Midwest 16, 2010

Page 1

$3.00

Published Nationally

®

Midwest Edition

August 7 2010

Vol. XVII • No. 16

“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded 1957.” 470 Maryland Drive • Ft. Washington, PA 19034 • 215/885-2900 • Toll Free 800-523-2200 • Fax 215/885-2910 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com

Inside

R.G. Smith Equipment Holds Demo Day...10

RMS, O’Reilly Team Up for Tough Job...12

Sales Up for Wilson Auction Event...86

Table of Contents ..............4 Backhoes and Attachments Section ........................31-45 Parts Section....................52 Paving Section ............55-67 Auction Section ..........86-95 Business Calendar............87 Advertisers Index ............94

FABCO Equipment Founder Full Impact of Joseph G. Fabick, Dies Gulf Oil Spill

Still Uncertain

Joseph G. Fabick died at his home in Elm Grove, Wis. on July 22, 2010, at the age of 82. Born Oct. 9, 1927, Mr. Fabick was the founder of FABCO Equipment Inc., the Caterpillar dealer for Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. He served as president and chief executive officer of the company from its inception in 1982 until his retirement in 2002 when principal ownership of the business was acquired by his son Jeré C. Fabick. Mr. Fabick was an accomplished businessman who achieved many things in his life but first and foremost, he was a kind and thoughtful person who loved his family and cared about the well being of his friends, employees and anyone he could help. He was a man of strong character who ran his business dealings by an ethical code and surrounded himself with people who shared similar values. A native of Missouri, Mr. Fabick grew up on and around Caterpillar machines. His father was a tractor dealer in St. Louis and the company later evolved to become among the first Caterpillar dealerships in the world when the Caterpillar Tractor Company began operation in 1925. As a teenager, Mr. Fabick spent summers as a dozer and scraper operator and upon graduating from Campion Preparatory High School in Prairie du Chien, Wis., he joined the family dealership full-time. Years later while working full-time and raissee FABICK page 30

By Giles Lambertson CEG CORRESPONDENT

The blowout of the Deepwater Horizon oil well in April has been a slow-motion disaster for Gulf states, with the agony measured in economic uncertainty as well as in real-and-present environmental injury. Construction contractors are among the residents of states bordering the Gulf of Mexico who are still assimilating what it all means. There is not yet general agreement whether the spill will end up hurting the industry a little, a lot, or not at all. In truth, the immediate impact on builders is mostly positive. That’s because manmade and natural disasters always spur clean-up activity, which nearly always means building industry job creation in the short term. After Hurricane Katrina smashed Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, debris removal and then reconstruction of vast stretches of those states were a tremendous boon to contractors. One of the differences between that catastrophe and this one is that most of the oil spillage is affecting Gulf waters and coastal areas. While some sand berm-building and coastal dredging work suddenly has been needed, the bulk of the manpower see SPILL page 84

Joseph G. Fabick

Stimulus Transportation Investments a Bright Spot The highway investments in the stimulus law have been a bright spot for a transportation construction industry hard hit by recessioninduced cutbacks in state programs and decline in private sector work. But continued uncertainty about passage of a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill is hindering chances for a sustained

economic recovery. That was the thrust of the message delivered by Kevin Gannon, vice president of Appleton, Wis.based Northeast Asphalt Inc., at a July 27 House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee hearing on implementation of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Gannon, a director on the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) board, told the committee that recovery act-funded projects his company is working on have not wholly offset the 50 percent drop in private sector work in recent years. He said, however, that ARRA projects have allowed them to hang on

to the firm’s existing workforce. Gannon noted that as of July 16, more than 11,000 highway and bridge projects under the recovery act had moved to the construction stage and more than 3,000 were now finished, worth a total of $23 billion. “This is $23 billion that is genersee ARTBA page 78


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Midwest 16, 2010 by Construction Equipment Guide - Issuu