A Letter from the President

BY: DAVID HELVESTON, ABC PELICAN PRESIDENT

Just when we thought nothing could be worse than 2020, 2021 hits, bringing us rising material costs, workforce shortages and unpredictable fluctuations in construction spending. While we know that these industry challenges will likely remain in 2022, we have high hopes for 2022 at ABC Pelican. Despite the many challenges 2021 brought ABC Pelican was proud to continue serving the Louisiana construction industry. The Baton Rouge and Southwest Training Centers safely educated more than 2,000 craft professionals in 2021, with hopes of helping relieve some of the burden the workforce shortage has placed on our industry. We look forward to celebrating these students and their accomplishments later this year. Safety is the top priority in the construction industry and 2021 proved no different. Fiftyfive member companies participated in STEP, ABC’s world-class safety management system. Each of these member’s commitment to safety increases the industry average of safe jobsites. These fifty-five members were recognized at our 2021 Excellence in Construction and STEP Awards Banquet. If your company is interested in participating in 2022 STEP, reach out to Kacie Blanchard at kblanchard@abcpelican.com. We also recognized 29 award-winning projects at our 2021 Excellence in Construction Awards Banquet. The Excellence in Construction Awards Program (EIC) recognizes the year’s top projects. Twenty of our member companies took home merit and excellence awards on December 9, 2021. The 2022 EIC Awards Program will open for submissions in September, for questions before then please contact Lindsey Russ at lruss@abcpelican.com. For the last 41 years, ABC Pelican has advocated for the construction industry at both the state and federal levels and 2021 proved to be no different. Thanks to our members, we raised over $100,000 for state and federal political action committees, contributing the highest amount of any chapter to the national PAC. These funds help further support the political needs of the merit shop construction industry. For more information about the ABC PACs or to contribute, please visit pac.abc.org. Despite a category 5 hurricane, a world-wide pandemic and the uncertainty of our economy, our industry made the best of 2021. Many projects were successfully completed with zero OSHA recordables, our members took time to give back to our community and enjoyed some fun times along the way. We look forward to seeing all of you this year, and as always, thank you for your continued support.