Winter 2013

Volume. 2 Issue. 4

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Winter 2013

Spec Tucs ial on Issue

Serving Contracting Firms and the Arizona Community …Then & Now

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Harold Ashton’s Rags-to-Bridges Life No Mere Pop Bottle Rockets: Tucson’s Titan Missiles Uphill Both Ways: Scaling the Santa Catalina Range Big Iron and Bigger Dreams: Borderland Construction Bill Buckmaster‘s Construction Beat Bum Steer on the Brink

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Publisher William Horner Billy@arizcc.com Editor Douglas Towne Douglas@arizcc.com Magazine Consultant Chuck Runbeck Chuck@arizcc.com 602-881-0907 Production Manager Laura Harley Laura@arizcc.com Columnists Paul Beaulieu John Bueker Contributing Writers Roberta Graham Lee Addis Advertising Chuck Runbeck Chuck@arizcc.com 602-881-0907 Shane Addington Shane@arizcc.com 623-826-8598

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10 Volume. 2 Issue. 4 Winter 2013

CONTENTS

8

8 . Editors’s Column: Tucson’s Titanic Warheads 32

Douglas Towne

10. Construction Around Arizona - William Horner 14. A Venerable Project Restores ‘Unwanted’ Old Main - Eric Jay Toll

27. Industry Highlights 30. Uphill Both Ways: Scaling the Santa Catalina

30

Range - Roberta Graham

32. Cattleman Contractor: Karl Ronstadt’s New Pueblo Legacy - Douglas Towne

38. Big Iron and Bigger Dreams: Borderland Construction - Douglas Towne

42. Have MGB, Will Travel: Bill Buckmaster’s Construction Beat - Douglas Towne

46. Mechanical Mastermind: Harold Ashton’s Rags-to-Bridges Life - Douglas Towne

38

52. Bum Steer on the Brink - John Bueker 54. Taking ‘Stock’ in Arizona: Jokake Turns 30 Paul Beaulieu

56. Digging Through the Archives: New Pueblo Constructors - William Horner

61. Construction Marketplace & Bid Results Bidjudge

62. ACC Advertiser’s Index

42 46 52

Front Cover - New Pueblo Constructors employees Bruce Green and Dan Kellogg work at Rio Rico, Arizona, ����.

See story on page ��.

54 56

Tucson’s Titanic Warheads Douglas Towne

D

uring much of the Cold War, Tucson was home to an unimaginably powerful underground arsenal. Eighteen silos were located around the Old Pueblo loaded not with grain but with weapons of mass destruction. The subterranean, eight-foot-thick concrete silos held Titan II missiles targeted at sites in the former Soviet Union. No mere pop bottle rockets, the Titan II’s were the largest operational, land-based missiles ever manufactured by the U.S. These goliath projectiles packed a wallop, carrying the nation’s most powerful nuclear warhead ever produced—a nine megaton yield that was roughly 600 times more explosive than the

atomic bomb dropped on Japan to end World War II. Their tremendous force was designed to make up for their primitive targeting accuracy.

The U.S. developed the Titan II from its predecessor, the Titan I missile, 54 of which were deployed at five locations around the country from 1962-1965. The Titan II was a significant advancement on both the Titan I and the Atlas missiles, the latter being the nation’s first intercontinental ballistic missile, 123 of which were in operation from 1959 to 1965. Getting the Titan II’s on alert was a military priority as both the Atlas and Titan I missiles were deemed susceptible to attack due to their lengthy launch process which involved raising them from

underground silos to be fired. Cold War politics, including the recent Cuban missile crisis, and the missile gap with the Soviets, increased the urgency of their deployment.

Eighteen Titan II missiles each were scheduled for deployment near three U.S. Air Force bases around the country: McConnell in Wichita, Kansas, Little Rock in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Davis-Monthan in Tucson, Arizona.

The Pentagon’s decision to surround Arizona’s second largest city with nuclear-tipped missiles came without any public notice or input but the $80 million dollar missile project was a major economic boost to Tucson.

Eight

Images courtesy of author

“No mere pop bottle rockets, the Titan II’s were the largest operational, land-based missiles ever manufactured by the U.S. Their tremendous force was designed to make up for their primitive targeting accuracy.”

”Over time, however, the missiles became as much of a liability as a weapon. In 1980, a Titan II missile in Damascus, Arkansas exploded…”

and caused a leak. The missile subsequently exploded, killing one serviceman and blowing the 740-ton launch door 200 feet into the air and 600 feet northeast of the missile complex. The nuclear warhead landed about 100 feet from the launch complex’s entry gate without detonating; its safety features operated correctly and prevented the loss of any radioactive material.

Soon afterward, President Ronald Reagan announced the decommissioning of the Titan II missiles which occurred between 1982 and 1987.

The presence of these nuclear weapons ringing Tucson was unknown to me when I arrived at the University of Arizona in 1984. In those information-sparse, pre-Google days, my initial awareness of these missiles came via pop culture at the Boondocks Lounge on North First Avenue. Attracted by the nightclub’s unique sign in the shape of an oversized Italian fiasco wine bottle, I stopped in to enjoy a bluegrass band called the Titan Valley Warheads. Intrigued with their name, I asked a band member where Titan Valley was located. “You’re standing in it,” he said. “All around the city are Titan missiles loaded with nukes aimed at Russia.”

Retiring these military facilities was a complicated project. After the warheads and missiles were removed, each ten-acre launch site was stripped of valuable components and covered in dirt. Former missile properties were sold and, as Tucson expanded, some became sites for homes, a fitness center, plant nursery, and church. One home owner expanded his square footage in what might be the ultimate home remodel by excavating the access portal to the underground facility. Despite having been buried under eight feet of soil for 15 years, he reportedly opened the 6,000-pound blast door to the launch control center rather easily.

Fortunately, one missile launching facility was preserved to illustrate Tucson’s unique atomic age legacy. The Titan Missile Museum located south of the city, features a neverfueled, training missile inside a silo. Operated by the Arizona Aerospace Foundation and named a National Historic Place in 1994, the museum communicates the vital contribution that the Tucson area contributed to the nation’s defense during the Cold War.

Upper left: Patch of the 571 Strategic Missile Squadron that served in Tucson from 1963-1983.

Left: Editor atop a former Titan II launch site near Interstate 10 and Arizona Highway 83 in 1998.

Left inset: Maureen Towne simulating a Titan II launch at the Titan Missile Museum outside Green Valley in 2003.

Right: An early 1960s test launch of a Titan II missile.

Image courtesy of author

To facilitate construction of the launch facilities in Tucson, a concurrence scheme was used; design and construction happened almost simultaneously as engineers drawing up the plans were barely ahead of the construction workers building off the blueprints. This process saved time but was expensive due to thousands of change orders and facility modifications.

Heavy construction on the Tucson silos started on December 9, 1960 and was completed before Christmas in 1961 according to Chuck Pension’s, Titan II Handbook: A Civilian’s Guide to the Most Powerful ICBM America Ever Built.

M.M. Sundt Construction Company excavated the silo pits to a depth of 155 feet using a bulldozer scraping its way down in ever deepening circles. The soil was removed by a lift bucket. The essential infrastructure was installed

by February 1962 and M.M. Sundt and Matich Brothers were subsequently selected as the joint construction managers for Phase II which included installing the piping, and electrical systems. The U.S. Air Force took over from the contractors to install communication systems and the missiles themselves. The Titan II launch sites became operational in October 1963.

Titan II facilities were retaliation launch silos, designed with three-ton blast doors to theoretically withstand all but a direct nuclear detonation and still be able to launch missiles in response. The silos were separated by a minimum of eight miles to lessen the possibility that a single atomic bomb could wipe out more than one site. Although armed with only one warhead, the Titan II missile could be targeted on any of three predetermined sites. Mutual annihilation was the high risk chess game the U.S. played with its adversary for decades until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989.

Tucson’s nuclear-tipped missiles, which could be launched in less than a minute, helped deter attacks during the most crucial crises of the Cold War. The most heightened state of alert occurred early on when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Reportedly, the keys used to fire the missiles were ordered placed near the launch consoles. Fortunately, no armed missiles were launched during the Titan II’s roughly twodecades of operational status.

Originally designed with a life span of ten years, upgrades doubled the Titan II’s service period. Over time, however, the missiles became as much of a liability as a weapon. In 1980, a Titan II missile in Damascus, Arkansas exploded after a maintenance worker dropped a tool 80 feet down the silo which pierced the fuel tank

Construction Arizona Arizona

Freeways • Roadways • Commercial William Horner Moving Soil to Replenish Tucson Water rcher Western Contractors are creating three, 15-acre ponds to receive and recharge effluent from the new Agua Nueva Facility Reclamation Facility in Tucson. The job site is located between Interstate 10 and the Santa Cruz River north of downtown Tucson.

Work started in July moving an estimated 200,000 cubic yards of material to an adjacent site which was a former gravel pit. The project has been anything but routine with archeologists locating Hohokam Ten

artifacts and workers rescuing a homeless man from beneath a sewer manhole. The equipment used in the earthmoving project was rented from Red Mountain Machinery. R.W. Strunk Excavating of Tucson is the subcontractor for the blade work and fine grade.

Above: Grade Foreman Shane Strunk of R.W. Strunk Excavating, Tucson and Superintendent Brian Pilon of Archer Western Contractors.

Below: Southern Account Manager Pete Costa and Superintendent Brian Pilon of Archer Western Contractors.

Images courtesy of author

A

Construction Arizona Arizona

New Pima County Structure Bridges Monsoon Flows

riving around northern Pima County will soon get a little easier on rainy days. The former un-bridged, dip crossing over the Cañada del Oro Wash on La Cholla Boulevard will become an allweather route thanks to new bridge and roadway construction. The $20 million dollar project includes the creation of a 1.7 mile, four-lane roadway from Magee Road to Overton Road, including two, 600foot bridges across the Cañada del Del Oro Wash. The prime contractor is Markham Contracting Company and Dimension 318 is a subcontractor to the project, which

Twelve

is scheduled for completion in early Placer mining operations however, 2014. discovered only minimal amounts Prior to the bridge of gold in the wash. construction, Pima County Department of Transportation had to close La Cholla Boulevard during a flood, sometimes for up to five days, during the monsoon season.

Usually a dry river bed that is a tributary to the Santa Cruz River, the Cañada del Oro Wash originates in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The watercourse got its name, which is Spanish for “canyon of gold” from mineral exploration, beginning with Spanish explorers in the 17th century.

Top: Tarek Hassan and Mojtaba Mosallai of Pima County Engineering Division, Bill Nowland, President of Dimension 318, and Ivan Bontrager, Dimension 318 employee.

Images courtesy of author

D

Eric Jay Toll, Senior Correspondent Arizona Builder’s Exchange

“W

e pulled back the original wood floor on the second level only to discover that the space between the joists was packed with dirt, plaster dust and debris,” Fred Briscoe, Sundt’s project director on the Old Main restoration holds back a chuckle.

Standing on the upper level of the University of Arizona’s oldest building, we are looking at the space between the joists. “I guess that was one way to build sustainably in 1890 and deaden the sound between floors at the same time—use the dirt and dust as the acoustic material and keep it out of the landfill,” he says.

Now the original hand-hewn, massive joists can relax, with the bearing weight carried by a array of steel beams replacing the space once home to ancient debris. The steel is needed to support a 21�� century floor load on the spans between the thick brick walls. The dirt between floors was just one

surprise uncovered during the $13.5 million restoration effort.

“We tried to anticipate the challenges during preconstruction,” says Briscoe. Sundt, working with project designers Poster Frost Mirto and NTD Architects, used three dimensional laser scanning to map the building.

“We found the original blueprints, but all they show is a floor plan with dimensions; no structural detail,” he explains. The precise measurements came from the laser-created drawings of everything that could be seen. All of the modern technology still missed a few items before crews started peeling back floors and walls.

“Even allowing for extra-thick floors, the interior and exterior heights didn’t add up,” Briscoe recalls. “Then we discovered that the 12-foot ceilings on the main floor were actually 17 feet 6 inches when the remodeled false ceiling

was removed.” The restoration returns the presidential suite level to its full height. Even with 11-foot ceilings in the lower level and the towering second floor ceiling, the attic area is nearly its own full height floor holding the wellmuscled, original trusses.

“We’re able to incorporate all the building infrastructure into the attic, so there is no exposed mechanical on the roof,” he says.

The roof was another challenge. The diamond-shaped, fish-scale impressed metal shingles need to be replaced. Not only did this mean hand creating the die and custom stamping each new tile, but after 120 years of exposure to the Arizona elements, the color had to be determined. Early color pictures showed the roof as a gray color.

Some experts thought it might have been green, others red. The roofing contractor found a roof tile that was protected from sun and elements over the century; the new metal

shingles will be the original reddish color.

“Another surprise awaited us in the pillars holding up the wraparound veranda.” Briscoe points to a pre-construction photo, “Some of those bricked pillars were leaning 6-degrees out of plumb. During the demolition, when we removed the bricks we learned they wrapped wooden posts.”

A century of darkness and dampness rotted the wood to nothing. Each brick was individually removed, cleaned and numbered.

The new metal posts holding Old Main’s iconic porch will be wrapped in the bricks that carried the porch for the last century.

There are challenges bringing the 19�� century “territorial hybrid” design into the 21�� century. “The porch railing is far too short to meet current building and safety codes,” explains Briscoe. “We wanted to restore a replica of the wood rail, but it doesn’t even come up to my

Image ©2012-13 Arizona Board of Regents. Photographer: Gary Mackender, OIA University of Arizona

Construction Arizona Arizona

A Venerable Project Restores ‘Unwanted’ Old Main

Fourteen

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building shell. Budget constraints made finishing the lower level questionable. Sullivan was paid $37,969 ($3/SF in 1887 dollars) for the whole building, but the college had to borrow from the federal government in order to put the roof on its School of Mines for the first class of 32 students and eight faculty members. The finished effort included their dormitory space.

At the time it was built, the cross-shaped building was far from Tucson in the Sonoran desert, perhaps reflecting Tucson’s disdain for its consolation prize. The city wanted the territorial capital status conveyed instead upon Prescott.

Civic leaders were disappointed to be given the state’s first university instead.

On the presidential suite level, the center of attention is the cruciform where the two hallways connect in the center of the building at the geographic center of the original campus. On this floor, Sundt

is building a ballroom, board room, the administrative center and the presidential offices. The welcome reception area will be where the two halls meet.

“We’ve recreated the wainscoting,” Briscoe holds a piece of milled redwood. “When we stripped away decades of paint, we found the wood to be alternating fir and redwood. We’re recreating that same pattern.”

While the walls will remain plaster over thick courses of brick, the building is being wired for modern technology and power needs. “We sure can’t run the wires through the solid brick walls,” he says. “We had to find other ways.”

Although its shell is the original, the thickness of the building’s walls, the newly added

ins ulation and a host of energysaving features puts Old Main on the road for LEED Silver certification.

“Despite all the modern codes, we’re able to retain the original 1890 glass in all of the windows and still meet the LEED numbers,” Briscoe adds.

There was one last surprise as the restoration progressed. “To hold all that debris in the floor, the builder used every piece of scrap wood he could find,” Briscoe laughs.

“We found a packing crate from the Santa Clara Valley Bank and even Sullivan’s own sign, ‘M.J. Sullivan, Carpenter & Builder.’ We found a couple more pieces of that sign that spell out ‘AL’ and ‘TAR,’ but it’s a mystery as to what it was supposed to say.”

One mystery remains for the massive project – how many awards will a restoration of this caliber garner for the University of Arizona and Sundt Construction designbuild team?

Images ©2012-13 Arizona Board of Regents. Photographer: Gary Mackender, OIA University of Arizona

Construction Arizona Arizona

waist. We had to find an alternative.”

While visitors from the outside will see an exact replica of the low wood railing, those strolling on the veranda will be protected by a barely visible cable fence at the correct height for modern codes.

Other changes reflect contemporary needs. Old Main will once again serve as a student welcome center for visits and orientation. These functions will return to the lower level, as they were prior to the restoration. The difference is that the security for the presidential suite upstairs requires a swap of offices from the west side with the gathering area previously sited on the east side.

Sundt is adding a new elevator closer to the center of the building.

Very little restoration takes place on the lower level—beyond the room swap and infrastructure upgrades.

Some things never change— budgets are tight for public buildings. When Old Main was originally constructed, builder, M.J. Sullivan was given the go-ahead for Phase I—the upper level—and

Sixteen

S

tagecoach rides, Wild West gunfights, and gold panning aren’t usually associated with Scottsdale Road improvements except when construction work near Rawhide Wash Channel conjures up fun memories of a once nearby faux-Western tourist attraction. Located at the southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Pinnacle Peak, Rawhide was a major entertainment complex celebrating life in an 1880’s Wild West town.

Rawhide opened in Scottsdale in 1971 and 34 years later moved to Wild Horse Pass on the Gila River Indian Community, in 2005.

“Those of us that grew up here in Arizona will remember the old Western town and the stage coaches parked in a circle outside,” Construction Superintendent Joe McCarthy with Hunter Contracting says. “I came to Rawhide as a child and rode the stagecoach around the racetrack which you can still see off the northeast corner of Williams Drive and Scottsdale Road. My favorite activity at Rawhide, though, was panning for fool’s gold.”

These days, McCarthy, who has been with Hunter Contracting for 12 years, is focused on

supervising improvements to Scottsdale Road over the Rawhide Wash Channel that include a new bridge, utility corridor, and enlarged drainage channel.

McCarthy is working as part of a team that includes Paul Holland from H-Grading Corporation in Chandler and Integrated Machinery in Buckeye. The Scottsdale Road improvements, which began in September 2012, are being built in two phases and will be completed this November. The Rawhide Drainage Channel enlargement will be finished in the spring of 2014.

The underground utility phase consisted of the vertical realignment of all wet and dry utilities in order to build the new Rawhide Wash Bridge structure.

These utilities included a 12-inch water line, 18-inch sewer line, 4inch gas line, 10-inch high pressure gas line, and multiple electric, fiber optic, and telephone lines.

The second phase consisted of the Rawhide Wash Bridge and roadway work to tie the new structure into Scottsdale Road. Over 820,000 pounds of reinforcing steel, some up to #10 in diameter (1.27 inches), was used to build the new

bridge and retaining walls. Over 4,100 cubic yards of colored concrete was poured to complete the bridge structure, which has a 20-inch thick deck, and over 10,100 square feet of retaining walls. New asphalt paving and a steel ribbon public art feature along the east side of the new bridge will complete the span. Other improvements to Scottsdale Road included approximately 9,000 cubic yards of structural excavation and over 33,000 cubic yards of drainage excavation which all was hauled locally offsite to a housing development north of Pinnacle Peak and Scottsdale Road.

Started in September 2013, Rawhide Wash Channel project will

create a 12-foot deep by 200-feet wide by 1,800 feet long drainage channel, starting at Pinnacle Peak Road and ending at Scottsdale Road. The channel will be constructed in three phases starting with excavation of the actual wash channel; the excess material will be used to build a major shopping center building pad on the southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Pinnacle Peak.

After installation of bank protection, the new wash slopes will be landscaped to conclude the project.

Above: Construction Superintendent Joe McCarthy and blade operator Paul Holland.

Images courtesy of author

Construction Arizona Arizona

Scottsdale Road Project ‘Channeling’ Rawhide Memories

Eighteen

D

espite U.S. Highway 89 having state-of-the-art engineering and construction, Mother Nature once again showed who is really in charge. Heavy precipitation on February 20, 2013 caused a major landslide that took out a portion of U.S. Highway 89 south of Page, Arizona, which is the gateway to Lake Powell.

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) was forced, for the foreseeable future, to close a 23mile stretch of the highway between the U.S. Highway 89A junction near Bitter Springs to the Arizona State Route 98 junction near Page.

As engineers and geotechnical experts examined the best way to rebuild U.S. Highway 89, a 115-mile detour was temporarily used which significantly impacted those in the Lake Powell area and in the Navajo Nation. To create a shorter detour, the decision was made to pave Navajo Route 20 to cut the travel time and mileage in half. Upon completion, Navajo Route 20 will be designated as US Highway 89T and will serve as a temporary route for Twenty

traffic from the closed section of US Highway 89.

After the reconstruction of US Highway 89 is complete, the new US Highway 89T will be returned to the control of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

The emergency route, U.S. Highway 89T, would pave approximately 27 miles of dirt road on Navajo Route 20. The $35 million project funded through the Federal Highway Administration’s emergency relief program was scheduled to be a fast-track, turnkey project to be completed by mid-August 2013, and would include fencing to protect travelers and livestock, turn lanes, and culverts for drainage. Navajo Route 20 originates in Gap, Arizona and continues north toward Page.

Twenty-seven of the 44 miles of road were a blend of gravel, red Navajo sand, and random patches of abandoned paving. The difficult road conditions meant it was not a reliable detour route.

ADOT issued the project as a Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) in early March 2013 with a

Images courtesy of Rummel Construction

Construction Arizona Arizona

Lake Powell or Bust: Emergency Route Opened to Page

one week response time. Teaming with FNF Construction of Tempe, AZ, Rummel Construction of Scottsdale began planning a proposed solution by performing

site visits and analyzing soil conditions. Teamwork was the key to conquering the many environmental, material, and geographical challenges. The

regular meetings, internally and with ADOT. The preconstruction phase was as fast-track as the construction phase. Using the CMAR process meant design, engineering, and construction would occur concurrently, allowing the project timeline to move forward instantaneously. Rummel Construction started initial work clearing debris and brush from the roadway and grading.

Due to the 27-miles, the U.S. Highway 89T project was initially divided into two parts: the north end beginning in Page and the south end near Gap. The south end was flatter with a higher percentage of clay soil composition; the north end had more elevation change and sand. The plan was to work from the ends toward the middle of the route. Aggregates and hot plants were placed at each end of the route, with water supplied from the Page Water Treatment Plant for the north, and trucked in from the Tuba City Wastewater Treatment plant for the south. The route was further divided into four sections of approximately seven miles each, the south sections were A and B, and the north sections were C and comprehensive proposal response D. A designated project manager was critical for the firms to obtain ran each end of the project, in charge of stationing, equipment, the CMAR project award.

With the CMAR project in logistics, and communications. place, the construction firms began

Images courtesy of Rummel Construction

Construction Arizona Arizona

89T, Rummel Project Manager Andrew Torres (right), with Floyd Stevens – the Copper Mine Chapter President (from the Northern Arizona Navajo Nation).

Twenty two

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wireless phones, wireless internet, satellite communications, and signal boosters. Data was streamed live throughout the entire jobsite allowing team members access to computer files. The firm also leased radio repeater sites in Northern Arizona as another means of communication. On the low-tech side, runners were employed to deliver messages. From the equipment side, many pieces of rental machinery and companyowned equipment were in operation. Rummel Construction’s equipment vendor, Empire CAT, supplemented the company’s equipment services personnel with designated technicians on the jobsite full-time.

There were typically 45-70 production crew members with a peak of 120 field personnel on the

jobsite. Since a large field workforce was needed, many local Native Americans were employed in accordance with Navajo Labor Relations. At the peak of construction, over 70 Rummel Construction employees worked on the project with approximately a 70 percent Navajo labor participation.

Crews worked 12-hour shifts, both day and night, six or seven days a week to maximize work flow and for the aggregate base install. Most north end aggregate material came from Bigwater, Utah while south end materials arrived from Gray Mountain, Arizona.

Paving operations took place seven days a week using over 70 pieces of Empire CAT and other equipment. Other work included installation of right-of-way fence posts, placement of aggregate base,

installation of signage, right-of-way fence wiring, gates, cattle guards, and school bus pullouts. Also included were placement of native seeds in areas disturbed by construction at the north end, lane striping, and application of fog coat, installation of rumble strips, and installation of permanent signage.

Rummel Construction finished the grading and paving portion of the work on August 16, 2013.

Through collaboration between the U.S. Highway Administration, ADOT, the BIA, and the many construction and engineering professionals involved, the project became a reality. There is no timeframe for reopening the main highway; however, ADOT is working to ensure the stability of the slope and restore this important travel route as soon as safely possible.

Images courtesy of Rummel Construction

Construction Arizona Arizona

Water was an important part of the project both for paving and dust control. Over 400,000 gallons were needed per day for the south end however, and the Tuba City Wastewater Treatment plant could only provide 250,000 gallons, forcing the project to be shut down five times from water shortages.

The north end had plenty of water so a 23-mile “HDPE Pipe and Pond” waterline system was installed to transport water along the route with a series of water tanks at each pond. The temporary solution saved the project from any delays, keeping completion on schedule.

The remote location on the Navajo Nation meant very limited reception for mobile phones. With two companies and as many as 120 field personnel, communication was vital. Rummel Construction used

Twenty four

Industry Highlights Tucson Utility Contractors Grow the Community.

Image courtesy of TUCA

The Tucson Utility Contractors Association (TUCA) has been instrumental in bringing about economic and infrastructure development in Arizona through

involvement in legislative affairs, specification review, highway budgeting and appropriations, safety education and training, and giving back to the community through the TUCA Scholarship Foundation and our annual Volunteer Day. Each year, TUCA selects a local organization needing

construction services routinely performed by our contractor members such as grading, paving, concrete sidewalks, landscaping, which includes labor and materials for an area clean-up at no cost to the organization. About 30 volunteers from various companies participate in the event.

This year, TUCA’s Board of Directors selected to work with the Tucson Village Farm (TVF) which is a working urban farm built by and for the youth of our community. A program of the Pima County Cooperative Extension and the University of Arizona, TVF is a seedto-table program designed to reconnect young people to a healthy food system, teach them how to grow and prepare fresh food, and empower them to make

healthy life choices. To accomplish this, TVF offers year-round, instructional, hands-on programs for youth of all ages. The farm, located at 4210 North Campbell Avenue, serves as a safe urban location where youth can come to be out of doors and engage in physical activity while contributing to and participating in local food production, preparation, and consumption. TUCA provided wheel chair accessibility, grading of their mushroom and chicken pads, restructuring of a fence, and created an entrance post with a sign.

We strongly recommend if you know of an organization with similar needs, please contact Ramon Gaanderse at ramon@tuca-az.org or see www.tuca-az.org.

20 Years of Pouring on the Tradition While visiting their west Phoenix office, Keri Lemons of Concrete Restoration Systems, Inc. (CRSI) told us how concrete work is a family affair. “Rupert Lemons, the father of my husband, Tom, purchased Carson Construction in 1980 and expanded it into one of the most successful concrete pouring companies in Arizona,” Keri Lemons says.

Tom and Keri Lemons started CRSI in 1993 and seven years later decided to focus their business in a slightly different direction by doing coating work, concrete epoxy, and concrete restorations. “It’s been a challenge,” Keri says referring to branding themselves as a ‘woman owned and operated’ company in early 2012. “We wanted an opportunity to earn certifications that would allow us to branch into government projects.”

The change has boded well for CRSI as they since have been awarded jobs repairing Florence’s Department of Homeland Security

living facilities, moisture retention work for maintenance bays at Yuma’s Marine Corps Air Base and supplying metal tank coatings and service repair for tank houses for the mining industry.

The Lemons continue to be competitive by adapting to current industry demands that larger concrete companies might opt to avoid. “There is a little niche of projects, primarily facilities under

20,000 square feet that are really fall meeting of the American Rental Association (ARA) of Arizona. picking up.”

Professor Hoffman added that the Great Recession Lecture is recession’s severity was matched by its anemic recovery that took 15 Focus of ARA Meeting. quarters versus an average of six quarters in the previous four The 2007-2009 “Great Recession” recessions that occurred in 1973, was the most severe economic 1981, 1990, and 2001. Personal disruption in the U.S. since the consumption expenditures have Great Depression of the 1930s similarly recovered one-third as fast according to Dr. Dennis Hoffman, as in recent recessions. who was the guest speaker at the Professor Hoffman is the Director of the L. William Seidman Research Institute at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He has conducted economic research for many major businesses as well as several State agencies and Arizona foundations.

In 2010, Governor Jan Brewer appointed him to serve on the board of the Arizona State Retirement System and to chair a working group for the sales tax simplification effort. He has served seven Arizona governors in various roles.

The ARA meeting was held at Party People’s Phoenix Store and Image courtesy of CRSI hosted by Cathy and Bob DeBusk.

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A social hour was followed by a catered dinner sponsored by Scott Schuller of Direct Sales, an ARA of Arizona associate member.

Board members provided updates before Professor Hoffman’s presentation. Treasurer Vickie Dickerson stated the organization’s finances are healthy with an account balance of $30,000.

Legislative Director Doug Click announced the upcoming National Federation of Independent Business

(NFIB) “Day at the Capitol” on January 18, 2014. Secretary Rory Robinson provided updates on the requirements to retain Tier I status with the national ARA. Associate Director Steve Floe thanked the associate members for their support of the state organization.

Beth Hoff-Blackmer, the ARA Region 7 Director, requested nominees for Legislative Director and Treasurer.

•♦•

Uphill Both Ways: Scaling the Santa Catalina Range Roberta Graham

T

he Santa Catalina range north of Tucson has always tantalized people living in the desert below its forested peaks. Cool air, fresh water, timber, and plenty of game were waiting for anyone able to make the trip. The problem was getting there.

By the 1870s, the mining town of Oracle, in the foothills on the north side of the range, was the starting point of long-used trail up into the tall pines. It was a reasonably accessible route for hunters and miners on foot, or using horses and mules, and had been in use for generations.

But Sara Plummer Lemmon, an artist, and her husband John Gill Lemmon, a botanist, didn’t know about the trail from Oracle when they arrived in Tucson on their honeymoon in March 1881. They’d come to the Santa Catalinas in search of rare and unusual plants.

The Lemmons attempted to reach the summit on foot from the Tucson side, south of the mountain, only to be thwarted by a steep canyon unseen from below. But the plucky duo was undeterred. They made inquiries upon their return to Tucson and were advised to go to Oracle and seek out Emerson Oliver Stratton— lawyer, stockman, miner, hunter, etc.—at his home in the foothills, Pandora Ranch.

Stratton later recalled the encounter for his daughter Edith: We had been living there (at Pandora Ranch) about eight months, during which time Carrie had not seen a single white woman, when Dr. and Mrs. J.G. Lemmon of the Lemmon Herbarium of Oakland came to the house. They were on their wedding trip and botanizing in southern Arizona.

They had arrived in Tucson on one of the first passenger trains, and tried to get to the top of the Santa Catalinas from that side. When they failed, Alex Mckay brought them out to Oracle, gave them a small jenny on which to pack their botanical kit and other belongings, and started them out for our place. When we saw them coming, Dr. Lemmon was riding and Mrs. Lemmon was walking behind…

Dr. Lemmon asked me to take them to the top of the mountains. I got them a horse apiece and a pack animal for their equipment, and we started. At that time there were two men, Ira A. Carter and William H. Reed, who were homesteading, for the timber, at what is now Summerhaven…The two men were very glad to see us, and made us as comfortable as possible.

From Carter’s Camp the Lemmons and I went to the highest peak in the Santa Catalinas and christened it Mount Lemmon in honor of Mrs. Lemmon, who was the first white woman up there….

Thirty

The trail up from Oracle was slowly improved to accommodate wagons, and eventually even motorized vehicles. By 1920, it had been improved enough to be considered a road, and ordinary Tucsonans could motor the 75 miles from Tucson, around the base of the mountain to Oracle and up to the growing hamlet of Summerhaven, if the weather was good. A seven-mile stretch of the road remained one-way, however, with control gates at either end. Alternating hours of safe travel were posted for each direction which required vehicles to take turns on the stretch or face a $50 fine.

Mary Ellen Barnes, author of The Road to Mount Lemmon recounted a trip she and her young siblings made with their father, Tony Zimmerman, on the so-called Control Road in 1943: “After a string of cars came down, we started up, rattly-bump-bump-bumping along, the road so rocky that it nearly shook us to pieces. Not just a washboard, with its deep potholes it was more like craters of the moon.

Breathtaking hairpin curves seemed short and steep enough to allow us to spit on our own taillights. We hoped to goodness we wouldn’t meet a car late in getting through this narrow stretch. We were always eager to reach the end of those seven miles of rough road, eager for the sight of the big gate proclaiming the “END OF CONTROL.” The shortcomings of the Oracle road had been obvious for decades. Business interests, mostly mining and timber, aligned themselves with recreation seekers to push for a new road up the south side of the mountain directly from Tucson. They failed to rally the voters until 1915, when a $100,000 bond was approved.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t nearly enough. Early engineering surveys determined a vehicular road to Summerhaven would cost more than $300,000. The project stalled.

Efforts to fund the project resumed in the late 1920s. Arizona State Representative Frederick E.A. Kimball, an early project supporter, sought the assistance of Frank Harris Hitchcock, who had retired to Tucson in 1928.

Hitchcock was a nationally known government insider and a powerful member of the Republican Party. He was William Howard Taft’s successful campaign manager in 1908, and was appointed Postmaster General by President Taft in 1909. Although Hitchcock held the post for only four years, his efforts to establish air mail and the postal savings system, and his prosecution of mail fraud, won him respect. He bought the Tucson Citizen newspaper in 1928, and took over as publisher. He remained active in Republican politics and was Arizona’s

Republican National Committeeman from 1932 to 1933.

Road supporters got funding on the ballot in 1928 and 1930, but neither bond passed. By 1932 estimated construction costs had risen to $1,000,000 and approval by County voters was deemed unattainable. Money would have to come from the Feds.

A plan was devised to use prison labor to cut construction costs, and perhaps, to appeal to then-President Hoover, a keen proponent of progressive prison reform and inmate rehabilitation through productive work.

Hitchcock’s lobbying efforts were successful.

evaders and conscientious objectors were inmates…”

Forty-five of those “draft evaders”, or more accurately, draft resisters were JapaneseAmericans during World War II who refused to join the U.S. military unless their civil rights, and the civil rights of their family members confined to internment camps, were restored first. The government denied their request.

Although a vast improvement on its predecessors, the General Hitchcock Highway, named in honor of the man who secured the funding, was considered unacceptably unsafe by the late 1970s as year-round traffic on the road increased to over 1,000,000 trips per year. The road was too narrow, had poor alignments, few pull-outs, and it was difficult to travel at a constant rate of speed.

In 1988, work began on the first of seven improvement projects by the Federal Highway Administration, in conjunction with the U.S.

Forest Service and Pima County. The final project in the series was completed in 2007.

Extraordinary care was given to the design of the alignment and associated retaining walls, cuts and fills, native plant protection, salvage and revegetation, and the refinement of construction techniques to minimize the environmental and visual impact of the road and safeguard nearby rock formations. In 1995 the road was designated the Sky Island Scenic Byway.

Whatever its name, the Catalina/General Hitchcock Highway/Sky Island Scenic Byway is a remarkable road that is a pleasure to use and an exemplary achievement for all involved in its reconstruction. It took a while, but it was worth the wait.

“A plan was devised to use prison labor to cut construction costs, and perhaps, to appeal to thenPresident Hoover, a keen proponent of progressive prison reform and inmate rehabilitation through productive work.”

Arizona Contractor & Community

Image courtesy of Hunter Contracting

Funding for the project was approved on March 3, 1933, President Hoover’s last day in office.

Three months later work began. Sixty prisoners and five guards set up a “temporary” camp at the base of the mountain. Six years later, the prison labor camp was moved up seven miles of completed road to Vail Corral, a flat, rocky area near perennial springs at a comfortable 4,860 foot elevation, on which a permanent camp was built. Over 8,000 men served their time working on the road until its official completion in 1951.

According to “The Final Report” by G. McLain of the Bureau of Public Roads, inmates were a diverse group, doing time for a wide range of misdeeds.

“Violation of immigration and narcotic laws, sale of liquor to Indians, failure to pay income tax, driving stolen automobiles across State lines, robbery of post offices and banks and murder of Federal agents. During World War II many draft

K

arl Ronstadt’s footprint is all over the Southwest. If you’ve ever stopped for dinner in Green Valley, flown into Albuquerque, fished in Lake Patagonia, spent the night at Rio Rico, scored a birdie at Tucson National Golf Course, flushed a toilet in Tombstone, bought wire made from copper mined near Sahuarita, avoided a flood in Stanfield, turned on a television in Willcox, drank a glass of water in Picacho, or driven to Nogales, Payson, Tucumcari, Prescott or Mule Creek, just to name a few destinations, you’ve benefited from the work of his company, New Pueblo Constructors. Ronstadt started the construction company on a shoestring with an old high school football pal in 1959, and it was a major player for over three decades. “It seemed we had to keep growing or quit the business,” Ronstadt modestly says.

For all the phenomenal success Ronstadt experienced with his construction company throughout Arizona and New Mexico, which includes miles of highway, dams, airports, and even the community of Green Valley, it is amazing building things wasn’t his biggest passion. “My first love was cattle,” the 84-yearold Ronstadt confesses. “I was raised in that business and never really quit.” That’s not a surprising sentiment however, for a boy who grew up on a ranch in the remote Altar Valley southwest of Tucson.

Born in Tucson, Ronstadt was raised on the Santa Margarita Ranch just north of the Mexican border town of Sasabe and lived there through junior high. For high school, Ronstadt moved to Tucson where he was blessed with one of the city’s most famous last names. Long before his first cousin Linda Ronstadt was queen of the pop music charts in the 1970s, the Ronstadts were an influential family in the Old Pueblo. His father, Carlos Ronstadt, organized the Baboquivari Cattle Company, was president of the Arizona Cattle Growers' Association, an executive committee member of the American National Cattlemen's Association, and a director of the Tucson Gas, Electric Light and Power Company, the Arizona Livestock Credit Production Association, and the Southern Arizona Bank.

Karl Ronstadt excelled in the classroom at Tucson High and also played in the backfield for Thirty two

the school’s football team. “For three seasons before I joined, our team featured future astronaut, Frank Borman at quarterback and businessman, Karl Eller, who won all their games.

My first season, we lost our first game,” Ronstadt laughs. “But it was an away game versus El Paso who, like Tucson, then had one big high school in the city.” Ronstadt went on to graduate in 1947 and was awarded a scholarship to the University of Arizona.

Ronstadt joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) at the university but didn’t quite fit the profile of the fraternity teasingly nicknamed, “sleep and eat.” Majoring in animal science in the College

of Agriculture, he took business and agricultural engineering courses and even audited civil engineering classes in his spare time. Moreover, he transferred his junior year to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. “I wanted to take some specialized, graduate-level courses from the professors who had written the text books on the subjects I was studying,” Ronstadt says.

But the Ivy League school was expensive and distant from Tucson. He returned and graduated from the University of Arizona in 1951. But Ronstadt never stopped learning, taking various courses from the University of Arizona over the

Cattleman Contractor: Karl Ronstadt’s New Pueblo Legacy Douglas Towne

Images courtesy of Karl Ronstadt

“My first love was cattle,” the 84-year-old Ronstadt confesses. “I was raised in that business and never really quit.” years and even attended Stanford in the late 1980s to learn industrial engineering.

Ronstadt subsequently enlisted in the Air Force, attending Officer Candidate School at Lackland Air Force base (AFB) in San Antonio, Supply School at F.E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne, Intelligence School at Lowry AFB in Denver, and was eventually stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton. He returned to Tucson in 1954 to work with his father, Carlos, on the family’s Amado farm and Tucson Beef Feeders feedlot.

For side jobs during a sluggish economy,

Ronstadt did heavy equipment work for ranchers and farmers in southern Arizona. In 1958, the family sold Santa Margarita Ranch and the Amado farm. Karl briefly worked at the financially troubled A.E. Ward Construction before forming his own company.

In May 1959, Ronstadt started New Pueblo Constructors with an old friend, Howard King, who had been a receiver on the Tucson High School football team. King had been working for M.M. Sundt Construction as an engineer, so Ronstadt handled the business, construction,

and agricultural side. His mother, Betty, came up with the firm’s name. “It was a tough time to start a construction company,” Ronstadt recalls.

“There was lots of competition in the industry.”

The company grew rapidly, initially doing utility and underground work along with earthmoving. Financing was provided by the Southern Arizona Bank and, eventually, for cash flow they added a third partner, Robert Brooks Above: CAT 651 scrapers moving dirt, 1968.

Top left: Howard King and Karl Ronstadt, scheduling Nogales highway construction, 1966.

Arizona Contractor & Community

Across: Constructing a pedestrian footbridge across East 29�� Street at South Columbus Boulevard in Tucson, 1975.

Top: Pouring Interstate 10 bridge deck near San Simon, 1966.

Right: New Pueblo cement mixer, 1969.

all the heavy construction. The company also provided the ready-mixed concrete for much of the expansion of the copper mines in southern Arizona. Then, in the late 1960s, Ronstadt bought King out, who went on to start Quality Paving Company. New Pueblo Constructors continued to expand, assisted by their talented board of directors that included Richard Yaeger, Robert Brooks, Henry Dahlberg, and Karl Ronstadt.

In the early 1970s the oil crisis forced New Pueblo Constructors to expand into New Mexico for interstate highway construction, commercial and industrial buildings. Included in their work were two huge contracts on Interstate 40 including the section east of Albuquerque

Images courtesy of Karl Ronstadt

who was in the advertising business. “We did good work, had some of the best people from other contractors which helped tremendously, and grew to over 600 employees,” Ronstadt says.

“The capital required was staggering back then, and now it’s beyond belief. One tractor today is as expensive as our whole fleet cost back in the day.”

That’s the formula for how Ronstadt’s firm, which advertised itself as “a company with young management and with old ties to the region it serves,” built so much of the Southwest. The firm began undertaking larger construction projects while becoming involved in farming and ranching, water companies, and developing industrial and residential space. Important subsidiaries included New Pueblo Farms, which farmed 600 acres of land near Picacho and New Pueblo Roads, which produced aggregates, ready-mix concrete, and asphalt. “We got into the materials business through Richard Yaeger, a University of Arizona mechanical engineering graduate who worked at a Tucson firm, Construction Materials, that went out of business in the early 1960s,” Ronstadt recalls.

“He became our operations manager and brought over most of his team from the other firm.”

One of their biggest construction projects was Green Valley, a large retirement community between Tucson and Nogales. New Pueblo Constructors served as project manager and did

through Tijeras Canyon. Concurrently, the company built, along with Western Constructors of El Paso, the Tat Momolikat Dam on the Santa Rosa Wash within the Tohono O’odham Nation.

The sixth largest earth-fill dam in the world provides flood protection to downstream communities in central Arizona. During these farremoved construction jobs, Ronstadt lived in Tucson and piloted his plane to keep track of the projects.

When asked about humorous construction stories, Ronstadt paused before responding. “I was the place where the buck stopped,” he says.

“When I got involved in a situation, it was typically not something funny or pleasant. Even today when I drive the interstate to Nogales, every few miles I’m reminded of a major problem that needed solving along that road.”

Sensing a change in the market, Ronstadt sold almost everything but the company name to Granite Construction in 1980. This included all of New Pueblo Constructors’ facilities, gravel pits, ready mix operations, and most of its equipment. He also sold the the Picacho farm (where the ostriches are now along Interstate 10), and the Andrada Ranch south of Sonoita.

But Ronstadt hardly rode off into the retirement sunset. Forming a partnership with E.M. “Bud” Huston, he bought an electronics firm based near Douglas that was an off-shoot of Honeywell. “When Bruce Babbitt was governor, they closed the nearby Phelps-Dodge smelter. Babbitt wanted to provide some economic opportunity to the area and convinced Honeywell to open up a division near Douglas,” Ronstadt says. “We did military and commercial components primarily wiring harnesses and pc boards, and even had a maquiladora plant in Nogales before I sold out to some Canadians in the mid-1990s.”

Ronstadt also returned to his first love, cattle. “I bought the O Bar O Ranch by Bonita in the Sulphur Springs Valley and improved it with stock ponds, corrals and buildings,” he says. But the cattleman also kept busy in the construction

Arizona Contractor & Community

field, serving as a consultant with Granite Construction for a few years. “We had a ‘no compete’ clause in Arizona for five years, so that’s when we did a lot of work in New Mexico, including building part of the Albuquerque airport,” Ronstadt says.

In 1985, New Pueblo Constructors reentered the Arizona contracting market specializing in structures, water utilities, and treatment plants. “Some of our later construction in Arizona included the Central Arizona Project (CAP) distribution system in the Queen Creek area,” Ronstadt notes. “Although New Pueblo Constructors technically still exists as a division of the Baboquivari Cattle Company, our last construction jobs occurred in the mid1990s,” Ronstadt says. “Some of our staff went to work for our electronics firm while the mechanical equipment was transferred to the ranch.”

Among the many projects New Pueblo Constructors built, Ronstadt takes the most pride in the dam that created Lake Patagonia in 1965.

The earth-fill structure spans Sonoita Creek Canyon north of the Mexican border, forming a 280-acre reservoir. “I always liked dam work,” he says. “As a kid, the dams on the ranch were built by mule-drawn, fresno scrapers. Then the first crawler tractors came in during the late 1930s.” With Ronstadt’s many water and wastewater projects, it’s no surprise his son, Carlos Ronstadt, became a hydrologist and lawyer in Phoenix.

But more than any stretch of highway, building, or even dam, Ronstadt’s greatest satisfaction comes from seeing his many employees continue on with successful careers and from helping others in the field. “Toby Allen, who is the president of Borderlands Construction, started with New Pueblo in high school,” Ronstadt says. “When I sold to Granite Construction, Toby was in his mid-20s and already running our entire material operations.

I also served as Morgan North’s [also of Borderlands Construction] sounding board when he would ask construction questions.”

Ronstadt has continued his famous family’s trend of giving back to the community. His non-construction resume is impressive including Thirty six

Images courtesy of Karl Ronstadt

Construction on the Arizona Historical Society Building in Tucson, 1973.

Among the many projects New Pueblo Constructors built, Ronstadt takes the most pride in the dam that created Lake Patagonia in 1965. service as president of the Associated General Contractors of Arizona, the Tucson Airport Authority, and the University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture. He has also served on the boards of the College of Engineering at Arizona State University, the Arizona State Museum, and the College of Agriculture – and he’s still a member of the latter two. And of course, Ronstadt continues to be active in the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association.

Given his famous last name, Karl Ronstadt fielded the inevitable question about his cousin, Linda Ronstadt. “We’re good friends but even she gets lost in the crowd of a family get together. We had one 15 years ago and over 300 relatives showed up,” Ronstadt chuckles.

Other members of the Ronstadt family however, briefly caused him a bit of grief long ago. His grandfather’s brother, Fred Ronstadt, started the famous downtown Tucson hardware store that also served as an equipment dealership for International Harvester. But Karl had seen what Caterpillar machinery was capable of during his military work and bought those instead from another outlet. “This made Fred’s family unhappy,” Ronstadt laughs. “But they eventually got over it.”

Big Iron and Bigger Dreams: Borderland Construction Douglas Towne

M

organ North thrives on typical guy things: restoring vintage cars and tractors, University of Arizona athletic teams, and sport fishing off Mexico and Costa Rica in the Pacific Ocean. He was even the Tournament Chairman of the PGA’s 2002 Tucson Open. But nothing gives him as much pleasure as perhaps the most testosterone-intensive endeavor of them all.

“I like to build things using as much of our fleet of “iron” [as in construction equipment, not golf clubs] as possible,” North says, grinning.

And North’s company, Borderland Construction, has lots of iron. Yellow construction machinery covers much of the company’s 16-acre complex located just south of the Greyhound Park on 38th Street in South Tucson. The firm’s equipment fleet is second to none in the Old Pueblo and is reflective of the company’s annual sales volume that exceeded $100 million dollars prior to the economic downturn in 2008.

How did the company which North founded in 1982 in a trailer on the Old Nogales Highway turn into such a phenomenally successful business that has won numerous awards for its construction projects, safety record, and charitable contributions? “My father ran the Knoxville open pit mercury mine near Clear Lake in northern California,” North says. “I got hooked on operating the mine’s earth moving equipment in my teens. I spent weekends and summers there but didn’t like mining; I liked to build things. I helped build some plants there and got some good construction experience as a youngster.”

After high school, North moved to Tucson to study business administration at the University of Arizona. Graduating in 1971, he worked for The Ashton Company in Tucson for seven years. “I really learned the business, they were wonderful to me,” North recalls. “I started as a parts chaser and worked up to job foreman and then superintendent. Larry Ashton in particular gave me a huge

opportunity to learn about highway construction.”

North subsequently moved to Hilro Construction Company, a Tucson buildercontractor firm, when a friend from college offered to let him start their engineering division. “While we mainly did public works with Ashton, at Hilro we also got into subdivisions and site work,” he says. “I liked the equipment-intensive work.”

In 1982, North left Hilro Construction to start his own firm, Borderland Construction Company. “The company name was previously used by a Tucson firm in the 1920s that did a lot of concrete work downtown and in older neighborhoods to the north and west.”

When his firm was doing some street work in the city, they had to take up some sidewalk that had the original Borderland Construction stamp. “I had the guys cut it out and now we have it displayed in the lobby of our office,” North says. “My company has our own “BCC” stamp that we use on sidewalks and wheelchair ramps. We’re proud of our work and always use the stamp when we can.”

For Borderland Construction, North likes to keep a mix of projects including mechanical work and public work projects but their forte is subdivisions. His company built the lions’ share of housing developments in Tucson.

“There wasn’t a developer we didn’t work with,” North says. “We were running 40 jobs at a time.”

These include the Fairfield developments at Sunrise, Green Valley, La Cholla Hills, Pusch Ridge, and Las Campanas, Del Webb’s Sun City Vistoso, New World’s Monterra Hills, Silverado Hills, Sabino Springs, Canada Hills, Rancho Vistoso, Continental Ranch, Rita Ranch, Heritage Highlands, Saddlebrooke, and Quail Creek. Also numerous projects for Pulte, Lennar, Richmond American, Miramonte, Diamond Ventures, Meritage, KB, and many others.

Borderland Construction truck decorated for the holidays.

Borderland Construction does a wide array of tasks in-house: land clearing, mass excavation, concrete curb and flatwork, asphalt paving, structural concrete, underground water and wastewater systems, utilities, storm drain, and turn-key subdivision and commercial site work.

The firm also builds bridges and roads. “That’s what I like about engineering work,” North says.

“We do the majority of the work ourselves and can control the project and its quality.”

Most of Borderlands Construction projects are in Tucson or southern Arizona including Ajo, Douglas, and Nogales. “Phoenix companies don’t

often come to Tucson and we generally only go as far north as Eloy,” North says.

North’s firm does quality work but chalks up some of its amazing success to luck. “We got into business at the right time as there were only a few other companies doing subdivisions,” North says. “The company gave extra service to the developers and had good relationships with them. For three years during the housing boom we actually turned down more work than we did.

We could have got the jobs for any price but I knew we just couldn’t get them done in a reasonable time period. I’m proud that we stuck

Images courtesy of Borderland

Moving dirt with CAT 633 Scrapers, 1990s.

Arizona Contractor & Community

Images courtesy of Borderland

with our regular customers and were able to get their jobs done when they needed them.

However once the housing boom ended and they no longer needed our productive capabilities, that loyalty disappeared.”

And then the market crashed in 2008.

Borderland Construction went from 600

still have more iron than we need, especially scrapers and water pulls. They’re paid for and there’s not much of a market for them. We are holding on to them with high hopes the economy will rebound and we’ll be moving dirt again.”

Construction activity is starting to pick up in Tucson but is nothing like it was before 2008.

“We have 17 jobs currently,” North comments.

“We get along well with people and have earned a good reputation and repeat customers. CMAR [Construction Manager at Risk] is turning out to be a good vehicle for us. We’ve done four in a row now. We like the concept of working as a team; it makes the job more fun.”

But it’s still a tough time to be in the construction business in the Old Pueblo. “Now there are too many contractors in Tucson,” North says. “It’s foolish; there’s no work here.

We’re just fighting over scraps and working for nothing. It’s not as much fun as it once was when we grew the company, found young people, and helped develop them. For four years after the crash there wasn’t a single subdivision built in Tucson; now there are a few guys doing them for basically nothing. That’s fine for them but we like employees to 150 and the company’s revenue to make money.” fell by similar percentage. “We kept a lot of our iron but sold other equipment, especially blades and loaders to the Middle East, Canada, and Australia,” North says. “The company used to Left: 2013, Morgan North by one of his restored CAT move 3-4 million loads a year; now 500,000 yards cable dozers.

Below: Borderland Construction paving project, 1985. is a big year since the economic downturn. We

Forty

Have MGB, Will Travel: Bill Buckmaster’s Construction Beat

B

efore Bill Buckmaster became a Tucson broadcasting icon winning multiple awards for his television and radio work, he was the editor of three monthly construction trade magazines in Phoenix…and it nearly killed him.

“I was hired fresh out of college in 1969 as a 21-year-old to edit Builder/Architect, Arizona and New Mexico Contractor and Engineer, and El Paso Contractor and Engineer,” Buckmaster says. “I loved the job and was always on the go in my burnt orange MGB convertible sports car, taking photos with my LeicaFlex camera of construction work or equipment. On the weekends, I was working as a general’s liaison photographing ceremonies in the Army Reserve.”

With the added stress of possibly being shipped off to Vietnam at any moment, it was all too much for Buckmaster and, in February 1970, he suffered a bleeding ulcer and barely survived.

“They gave me last rites,” he says. “The general I worked for called me when I was feeling better and told me I had been so valuable to his command that he was awarding me a full honorable discharge. I soon went back to work for the magazines but came down with mononucleosis in the spring of 1971. It was time to quit the magazines and move to the Bay Area and recover with my mom.”

The media bug had bitten Buckmaster however, and it wasn’t long before he recovered

to enter the broadcasting field and go on to become a living legend.

Buckmaster grew up in Chicago and came to the University of Arizona in 1965 to escape the cold weather. “I also heard it was a pretty good party school,” Buckmaster recalls. “It was fun but I also got an education too.” While there he worked on the Daily Wildcat newspaper and recalls doing a particularly memorable article on folk singer Judy Collins when she performed in Tucson.

His then girlfriend and now wife of 42 years, Ann, had landed a job in Phoenix working as a buyer of infants clothing at the Goldwater’s Department Store at Park Central Mall. “Now she buys rocket motors for Raytheon in Tucson,” Buckmaster laughs. So when Buckmaster had the opportunity to become a magazine editor in Phoenix, he jumped at the chance. He fondly recollects working with Publisher John “Pappy” Akers, his wife and Managing Editor Martha Akers, Senior Editor Herb Brough, and advertising man Erwin Bendtin. “They were all a great influence on my career and thinking about them brings back such wonderful memories,” Buckmaster recalls. “They were all characters, I remember Herb was a chain smoker and there was always this cigarette haze lingering in the office.”

The constant deadlines kept everyone at the magazine on their toes. “We really cranked the stuff out,” Buckmaster says. “Fortunately

Image courtesy of Bill Buckmaster

“I loved the job and was always on the go in my burnt orange MGB convertible sports car, taking construction photos with my LeicaFlex camera .”

Bill Buckmaster with his MBG sports car, 1968.

Forty two

John “Pappy” Akers and Martha Akers, 1940.

there were staggered deadlines for each issue and the El Paso-focused magazine was somewhat a rehash of the other contractor and engineer magazine.” Highlights of his time as editor included interviews with architects Paolo Soleri and Paul Yeager [see excerpts from the latter in side-bar]. “Yeager was such a personality and had designed all those beautiful custom homes on Camelback Mountain.”

After resigning his editor’s position because of medical issues, Buckmaster moved to the Bay Area and found his true calling in broadcasting, which he dabbled in during college. “In the summer of 1967, I had an internship in Chicago doing radio and loved it,” says Buckmaster. He made his return to the medium working at a most unusual place, the only privately-owned shortwave radio station. KGEI-San Francisco, which stood for ‘General Electric International’ was sort of a religious station but broadcast a wide mix of programs that could be heard worldwide. The station had an amazing historical legacy, broadcasting General Douglas MacArthur’s “I Will Return” speech when he retreated from the Philippines during World War II. “I had a disc jockey show at KGEI playing stuff like Elton John’s, Tumbleweed Connection and really enjoyed the gig. We broadcast from the original 1930s building built right on the salt flats in the bay. There was a giant short wave transmitter right outside; the salt’s conductivity helped the station’s signal,” Buckmaster says.

Buckmaster married Ann in May of 1972 and as part of their honeymoon, they drove to Arizona so he could interview for a news director’s position at a Sierra Vista radio station.

He got the job and worked there for nine months while also stringing for the Associated Press (AP).

“AP liked my work and hired me to be the Phoenix broadcast editor in 1973 where I spent six months,” Buckmaster recalls. From there he worked as news director at a station in Visalia in California’s Central Valley. “I covered Caesar

Image courtesy of Chuck Runbeck

Douglas Towne

Excerpts from “A Candid Talk with Architect Paul Yeager: The Custom Home…Are We Losing the Game of Fine Living?” by Bill Buckmaster in Builder/Architect, May 1971.

B/A: You have been quite outspoken about the “travesty of nature” that has been done to the land in Phoenix. When designing a home, how do you attempt to avoid this so-called travesty?

Yeager: When I am first confronted with a piece of property that a client has, I examine it very closely, beyond taking just pure topographical surveys of it.

I sit and study the land from a subjective standpoint in order to get the feel of it. Then the building is designed in levels and configurations to follow as close as possible the natural contours. The object being that when completed, as a pure abstract composition, it fits with the land. In other words, it looks like it grew there, like everything else around it.

B/A: Do you see the possible creation of another Los Angeles type growth pattern in the Phoenix area?

Yeager: Phoenix is almost already another Los Angeles by virtue of spread of the metropolitan area in an uncontrollable way. It has one advantage over the Los Angeles area, it’s not closed in by a shoreline.

In other words, the growth is not as in Los Angeles in two directions, east and north. We go out in all directions and are essentially unlimited. However, the problem in any city is always transportation. If a transportation system or layout is established, the growth follows a set transportation plan whether it is freeways or mass transit systems, which are impossible in Phoenix at this time. There simply isn’t enough traffic for the size routes to cover it. If the growth area is linked to a transportation pattern it won’t become as haphazard or totally impossible to deal with on a mass transit system basis at a later date.

B/A: Is it too late to reverse the trend?

Yeager: In the case of Phoenix, no. We haven’t grown so much that we are severely limited. The problem is to get funds and cooperation of all the agencies and land developers and owners to get a

coordinated transit system planned in advance. I know they are trying but thus far they don’t seem to be succeeding too well.

B/A: Was your experience working [i.e. designing his house] with [Senator Barry] Goldwater an enjoyable one?

Yeager: Quite. One of the prime conditions that Senator Goldwater established in the relationship was that after acquainting me with the essential “feel” that he wanted for the house, he said, “It’s to be your baby.” He wanted the house to feel indigenous to Arizona with some Indian flavor. In fact he had already found the stone which he hoped would be used in the construction of the house. We quarried the material out of the Navajo Reservation.

I was given complete freedom on the house aesthetically and the only requirements were those of individual family space requirements. I have a letter in my file, received from the Senator after the house was completed, in which he said the whole project had more than fulfilled his dreams for the site which he had held for 15 years waiting for the day to build on it. His comment was, “The best thing we did was to give you your head.”

B/A: Are you in agreement with the statement that “we don’t need any more architects to design great buildings but architects who can work with people?”

Yeager: I am in agreement that there should be more architects working with people on an individual basis rather than attempting to create monuments of one kind or another. However, the problem is there just aren’t enough people with taste and sensibility to work with. As long as the general public is so lacking in taste that they will continue to make it possible for people to peddle mediocrity successfully then there’s no hope. Man cannot seem to keep his architecture in harmony with nature, and is losing the game of fine living.

Bill Buckmaster broadcasting at Tucson’s KVOI station, 2013.

Image courtesy of author

Chavez and the farmworker’s strike in Tulare County in the summer of 1973.”

“I subsequently moved to Las Vegas to work at an NBC affiliate that was sort of a predecessor of CNN, doing a 24-hour news radio show,” Buckmaster says. “I was the Las Vegas correspondent and they called me ‘Dialing for Dollars’ because I fed so much stuff to them. It was an exciting time to be in the city. Howard Hughes had died and I covered the Mormon Will trial which was the basis of the movie, Melvin and Howard, where allegedly Hughes’ will was found in a service station in Utah.” At this time, Buckmaster also earned his Master of Education degree from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

In 1979, Buckmaster returned to San Francisco to work in news radio. He also quickly became a fixture with television anchor positions at KICUTV, San Jose-San Francisco and KTZO-TV, San Francisco.

In 1988, he was recruited to come to PBS Channel 6 in Tucson to host KUAT’s “Arizona Illustrated.” As the driving force behind the popular PBS news and public affairs program, Buckmaster covered issues important to Southern Arizona residents. He has been honored with many accolades including the Tucson Chapter of the American Advertising Federation’s 2011 Golden Mic Award and the Pima County Sheriff Department’s Citizen Medal in 2010. Over the past two decades, Buckmaster has earned five individual Emmy Award nominations, the Silver Circle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2003, an Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Achievement Award in 2004, and a Best of Tucson award from Tucson Lifestyle magazine in 2006. His most unique honor was revealed during a surprise on-air announcement by Parade magazine science editor, David Levy, that an asteroid had been named after him.

Buckmaster left KUAT in 2010 and formed Bill Buckmaster Communications, L.L.C., which produces “Buckmaster,” his current radio show on KVOI 1310 AM. “There’s great freedom and control,” he says. “We have our own sponsors and my communication company owns the show.”

Reminiscing about his start in media at the Phoenix trade magazines, Buckmaster recalls it was a fun time in his life. “I would be calling places, trying to set up photo shoots and interviews. Often I was on trips for a week up to Flagstaff and then over to northern New Mexico.

It was a very freewheeling time to do stories, not the litigious society we have now.”

When asked about his most memorable story, Buckmaster recalls a trip to Prescott. “Our cover story one issue was on this rotating house on the border of the forest. I visited it and the views were awesome. I often wonder if it still exists.”

Arizona Contractor & Community

Mechanical Mastermind: Harold Ashton’s Rags-to-Bridges Life Douglas Towne

H

arold Ashton was instrumental in erecting some of the most important structures in Arizona, but the Tucson construction legend spent most of his youth doing the opposite endeavor – tearing things down. His original love was motor equipment and, as a youth, Ashton became renowned for his ability to take apart engines and fix almost any kind of vehicle. He eventually put his mechanical skills to work running a Tucson service station but the business suffered from gas rationing during World War II. The conflict, however, provided opportunities in the construction field that eventually led to the creation of The Ashton Company. Yet even while running his successful construction firm for over fifty years, Ashton’s mechanical passion never waned as he took a special pride in his company’s extensive equipment fleet and his personal collection of vintage Mercedes-Benz automobiles.

Ashton’s legacy includes countless projects including landmark structures such as the Tucson Airport Control Tower and additions to the Forty six

University of Arizona Stadium. Protégés who worked at his firm (dubbed the “Ashton College”) continued his vision, and an enhanced community via funded scholarships and leadership on boards and commissions. But Ashton’s impressive resume has a distinctive entry that may be unique in the construction field. Through his hospitality and theater connections, Ashton was influential in having a movie filmed in Tucson that won an Academy Award and prominently featured The Ashton Company. Ashton was even offered a role as the construction boss, but declined because of his firm’s many ongoing projects.

The story of how Harold Ashton went from running a gas station in 1936 to a quarter century later having his construction company featured in a critically acclaimed Hollywood picture is an inspiring account of his genius, hard-work, and risk-taking. “He was a wise, intelligent, and street-smart guy,” Hal Ashton, his eldest son, says. “He was a good salesman, liked people, and had the ability to relate to them which was a key to his success.”

Harold Ashton was born, Harold Ashjian, to immigrant Armenians, Karopp and Helen Ashjian, in Indianapolis in 1915. His family had a wood-frame factory that manufactured rag rugs with Harold’s uncle, Seraph. His father’s asthma precipitated the family’s move to the dry climate of Tucson in 1927 where the young boy thought he would commute to school on horseback. But Tucson was already a growing city with 40 miles of paved streets and a single traffic signal, handoperated by a policeman, downtown at Stone Avenue and Congress Street. Ashton regularly visited his uncle in Indianapolis, whose carpet firm had grown into a prosperous Oriental rug import business. These trips usually coincided with the Indianapolis 500. “No one else in my family had a mechanical interest,” Ashton was quoted in 1985. “I was the odd ball.”

Ashton’s early mechanical talent was recognized when his version of a Lockheed Vega six-passenger monoplane won a model airplane contest at the Pima County Fair. First prize was a free round-trip excursion to Los Angeles aboard a Fokker, tri-motor airplane. The flight to

Background: Tucson City Hall, 1963.

Across: Tucson Airport control tower, 1962.

Top left: Benson Highway, 1962.

Top right: Harold Ashton, 1952.

the coast was so turbulent, however, that the 13-year-old elected to take a bus back to Tucson.

Despite this traumatic introduction to flight, Ashton would later obtain his pilot’s license and fly to distant job sites.

The teenage years were challenging for Ashton as his father passed away in 1932. After attending the University of Arizona for two years studying to become a doctor, Ashton left school, confiding in a professor that he had more interest in “mechanics than medicine.” He worked at several service stations honing his mechanical skills. In 1936, with a $250 bank loan cosigned by his mother, Ashton took over the Saguaro Service Station located at Stone Avenue and University Boulevard.

Changes came quickly for Ashton. His mother passed away in 1937 and, the following year he married Mary Louise Sharman, who had recently graduated from the University of Arizona with a drama degree. The couple had their first child, Hal, in 1940, followed by Larry in 1945, and Cindy in 1951. Shortly after Hal’s birth, at Mary Louise’s suggestion, they changed their

last name from Ashjian to Ashton. “People would ask my dad, ‘You have olive skin and an unusual last name. What the heck are you?’ so they decided to make his last name English,” Hal Ashton says.

When the U.S. entered World War II, Ashton tried to enlist in the Seabees but was declined because of partial deafness from a motorcycle accident. Gas rationing left his service station business struggling, so Ashton accepted a job offer arranged by his friend, John Joynt, as an equipment superintendent with the Murphey-Keith Construction Company. Ashton’s first job was the Orchard Park Prisoner of War (POW) Camp in Roswell, New Mexico. With equipment scarce because of war demand, Ashton had a vital role keeping outdated machinery operational. The next project was another POW camp outside of Trinidad, Colorado. Moving back to Tucson, Ashton was put in charge of building a housing complex and restaurant facility at the Sahuarita Air Force Range south of Tucson. “It was a boom and building was fun,” Ashton said in 1985. “No

regulations. Just pressure to get it up, get it done, and get going to the next job.”

After World War II ended, Ashton took a risk and started his construction company in 1946 with a pickup truck, air compressor, cement mixer, wheelbarrows, and tools. The Ashton Company was a partnership with John Goodman, an old friend who had gone to school in Tucson.

Goodman was from Kansas City, where his father was a wealthy businessman who ran the Goodman Hotel Company that included the Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego and the Santa Rita Hotel in Tucson.

Fortuitously, Ashton’s construction firm started at the same time Tucson was experiencing considerable growth. The company’s first jobs were constructing in-fill houses in residential areas such as Jefferson Park, Blenman, and Catalina Vista Estates. The firm subsequently expanded into commercial remodeling, including the ground level shops at Tucson’s famed Pioneer Hotel. Ashton got his big break when he was awarded the building contract for the Vocational Arts Building at Arizona Contractor & Community

Tucson High School in 1950. Four years later, the company built Tucson’s second high school, Pueblo.

Ashton’s success was aided by expediting construction, such as delivering heavy materials with a forklift instead of by hand. He instilled this philosophy in his young son. “I was hanging out with Dad when I was 12 or 13 at the time his company was constructing a masonry building for the Tucson Water Department,” Hal Ashton recalls. “I was helping out, carrying a concrete block on scaffolding and he yelled up at me, ‘You have two hands, you want to carry two blocks, not one.’”

The Ashton Company’s projects grew to include interstate and urban highways, airport runways, wastewater treatment plants, booster stations, reservoirs, stadiums, medical facilities, power substations, power plants, tailings dams, mine work, crushing plants, and a natural gas fueling station for both public works agencies and private industry. Early on, the company focused on structural projects involving concrete, such as their first bridge that crossed the Santa Cruz River at St. Mary’s Road in 1949.

In only twenty years, they would complete their 100th bridge across the Rillito River at Swan Road.

One unusual job involved constructing an early warning radar station on a mountain near Ajo west of Tucson. To reach the remote site, Ashton constructed an eight-mile road, extended water lines, and built a power plant. The station was operational from 1958-1969 and demolished in 1994. The Ashton Company also was involved in the construction of Painted Rock Dam near Gila Bend. The immense dam, with 2,500,000 acre-feet storage capacity, is designed to protect downstream agricultural lands by impounding and slowly releasing floodwater on the Gila. The firm’s work included an intake structure and drilling a 25-foot diameter, concrete-lined, tunnel through 1,000 feet of mountain to gates that controlled water releases.

The Ashton Company did a lot of highway work, including Interstate 8 between Sentinel and Aztec, Interstate 10 between Bowie and San Simon, and Interstate 17 between Indian School and Glendale roads in Phoenix. While other firms brought in subcontractors to do much of the work, The Ashton Company only needed assistance with relatively minor parts of the project such as guardrails, painting, and installation of traffic control systems. “I always felt we might have been a little more ingenious than some of our competitors,” Ashton recalled

in his 2002 autobiography, Harold Ashton: Reflection of a Proud Family Patriarch, Gentleman, and Master Builder. “During the war they got spoiled, because they had so much work to do and no one cared how much it cost. Even today there are sectors in the industry where I don’t think it is as imaginative as it could be for developing new techniques.”

In 1962, Ashton was elected President of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce. With John Goodman, he purchased the Santa Rita Hotel which had been the social center of Tucson since it was built in 1904. When Ashton learned some famous guests were staying at the Santa Rita Hotel, he arranged to have lunch with Ralph Nelson, a Hollywood producer who was scouting locations for his upcoming film, Lilies of the Field.

Ashton persuaded Nelson to film in Tucson to generate business for his hotel and the city. His sales pitch was aided by his wife, Mary Louise, who told of the abundance of local acting talent.

Production began later that year in Tucson.

Most of the non-starring actors were friends of Mary Louise, theater students at the university, or employees of The Ashton Company. Sidney Poitier arrived early for his starring role so he could learn to drive the company’s Euclid TC-12

shop while public work would stay union,” Hal says. “Since you weren’t allowed to have both union and non-union in the same shop, I formed the company so as not to compete with The Ashton Company. My father and I served jointly as chairmen of the two companies until his death when I became the sole chairman.” Larry also rose to a vice president at The Ashton Company before forming Ashton Materials Company and later buying Southern Arizona Paving and Construction Company. Cindy worked for the Gosnell Corporation for many years and currently works at Ashton.

When asked about his father’s career, Hal recalls a family friend who was a successful business attorney back East. “He told my father, ‘I’m retiring and the only thing I have to show for my work is a warehouse full of papers and lots of money. But I would gladly trade places with you because you can show people all the roads and buildings you’ve created – there must be great satisfaction in that.’”

Background: The Ashton Company preparing construction site. Across, left to right: Ashton with a vintage Mercedes; West stands of Arizona Stadium, 1975; Harold Ashton with Bill Pulice, 1971; Setting Tucson Water tower for the Anaconda Company near Kolb Road and Interstate 10; Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field; Roden Crater Tunnel in northern Arizona.

Images courtesy of The Ashton Company

tractor. Director Ralph Nelson assumed Ashton’s role as head of the construction company. In the screenplay, the construction firm was changed to The Ashton Company in order not to have to repaint the vehicles. Filming took about two weeks, with some footage shot at a jobsite at the Interstate 10 and 19 interchange. Before the movie’s official release, a special debut occurred at the Rialto Theater for the cast and crew.

Poitier won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1964.

Ashton was active in trade organizations, including the Associated General Contractors which he joined in 1950. He served as State President in 1972, National Director in 1978, and had a Life Directorship bestowed in 1990. He continued working at The Ashton Company until his death in 2003 at the age of 88. The Ashton Company continues today focusing on public works projects such as roads, sewage and water treatment plants. “One thing that we are most proud of is making payroll in Tucson every week for the last 67 years,” Hal Ashton says.

Ashton’s first wife, Mary Louise, passed away in 1990 and he later married Judy Beem.

His children have gone on to successful careers.

Hal worked for the company and became vice president but started Diversified Design and Construction in 1976. “We saw that in the mid-1970s, building work would be going open

“No regulations. Just pressure to get it up, get it done, and get going to the next job.”

Bum Steer on the Brink John Bueker

T

he college nightclub scene has a storied and richly complex history in Arizona. This species of drinking and dining establishment has always had a deeply ingrained reputation for raucous charm and outrageous ambience, and Tucson happened to be home to one of the most memorably rowdy collegiate watering holes of them all.

At 1910 North Stone Avenue in Tucson, just a few miles from the University of Arizona campus, stood the legendary Bum Steer, originally named the Bum Steer Food and Beverage Emporium. Housed in a massive wooden structure adorned with a large metal roof, the Bum Steer presented an unusual architectural departure, and yet it was the interior of this funky building that would embody its signature characteristic.

The general idea was to fill every available inch of wall and ceiling space with obscure antiques, memorabilia, and junk gathered from countless locations. The concept was a clever one, as it provided patrons with a virtually endless supply of conversation pieces to contemplate and discuss over their beer and hamburger repasts.

Conveniently and appropriately enough, the Bum Steer was built Fifty two

immediately adjacent to a junk yard, which undoubtedly provided at least a few of the original fixtures found inside.

A California company, Grand American Inc., constructed a family of these rather remarkable restaurants in California and Arizona starting in the early 1970s. For the next 40-some years, the Steer provided a popular local venue for dancing, ear-splitting music, and high-quality bar food and adult drinks.

The Bum Steer’s intricate three-level interior structure was anchored by 80 telephone poles spaced at ten-foot intervals. The building’s shell was erected by George C. Codd Construction Company of Tucson, after which Grand American recruited a 12-man crew to decorate the innards. Among the original ornamentation was a full-sized airplane suspended from the ceiling by cables and an authentic World War II Japanese cannon.

Seating inside the Bum Steer was contrived from old church pews and benches refashioned into booths, with tractor seats and saddles repurposed to serve as bar stools. The bar’s complement of pinball machines was stationed inside a tree house that was constructed between levels and covered with collages,

hanging objects, and vintage photographs. One wall of the lower level was adorned with an astonishing selection of aging license plates, with a free drink awarded to anyone who could locate and identify the oldest one.

Many a good time was had at the Bum Steer through the decades, as many a former Wildcat student can attest. The Tucson college bar however, also retains a darker side to its history with some unfortunate incidents transpiring over the years. The Bum Steer’s legendary rowdiness came with a price. The turbulent history culminated with a fatal shooting near the restaurant in 2005 that was followed by the business’s sudden closing in August 2006, when its liquor license was rescinded. The Tucson City Council refused to recommend reinstatement of the license due to opposition from the police department, who cited a rash of disturbing incidents including a shooting, stabbing, and several assaults during the Bum Steer’s previous two years of operation.

The Tucson community rallied in support of what had by now become an object of intense local affection and nostalgia however, and the Bum Steer reopened in December 2007. The nightclub limped through a couple more years

“The general idea was to fill every available inch of wall and ceiling space with obscure antiques, memorabilia, and junk gathered from countless locations.”

of operation with a temporary liquor license before closing. For two years it stood idle, with all the remarkable furnishings and decorations still remaining inside.

Last fall, Scared Stiff Entertainment leased the Bum Steer structure for use as a Halloween haunted house attraction, an exceptionally appropriate use for the old nightclub, with its dank narrow stairways and peerless array of fantastical décor hanging from the walls and ceiling. As Scared Stiff spokesman Charles Perez observed, “It’s a very strange and unique place.”

With a $20 admission fee, the haunted house enterprise appears to have been a popular success, and Scared Stiff began planning more such attractions at the Bum Steer, including an extravaganza on New Year’s Eve. But so far, no further events have materialized. More than a few locals have voiced their ongoing desire to see the Bum Steer reopened to its original purpose, and the restaurant-bar’s demise is routinely lamented in the local press. Currently the building however, sits dark with its ultimate fate uncertain.

Interestingly, the impetus to reopen the Bum Steer may receive some encouragement from developments 100 miles to the north in

and saloon in Queen Creek. The new owners are currently transforming the old red barn into a mission-style structure that will be slathered in stucco and rechristened as “The Mission at Minder Binders” that will open in 2014. The ultimate result will be a radical exterior redesign of the old college bar-restaurant while nostalgically preserving its original interior character.

Meanwhile, the future of Tucson’s Bum Steer remains cloudy, but the surprising and extraordinary resurrection of Minder Binders vividly demonstrates the possibilities for vintage college bar rehabilitation. Here’s hoping someone picks up the ball and brings a similar revival to Tucson’s fabled and historic Bum Steer.

It deserves no less.

Images courtesy of author

Tempe. The Bum Steer’s old Grand American sister restaurant near Arizona State University, Minder Binders, is currently being brought back from the dead, and in rather grand style at that.

Closed suddenly in 2005 after 34 years of continuous operation, the barn-shaped Minder Binders has been deteriorating for eight years and was thought by many devotees to be destined for inevitable demolishment. Very similar in overall concept to the Bum Steer, Minder Binders’ interior space is crammed with antiques, memorabilia, and randomly strange artifacts that have somehow remained intact inside the structure during the eight years of institutional hibernation.

Much to the delight of a legion of former patrons who had long since resigned themselves to its sad passing, Minder Binders was recently purchased by the owners of San Tan Flat, a grill

Arizona Contractor & Community

Taking ‘Stock’ in Arizona: Jokake Turns 30 Paul Beaulieu

Fifty four

publicly acknowledged as they were awarded this year's Arizona Corporate Excellence Innovator of the Year Award.

In addition to their dedication to clients, the Jokake commitment to the Phoenix community also lives on and is demonstrated by how they chose to celebrate their 30th anniversary. The employees of Jokake thought the best way to memorialize this event was to complete 30

community service projects in the Phoenix area and that is what they have been doing with organizations like St. Mary's Food Bank, the Justa Center, the United Way, and many other nonprofits that support people who need a helping hand.

Congratulations Jokake and thank you for 30 great years!

“When they learned there was a potential plan to level the restaurant, they decided to buy the entire site.”

Exterior view of the Stockyards Restaurant, 1963.

Images courtesy of author

I

n 1983 Reagan was President, Bruce Babbitt was Governor of Arizona, McDonalds introduced the McNugget, Vanessa Williams became the first African-American Miss America, Michael Jackson performed his first moonwalk, Red Hot Chili Peppers released their first album, the Dow Jones was hovering just below 1,000 and two native Arizonan brothers, Mike and Gary Smith, started the general contracting company, Jokake. Mike and Gary's family had been in Arizona since the early 1900s and made their living by cotton farming south of Phoenix. After both brothers graduated from University of Arizona with degrees in mechanical engineering they came to Phoenix to build.

The market began its rise in the following year and Jokake picked up Del Webb as their first developer client for the Scottsdale Fashion Square project. Jokake grew with Phoenix, and the Smith brothers reinvested in their community. When Mike and Gary were kids, their mother would regularly take them to lunch at the Stockyards Restaurant on Washington Street and in later years they enjoyed eating and reminiscing there. When they learned there was a potential plan to level the restaurant, they decided to buy the entire site.

Subsequently, they built a new office complex around the Stockyards which now serves as Jokake’s corporate headquarters. The development’s architecture pulls from the past while incorporating a modern sense of openness and offers lasting protection to this great part of Phoenix history. After the Stockyards acquisition, the Smiths continued to pick up additional historical sites in Arizona including the neighboring Farmers & Stockman’s Bank building, Paloma Ranch and Gillespie Dam in Gila Bend, and the Tres Alamos Ranch, originally part of Baca Float #3, in Tubac.

Later, the brothers moved into other ventures and realized that it was time to pass the construction company on to the next generation.

In 2008 they converted the company to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and sold it to the employees. Today the company continues to be owned by the workers and is led

by Casey Cartier as President and Roz Lipsey as Chief Executive Officer.

The most recent five years have been filled with great success and Jokake has now expanded operations to Texas, California, and Nevada.

Their mounting business accomplishments were

Karl Ronstadt and Howard King, owners of New Pueblo Constructors, 1962.

Construction of Lake Patagonia Dam, 1968.

Paving 1nterstate 40 in Tijeras Canyon New Mexico, 1974.

Fifty six

Digging Through the Archives New Pueblo Constructors William Horner

T

he lure of three, oversized photo albums containing vintage images of New Pueblo Constructors’ job sites inspired me to trek from Phoenix to Karl Ronstadt’s house near River Road in Tucson. Karl had established the construction firm in 1959 and operated it until the mid-1990s, working across Arizona and New Mexico.

Arriving at his home, I was greeted by Karl and his three dogs and was immediately captivated by an oversized image of Karl and his business partner, Howard King, mounted behind his office desk. The photo was snapped

in 1962 by Jack Schaeffer, a famous freelance photographer for the Arizona Daily Star newspaper. On the day of my visit, Karl was wearing the same belt buckle that he sports in the photo taken 51 years earlier.

The contractors I’ve interviewed the past few years all documented their construction projects to varying degrees. Karl, however, has the best collection of historic images I’ve seen, all neatly labeled and organized by jobsite.

Going through the photos together, we talked about the many projects Karl did including cement work, highway construction, dams,

subdivisions, and wastewater treatment plants.

Karl kindly loaned me his photo albums and some of the images are featured in “Cattleman Contractor: Karl Ronstadt’s New Pueblo Legacy” on page 33-37 of this issue of Arizona Contractor and Community magazine.

There were so many compelling images that I’m also featuring New Pueblo Constructors in my “Digging Through the Archives” column.

Building pads for a new subdivision at Orange Grove Manor, 1961.

Images courtesy of Karl Ronstadt

Constructing Interstate 10 near San Simon Arizona. The WABCO 777 blade is driving and feeding dirt to a conveyor which is loading scrapers, 1965-66.

Arizona Contractor & Community

Underground work along Swan Road in Tucson, 1973.

Loader and two CAT D8 dozers pushing rock off the side of a mountain bank, early 1970s.

Images courtesy of Karl Ronstadt

Lineup of new Cat 651 scrapers prepare for site work for the recreation complex at Rio Rico for Gulf American Corporation, 1969

Road work on Mule Creek Highway in eastern Arizona, 1974.

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Paving one of three Interstate 40 highway projects in Tijeras Canyon, New Mexico. Two 10-wheel dump trucks line up under a hot mix plant, 1974.

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O'Brien Concrete Pumping 602-278-8926 www.obrienpumping.com

25

Woudenberg Properties 480-620-8555 www.woudenbergprops.com

15

OMNI 520-284-9577 www.omniliens.com

21

WSM Auctioneers 623-936-3300 www.wsmauctioneers.com

Pacwest Rentals 480-832-0855 www.pacwesttrading.com

BC

RDO 877-90 RDOIC www.rdoic.com

11

Red Mountain Machinery 480-899-3800 www.redmountain.com

IBC

Reuter Fabrication 602-415-0449 www.reuterequipment.com

37

Allstate rent a fence 602-233-1433 www.allstatefenceaz.com

17

First Step 480-705-9136 www.firststepcontracting.com

44

Anderson Law Firm 480-292-6021 www.theandersonlawfirmaz.com

27

Forklift Exchange 602-761-2525 www.flaskajcb.com

5

Arizona Desert Brooms 480-279-4433 www.azdesertbrooms-sweeping.com

23

GenTech 800-625-8324 www.gentechusa.com

51

Arizona Hi-Lift 602-462-1315 www.azhilift.com

21

Heavy Equipment Machinery Inc (HEM) 800-385-8555

19

51

Atlas Copco 623-780-0200 www.atlascopco.us/phoenix

25

Integrity Automotive/Diesel 520-744-9710 www.integrityautorepairs.com 520-531-0119 www.integritydieselrepairs.com

37

Arizona Materials 602-278-4444 www.arizonamaterials.net

28

AZBEX 480-709-4190 www.azbex.com

29

Liberty GMC 866-212-3229 www.libertygmcaz.com

37

Bidadoo Auctions 877-243-2366 www.bidadoo.com

29

MDI Rock 602-569-8722 www.mdirock.com

45

BidJudge 602-456-2493 www.bidjudge.com

12

Meridian Sales 480-497-3599 www.meridianpacificsales.com

Branco Machinery 480-892-5657 www.brancomachinery.com

IFC

Metro Engineering & Survey 623-466-6640 www.metroaz.net

Bryco Asphalt Milling 480-987-9133 www.brycomilling.com

17

BT & Associates 623-388-8770 www.bta-eng.com

41

CORE Construction 602-494-0800 www.coreconstruction.com

3

Direct Sales LLC 602-930-8415 www.directsalesllc.com

23

Ditchwitch/Doosan 602-437-0351 www.ditchwitchaz.com

21

Drake 480-607-3999 www.drakeus.com

26

ECCO Heavy Equipment Rentals 602-276-2040 www.eccoequipment.com

23

Empire Sales Center 520-582-2050 www.empirecat.com/eloy

26

EyeSite 855-466-8433 www.goeyesite.com

55

Sixty two

PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Phoenix, AZ Permit No. 3418

RORI THE TRACTO R DOG IS ALWAYS HERE TO HEL P!

480.832.0855 Water Equipment

Mining Equipment

Earth Moving Equipment

Voca�onal Trucks

Specialty Equipment and A�achments

Jim Lowry

Jean Kasitch

Rental Manager/Sales

Rental and Sales Supervisor

jlowry@pacwes�rading.com

jean@pacwes�rading.com

3105 N Maple St

Office 480.832.0855

Direct 480.941.6504

Mesa, AZ 85215

Mobile 480.717.7271

Mobile 480.258.4818

www.pacwes�rading.com Office 480.832.0855