Congratulations, Bryan! I look forward
to working with you in the future.
We should all do our work as
quickly and efficiently as possible,
but sometimes we could avoid an
accident by simply slowing down.
As we feel the push to finish this
construction season, let’s not forget to keep safety as a priority. M
FALL 2013
9
Celebrating 25 Years...
by: Deb White
2013 was definitely a special day for us at Adventureland. Besides the weather cooperating at the mid 80’s mark
(rather than the oppressive 100+ degrees of last year), Manatt’s and its affiliated companies celebrated 25 years of
outings at the park. In all this time I have not found any other venue that has been more accommodating and easy to
deal with as the staff of Adventureland. Many thanks to them for all they do to make our picnic and time at the park
as great as it is. It is hard to find a location that can handle 2400-2500 people with as much ease and fun as they do.
We also heard that the park broke a record for attendance the day before with over 15,000 fun crazed visitors. I can’t
imagine what the water park was like that day! So glad we were there on Sunday rather than Saturday.
Again this year, the Minute to Win It games were utilized to add a little fun to our prize drawings. Everyone was good
natured about the contests and the audience enjoyed the show. If you weren’t there, you missed some great comical
moments and a lot of laughs. Thanks to the following participants for putting forth their best efforts.
Thanks to all our companies; Manatts, Wendling, Pelling, Illowa, Determann, Bard, Allied, BMC, Aspro, Illowa, and Valley
Environmental for their support of this great activity each and every year. Thanks also to Kathy Tague, Carrie Herrera,
Kalen Schlader, Theresa Westhoff, Holly Manatt, Denise Schwien, Gail Chandler, Sue Zimmerman and Linda Douglas for
their assistance in ticket sales. A very special thank you to McKenna Cline and Diane Kilmer…. Love you girls! M
Game
This Blows
Nose Dive
Nervous Nelly
Candy Elevator
Egg Roll
How’s it Hangin’
Magic Carpet Ride
Prizes
Cannon Digital Camera
Portable Canopy
IPOD Touch + I-Tunes Gift Cards
Aerobed Queen Mattress
Garmin GPS
$100 Kohl’s Gift Card
Hammock & Stand
DeWalt Reciprocating Saw
32” Samsung Smart TV
Troy Built Gas Weed Eater
Chromebook Computer
Lowe’s $100 Gift Card
IPAD Mini
Folding Cart/Stadium Seats/Cooler
Prize Winners
Kenny Alexander - Manatt’s
Miguel Lopez - Illowa
Miguel Marquez - Illowa
Mike Tacey - Illowa
James Tupy - Allied
Nick Morud - BMC
Tom Gibson - Manatt’s
Joshua Gregori - Manatt’s
Wally Kalinay - Manatt’s
Tim Tometich - Manatt’s
Ian Bristow - Manatt’s
Joe Stanton - Manatt’s
Rob Arthur - Manatt’s
Tony Ricklefs - L.L. Pelling
A very special ‘THANK YOU!!’ to Deb White for all her hard work, time,
and effort in making this day a success and so enjoyable for all the
employees and their families!! Thanks, Deb!
10
FALL 2013
South Ready Mix Update
by: Ken Cline
Since the last newsletter it has definitely quit raining! As everyone knows the spring was very wet and our
production started very slowly and pushed us back nearly two months. That being said, when the rain
stopped, we feverishly started delivering concrete and really never slowed a bit!
Overall, our South Area Ready Mix Division is strongly driven by our Agricultural economy. For that market
we have supplied concrete to everything from farm shop buildings and on-the-farm grain bins, to larger
CO-OP grain bins and Ag Manufacturing business expansions. That has kept us very busy! The Monsanto
Companies also decided this spring to invest in their Iowa facilities, which also helped out several of our
plants. Hog production buildings were popular again this summer, with over 7000 cubic yards supplied
over our area.
The largest project this year in the south is getting closer to completion. Bownells new warehouse, located
in Grinnell, has taken over 12,000 cubic yards of concrete so far this year. Now, I have gotten word that
they will be adding on some retail space to this building this fall that will be another 1000+ cubic yards.
Also, the Manatt’s PCC crew still has the new city street to pave back to the Brownells new site.
As I pen this article, the South Area overall is close to our 2012 production, which is pretty good considering the late start we had this spring. It also appears, at this time, that we will have a VERY busy fall to finish
up the 2013 construction season. That means we will all need to stay focused and pay attention to details
so that we will accomplish our mission, Safely Doing Every Job We Do Better Than Anyone Else! M
FALL 2013
11
Concrete Cares
Manatt’s, Inc., recently wrapped
three of our ready mix trucks to help
raise awareness about three causes
that directly affected members of
our family of businesses. The three
charities are Donate Life Iowa, The
ALS Association-Iowa Chapter, and
The LLS Association.
never met gave her this wonderful
gift of life!
Why did we do this?
The ALS Association mixer is a tribute to all of those who have dealt
with the disease known as ALS, a
motor neuron disease that usually attacks both upper and lower
motor neurons and causes degeneration throughout the brain and
spinal cord, and also known as Lou
Gehrig’s disease. We especially remember Elmer Anderson and Gene
Manatt, both long time employees
of Manatt’s, Inc. Elmer from 19812010 and Gene from 1972-2003.
Unfortunately, both passed away in
2011 after their fight with ALS.
Our employees are one family. We
stand and we fight together against
those things that affect us. Employees, family members, and members
of our family of businesses have
been impacted by these life threatening conditions and wanted to
help spread the word.
The Donate Life Iowa mixer is for all
of our family who have, or may in
the future, need someone else to
give them the greatest gift of all—
life. One person who inspired this
design was Emily Kachoulis.
Emily’s husband, Randy Howe, is
Manatt’s Con-E-Co plant dealer from
Cedar Falls. Emily recently received
a heart/double lung transplant.
She spent eight years on the donor
waiting list and over two months in
the ICU at the Mayo Clinic prior to
finding a match. Since the successful transplant, she is more energetic
and active than ever. Someone Emily
Over 1.6 million Iowans have registered their decisions to Donate
Life. Organ and tissue donation
give hope and life to thousands of
people, allowing continued, happier,
and more active lives.
Elmer Anderson, truck dispatcher,
was an employee at Manatt’s for
29 years. He was diagnosed with
ALS in January of 2010 and retired
from Manatt’s in April of 2010. As
with anyone fighting this dreadful
disease, Elmer slowly lost control of
his muscles. Elmer fought through
much pain and suffering for 19
months, until he lost his battle with
ALS on October 4th, 2011.
Gene Manatt was an employee at
Manatt’s for 31 years. He handled
various duties for the company
including working in the trucking
department and flying the company
plane. It was only after Gene’s ALS
diagnosis in May of 2010, they realized he had been suffering with the
disease for the previous two years.
ALS is very hard to diagnose until
the person is well into the disease
because the symptoms start small.
Gene’s symptoms started out with
weakness in his hands, arms, and
legs, along with dropping things. As
the disease progressed, his muscles
continued to fail until he wasn’t able
to walk, lost use of his hands and
feet, and had trouble breathing.
Gene Manatt lost his battle with ALS
on September 16, 2011, at the age
of 76.
At this time, there is no cure for
ALS; there are just options to try to
provide as much comfort as possible
and help cope with the disease.
The LLS Association mixer remembers those who have suffered from
blood cancer. The Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society (LLS) is a nonprofit organization focused on finding cures and better treatments for
blood cancer patients. The LLS truck
is especially dedicated to Austin
Kilmer and LexAnn Alig.
Austin’s mother, Diane Kilmer, has
been an employee at Manatt’s for
32 years. Austin also worked for
Manatt’s, Inc., and Manatt Farms
while in high school. After working
all day one summer day in 2005,
Austin came home so fatigued
that he could barely walk from the
garage to the Kilmer house. The next
day he was taken to the doctor and
after the blood tests results came
back, Austin was diagnosed with
continued on page 19....
12
FALL 2013
Kick the Tires Tour
by: Tim Douglas
The annual Kick the Tires Tour
was held on Friday, September
13th. As usual, we hosted representatives from our lead and supporting banks, Wells Fargo, Bankers
Trust and Patriot Bank, from our
insurance broker, AJ Gallagher and
from our accounting firm, CliftonLarsenAllen. Casey Cason and
Steve Powell represented Wells
Fargo, David Parmley, John Doll
and Josh Moore represented Bank-
ers Trust and Rick Happe
represented Patriot Bank. Mary
Griffin represented Gallagher and
Phil Sobek represented Clifton.
Manatt’s was represented by Joe
Manatt and Tim Douglas with help
from John Tuthill from Wendling
Quarries.
The tour started with the group
meeting at the Brooklyn headquarters and heading east to view
several job sites in Eastern Iowa.
As we were rolling down I80, an
urgent message was received from
David Parmley wondering when
we would pick him and his associate up at the Amana exit. Apparently, Casey and I were so engaged
in a discussion (and I failed to
let our driver, Joe Manatt, know
about the pick up) that we forgot
to stop. We ended up waiting a
few minutes while David and Josh
drove back one exit to meet us.
Once again on the road with all of
the participants, our first job site
was the Moscow quarry operation of Wendling Quarries. The
tour participants were able to get
a firsthand look at the crushing operation and Joe Manatt provided
information on how the products
were developed and delivered to
the top of the quarry.
From Moscow, we turned to the
north and located the Manatt
milling crew on their job site along
Highway 130. With our usual
precise timing we arrived just as
the mill was shut down to refuel.
The delay allowed the participants
to actually walk on to the job site
and view the mill cut close up.
When the machine was started
back up, most were pretty amazed
at the quantity of material that
machine was able to cut and the
short time needed to fill a haul
truck.
After watching the mill, we moved
on to an asphalt paving job being
performed by the Newton
portable crew. Asphalt shoulders were being placed and
the crew was incorporating
the use of the shuttle buggy.
The use of belly dump trailers was allowed through the
ability of the shuttle buggy to
“pick up“ material from the
roadway. Information was
provided to our guests as to
the benefits that are gained
through the use of the shuttle
buggy technology. Traffic
was being controlled through
the use of a pilot car and
with our group of ten stand-
ing and watching the process in
full safety gear, I have no doubt
that the cars driving by on the detour were wondering…”Just how
many individuals does it take to
pave a shoulder”?
The next stop was Behr quarry
again operated by Wendling Quarries. The portable asphalt plant
was located at this site to service
the shouldering project we had
just visited. Joe Manatt described
the asphalt production process including the use and value derived
from utilizing recycled products in
our mix designs. When you talk
about “Going Green”, you have
to include asphalt with over 90%
recyclability in the discussion.
Wendling had a portable crushing
crew operating in the quarry, so
the tour participants also received
education on that process.
After breaking for a quick sandwich at the Wendling headquarters and picking up John Tuthill,
we headed east to Camanche to
the headquarters of Determann
Asphalt Paving, a sister company.
We drove through the site and Joe
continued on page 22....
FALL 2013
13
9th Annual Michael J Manatt Golf Outing
Sunday, August 25th, found a group of Manatt’s, Aspro, VES, and Determann employees, along with a few others gathered at the Brooklyn-Victor Country Club to spend a great day catching up with one another and to do a little golfing.
This year’s golf outing had twenty-three teams registered with the Metro Long Ballers, consisting of Drew Manatt, Josh
Marean, Dave Lane, and Grant Miller, taking first place. Well done, gentlemen.
Clifton, Larsen, Allen again sponsored a $10,000 hole-in-one contest that, unfortunately, no one was lucky (or good)
enough to take home. We did have seven other hole contests with the following winners:
#2 – Longest Putt
#3 –Closest to Pin in Two
#5 – Closest to Pin
#6 – Longest Putt
#7 – Longest Drive (women)
#8 – Longest Drive (men)
#9 – Shortest Drive (used)
Denny Pfantz
Bart Willis
Jeremy Hahn
David Schneider
Lindsey Armstrong
AJ Douglas
Lacy Manatt
We continue to be very fortunate that Manatt’s and its sister companies have great relationships with numerous
vendors and suppliers. These are the people that make it possible for every participant to receive door prizes and for
every team to receive a flight prize. Everyone wins! If you see or are doing business with one of these vendors, be sure
to tell them thank you.
Despite the heat and a couple debacles, it was great to see everyone for this year’s outing and we hope everyone had
a good time. See you next year for the 10th Annual Michael J Manatt Memorial Golf Outing. M
Manatt’s Saves the Day!
by: Jamie Boughner
At the end of May, I was looking forward to my in-law’s 50th wedding anniversary. We had made many plans, found a
venue, and designed their invitations. Then it rained…, and rained…, and rained...
It rained so much that things were starting to flood. We got a call around the 1st day of June informing us that the venue
was flooded with 4 feet of water and it would not be possible to hold the party there. We were devastated!
I spent the next few days calling around to find some place that was not already booked (and not under water) that had
the amenities we were looking to have (plenty of room for everyone, tables and chairs, kitchen, rest rooms, air conditioning, handicap accessible, etc). I found a few but they were asking up to $800! I wanted to rent the room for a few hours,
not buy it. I was racking my brain.
I picked up my newest Manatt Mirror and started to read. I came across an article about an exercise class being held in
the big meeting room in Brooklyn. LIGHTBULB! What a perfect place! I contacted someone at the Brooklyn office and
asked what the charge would be to rent it for the day. She said, “There is no charge for employees, just reserve the room
and promise to clean up your mess when you are done, and it’s yours.” I was in shock and pleasantly surprised.
We had just enough time to change the invitations before we sent them out. I called my Mother-in-law and told her
about the facilities and the cost, and she was ecstatic. We sent out the invitations with the new location and continued
the planning.
When the big day arrived, my in-laws were very pleased with the facilities, the food, and the great turn out of guests. Repeatedly we heard from the guests about the wonderful facilities. They liked the pictures on the walls and the many flags
hanging from the rafters.
The big payoff came at the end, after the guests were gone, and the place was all cleaned up. My mother-in-law, with
tears in her eyes, said they could never thank us enough for all we had done.
I was overwhelmed with the generosity that I often find in this company. It is truly the little things, like letting an employee throw an event for no charge, that make me love Manatt’s. So Thank you Manatt’s for saving the day! M
14
FALL 2013
Ames Update
For the Ames Division, the last
couple of months have been busy.
After a slow start due to the wet
spring we had, work finally began
to pick up in mid-June. The asphalt crew’s first big job was paving the Central Expo Site in Boone.
This was a research project with
many different aspects of the job
being tested. Conventional hot mix
asphalt (HMA) as well as warm
mix (WMA) were used and tested
at different production temperatures. The use of intelligent compaction was also used to track
the compaction of the asphalt.
This was the first time the Ames
Division had used this technology and it worked out really well
for the researchers. The research
was a joint collaboration between
Iowa DOT, Iowa State University,
and Texas A & M University. We
hope that they were able to learn
something from all the testing that
was conducted. On completion of
the project over 10,000 ton of HMA
and WMA were used. The PCC
crew out of Brooklyn also paved
nearly 25,000 square yards of 6”
PCC on the project.
After the Central Expo Site project
was complete, the paving crew,
with the help of the patch crew,
moved to HWY 69 north of Ames.
Together, they laid over 50,000 ton
on an 8-mile project, which took
the majority of July to complete.
During this project, the Ames
Division said goodbye to our
friend and Asphalt Superintendent
Craig Kalinay as he and his family
moved closer to their hometowns.
Craig had been a part of the Ames
Division for 12 years and besides
his role as superintendent he was
a friend to many and it was tough
see him leave. We wish Craig the
best of luck in his new position as
Project Manager with the Brooklyn
PCC Division. With Craig’s departure we welcomed Matt Skyberg,
by: Steve Rooney
long time roller operator, to the
new role of asphalt foreman. We
have all the confidence in Matt
and know that he will do well and
be very successful in this role.
The Ames PCC crew’s have been
busy bouncing between various
jobs at Iowa State University and
the city of Ames. It’s amazing to
see the versatility of this crew.
One day they are doing small
rehabilitation work putting back
curb and gutter sections or raising
manholes and the next day paving
500-feet of sidewalk 8-foot wide by
hand. No matter the task they are
always well prepared. The crews
will finish the year mainly back
and forth between jobs with the
university and city.
The intake crews are also very
versatile and lend the PCC crews
a big hand at times. The intake
crew is also capable of many
different tasks and it’s usually not
too hard to find something to keep
them busy. While it is overdue,
we would like to welcome Doug
Doud, who joined us this past
spring to lead the crew. Doug
brings many different talents from
his past work experience and has
been a really great fit.
Our dirt crews have been busy
staying ahead of
the PCC & HMA
crews doing removals and grading various projects. Most
of the projects have
to be phased so the
crews are going
back and forth quite
a bit to complete
the work. I would
like to give the dirt
crews a special
“thank you” for all
the hard work they
have done as they
have been one person short for most
of the season and hardly ever
complain. They always find a way
to get the job done. If anybody
knows a hardworking, dependable
person with a CDL that would like
to join the Ames dirt crew, please
send them my way.
As it goes every time in preparing an article for the Mirror I was
struggling with what to write
about. It’s pretty easy to just name
jobs and numbers but I was
looking for more than that. Then
it became pretty clear to me as
just the other day we were paving a project at the city of Ames
Cemetery. As it turns out one of
the roads we were paving went
right by Tom Manatts’ head stone.
It struck me at that moment that
besides missing Tom very much
as I do every day and season, that
all of our Ames Division crews do
many different tasks day in and
day out, but they also complete
the tasks very well. We thank our
Ames employees for all they do
and I know Tom would be very
proud of what he started in Ames,
I know I am. We will do our best
every day and season to continue
his legacy. M
FALL 2013
15
May We Introduce...
Craig Kalinay has been an employee of Manatt’s, Inc. for 12
years now, but recently switched divisions. Craig was part of
the Ames Asphalt Division for the last 12 years. He is now a
project manager for one of the PCC crews based out of the
Brooklyn office. He just finished up a job in Muscatine.
Craig and his wife Jill have three children, Jeryn, Ashten, and
Chenli. They recently moved to Brooklyn and are looking for a
house to buy.
Craig Kalinay
PCC and Project Division Update
by: Duane McDonald
Wow! What a season this has been, started wet and has got drier and
drier. At any rate, much of Iowa could use rain.
PCC construction activities continue at a good pace. Kenny Alexander, Roy Piper, Joel Clayton and Billy Naderman’s crews are currently
in the Muscatine area but will end their season south of Council
Bluffs.
Kevin Hogan, Steve Naderman, Rick Hudson and Jose Castro’s crews
are currently in the Bluffs area and will end their season in Des
Moines.
Nick Tometich and Brett Strong’s crews are in the Grinnell area and
will end their season in the Bluffs or Belle Plaine.
I am happy to report that PCC incident/accident and work comp
claims remain at reasonable levels. Please consider safety awareness
as we work into the fall season and let’s get everyone home safely.
Thanks. M
American Concrete Pavement
Association selected one of
Manatt’s project as the Silver
Winner in their Overlays (HIghways) category!
The project was the US 18 from
East City limits of Fredericksburg
to West Union, IA.
Congratulations to all who were
involved in making this happen!
16
FALL 2013
May We Introduce...
Waterloo Market Manager: Harold Kavalier
Harold Kavalier
Harold Kavalier has been driving a truck since he was 16 years old. He
has been employed by United Concrete and Manatt’s for 39 years. During his time here, he has been a ready mix driver, dispatcher and salesman. In August, Harold agreed to take over as the Waterloo market
manager. In this new role, Harold oversees all the day to day operations
at the four metro locations. Harold has been married to Francie for
38 years and has 5 children. His hobbies include spending time with his
grandchildren and traveling to Florida. Harold says, “the best thing about
my job is the people I work for, the customers and the friends I have
made. Even after a tough day, I still look forward to the next day. A big
thank you to Junie Manatt and others that have made a great company.
This has been a great ride.”
Jesup Plant Manager: Willie Marvets
Willie Marvets is in his third season with United Concrete and Manatt’s.
Willie started driving a ready mix truck for United in 2011. With just
over a season of experience, his peers voted him to represent them at
the Manatt’s Family of Businesses driver rodeo. In early August, Willie
jumped at the opportunity to take over the Jesup plant. Willie has excelled in the short time that he has been there. Willie has been married
to Shana for eleven years and has four children. His hobbies include going on motorcycle rides and camping. Willie says, “I like being in management and the challenges that come with it..”
Willie Marvets
North Rural Sales: Erin Soukup
Erin Soukup
Erin Soukup has been selling belt trailers for the past few years, prior to
that she worked for United Concrete and Manatt’s as a ready mix driver
in Waterloo and Independence. Erin accepted the North rural sales
job in August and is glad to be back on the team here at Manatt’s. Erin
oversees the sales for all the rural North ready mix plants. Her sales
area includes the following plants: Grundy Center, Traer, La Porte City,
Readlyn, Denver, Oelwein, Independence and Jesup. Erin’s Dad, Darrell
Brunko, has worked for Manatt’s since the Shireys purchase in 1987. Erin
has been married to Eric for two wonderful years and has two children.
Her hobbies include spending time with family and working with their
cattle (her kids enjoy the cattle too, but mostly just getting dirty). Erin’s
words, “I enjoy being able to be out and about seeing people on a daily
basis and interacting with and assisting customers with their concrete
needs. I also enjoy knowing that if I need a driving fix, I am able to get in
a mixer.”
FALL 2013
17
Subdrain - Sealcoat - Stabilization
by: Dave Schinckel
After the slow start with all
the spring rains, it has been a
steady pace all summer long
and now the fall push is upon
us. It has been a real challenge for the Sealcoat crew
lead by Virg Heishman and
Brian Morrison to get caught
back up with the delay this
spring. It seemed the harder
we tried to push to cut some
days off of projects, the more
breakdowns or additional
work was added to a project
that never allowed us to get a
good pace going. We enlisted
the help of the subdrain crew
twice to complete some stabilization projects so that the
sealcoat crew could stay to
shooting oil. This is the first
year in a very long time that
we have some towns that we
were not able to get sealcoated in this season. Luckily they
are willing to let the work
carry over and will actually
add some additional work for
next year. It says a lot for the
reputation of Manatt’s when
our customers know we will
take care of them when these
conditions do arrive.
The Sealcoat crew has been
traveling the entire State of
Iowa doing sealcoating , fog
sealing and full depth reclamation using foamed asphalt.
The FDR Foam project was a
test project on Hwy 93 from
Sumner to Fayette. The project was several sections of
varying types of construction
using thin lift asphalt paving,
milling, cold-in place recycling, foamed asphalt stabilization and chip-sealcoating.
Mathy Construction was the
prime contractor and coordinated the project. As any
project goes, it looks good on
paper but doesn’t seem to go
that way when you put the
equipment in the ground. For
the most part it was a successful project, but did require some additional mobes
and short days of construction, due to the length of the
sections and changes in the
material requirements. The
DOT along with a team from
Iowa State will monitor the
project in the coming years to
see how the sections perform.
As the construction budgets
seem to continual shrink,
this will give some of the
engineers some confidence
to possibly spec this type of
work and stretch the dollars
for maintenance and extend
the life of some pavements.
At the time of writing this
article the sealcoat crew has
work scheduled up to October 15th to complete involving fog sealing and sealcoating. The fog seals are
in O’Brien, Pottawattamie
and Harrison counties. The
last project is in Page county
where the subdrain crew is
doing the cement stabilization
on two locations prior to the
sealcoat crew arriving to then
place a double sealcoat on
those locations. Page county
is next to the Missouri border and I hope the weather
will still a little warmer down
there for a while longer to
finish this project without a
lot of short days waiting for
temps to rise. The farm ra-
dio weather forecasters say
we have another 2 weeks of
warm weather then we will go
to a more normal fall temperature pattern. I hope they are
right! My horses have started
shedding their summer hair a
couple of weeks ago and that
makes me a little nervous!
The sealcoat crew has under
gone some personnel changes
and I would like to announce
the return of Jeremy Rucker
back to the crew. Virg Heishman has decided to retire this
fall and Jeremy will be taking
over that position along with
Brian Morrison as the Foreman of that crew. I really
hate to see Virg leave with his
years of knowledge that I am
sure I will see he handled behind the scenes and was just
second nature for him. We all
wish him the best of luck in
his future endeavors. Jeremy
should transition right back in
with his years of experience
and this should be a seamless transfer. He will also be
responsible for bidding and
quoting sealcoating projects
as Virg did. In the long term
forecast my vision is to have
Jeremy take over more bidding responsibilities and also
assist me in the office.
Touching on the subdrain
crew, they too have kept the
lowboys busy by covering all
ends of the state. Depending on how the PCC division’s
fall season paves out, that
will determine how long their
season will run. We have
the night project to finish in
Cedar Rapids with L.L. Pelling mid October and then
continued on page 21....
18
FALL 2013
Branstad names McKibben and Dakovich to the Iowa Board of Regents
Governor Branstad today named former state Sen. Larry McKibben and construction business owner Milt
Dakovich (pr: “DOCK-o-vitch”) to the Iowa Board of Regents.
McKibben and Dakovich begin their terms today and will serve through April 30, 2019.
“I have chosen two passionate public servants who will help guide our Regents institutions through the next
six years,” said Branstad. “Larry’s legislative expertise and Milt’s construction background will provide both of
them with the knowledge and experience needed for these two seats on the board.”
“We are pleased they agreed to serve on the Board of Regents at this important time,” said Reynolds. “Larry
and Milt understand the importance of this new role, and are committed to offering a world-class education
for all students.
McKibben, 66, served in the Iowa Senate from 1997-2008, where he chaired the Ways & Means Committee,
also serving as the president pro tem. He earned his B.A. from the University of Northern Iowa, served as a
graduate teaching assistant at Iowa State University and earned his J.D. from the University of Iowa. He is currently an attorney with the firm of Moore, McKibben, Goodman & Lorenz, LLP, in Marshalltown.
“I believe education is the foundation for the growth, development and well-being of future generations of
Iowans,” said McKibben. “I have spent my entire professional life as a problem solver. I believe that my educational background, leadership skills and breadth of lifetime experiences gives me the depth of knowledge
and skill to contribute in a positive way to achieving high standards of educational excellence at the Regents
institutions.
Dakovich, 58, has a B.S. from Iowa State in both civil engineering and construction engineering. He currently
serves as the president of Aspro, Inc. in Waterloo. He is a past president of both the Associated General Contractors of Iowa and the Asphalt Paving Association of Iowa.
“I am the product of Iowa public higher education and recognize its importance,” said Dakovich. “It is vital
that this state have quality, affordable education. Our future workforce depends on it.”
McKibben and Dakovich will be up for Senate confirmation in the 2014 legislative session.
The Iowa Board of Regents consists of the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern
Iowa, the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, and the Iowa School for the Deaf. For more information, visit
http://www.regents.iowa.gov/. M
Milt Dakovich is the
president of Aspro, Inc
(a sister company of
Manatt’s, Inc.) in Waterloo.
Larry McKibben
Milt Dakovich
FALL 2013
19
....continued from page 11
acute myeloid leukemia. Austin
fought through horrific complications, including a bone marrow
transplant, but still lost his battle
with leukemia on June 13, 2006, at
the age of 19.
LexAnn Alig, was an employee at
Manatt’s for 16 years, from 19922008. In July of 2000, Lex was
diagnosed with malignant blood
disorder called polycythemia
vera. This disease causes her bone
marrow to over produce platelets.
Since the day of her diagnosis,
she has been on a regimen of a
daily oral chemotherapy drug and
will always have to take this drug
because as of today, there is no
cure. This disease is treatable, but
not yet beatable. Lex suffers from
severe fatigue, fevers, bone/joint
pain, and bouts of debilitating
nausea and flu-like symptoms.
Reed Ballard, Ready Mix truck driver for Manatt’s, is currently driving
the LLS ready mix truck. Reed says
he takes great pride in driving this
truck. He hopes that by driving the
truck he is helping to raise awareness and that he will help spread
the word to get people to donate
blood. Reed hopes that if someone
suffering from a blood cancer sees
his truck, he can make them smile
by seeing the logoed drum.
Donate Life Iowa is a coalition of
agencies responsible for organ,
tissue, eye, blood and marrow
donation, as well as donor education and registration in Iowa. It is
one of 45 regional coalitions and
50 national businesses or
associations making up
Donate Life America, a
not-for-profit alliance that
serves as a national voice
and inspires all people to
save and enhance lives
through organ, eye, and
tissue donation. Visit
www.iowadonorregistry.
org for more information!
There are approximately
250 Iowans living with
ALS at any given time
and our Chapter has grown from
providing services to a handful
of patients with ALS in the Des
Moines area in 2003 to serving
143 patients statewide in 2012.
The ALS Association, Iowa Chapter
provides compassionate care and
support to Iowans affected by ALS
through our care services and programs. The core Chapter services
include home visits, information
and referral services, patient and
family support groups, care specific advocacy, and educational
trainings for health care providers
and community groups. The current Chapter Programs include our
equipment loan program, communication and assistive device
program, care connection program
and respite program. They also
support global, cutting-edge ALS
research and participate in state
and federal advocacy efforts to
find additional treatments and a
cure for Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Every 90 seconds someone is
diagnosed with ALS and every 90
seconds someone passes away
from ALS. Visit www.alsaiowa.org
for more information!
The Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society (LLS) is a nonprofit organization focused on finding cures
and better treatments for blood
cancer patients. Thanks to breakthrough therapies, survival rates
have doubled, tripled, and even
quadrupled since 1960. Research
funded by LLS can be the gateway
for beating all cancers, as well as
other diseases. Of 39 new cancer
fighting drugs approved by the
FDA in the past 10 years, 19 of
them were initially approved to
treat blood cancer. And, ALL of
them now show promise for treating other diseases.
In addition to the strides made
in research by The Leukemia &
Lymphoma Society, their Patient
Services Program provides patient
and family support groups, direct
patient financial aid and co-pay
assistance, the Trish Green Back
to School Program for children
with Cancer, professional education, and an extensive educational
website offering free materials,
seminars and conferences along
with the LLS Information Resource
Center.
In the United States, approximately
every 4 minutes one person is
diagnosed with blood cancer and
every 10 minutes, someone dies
from it Over 1,690 Iowans were
diagnosed with a blood cancer in
2012 and 710 Iowans died in 2012
from a blood cancer. Visit www.
lls.org/ia for more information and
how you can help! M
20
FALL 2013
Na�i�n�� Rea�� M��
“Best of the Best” At NRMCA’s National Mixer
Driver Championship
This year’s National Ready Mixed Concrete Associa-
tion’s National Mixer Driver Championship was held at
Red Rock resort in Las Vegas, Nevada in conjunction
with NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks. Todd Brown, a Ready Mix
truck driver out of Newton, IA represented Manatt’s, Inc. in
the competition.
Now in its eighth year, this year’s national contest “was an
extremely close competition,” according to NRMCA’s Senior Vice President of Operations and Compliance Gary
Mullings. Forty drivers, which included state rodeo champions as well as NRMCA member company champions
from around the nation, competed to be the “Best of the
Best”. The champion was selected based on a cumulative
score derived from competitions that included a driving
challenge course, visual vehicle inspection, reaction-timetest, delivery ticket station and 2-hour written examination.
Awards were presented for the top three finishers.
Third place went to Todd Brown of Grinnell, Iowa. He has
been with Manatts, Inc. for thirteen years and is currently
driving a Western Star, five axle truck with McNeilus rear
discharge mixer. Mr. Brown is an NRMCA Certified Delivery Professional and is the reigning three-time Manatt’s
Inc. Company Rodeo Champion. M
by: Todd Brown
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…except
when you win third place in the National Ready
Mix Driver Championship!
The competition this year was compiled of the
driving course consisting of 8 obstacles, visual
truck inspection, and written test. For bonus
prizes there were additional challenges. One
for quick reaction time, sales ticket, bowling
challenge, hoop shoot challenge, and break an
egg challenge. This year they had a record turn
out and more than 40 drivers were competing.
I placed first in visual truck inspection, was
the only driver to get a strike on the bowling
challenge, and won third place in the competition. I also have the honor of competing in the
worldwide ready Mix Driver Championship next
spring.
I had an amazing 4 days in Vegas competing,
visiting the strip, touring the Hoover dam, and
relaxing at our hotel. I was joined by my wife,
Jessica, Adam and Jamin Manatt and Denny and
Rita Gallagher. I couldn’t have asked for better
company. Thanks for the support and showing
me a great time in Vegas. I am very honored to
finally get Manatt’s Family of Business on the
National podium! Thanks everyone for this wonderful opportunity!
I also would like to take this opportunity to
thank a very special someone in my life. My
Wife! Jess has been a huge help in my success
at these competitions. I probably don’t say it
enough, but I hope she realizes how much I appreciate her support! THANK YOU JESS!! M
FALL 2013
21
C�n��e�� A�so�ia�i��
by: Adam Manatt
I recently attended the National Ready Mix Concrete Association (NRMCA) ConcreteWorks Convention and Board of Directors Meeting, held at Red Rocks Hotel
and Casino near Las Vegas. I was joined by Denny Gallagher and Todd Brown. I
am Director of the NRMCA, and had a few days of meetings, culminating in a 5
hour Director’s meeting. (try not to be too jealous!)
There was a lot of good information at the meetings. One major takeaway that
I would like to share was regarding safety: “You don’t protect yourself from
something; you protect yourself for someone.” I thought that this was a fairly
profound nugget, with a whole lot of truth to it. When we talk about safety, we
often talk about the importance of getting people home to their families. We all
have people who are important to us, and people to whom we are important.
We need to remember them and make sure that we take care of ourselves for all
of those people.
On a more exciting note, Todd Brown, Newton Ready Mix, represented Manatt’s
at the annual Mixer Driver Championship. Todd is a 2 time champion of our
Family of Businesses Mixer Rodeo. This year, the NRMCA had the largest pool
of competitors ever (including 2 returning National Champions—one a 2 time
champion). Todd represented our company with dignity and class, and I was
very proud of how he represented our company.
The competition included a walk around inspection, a written examination, and
a driving skills obstacle course (most involving tight spaces, backing, stopping,
and parallel parking). This year there was also a delivery ticket with mistakes that
had to be identified as an extra special challenge. Other “fun challenges” included bowling with a genuine bowling ball hung off the chutes (Todd recorded the
only strike!), making a basket by aiming and rolling a basketball out of the chute,
and getting your chute as close as possible to an egg without breaking it.
Todd carded the best score on the walk around inspection on his way to placing
THIRD PLACE OVERALL in the competition. It was an amazing result, and a testament to Todd’s skills and hard work in preparing for the competition. Congratulations to Todd on a job very well done and a big Thank You to Todd for being
such a great representative of our company.
Additionally, Todd qualified for the International Driver Championship to be
held at ConExpo/ConAgg in Las Vegas this March. We hope that he will be able
to represent us in that competition as well! If you see Todd, please congratulate
him on his success, and thank him for “adding some hardware” to the Manatt’s
trophy case! M
....continued from page 17
work on the new rest areas
south of Ankeny on I-35 as
that gets paved out. That
leaves a small job at the new
Brownells facility by Grinnell
and then the Mills County
projects. It looks like we will
also be doing some shouldering in Clinton County for the
Newton asphalt division. As
I touched on earlier this crew
jumped in and did a Fly Ash
stabilization project in Muscatine county as a change order
to the PCC Division project.
After milling part of the existing pavement off, the subgrade could not support the
construction traffic and needed to be stabilized to keep the
project on schedule. It was a
new direction for this crew,
but they stepped up to the
challenge and kept the paving crew on schedule. They
are currently down in Page
County doing a stabilization
project with cement. Different product but basically the
same process of construction.
It is great to see the flexibility
of these crews!
This is the fall season and
with the delayed planting of
crops, there will be an extended exposure to large and
slow farm vehicles traveling
the roadways. Keep and extra
eye out when coming over the
hills as you may meet some
equipment taking up their
lane and half of yours! Let’s
make an extra effort to finish safe and strong this 2013
construction season! M
22
FALL 2013
Environmental Update - Successful Season
by: Mona Bond
....continued from page 12
Manatt provided some information
about the history of the Determann
operations and family.
The last stop of the day was Shaffton quarry which also houses the
lime drying operations of Beneficial
Technologies. John Tuthill explained
the Beneficial Technologies operations and the process for drying the
lime. During this stop, John also
talked about the history of the Shaffton quarry and described the process
used to mine the quarry’s reserves.
Now, the trek home began. A
change of drivers and we were off
for the Brooklyn office to send all
the participants on their way to
the week-end. Our intentions were
to be back in Brooklyn by 4:00,
but we were a little late, calling it
a day about an hour later. In all,
we covered over 325 miles and
viewed several different Manatt
company operations. Our professional partners truly enjoy the tour
and look forward to it each year. A
huge “thank you” to all of the crews
(construction and quarry) for letting
us “invade” your job sites and for
taking the time to answer questions
posed by our group. M
While the season is not closed yet, as of early September, the com-
pany is doing VERY WELL on the environmental front. I am so honored
and appreciate the attention the company and our employees are now
giving to our environmental efforts and needs. It is awesome!
We have had very few visits from the IDNR to the plants and those we
have had are good ones.
The company has planned improvements for the coming months.
Belle Plaine will be getting a much improved ready mix plant. There
will be site work done and great controls on the run-off from the plant.
(reminder – no gray water - nothing is to leave our sites except clear
rainwater)
The portable (#415) ready mix plant was put to use for the first time
this season in Southwest Iowa. Plant seems to be doing well and is a
good addition for the company.
Plant managers have done a great job in getting the storm water
samples taken – this spring we couldn’t work because of too much
rain and now we have hit the absolute worst drought and heat spell
in years for summer and fall work. Annually we must take samples of
storm water runoff to determine what is leaving our plant sites, something that is required by law.
I have been working on several other issues with our state association
partners. We used to be able to permit plants with a more simplified process but rules change and the process to permit a new plant
became quite complicated. (Note Asphalt and Aggregate Permits
particularly) A team from the industry has been aggressively pursuing
the simplified permitting process to help the state save money/time
and allow the industry to capitalize on the uniformity of the plants and
equipment we permit. Since we have to have an air permit for every
plant and piece of equipment we own that emits anything into the air
– that is important to us. We should know this fall how successful we
have been in acquiring these permits. I am also working to keep those
permits financially feasible to acquire.
I will be working diligently to complete my visits to all plants this fall.
Just a reminder to managers – be sure your books are up to date and
that you are keeping the records required. In our most recent IDNR
inspection – it was all about the paper work!!!!
Lastly, I had a right hip replaced on August 22. While it still hurts today
(9-9-13), I am doing well and should be as good as new soon. Sucks
to have to have this done but I know folks a lot younger than I am that
have had the procedure. I do recommend you look into the “anterior” replacement as the healing and down time is much less than the
“posterior” surgery. One of the things you learn quickly is – if you
are used to going and working everyday – it really slows you down and
can make you a little cranky to be held hostage or dependent! I guess
the good Lord is teaching me patience. Until next time…. M
FALL 2013
by: Todd Powers
Hello everyone! Now that the
drought has ended, and the
rainy season has begun I hope
there is enough time left in
the season to get all the work
done. As we sit right now we
are on schedule, but it never
fails that a few procrastinators
will call late in the season with
jobs that have to get done.
We started our season off
again this year with Wendling
Quarries in our yard while the
snow was still falling. It seems
to be an every other year event
to fulfill our RAP processing
needs. However, we crushed a
little extra this year because although we didn’t get the work,
we will be supplying Manatt’s
with approximately 8,000 tons
of RAP for the three projects
they have in Eastern Iowa this
year.
When it came time to start
paving, we began with a good
amount of work from the City
of Clinton. Clinton is still in
the middle of a 5 year pavement management program
aimed at improving its overall
street infrastructure. This plan
incorporates a wide variety of
construction methods. By the
end of the season, we will have
completed Full Reconstruction
projects, Reclamation / Stabilization projects, Cold in Place
Recycling projects, Mill and
overlay projects, Chip Seal projects, and even Patching projects. There really isn’t much we
can’t do, and the crews seem to
enjoy the change of pace and
variety.
Next, came some commercial
work, (another Salt Pad for our
neighbor ARTCo) a couple of
projects for the City of Camanche, and a couple projects in
the City of Maquoketa. We will
finish off the year with a few
more city streets in Clinton, a
couple large commercial parking lots, (new Rail.One facility,
new Data Dimensions Complex,
and a Kwik Star truck stop) and
some other misc. commercial
work.
The ARTCo salt pad will be our
second largest commercial
project of the year, but it was
unique in the fact that it was
a 5,000 ton job and you could
see our asphalt plant while we
were paving. We also helped
design the job and performed
almost all the work in house.
(Including a storm manhole
and some pipe. Thanks for the
laser, Otis.)
As I write this letter we will
have gone 365 days without
a lost time injury! Way to go
Team! I hope everyone else is
having a safe and productive
season. M
23
24
FALL 2013
Illowa Seal Coat
by: Larry Senger
The year is winding down and we still have a lot of work to get
done before the season ends. Mike Tacey, AKA Opie, has had
a busy year seal coating and crack sealing in the Quad Cities
as well as Clinton, Muscatine, Fairfield, Newton, Ottumwa, and
Muscatine. It has been awful hard on the workers with this extreme heat for so long, but they all hung in
there and kept working. Thanks to everybody and have a safe rest of the season.
Mike and his guys also teamed up with Mike Weir on painting 20 tennis courts for Pelling at the University of Iowa. There were 12 new courts outdoors and 8 indoor courts, which they just finished this week.
It kept them busy a large part of the summer as they mixed and applied 65 drums of paint. I know they
are glad to have it behind them. A nice compliment was given to them at our final walk through with the
University.
Larry Sammon and his crew finished up work in Iowa County doing emulsion crack filling for Fort Dodge
Asphalt in early August. Thankfully it was cool then. From there they’ve worked in Appanoose and Marion Counties. They are back home for a couple of weeks working in Clinton and Scott County. They will
finish up the year in Decatur County on I-35 and then come closer to home in Dubuque County on Highway 52. Just in time for the Fall leaf colors. M
Mike Tacey in foreground, Mike Weir and
Angel Anguiano in background
Agustin Lara
FALL 2013
Illowa Asphalt
25
by: Brian Armstrong
As many folks will agree this summer has flown by just about as fast as the summer of 2012.
The season started off at a snail’s pace for the Illowa asphalt crew with only 5-6 thousand tons on the books
commercially and zero state or county jobs.
Western Illinois has been slow on the state and county projects. This has created more competition in Eastern
Iowa than I have ever seen, no matter what kind of work it is commercial, DOT, or county. Everyone is fighting
for the same projects.
Thankfully, we have return customers on our commercial side that we’ve been able to become vendors with
who call us to handle their projects. The Hon Company is one of these. Just when I thought we couldn’t possibly do any paving for them this year due to the amount of work we’ve done the last few years, bam, they want
another lot built.
Carver Pump also is good for a load of patching every year and has inquired on replacing their whole lot also.
We’ve had a trail or two and loads of small patch jobs along the way, but things really looked slow for us until
the July letting.
Illowa was low bidder on a 59,000 ton project in Scott County. This is the largest DOT contract Illowa has ever
taken on. We had to have this work to survive this season.
So far Jeff and the guys have been keeping things moving down the road pretty smoothly. They’ve completed
the base widening (28 lane miles) and are getting geared up for the paving portion. As of now, they are in the
milling stage.
From there we will finish with a DOT job on HWY 22, and tie up other various loose ends. M
Widening Hwy 130
Trench roller compacting subase
Profiling Surface
26
FALL 2013
Unique Projects from L.L. Pelling
by: Barry Rhinehart
I would like to share a couple
of unique projects that L.L.
Pelling has done for the University of Iowa this year. The
first project is the Klotz Tennis
Courts. This project consisted
of 12 outdoor courts and 8
indoor courts. The 12 outdoor courts were to be profile milled and overlaid, which
sounds like a simple project
but it definitely was not. This
project had a very tight schedule and was to be done in two
phases. This project was to be
done by July 26th, this included
30 days of cure time before
the courts were colored and
another 30 days to color the
courts, so we basically had 2
months to reconstruct these
courts. The courts were to be
paved at 0.83% slope and the
tolerance was 1/8” deviation
in 10’, the final surface would
be 3D scanned to insure we
were within specifications.
The courts had interior and
exterior fences that needed to
be removed and all the posts
were cut to allow us to mill
and pave over them. After the
fence was removed we were
ready to mill the first 6 courts.
Troy Balderas and crew from
the Manatt’s Milling Division
set up 3 total stations and
were ready to mill. They did a
great job milling a new profile, especially considering the
small area we had to work with.
After the milling was complete
our crew came in to pave the
courts. To meet these tight
specs our paving crew set up
a dual grade laser to pave
the courts. Paul Jamieson
and his crew did a great job
paving the courts to create
a nice surface profile. We had
to wait 15 days before Illowa
could come in and color the
courts, during that time we
were welding the fence posts
back together and re-installing
fence. Mike Weir’s crew from
Illowa came in to install the 2
coats of primer and 3 coats of
color surfacing. They worked
through the weekend to insure
they were done in time to meet
the demanding schedule. They
did a great job on the color
coating, making the entire
project look excellent. Then
it was time to do it all over
again, we all pushed through
the second half and completed
the project with two days to
spare. I was glad to be done
with the outdoor project and
turn the indoor project over to
Randy Soedt. Thanks, Randy!
The indoor courts were to be
done between August 26th and
September 14th and required 3
coats of color resurfacer. Illowa
finished the indoor courts a day
ahead of schedule. I thought
this was a great project to
share and to show how 3 of
Manatt’s family of businesses
can create such a great project and work together to meet
the tough schedule the project
required.
The second project was the
University of Iowa, Field Hockey. This project consisted of
7,700 SY of 5” porous asphalt
base for the turf surface. The
reason for the porous asphalt
is because before practices
and games they water the field,
this lets the ball roll freely and
keeps it from bouncing as high
and also helps prevent injuries. They have six sprinklers
around the field, each spray
five hundred gallons of water per minute onto the field.
This project also had tough
specifications to meet. The
field was to be paved at 0.03%
cross slope and the tolerance
was 1/8” absolute deviation in
10’. The surface of this project
was also checked by a 3D scan
to ensure that the surface was
within specifications. We also
used a dual grade laser to pave
this project. We paved this
project in 2 lifts, after the 1st
lift was placed we shot elevations every 25’ to make sure
we were paving within tolerance. We then paved the surface lift and met the required
specifications. They also did a
water test on the surface, the
water test consisted of turning
on all the sprinklers and making sure all the water drained, it
looked pretty cool watching all
that water disappear from the
pavement. The foreman from
Astroturf made the comment
that it was the best surface
they have laid turf on, and the
University was very pleased
with this project. M
FALL 2013
27
Fifty Years of Blending Cutbacks
by: Chuck Finnegan
Many of you probably don’t know that the L.L.Pelling Co. blends its own asphalt cutbacks that we use in our
chip seal process. What is a cutback? It is a blend of asphalt cement and a cutter stock of either No.1 fuel, jet
fuel or some sort of dry diesel type fuel. Different blends of fuel and asphalt cement give you different cutbacks. We have mainly used MC-3000 for our chip seal projects, MC-30 for prime over virgin stone bases and
MC-70 for dust control projects.
These
products were widely used nationwide in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s but as the petroleum crunch came on
so did the use of emulsions. This was also brought on by the ecological era where today emulsions are widely
used and in some states MC’s are outlawed because of the fuel it takes to blend them.
The
Pelling Co. and many of the private contractors doing the small towns in Iowa have stuck with MC’s due to
the flexibility of the product after it has been placed and also the ease in placing. The contractor doesn’t need
to wait for it to break like emulsions so it can be placed later in the season and is not as susceptible to a thunderstorm sneaking up on you.
We
started blending in the 60’s and have ever since. As far as I know we are the only contractor to have its own
DOT approved blending facility in Iowa. Why? Convenience both for our crews and it gives us a little edge on
buying asphalt cement in larger volumes. The tanks and storage helps us control costs and helps get our towns
negotiated a little earlier in the season than the competition.
Gerry
Gaffey managed our oil plant, as we call it, for many years beginning along the river in Coralville but as
we grew his plate filled so he had to pass it off. Matt Donohoe has been the man in charge the past 18 years
moving it to our main office in North Liberty. Matt watches over 5 distributors that feed our three seal coat
crews as well as 4 transports. These guys will move over a million gallons a year through the oil plant as well as
haul another 3 million gallons of asphalt cement to our asphalt plants.
Thanks
guys for holding up a Pelling tradition and for doing it with quality and safety always in mind. M
28
FALL 2013
Update from Wending Quarries
by: Tony Manatt
Boy when the season turned
dry and hot…. It sure did! It is
mid-September right now and
another 90 degree day. We have
not had much rain for more than
45 days, the corn and beans are
really hurting right now.
After the wet, wet start in March,
April, May, and even June,
we have been running strong.
Manatt’s PCC divisions have
completed their work in south
Muscatine County and are currently working on Hwy. 61 shoulders on the beltway around the
city of Muscatine. Also, Manatt’s
ACC Portable Division is at our
Behr Quarry. They have strung
together four nice asphalt jobs
that will put Wendling Quarries
to the test. As of the writing of
this article, they are about a third
finished and all is going very
well. We work very well together.
I want to thank some of those
hard working groups that make
up the strength of WQI. Our
moving department is the backbone of our portable life style.
Our Quality Control Department
has made our reputation second
to none. The Drilling Department keeps us blasting right on
time not to mention the customers they serve, very happy! Our
shops and parts departments
are amazing as we are in the
business of breaking things or
wearing things out. Our Safety
Department is visible and great
leaders. The office “Rocks”
even though it doesn’t.
(one of the only places
that doesn’t). Delivery
trucks making more friends than
most truckers ever would hope
to. Those folks in our Quarry
Development help us all know
what we are doing and do it
well….”Safely.” The crushing
crews……you are truly amazing.
For those not mentioned in this
writing, I know you are out there
and our customers think you are
great. I cannot believe all we
get done every day. “Thank You”
to all of you.
On another note: Piper’s (my
wife) father died Sept. 9th. I was
asked to say a few words at the
funeral. If you ever
get the chance
to speak about a
loved one or at a
friend’s funeral, I
advise you to do
it. While this can
be an anxious and
nerve wracking
event, there is a
satisfying feeling
about doing what
is right, and saying
something before it
is too late. I am so
glad I spoke about
this great man.
He was a member
of the “greatest
generation”. One committed to
the standards of that generation,
standards of loyalties that drove
the engine of this great nation.
The commitment to this nation,
his wife and friends and doing
what was right, brought a shining personality about this man.
Another trait that he possessed
was the fact that he would never
say a bad thing about another
person. He would instead try and
find a good quality that the person possessed and expand on
it. I, for one, can learn from this
and hope to take his example of
leadership with me on my path
of life.
Please be safe with all that you
do. M
Tony has officially retired
this briefcase after 20 years
of faithful companionship! :)
FALL 2013
29
State Ag Secretary Visits Wendling Quarries
Article from the Clinton Herald by Katie Dahlstrom (PHOTOS ON NEXT PAGE)
DEWITT — Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey toured Wendling Quarries on Wednesday afternoon, travelling
into the quarry to get an up-close look at the DeWitt based operation.
Joining him were Clinton County farmers, Wendling employees, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship staff and local elected officials, Clinton County Supervisor Brian Schmidt and Rep. Steve Olson, R-DeWitt.
John Tuthill, Wendling Quarries property manager, gave Northey and the group a tour of the quarry that led them out
of the office and into the areas where materials are extracted.
Northey said he does not have much exposure to mines and quarries, with most of his experience in limestone mines.
But the operations are covered under the Department of Agriculture’s Mines and Minerals Bureau.
“It’s important to know what’s going on in their life and know whether we’re responding the right way. It’s also a big
business in Iowa. The mining business is a big business,” Northey said.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship monitors more than 1,100 registered mineral sites in Iowa
that are used by 250 operators in more than 25 counties. These sites produce limestone, sand and gravel, gypsum and
clay. The limestone industry produces more than 25 million tons of stone each year for use in the construction industry, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Wendling produces crushed stone, sand, gravel, recycled concrete and asphalt products, as well as hot mix asphalt
and ready mix concrete for state and local government agencies, contractors, farmers, businesses, and individuals in
the Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois area.
“It’s kind of forgotten by folks. They’ll see road work getting done, but they don’t think about where that rock came
from. They don’t think of where that old road is going and all the sophistication in knowing what materials to use,”
Northey said.
“They certainly have a lot of land as well, by its nature,” he added.
Wendling Quarries owns more than 250 acres of land in DeWitt, some of it an open-pit mine and other remains farmland.
The Mines and Minerals Bureau licenses each mine operator and bonds and registers every mining site. An inspector
monitors the site for compliance and assures that the bond posted would cover site reclamation should the operation
default.
Before embarking on the tour, Northey talked with the group about items affecting their lives such as DNR and EPA
regulations, the extension of limited liability protection to farmers that offer education tours on their farms and regulations for nitrate runoff from farm fields.
Northey said it’s difficult to manage nonpoint source pollution such as runoff.
“We need to let farmers figure this out,” he said. “This isn’t all going to be fixed in a year or two. It’s not all going to be
fixed in five or 10. A lot of the nitrogen that shows up in our rivers is just the great organic matter of soils that we have
out there. When the water moves through it, it picks up nitrogen whether it’s fertilizer or organic matter.”
He pointed to potential lawsuits from environmental groups and other unknown factors that could push the EPA to
impose nutrient standards. - See more at: http://clintonherald.com/features/x1952119781/State-ag-secretary-visitslocal-quarry#sthash.QkBsvVeO.dpuf M
30
FALL 2013
Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey, with
group from Wendling Quarries
John Kulper, Bill Northey, John Tuthill
Wendell Wuestenberg and his son
Mitchel ready to run a 5K race together
WQI is proud to support the local Boy Scout Troop 29
in the annual July 4th parade in DeWitt
FALL 2013
31
TEAMWORK
by: Tim Drewelow
I
need to share a day that should make us all proud
to belong to the WQI Family. On Wednesday morning, May 29, about 5 a.m. I checked with the National Weather Service and learned the Cedar River
prediction changed from 15’ to 18.5’. Our dredge
was at Hess Sandpit and was safe at 15’ and “panic” time at 18’. I knew I only had about 7 hours to
move equipment out as the road goes under water
at 16’.
I sent Steve Yerington a text at 5:15 a.m. that I
needed help, the river is going to reach 18’ and we
only had a few hours. Keep in mind this is usually a
2 day process as there are 25 loads of equipment to
be moved. A 50 ton crane is also needed for some
of the equipment. Steve called a.s.a.p. and he took
care of contacting both shops for help and lining up
trucks so I could put a plan together at Hess.
I arrived at Hess before 6 a.m. and met with Neil
and Larry to put our plan together. Keep in mind all
3 of us are at “grandpa” age. When I told them I had
a crane coming in 2 hours I think I tested my “friendship” status with them. We did what we always
do, jump in with both feet and tackle the problem.
That’s when the magic started.... Service trucks
from DeWitt and Robins and Gary from the Bowser
Wash Plant showed up. I believe we ended up with
9 trucks from WQI and Ben Tech. Everyone pitched
in to help tear things down. The crane was there by
8 a.m. and we were ready, amazing!!
We had decided to stage the equipment at CR
South. Howard prepared a place and had loaders
and people ready to unload trucks as they showed
up. The water was rising so fast we almost had to
move the crane while we were taking the dredge
out of the water. By noon only 2 loads remained on
site. As they left Hess the water was just starting to
cross the road. What an amazing accomplishment
that only could happen here at Wendling Quarries.
I would like to thank everyone that helped in this
effort (you know who you are). If I tried naming
everyone I would forget somebody. When someone
asked me why I have been at WQI all these years
(35+) this is another story I can tell. What a great
group of people to work with every day. Thanks
again! M
Congrats
John & Joey Elkins married August 16, 2013
Chad & Susan Weirup married August 24, 2013
Miracles
Veda Mae Sieverding born May 2, 2013
Daughter of Trent and Ashli Sieverding
Granddaughter of Rita and Wayne Crist
Great granddaughter of Roger and Linda Galloway
Daniel Wade Seemuth born May 30, 2013
Son of Jerry and Connie Seemuth
Grandson of Dan Shield
Emerson Jack Bergmann born June 18, 2013
Grandson of Steve and Sheryl Yerington
Taylor Gerlach born June 10, 2013
Granddaughter of Randy and Rhonda Rowan
Harper Lillian Lemburg born June 28, 2013
Daughter of Trey and Madolynn Lemburg
James David McDermott born July 26, 2013
Grandson of Paul & Dawn McDermott
Tanner Richard Usher born August 13, 2013
Grandson of Paul & Dawn McDermott
Benjamin Graeme Whitman born Sept. 18, 2013
Grandson of Marc and Cathy Whitman
Sympathy
Dave Clark - loss of his uncle
Bob Taylor - loss of his brother
Dave McMahon - loss of his Father –in-Law
The family of John Foster
Alan Hawker - loss of his mother
Shanna Schmidt - loss of her Mother in-law
Kathy Keating - loss of her Mother
Rick Gritton - loss of his Mother
Jeremy Petsche - loss of his grandfather
Brett Sterner - loss of his grandmother
Tim Bixler - loss of his grandfather
32
FALL 2013
Runners Agree: Quarry Run was a Blast
Article from Journal-Eureka by: Daryl Schepanski and Becky Dirkshaugsted, Staff Writers
Runners of all ages agreed that “I wanted to see the quarry” was the No. 1 reason for running the Springville
Extreme Quarry Run. The 6K route started in downtown Springville, headed west to traverse the steep descent
into Wendling Quarry. Runners then traveled through a tunnel blasted through the rock under Highway 151
before making the return trip.
“It was the first time this committee had organized an event like this,” organizer Joel Rochleau said. “We worked
real hard to make sure everything went smoothly.”
The event was organized with the support of Wendling Quarries as a fundraiser to benefit Springville’s Operation Backpack program. There were more than 185 participants and more than $3,000 was raised.
“We are really grateful to Wendling Quarries and the City of Springville for making the unique route possible,”
said Rochleau, who helped organize the event. “We received nothing but positive comments.”
At the finish line, participants were quick to tell family and friends about the experience of running through the
tunnel and successfully completing the course.
“The inclines were challenging,” said Brett Stephenson of Cedar Rapids, the first place finisher. “The tunnel was
bigger and longer than I imagined. It brings new meaning to the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Stephenson has run 14 marathons to date, including the Boston Marathon three times and the Boston, New
York and Chicago marathons all in the same year. He praised the quarry run route and organization.
“It was really neat to know you are under the highway,” he said. “I’m sure the runners appreciated the downhill
finish.”
Cheyenne Lerch of Anamosa was impressed with the number of children who completed the run.
“There was one young man who I didn’t catch up with until about a third of the way into the route,” he said.
That young man was Kaden Walker, 9 ½ years old. Walker is a member of the Linn Grove Running Club and often runs 5Ks in the area. He is coached by Todd, his dad, and encouraged by mom, Melissa. His run time earned
him third place in his age division.
“The quarry route was hard, but I really liked the tunnel,” Walker said.
Another youngster, Laureen Burkle, at age 10 years old, took on the course with her mother’s encouragement.
Her parents, Wendy and Bill, hope it becomes an annual event.
“Going through the tunnel was definitely the best part,” she said. “I hope to be able to do it again.”
On the other end of the age spectrum, John Leland, 77, of Marion also joined the run because of the originality
of the route. Leland runs about 10 races a year.
Lisa Lansing and Leisa Breitfelder, both of Springville, got their neighborhood involved in the event. Seven
neighbors entered the run.
“We like to exercise and run together on Sundays,” Breitfelder said. “It was a wonderful way to support the
school and was a great event for the community.” M
PHOTOS ON FOLLOWING PAGE
FALL 2013
33
The Race is On...
by: Kathy Tague & Robin Sokol
On Saturday, June 15, 2013, 22
WQI employees and family members participated in the 26th Annual
Skeffington Memorial Run in DeWitt,
Iowa.
This annual event is in memory of
the late Paul Skeffington, a successful retailer in DeWitt. His family
started the race to generate revenue
to maintain a walking/bike path on
the outskirts of DeWitt. The family thought the event would last only
five years. Twenty-six years later,
the Skeffington family is still amazed
and grateful that the Memorial Run
is so well received by DeWitt and
surrounding communities.
This year, Wendling Quarries received an award for the “Most Increased Participants” from a local
business. A great time was had by
all of the WQI participants, aging
from one year to over 60!! We look
forward to an even greater number
of participants next year! M
PHOTO BELOW
34
FALL 2013
So You Think You Want To Be The Boss?
by: Mona Bond
There are many reasons people rise to the top and get promotions. There are about as many reasons they don’t.
The focus for each individual is different. But for those who want to be managers, supervisors and/or lead the
crew, here is some food for thought.
Ask yourself “Why would anyone want to be led by you”? Most people agree that leaders need vision, energy,
authority, and strategic direction. But the most successful leaders inspire people. They capture an employee’s
heart, mind and soul. Let’s boil that down. They CARE. Not that fake, “How ya doin” type of care but they genuinely put forth an effort to know and understand where and what goes on with an employee when they are “off
the clock”. Why does this person work for me and how can we create success for both of us.
You ask, “Why would you take the time to do that”? I am not a babysitter or a marriage counselor. I have a job
to do and performance expectations. Interesting thought but in order for you to be successful, your employees
must be success – that is called inspiring the team!
Servant leadership is an increasing popular concept of leadership styles. That doesn’t mean you are at the whim
of the employee – that means you understand that a “win-win” situation can be beneficial to everyone.
What is your style of leadership?
There are numerous types of leadership styles:
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Coercive. The do-what-I-say style of management. “I am the boss”
Directing. You are the boss, define each duty and micromanage the outcome
Authoritative. Sets out with a vision and drives everything toward making that picture come to life hopefully allowing the employees to know the vision.
Coaching. You are open to discussion but all final decisions are yours
Affiliative. Teamwork is paramount. The focus is on harmony and expecting all to understand that
working as a team accomplishes the mission.
Democratic. Builds a mission through group consensus which sometimes leads to paralysis.
Pacesetter. Visionary leadership often demanding excellence and self-direction from a group of
motivated super-achievers. Must set clear goals and expectations.
Supporting. You allow folks to do their jobs with some latitude and good direction
Mentor. You analyze your employees and help these people identify their strengths and weaknesses so
they can grow and advance their careers.
Delegating. You set the goals and expectations but allow the employees to decide when and how much
to involve you.
Would I Work for Me?
Take a little time and analyze what type of leader you are. Ask yourself, “would I work for me?” What do I do now
or could I do to make the company successful and the employees want to come to work for you?
Leadership is not for sissies. Leadership is ever changing. Leadership is a learned skill that requires communication, analysis and training. “What you may have done for years – may not cut it for this generation of workers and
I’m pretty sure it won’t cut it for the next generation.” Remember, you only have about 30 seconds to impress
anyone and it could take a lifetime for that opinion to change. M
FALL 2013
35
La Comunicacion es Clave
por: Brian Manatt
Como un equipo de propietarios, pensamos que al comunicarnos con nuestros empleados importantes, para ustedes como para nosotros incluyendo a los gerentes. También queremos asegurarnos que el mensaje que queremos mandar sea claro y consistente. Nuestra misión lo dice muy bien:” Hacer todo lo que asemos con seguridad
mejor que nadien” Horita estamos trabajando en dos proyectos que nos van ayudar en cumplir esas metas.
El primer proyecto es orientación en una serie de videos para los nuevos empleados .Esta iniciativa fue empezada
para asegurarnos que cuando un nuevo empleado empiece a trabajar para Manatts, no importa para cual división o
locación trabajen, escuchen el mismo mensaje. La serie de videos cubrirá nuestra historia, requisitos de seguridad,
E información de derechos humanos. El tiempo en cual la orientación sea completada dependerá del trabajo que el
empleado está haciendo porque ay videos para cada tipo de trabajo.
La meta es de que cada nuevo empleado sin importar en la división o locación que empiecen –empiecen entendiendo nuestros procedimientos de seguridad y nuestras expectativas, nuestro paquete de beneficios y nuestra historia.
Con el segundo proyecto, estamos conduciendo un estudio de empleados que evalúan si nuestro mensaje de seguridad está siendo recibido. Sentimos que haciendo esto nos va ayudar a facilitar la comunicación de los empleados así
a los gerentes. Queremos escuchar los que nuestros empleados están diciendo. La evaluación será administrada por
Chuck Goodman de A.J Gallagher y es un proceso que tres etapas que consiste en juntar información, analizar la información y presentar la información. El proceso es diseñado para identificar cuestiones al nivel de gerentes. No es
para evaluar supervisores individuales .Los resultados van hacer usados como un recurso para saber qué dirección
tomar en el desarrollo de nuestro plan de seguridad en el futuro. Planeamos en proporcionar los resultados en nuestra junta semanal de gerentes. Muchos de ustedes van a participar al simplemente llenar una forma de el estudio,
algunos. Algunos de los supervisores serán entrevistados por Chuck y completaran el estudio.
Estamos a tres cuartos de el camino en este ano , estamos teniendo un mejor ano en lo que tiene que ver con la
seguridad que en los años anteriores. Nuestros puntos de CSA siguen bajando. Todo va en un buen camino. Estamos
haciendo todo lo que podemos para darle el entrenamiento y el equipo necesario a nuestros que es necesario
para hacer el trabajo con seguridad y mejor que los demás. Usted ha respondido al prevenir accidentes y al ser productivo. Quiero seguir trabajando en construir y terminar lo que hemos empezado y demostrarlo con nuestra misión. M
Recordatorio de Bienestar
Las operaciones de Principal Wellnes Co. Han cambiado y ahora son parte de Accountable Health desde Julio 1, 2013, y
siguiendo así a delante Principal Wellness será conocido como Accountable Health Solutions.
Para ser elegibles de un plan reducido en el 2014, cada empleado debe tener 60 créditos de bienestar y la esposa oh
esposo de le empleado también deben tener 60 créditos de bienestar para Diciembre 31,2013.
Chequea las actividades que ha completado y vea cuantos créditos de bienestar tiene:
. Vaya a www.myhealthymac.com y inicie
. Oprima “My Activities” así arriba de la pagina
.Oprima “ Completed” para ver las actividades que ha completado
.Cada actividad que haiga completado tendrá la fecha en que la completo y el número de créditos que recibió
Asegúrese der que todas las actividades y créditos de bienestar estén actualizados a no más tardar de Diciembre
31,2013. No podrá hacer actualizaciones o excepciones a los créditos de bienestar después de esta fecha.
Si tiene cualquier pregunta sobre la pagina oh si tiene problemas al iniciar a la pagina, por favor contacte servicio al
cliente de Accountable Health Solutions llamando al 877-475-3442.
Centro de Ideas- Necesita obtener más créditos? Visite www.fitnesssports.com para una lista de carreras 5k, carreras
de guerreros, y caminatas que ay alrededor de Iowa. No solo le beneficia a usted (valen 5 créditos como actividad de la
comunidad) pero muchas de las carreras y caminatas son para recaudar fondos para buenas causas! M