Allen Engineering 50th Anniversary

First and second generation ownership (L-R) include Jay and Lesle Allen; Mary Ann and Dewayne Allen.

The office in Piggott, Ark., in the mid-1960s, where everything began.

Allen Engineering Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The entire Allen family. (L-R): Leslie Allen, wife of Jay; Dewayne Allen; Grace Allen, daughter of Jay; Daniel Allen, son of Jay; Anna Joy Allen, daughter of Jay; Jaxon Allen, son of John; Mary Leigh Allen, daughter of Jay; John Allen, standing behind Jaxon and Mary; John Allen, Jr., son of John; Jay Allen, standing behind Mary Ann; Mary Ann Allen, Jessica Allen, daughter of Jay. 2

“We started the business in 1964 with a $5,000 loan. How times have changed,” Mary Ann Allen, AEC secretary/treasurer and co-founder.

But Mary Ann wasn’t 100 percent certain of what they were getting into. At the time, Dewayne, her husband, was working in Illinois for a highway contractor.

“We lived in Illinois, and this was started in Piggott, Arkansas, Dewayne’s hometown. I was teaching school and had no idea I would be moving to Arkansas and be in the readymix business,” said Mary Ann. While the company was founded in 1964, the Allens didn’t move to Arkansas until 1968. In the early years, Dewayne traveled and Mary Ann kept up with the office.

They had a watts line directly to their home, with which Mary Ann took the calls to provide a direct line for support day and night.

“At that time, we were only selling truss screeds and I could rattle off a lot of information and could explain hooking up an air compressor to an air screed and could provide quotes when needed. I grew up in the ready-mix business.

Even though I was teaching school early on in my career, I was completely in the ready-mix business in the summer time so I was familiar with concrete,” she said.

Necessity — The Mother of Invention Allen Engineering Corporation (AEC) began as a ready-mix concrete and aggregate producer, but that would change when Dewayne — chairman, CEO and co-founder of AEC — became frustrated (like others) with the lack of necessary tools for the job.

“We were the concrete contractor on a job in Dewayne and Mary Ann in 1987, in a photo taken at the AEC office in Euless, Texas.

Paragould, Arkansas, for Monroe Shock Co., and we didn’t have the right tools and the rest is history,” he said.

Allen started looking at developing a screed to solve this problem, as did several other companies, but according to Dewayne, his company is the only original screed company left still working to develop the right tools to use with concrete.

“The original screed was built by a Mr. Baker in Texas who worked for Brown and Root. He had developed a truss screed after World War II. There were other players in truss screed development: Compton in Texas, Joe Owens in Chicago and the Morrisons in North Carolina, but we are the only survivors,” he said.

The original screed design was already patented, but the Allens were able to patent the options to the screed design, which allowed Allen Engineering to differentiate itself from the others — a trait still evident today. To date, Allen Engineering has more Founders Dewayne and Mary Ann Allen celebrate 50 years in business than 110 patents on its line of equipin 2014. ment.

A Worldwide People Business Today, Allen Engineering is a designer, manufacturer, and marketer of the Allen line of concrete site preparation, placing, finishing and paving equipment.

While establishing, growing and developing their business, the Allen family said one thing stands out in their minds — the great people they’ve met and known in this industry.

“When you go and do an equipment demo and you’re there for two

The main factory with the Allen Engineering 50th anniversary logo on the front of it.

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Congratulations on wonderful years.

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A truck heads out to deliver 800 ft. (243.8 m) of air screed in 1977.

Allen workers fine-grade a slab in the late 1970s at the company’s headquarters. (L-R) are James Milton, Dewayne Allen, Jay Allen, and Chuck Stone.

or three days, you really get to know the people. I may not get back to see a lot of them, but they come and see us at the trade shows just to say, ‘hello,’ and that they’ve made a lot of money using our products,” said Dewayne.

Mary Ann recalled that among her favorite aspects of growing their company was the opportunity for global travel as they developed new products and new distribution channels.

Dewayne said the company’s first export product was a truss screed to Belgium in 1979. Not long after, Dewayne and Mary Ann traveled there to show the customer how to operate the screed. This was the start of their international business, which has grown substantially and continues to be an important part of their distribution.

“The very first World of Concrete that we went to as Allen Engineering was in 1977. Right after, we moved back from Texas and were building products. We went to the bank and borrowed $5,000 to go to this show,” said Mary Ann. The crew had set up a tiny booth, a card table, some folding chairs and a red-skirted tablecloth that the family still uses at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“I had no clue about World of Concrete at this time,” Mary Ann said. “And we wore these big t-shirts that said ‘Screed Team Mom & Pop’ during the whole show. It was pretty Hokey, but it attracted attention.”

The Allens made a lot of industry friends at that first expo and even recalled making friends with some of their toughest competition.

“Everyone in this business is pretty close,” she said. “And if you don’t go to World of Concrete, that would be very bad and rumors would start.”

In the early years of Allen Engineering, in addition to promoting themselves at World of Concrete, the company also was big on print advertising in trade publications for promoting their products.

“We bought the back page of Concrete Construction on a Mary Ann and Dewayne in 1979 sell screed to customers from Hong monthly basis for about $1,100 and we put a watts line on the ad.

Kong.

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The watts line would be answered 24 hours a day, by either me or Mary Ann or someone else. You would not believe the leads we got off of it … hundreds.”

Then there were the road shows.

“We started putting dealers in place,” Dewayne added. “When we would do a demo somewhere, we would call all of the potential dealers in the area from the Yellow Pages listings, and they would come to the demo and some dealers just wanted to claim the demo sale, but we said, ‘No, this is our going-home money. Here is how you become a dealer: you buy what’s left on the truck,’” Dewayne said.

Back in the beginnings of the road show demos, Buddy Blackshear was responsible for trailering the equipment and setting up the demos and Harry Horn would usually come to conduct the demo and close the deal. Dewayne said, “they might do two or three demos in a week, and Buddy actually did five in one week. He went from Seattle, Washington, all the way to Atlanta that week.”

Allen Engineering employs more than 130 people and Dewayne attributes company success to the quality and longevity of the staff. “There are a lot of people that work here that have been here for more than 20 years and some more than 30 years. There’s a vast knowledge that has developed and grown in our business over the years.”

Eight hundred feet of air screed goes out for a delivery back in 1977.

Changing With, Adapting to the Times Everything changes over time and businesses must adapt. Nowhere is adaptA job with one of the first engine-driven screeds made by Allen on a jobsite in the late 1970s.

Jay Allen, president, works at the very end of the screed. ing to change more important than with technology, and Allen Engineering has steadfastly kept up with it.

“The biggest thing I’ve seen was when Wal-Mart The office in first starting building their stores, those jobs would Paragould, Ark., last two or three months to get the floors in,” circa 1978.

Dewayne said. “Today, contractors using our products and other manufacturer’s products can move in on a Wal-Mart Super Center concrete job on Monday and can go home on Friday and be done.

On the bigger warehouse projects, these contractors are doing 1.5 acres of concrete per day, over 60,000 square feet with half the people they used to do it with. When we started, 10,000 square foot floors were a big day. We’ve come a long way.”

In 1977, Allen worked with Baker Concrete, 7

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which is the largest concrete contractor in the United States, on the contractor’s first big 500,000 sq. ft. job in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was able to improve their production to 12,000 to 15,000 sq. ft. per day.

In the late 80s and early 90s, a nexus of flat flooring took place (as the Allen’s call it) with the start of the F-Numbers to scientifically measure the flatness of a floor, using a differential device known as a dipstick. This changed the way industrial flooring was done in the United States.

“At this time we were working on screeds and trowels, Dave Somero (inventor of the laser screed) was working on the laser screed. We joined with them and others and became shareholders in Face International in Norfolk, Virginia. Concurrently, ACI [American Concrete Institute] adopted the F-Number system for measuring levelness and flatness of concrete floors. This was a big change in the industry. A lot of people thought they were doing good work, but when they measured according to the new standard, it really wasn’t very good,” said Dewayne.

Jay Allen in 1982 shovels concrete on a jobsite.

This is 115 ft. (35 m) of screed smoothing out the foundation of a Keil Stadium in St. Louis, Mo.

One of the first auger pavers was made by Allen.

This is it, the Model 12 Auger Paver.

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The ‘Trojan Horse’ The Holtz family from Chicago held the patent on the riding trowel, but, according to Dewayne, Allen Engineering had to get the license from Holtz to build the trowels themselves.

Ultimately getting the license, though, was, well, done in an unorthodox way.

“We talked to Mr. Holtz and he had already licensed a big company, but they weren’t doing very much business with riding trowels,” said Dewayne. “So we made a machine, took it to the World of Concrete in Houston, Texas, without a seat because the seat was a big part of the patent. So we put a black box on it [a riding trowel], an antenna, a little red light that would flash and a switch.

People who saw it went crazy and couldn’t figure it out. But it got Butch Holtz’s attention real fast; he realized if this really worked, his patent was over.” Today, the Allens call this their “Trojan Horse” approach to getting the license for this product.

A technological innovation developed by Allen that has improved concrete floor flatness is the introduction of the “pan”. Simply put, the “pan” improvement involves the use of a steel pan under trowels. Pans were not new; they were being used in Europe on walk-behind trowels, but they were new to the United States. It was added to the riding trowel to level and flatten the floor, mechanically with the riding trowel.

“And as we got more into using pans we had to add more and more horsepower to the riding trowels,” said Dewayne.

“So we eventually built a trowel that is still the biggest in the world at 100 horsepower. So with three of these, a laser screed and five or six people, you can do 60,000 plus feet of concrete in a day or more.”

A modern day picture of Dewayne and Mary Ann.

A New Material Enters the Mix In the mid 1980s, Allen Engineering started working with polyester concrete.

Polyester concrete was originally placed with a truss screed. Now it is being placed with slipform pavers and mixed in a large volumetric mixer,” said Dewayne. “The west coast is using polyester to overlay bridges and concrete pavements. It is a big business.”

“The advantage of polyester concrete is that it will take an existing bridge deck or concrete pavement and extend its life probably 15 years, at a very reasonable cost. It’s a very thin overlay, minimum of three-quarters of an inch, and of course, maybe thicker to get a good ride. We make those machines here in Paragould,” he said, adding that it will be a big wave of future production for the company.

Allen Engineering builds machines specifically designed for

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the polyester concrete industry. The model APSF1600 high profile two-track polyester concrete slipform paver is the only slipform paver designed specifically for polyester concrete overlays.

Dewayne and Mary Ann with Randy LaJoie after he won the Daytona Busch.

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Allen Engineering — a Worldwide Enterprise The company’s sales mix, at this time, on the entire product line, consists of 30 percent international sales and 70 percent domestic sales. International sales are channeled through three main master distributors — one based in South Florida that handles Latin America; one based in Australia that covers Southeast Asia; and one based in Sweden that covers Europe and the former Soviet Republics.

In the United States, Allen Engineering sells through approximately 500 dealer locations and 650 rental center locations. Total worldwide sales or rental outlets for Allen Engineering products is approximately 1,200.

“Our dealers are categorized in three groups for distribution/rental: paving dealers, specifically for our paving equipment line; pro dealers, which would primarily be our pro place and finish line; and rental dealers who work with our rental products,” said Jay Allen, Allen Engineering President.

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about 40 to 45 people on board to continue their longevity with us. The cause of the fire turned out to be a power strip in an office.”

A New Acquisition In late 2010, Allen Engineering bought the Miller Power Buggy line, based in Youngstown, Ohio.

“We brought that line to Paragould [Arkansas] and that was our first acquisition; it is now the Allen Power Buggy line,” said Jay. “But what that did was open us to the equipment rental market.

We had not really been in equipment rental up until this point. From that, we’ve learned much about the equipment rental business. We were also fortunate to hire Roger Euless, former president of Multiquip, who knew a whole lot about equipment

The office building sits adjacent to the manufacturing plant.

Disaster Strikes More than 10 years ago, Allen Engineering sustained a significant setback.

“In 2003, our Paragould, Arkansas, manufacturing facility burned to the ground,” said Jay. “That was a real test in overcoming adversity, and the industry really rallied in our behalf. We had dealers and other manufacturers offering to help us out. If there were ever a time when my parents seriously considered exiting the business, it was then. Being the only manufacturing facility, we lost everything, including the warehouse. It was a long process, but a real team effort. The good news is through the tragedy, because of our insurance, we were able to keep a core staff of

rental.”

And at World of Concrete in 2014, Allen Engineering launched a site preparation line and a towable mixer line to complement the Power Buggy line.

“Now, we’re offering a full complement of rental products.

We’ve now been in our fourth ARA/Rental Show this year [2014] and that’s the fastest growing part of our business — the equipment rental side. This year’s The Rental Show and World of Concrete, where we launched 19 new products, were both great shows for us.”

The Paragould, Ark., manufacturing plant is 100,000 sq. ft.

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Keeping Customers Happy The Allens have always made it clear from the beginning that their work was about gaining loyal customers.

“It all boils down to being a family-owned business in the central part of the United States with competition in this business coming from the east by the German-owned company, Wacker Neuson Corporation, and from the west by the Japanese-owned company Multiquip,” said Dewayne. “Our big difference is our core knowledge of concrete. We can go out and demonstrate our equipment and teach people how to use it properly … and they make money, and become loyal customers.”

The engineers (L-R) are Tim Guinn, design engineer; Jeff Fielder, design engineer; Andy Waldon, CAD technician; Marcus Jarrett, manufacturing engineer; Nick Quintana, CAD Mary Ann added that she believes that overtech) and Scott Sugg, vice president of operations). all quality and service is the key factor in customer retention. “Our very first ready mix trucks had ‘quality and service’ painted on them,” she said.

Over the years the company’s motto for the Allen Equipment Brand has evolved into “Focused Innovation — Concrete Reputation.”

Mary Ann said that she feels the customers recognize the company’s extra efforts in the marketplace.

“They [the customers] come to the trade shows to see what new products we have. Our dealers, like Star Equipment of Iowa, who has been with us since 1977, continue to be our larger dealers and I feel they appreciate our innovation and Some of the Allen Engineering staff at ConExpo 2014 in Las Vegas, Nev., promoting the complete our customer service.”

Allen product line.

The marketing team is headed by Scott Ward (L), marketing manager, and Kurt Kamphausen, marketing coordinator.

Accounting Department (L-R, back): Ioana Dunaway, accounts payable; Katie Wolz, accounting manager; Jennifer Barrington, office manager. (L-R front): Karen Davis, system administrator, and Annice White, accounts receivable.

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A LEADER LE AD E R IN I N THE THE C CONCRETE O N C R E T E INDUSTRY I N D US T RY FOR FO R 5 50 0 YE YEARS AR S SITE PREP

FINISHING COMPACTORS

NG G TTROWELS ROWELS RIDING

BRIDGE DECK PAVERS

RAMMERS RAMM PLACING OWER POWER UGGIES UGGIE ES BUGGIES

ROLLER AVERS WA LK-BEHIND WALK-BEHIND TR ROWELS TROWELS

PANS & PANS BL ADES BLADES

CONCRETE & MORTAR MIXERS EELECTRIC LECTRIC A ND G AS AND GAS P OWERED VIBRATORS VIBRATOR POWERED SCREEDS TTRUSS RUSS SC REEDS

SCREE ED PAVERS

P OWER POWER S PRAYERS SPRAYERS

CONCRETE S A AW SAW

PORTABLE SCREEDS

HAND TOOLS ROLLER SCREEDS

RIDGES

FOCUSED INNOVATION, CONCRETE REPUTATION. www.alleneng.com AllenEngineering

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A LEADER LE AD E R IN I N THE THE C CONCRETE O N C R E T E INDUSTRY I N D US T RY FOR FO R 5 50 0 YE YEARS AR S SITE PREP

FINISHING COMPACTORS

NG G TTROWELS ROWELS RIDING

BRIDGE DECK PAVERS

RAMMERS RAMM PLACING OWER POWER UGGIES UGGIE ES BUGGIES

ROLLER AVERS WA LK-BEHIND WALK-BEHIND TR ROWELS TROWELS

PANS & PANS BL ADES BLADES

CONCRETE & MORTAR MIXERS EELECTRIC LECTRIC A ND G AS AND GAS P OWERED VIBRATORS VIBRATOR POWERED SCREEDS TTRUSS RUSS SC REEDS

SCREE ED PAVERS

P OWER POWER S PRAYERS SPRAYERS

CONCRETE S A AW SAW

PORTABLE SCREEDS

HAND TOOLS ROLLER SCREEDS

RIDGES

FOCUSED INNOVATION, CONCRETE REPUTATION. www.alleneng.com AllenEngineering

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Education Matters Considering the family’s experience in concrete, it was natural when the Allens founded the Allen Concrete College (ACC) in Paragould in 1995.

“Our salesman Harry Horn and I were always talking about how we could educate the people who buy our products,” said Dewayne. “You must teach them how to do it right. So we started having demos here, in the spring and in the fall. After we did it a couple times, we decided to call it the Concrete College and we still continue to do this.”

The ACC combines a classroom seminar and hands-on training in concrete placing and finishing techniques to produce high FNumber floors. Attendees learn how to increase the flatness and levelness of floors, the basics of concrete flooring mix design, and the F-Number System. The company currently brings in between 30 to 40 people each college.

“The participants do the work,” said Jay. “We just set it up for them and say ‘go for it,’ while our sales team does the training. It has been very successful. As a matter of fact, I would attribute ACC as a key driver of customer loyalty that we have among concrete contractors.”

“I think it helps for Concrete College to be here in Northeast Arkansas, not in Atlanta, or Chicago or some other large city.

Attendees come here and they see our facility and take a factory tour and we all become more connected,” Mary Ann added.

Final whole goods ready for shipping in the warehousing area.

A Day at the Races Allen Engineering also had a brief sponsorship with NASCAR. “We had a connection with an employee who had a brother-inlaw that was very connected with NASCAR, and driver, Randy LaJoie,” said Dewayne. “We met Randy, and became a sponsor for his Busch Series car in the mid 1990s, when he was running strong. In those days, you registered at the Busch trailer and

The machine assembly area of the manufacturing facility.

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From our family to yours, congratulations on

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Allen Engineering on

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Jeff Morris welds a screed bearing support.

Doing some welding prep is Brad Nelson.

could go wherever you wanted around the track or in the pits and even see what the big boys, the Winston Cup drivers, were doing. They, of course, have changed all the rules now. But back then, we were in NASCAR at a great time. When the drivers were running hot laps [qualifying], we could sit on the wall right next to where they drive in and out on pit road.”

Josh Price performs final testing and adjustments on a newly assembled riding trowel.

Jason McCord completes a bearing shaft for a riding trowel in the machine shop.

Looking Toward the Future Allen Engineering sees that business is coming back and with that comes growth potential. As a result, the company has in place an aggressive five-year plan on growth expectations.

“We have something called a 50-in-5 plan,” said Jay. “It’s kind of a crazy dream, I cast a vision that we would like to be a $50 million revenue company in the next five to seven years. So that’s essentially doubling our revenue. We want to grow both revenues and profits.”

In the fabrication shop, laser operator Chris Reynolds positions half an inch of steel in preparation for cutting track buggy parts with a 2,000 watt laser cutter.

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Utilizing state-of-the-art equipment, C&C operator Steven Higgins works on flange caps for small gear boxes.

Anthony Scoggin machines parts for the Allen riding trowel products.

With changes continuing in the industry (especially in the equipment rental industry), Allen Engineering sees opportunities for its business to expand its product offerings.

“We have a great brand, a great reputation, and a great loyal following and we’re trying to parlay that,” said Jay. In looking toward the future for personnel and staffing, Allen Engineering has a Leadership Training Program.

“This is where we bring in recent college graduates, put them through a 12-month program — six months working in the factory actually putting product together, and then six months in sales and marketing learning our customers, our processes, our products, and how we go to market. After that, they get placed wherever we have a leadership opportunity for them or a need,” said Jay. Dewayne believes that to move forward, it’s all about making

Doing a chemical wash prior to paintwork is Michael Singleton.

Final engine assembly on a Kubota engine in an Allen 844 roller screed is being done by Billy White (L) and Michael Jameson.

Cody Stephens powder coats a riding trowel frame in the paint booth.

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“We want to be on the front-end of technology,” he said. “It’s like running a race, if you stay up front, you don’t get wrecked.

We have the people in place to help with the engineering of the future. Our people probably have more experience in this business than anyone out there,” he said.

The company has vastly grown its product lines over the years.

“For the first 20 years in business, all of the products we developed were related to concrete. In the past four years or so, we’ve gotten into material handling, compaction and towable mixers, which are still close to the concrete side of the business. You’ve got to keep growing … you can’t just stand still and you have to grow with new products. Jay is doing a good job of getting us in other areas that we had not previously been in,” said Dewayne.

Financial challenges have occasionally kept the Allens up at night, but they’ve weathered the storms and have positioned themselves as a rock solid company that continues to receive frequent inquiries from investors ready to buy their company, according to the Allens. Dewayne has declined all offers.

“If I couldn’t come here anymore, I wouldn’t know what I would do. I’ve been coming to our site in Paragould here since 1968,” said Mary Ann. CEG

bigger machines and moving into highway paving and bridge deck equipment.

“We now have the Allen Laser Striker, a machine that is going increase sales once we get it into full production,” he said.

“There’s still a lot of need out there for people to understand how to build quality concrete floors. When we started out in this business, you had a straight edge and if you could slide a dime underneath it, in the gap, if it was close, it was OK. But the advent of F numbers for flatness and levelness, which were established in the 1990s, changed the whole industry. So we need to keep going down the path of how we can make things better and how do we do it more cost effectively. There’s still a tremendous amount of work to be done.”

And there’s still a lot Dewayne wants to do, even after 50 years in the business. “I am retired, but I’m not. I love to do this more than sitting at home twittling my fingers. Essentially, the business is my life. After you’ve been at it this long, I can’t just flip a switch and walk away,” he said.

Dewayne doesn’t travel as extensively as he used to, but he still attends all the trade shows and still continues to call on some of his customers with various specialty needs. He continues to work with his engineers on designing new equipment.

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Dewayne Hitchhikes, Changes Course of Own History

By Dave Bakke

Springfield Junior College. After that first year, Dewayne’s grades were so good Mac sent him to the University of Illinois. Mac paid for books and tuition. Dewayne got a job in Champaign, and Mac kept him on at the company as well.

Five years went by. On Feb. 12, 1962, Dewayne graduated from the U. of I. with a degree in civil engineering. Two years later, he started his own company.

“I eventually told him,” says Mac, “Maybe I sent you to college, but now you can teach me.”

Today, there is a pretty good-sized company in Paragould, Ark., with Dewayne’s name on it. Allen Engineering Corp. produces and sells equipment for use in the concrete industry.

After coming to Springfield back in 1957, Dewayne met and married Mary Ann Brass, a girl from Petersburg. They are still together today. They named their first-born son Jay MacDonald Allen after you-know-who. Jay is president of the company his father started.

The right guy pulled over that night in Missouri. Dewayne Allen knows it quite well, even 53 years later.

“It’s quite a story isn’t it?” he says by phone from his company in Arkansas. “Mac and I talk at least one a month, if not every other week. He’s my number-one mentor, number-one friend, and we’ve been that way since we got acquainted. He’s like a father figure to me.”

Mac is 85 years old and still lives in Springfield. He retired from the construction business a long time ago. Mac’s wife, Maxine, died a couple of years ago. He has a son in Florida, a daughter in Australia, and of course, Dewayne in Arkansas.

People would be crazy to pick up a hitchhiker these days. Jack Kerouac isn’t out there anymore.

“Back then,” Mac says of that night in Missouri, “you could pick up a hitchhiker and not have to worry.”

Think of the ripples from that night back in ’57. A marriage resulted when Dewayne came here and met Mary Ann. Their children and grandchildren came of it. A business was created that employs a bunch of people who don’t even know the backstory. A life-long friendship resulted. Even more, I’m sure, came of that Buick pulling over to pick up that hitchhiker.

Mac says there was just something about Dewayne’s posture and the way he put his suitcase into the back seat nice and easy, even the way he shut the door of the car. All of those things and the boy’s subsequent conversation, even how clean Dewayne’s parents’ home was when they arrived in Piggott in the middle of the night — it all triggered something.

“He was just raw material,” says Mac. “Nobody knew he had the capacity to do what he’s done.”

Well, one person did. MacDonald Pine.

This article was reprinted with permission from The State Journal Register.

STATE JOURNAL REGISTER

It was near midnight, spring 1957, Missouri bootheel. A young man stood alongside the highway hitching a ride. He was trying to get to Piggott, Ark., and home.

A big two-door Buick Roadmaster slowed down. Inside were three big men.

“I was a little concerned,” says J. Dewayne Allen, who was the hitchhiker that night.

He needn’t have been nervous. How many lives were changed for the better because that particular car was there and the young man got in? Hard to say, but we’ll take a shot at it later.

MacDonald Pine was at the wheel that night. He said he would take Dewayne as far as Kennett, Mo. Pine had a highway construction business here in Springfield. He and his crew were working a job on Missouri Highway 25 near Kennett. Mac dropped his workers off at a motel, then asked Dewayne were he was bound. He had never heard of Piggott, but it was only about 20 miles farther, so he took Dewayne all the way home.

They talked. Mac recalls that there was just something about Dewayne.

“He wasn’t a door slammer,” said Mac. “He was a meticulous man.”

Mac remembers Dewayne as valedictorian of his high school class in Piggott. Dewayne said no, he was ranked third or fourth in his class. Either way, he did well enough in high school to go farther.

Mac eventually got around to asking Dewayne about his plans now that he had graduated. Dewayne said he had just lost out on a job at Caterpillar in Joliet and that’s why he was hitching back to Piggott, where he worked at a dry cleaners. He was going home to figure out where to try next.

“Do you want to go to college?” Mac asked him. Sure, Dewayne said, but his family couldn’t afford it. His dad drove a truck for Tyson Chicken to the tune of about $63 a week. No college. The Air Force, maybe.

“No, you didn’t understand,” Mac said. “Do. You. Want. To. Go. To. College?”

Dewayne said he did but “Be in Springfield on Monday,” Mac told him.

Mac’s company shared an office with McCann and Co. on Catalina Lane north of the Illinois State Fairgrounds. When Mac drove up on Monday morning, Dewayne was already there, leaning against the fence. He had $2.37 left to his name, but he had made it here from Piggott. Mac was impressed.

“I said,” Mac said “I think I picked a good one.”

He hired Dewayne to work at his construction company office.

More importantly, he paid for Dewayne to attend what was then 26

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216 West Emerson

Paragould, AR

870 - 236 - 8744

Congratulations to Allen Engineering on 50 Years in Business!

ULATIONSEARS! CONGRATIN G ON 50 Y

EER ALLEN ENGIN

MCKEAN FLUID-AIR SYSTEMS is a mobile hydraulics supplier for the Mid-South. We have been in business for 15 years and are located in Memphis, TN and cover the tri-state areas of Eastern Arkansas, Western Tennessee and Northern Mississippi. As a stocking distributor, our inventory of hydraulics and pneumatics meets the needs of our customers. Power units and systems are designed and custom built in-house.

1909 Thomas Road • Memphis, TN 38134 (901) 384-8286 www.mckeanfluidair.com 27

Allen and Grace Industries: Building Bridges Together Why purchase bridge building equipment? This question was go to contract in 2009, and a staggering figure, close to $3 billion crucial to the owners of Grace Industries of Bath, Pa., in early 2009 — the most highway and bridge work ever produced in a single when the company chose Allen Engineering as the supplier for its year —revealed further need for the services offered by Grace.

Having rented bridge deck finishing machines for years, the bridge deck finisher.

Opened in 1982 by Ron Check Jr. and his brother Todd — both Checks naturally considered the two companies that they had rentcivil engineers with no desire to be stuck in an office — along with ed from as possible suppliers for purchasing a machine. Also under their father Ron Sr., Grace Industries hit the ground running with consideration was Allen Engineering Corporation. Grace contacted Allen through its local dealer contracts for parking lots, landscaping Advanced Concrete Technologies of and small pipe projects. Steady growth Lancaster, Pa. While comparing comwas experienced as the company panies, an unexpected attitude surexpanded its project list, and by 1995 faced...

Grace was completing all of its own “As we evaluated these three manuexcavating, demolition, concrete curbfacturers, the two that we were familiar ing, sidewalks, retaining walls, bitumiwith took the approach of ‘here are our nous paving, underground utilities and machines, they are what they are, we landscaping. are the big boys and therefore our By that time, single span bridge machines must be better,’” said Ron. building was also an integral part of its “However, Allen took a different business, but it was all subcontracted out, leaving it at the mercy of some- Answering the current heightened need in approach. Their sales people sat down bridge work, Grace is confident that the com- with us and asked us what we wanted one else’s timetable.

The decision to tackle bridge build- pany’s dedication to the industry and its high out of a bridge deck finisher and what workmanship standards added to the quality our needs were. When we looked at the ing in-house was a natural progression and performance of the Allen Model 4836B. quality of all the machines, we in the business. Ron said, “The noticed how Allen paid attention to transition from doing small projsmall details not found on the other ects and single span bridges to machines. Even with that, what put doing full bridge construction us over the top was when the owner was… quite easy.” of Allen insisted on a conference Since Grace Industries already call with us and the Allen sales staff. built roadways, bridges, box culHe wanted to hear what we were verts, concrete structures and sport looking for and how his company stadiums as well as installing both could better provide it for us. As a artificial and natural grass surfaces, small business, that is the level of all of which were handled inattention we wanted. We wanted to house, adding the bridge building also would alleviate the schedul- Grace Industries took delivery of its Allen Model know when we needed something ing issues, allowing the company 4836B bridge deck finisher in mid 2009 and is or needed support it was going to be there. The other thing that was to be more competitive in the mar- pleased with the decision. unique to Allen was the knowlket place.

Decision made, and having been around this type of work for edgeable sales staff both locally and at Allen’s headquarters. They years, Ron and Todd paid close attention to their sub-contractors’ knew what they were talking about, understood the machine and its work and work practices, identifying excellence in suppliers and capabilities, and were able to answer our questions,” he continued.

Grace Industries took delivery of its Allen Model 4836B bridge personnel whose resources would ease the transition.

Enter Aug. 1, 2007, and the heart-wrenching tragedy in deck finisher in mid 2009 and since has been pleased with the deciMinnesota of the collapsed bridge on I-35, shedding light on the sion. Answering the current heightened need in bridge work, Grace poor condition of many bridges. Factor in the subsequent legisla- is confident that the company’s dedication to the industry and its tion in the form of ACT 44, which provided enough funding to high workmanship standards added to the quality and performance expedite critical highway and bridge projects across the of the Allen Model 4836B, coupled with the support system in Commonwealth of PA. Add the 2009 disclosures by Penndot place at Allen Engineering will provide its clients with excellence.

(Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) of $1,026 billion in Further, Grace Industries would proudly recommend the Allen projects funded by the ARRA (American Recovery & bridge deck finishers to any contractor in the bridge building busiReinvestment Act) and a list of $1.8 billion in projects scheduled to ness, according to Grace.

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Congratulations on Your First 50 Years...

Congratulations on 50 years!

...We Appreciate Being A Part of Your History!

DALE E. COY Certified Public Accountant

218 West Court P.O. Box 428 Paragould, Arkansas 72451 (870) 239-4086

4360 N. Greenbay Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53209 (414) 267-4000 Noram-clutch.com

2106 East Matthews P.O. Box 22 Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401 (870) 935-9867

decoycpa@grnco.net

We would like to congratulate

Allen Engineering on their 50 years in business.

This is a great accomplishment.

Since 1978

NORTHEAST ELECTRONICS INC. Your Technology Group, Commercial, Video Surveillance, Security/Fire Alarm System, Access Control, Fiber, Telephone/ Voice Mail System, Paging/Intercom Northeast Electronics (870) 236-3778 2704 N. 12th Ave. Paragould, AR 72450

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