Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction January 2024

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF PAVE/X

MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION JANUARY 2024

CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR:

For more than 30 years, Eosso Brothers has pushed the envelope in quality, culture, and customer service

SWEEPER OF THE YEAR Cantel Sweeping Stays the Course to › › › www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

January 2024 | Issue 1, Volume 37

WHAT’S INSIDE:

ON THE COVER For over 30 years Eosso Brothers has been a pioneer in the industry, and our COY 2024!

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Editor’s Perspective Getting to know the winners.

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Hot Mix Pavement News Recent news, moves and events impacting the industry.

10 The Product Lane New and hot products.

FEATURES 12 Contractor of the Year Eosso Brothers has kept relationships and quality top of mind while they continued to grow and innovate within their business.

18 Sweeper of the Year Cantel believes in the mantra of, “stay in your lane,” and it has paid off for them for three decades. As

the winner of the 2024 Sweeper of the Year award, they see the pathway forward as the same that lead them here.

22 Alan Curtist Industry Service / Hall of Fame Allan Heydorn joins the Pavement Hall of Fame after 30 years of helping drive industry advancement for paving and pavement maintenance contractors.

28 Seal & Stripe Small Job JJ Premium Sealers was born from a love for blacktop.

30 Seal & Stripe Large Job South Eastern Commercial Property Services Inc. tackled a secretive project for the National Security Agency (NSA), where they weren’t even allowed to bring their phones. They went above and beyond!

34 Paving: Non-Parking Lot Howard Companies shows the importance of paving the way to strong client relationships as the company explains its experience with the city of Carmel.

36 Paving: Parking Lot Royal Pavement Solutions relies on longtime employees, attention to detail to complete out-of-state project ahead of schedule.

38 Best Marketing Video Piedmont Paving Inc started recording and publishing videos without knowing exactly what they were doing. Now? It’s a key part of how they engage with customers.

42 Good Neighbor Illinois-based pavement business reaches out to help neighborhood nonprofit.

You can read the full articles for all of the Pavement Award winners at https://pavemg.com/awards www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement | January 2024 | PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION

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WHAT’S ONLINE Paving Big Philly Style | No Edge Lines Season 1 Episode 3 Brandon heads to the “City of Brotherly Love” and tries his hand at a number of new asphalt and pavement maintenance jobs for the first time, while also getting the chance to see some of what makes Philadelphia great.

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/wrqg25ze

Applications Open for Pavement Maintenance Top Contractor Awards 2024 Every year we publish a list of the top contractors in the pavement maintenance industry in the field of paving, striping, sealcoating, and pavement repair. Submit your application today for this major recognition!

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/hua7mojl

Hops & Highways: PAVE/X + Blacktop Banter Kickoff Party Details Marvin Joles with Blacktop Banter and Wis-Coat Asphalt Maintenance joins us this week to talk about PAVE/X, the importance of networking and the exciting Blacktop Banter + PAVE/X kickoff party in San Antonio

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/j01eiodx

ADVISORY BOARD Vol. 37, No. 1 January 2024

PAVEMENT

Published and copyrighted 2024 by IRONMARKETS. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Subscription policy: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. only to pavement maintenance contractors, producers and government employees involved in paving or pavement maintenance; dealers, and distributors of pavement maintenance equipment or materials; and others with similar business activities. Complete the subscription form at www.forconstructionpros.com or use your company letterhead giving all the information requested. Publisher reserves the right to reject nonqualified subscribers. One year subscriptions for nonqualified individuals: $35.00 U.S.A., $60.00 Canada and Mexico, and $85.00 all other countries (payable in U.S. funds, drawn on U.S. bank). Single copies available (prepaid only) $10.00 each (U.S., Canada & Mexico), $15.00 each (International). Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction (ISSN 1098-5875), is published eight times per year: January, February, March, April/May, June/July, August/September, October/ November, December by IRONMARKETS, 201 N. Main St. Ste 350, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI and additional entry offices.

POSTMASTER: Please send change of address to Pavement Pavement, PO Box 3605, Northbrook, IL 60065-3605.

Printed in the USA. PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION is proudly supported by these associations:

Agua Trucks Inc .................................................................... Wickenburg, AZ, Scott Duscher Asphalt Contractors Inc., Union Grove, WI ............................................... Robert Kordus Asphalt Restoration Technology Systems, Orlando, FL ........................ Connie Lorenz Brahney Paving, Hillsborough, NJ .............................................................. Steven Brahney Eosso Brothers Paving; Hazlet, NJ ...................................................................... Tom Eosso Maul Paving/Concrete/Sealcoating, PLainfield, IL ........................................ Chris Maul Parking Lot Maintenance, Lake St. Louis, MO .......................................... Todd Bruening Petra Paving, Hampstead, NH ...................................................................... Chris Tammany Pioneer Paving, Albuquerque, NM................................................................... Don Rooney Roberts Traffic, Hollywood, FL ....................................................................... Lisa Birchfield Show Striping Inc. (SSI), Wisconsin Dells, WI ...................................... Amber Showalter

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T&N Asphalt Services, Salt Lake City, UT ........................................................ Nick Howell Young Sealcoating Inc, Lynchburg, VA .............................................................Steve Young The Paving Lady............................................................................................... Mauro Comuzzi JMP Excelsior Services ............................................................................... Jim Panzenhagen Sweeping Industry Veteran ..................................................................................Gabe Vitale Flat Nickel Management .................................................................................. Michael Nawa Wis-Coat Asphalt Maintenance .......................................................................Marvin Joles Clear Choice Sealing ......................................................................................Warren Johnson Jacketta Sweeping Services .........................................................................Debbie Jacketta Royal Pavement Solutions ............................................................................. Kenneth Roy III ASSOCIATION REPRESENTATIVES: Pavement Coatings Technology Council ....................... Brian Riggs, Executive Director

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PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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STOP More than high-quality sealers.

We’re your go-to source for it all!

GemSeal has conveniently located One Stop Shops that carry all of our pavement preservation products along with signs, stencils, tools, safety items, apparel, equipment, and parts.

• Over 700 industry-specific products

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• A trusted name for over 60 years

• Leasing and rental options gemsealproducts.com • 866-264-8273 Superior Products & Equipment for more than 60 Years Pavement is Our Passion!®

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EDITORIAL

PAVEMENT EDITORIAL Editor ............................................................................. Brandon Noel bnoel@iron.markets

Contributing Editor .............................................Jessica Lombardo jlombardo@iron.markets

Managing Editor ............................................................... Gigi Wood gwood@iron.markets

Senior Editor, Construction Technology, IRONPROS .................................. Charles Rathmann crathmann@iron.markets

PAVE/X is Here at Last The inaugural Pavement Experience is kicking off this month, and the asphalt world will never be the same.

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Senior Editor, Equipment & Workwear, IRONPROS .......................................... Michael Cheng mcheng@iron.markets

Junior Editor .............................................................. Merina Shriver mshriver@iron.markets

AUDIENCE Audience Development Manager ........................ Angela Franks PRODUCTION Senior Production Manger ........................................ Cindy Rusch

t’s all been building up to this! PAVE/X is the premier trade show for the pavement maintenance professional, and we’ve been doing everything we can to hype it up. When it comes to top-tier education, we’ve got it. Not just the basics, or the 101 level courses, but educational sessions in advanced techniques in striping, milling, paving, sealcoating, sweeping and patching. These are the places where you and your crew can really level-up your skills, talking to experts who have decades of experience in the field and on the jobsite. However, this show Brandon Noel, isn’t just about sitting in classes, because there will be so much more!

Editor PAVE/X is bringing back the LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS! bNoel@iron.markets 234-600-8983 Having the head knowledge is invaluable, but think of how much more powerful it is to take that and pair it outside the convention center with expert demonstrations on some of the very machines you’ll see on the show floor. What everyone really wants is to watch these machines in action, and this is the best way, so be sure to visit the PAVEXSHOW.COM website to see the schedule of demonstrations. You won’t want to miss out on a single one of these events.

Of course, the show room floor, which is SOLD OUT, will be absolutely jam packed, wallto-wall with the best and newest machinery for asphalt pavement contractors.

The Pavement Awards While the issue contains the story of our 2024 winners and the jobs that lifted them to the top of the pack, there will be a special award ceremony in-person at PAVE/X, where the winning companies will be presented with their physical awards. It will be my second award ceremony, and based on my experience last year in 2022, I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a special time when you witness a company’s owners and workers being publicly recognized amongst their peers for their hard work and dedication.

Looking into the future, we are considering adding a new award for the 2025 Pavement award season, and we are taking suggestions as to what you’d like to see recognized that we currently aren’t offering. Most recently, the Best Marketing Video was added as a category, and we think there’s room for more. The industry is changing at a fast pace, and we want to keep up.

IGNITE Construction Summit Last month, we conducted the second annual IGNITE Construction Summit at the Sandpearl Resort in Clearwater, Fla. The two and a half day event geared toward business owners and pavement professionals was a massive success, seeing a huge increase in attendance over the first-year event. More coverage will come out of that next month, but make sure that if you are a pavement business founder and/or owner that you work it into your schedule next December. The professional enrichment and inspiration is second to none.

See you on the road. ■

crusch@iron.markets

Art Director ............................................................... April Van Etten ADVERTISING/SALES Brand Director ........................................................... Amy Schwandt aschwandt@iron.markets

Brand Manager ..................................................... Megan Perleberg mperleberg@iron.markets

Sales Representative .................................................... Sean Dunphy sdunphy@iron.markets

Sales Representative ..................................................... Kris Flitcroft kflitcroft@iron.markets

IRONMARKETS Chief Executive Officer....................................................Ron Spink Chief Financial Officer .......................................... JoAnn Breuchel Chief Revenue Officer ............................................. Amy Schwandt Corporate Director of Sales ................................... Jason DeSarle Brand Director, Construction, OEM & IRONPROS ......................................................Sean Dunphy VP, Audience Development ................................... Ronda Hughes VP, Operations & IT ..................................................... Nick Raether Content Director ....................................................... Marina Mayer Director, Online & Marketing Services ...... Bethany Chambers Director, Demand Generation & Education ............. Jim Bagan Content Director, Marketing Services ...............Jess Lombardo CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS P.O. Box 3605, Northbrook, IL 60065-3605 (877) 201-3915 | Fax: (847)-291-4816 circ.pavement@omeda.com

LIST RENTAL Sr. Account Manager ....................................Bart Piccirillo | Data Axle (518) 339 4511 | bart.piccirillo@infogroup.com

REPRINT SERVICES Brand Manager ..................................................... Megan Perleberg mperleberg@iron.markets | (800) 538-5544 Published and copyrighted 2023 by IRONMARKETS. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

@PAVEMENTMAGAZINE @PAVEMENTMAGAZINE

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@PAVEMENTMAGAZINE @PAVEMENTMAINTENANCE

Published by IRONMARKETS 201 N. Main St. Ste 350, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 (800) 538-5544 • IRON.MARKETS.COM

WWW.FORCONSTRUCTIONPROS.COM/PAVEMENT

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PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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Come See What Peak Productivity Looks Like Find Crafco in Booth 413 at PAVE/X to talk with our team of experts and see our Patcher II and Super Shot 125 melters up close. Plus, watch our Patcher 4 and Super Shot 250 melters in action at the live demos to see how your crews can get more done.

Visit us at

Jan. 30, 2024 - Feb. 1, 2024 San Antonio, Texas www.pavexshow.com

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A roundup of recent news, moves and events impacting the pavement maintenance industry

Bobcat Expands CTL, Skid Steer Manufacturing Footprint With New Factory

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obcat recently revealed that it had selected a new location to build a manufacturing facility.

This addition will help Bobcat expand its reach and provide more jobs.

Bobcat intends to build a new manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico, anticipated to begin production in early 2026.

The investment, planned for approximately $300 million, will create additional production capacity and manufacturing capabilities for select compact track and skid-steer loader models. The new facility is expected to create an additional 600-800 jobs in the region.

“As a global company with manufacturing facilities, offices, dealerships, and customers across the globe, we have seen tremendous growth and increased demand for our products,” said Scott Park, Doosan Bobcat CEO and vice chairman. “We are excited to continue growing our footprint to meet demand for Bobcat solutions worldwide.”

The 700,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility is expected to increase Bobcat’s North American compact loader production capacity by 20%. The facility will feature areas for welding, painting, and assembly, as well as an on-site warehouse and office space.

Bobcat will implement state-of-the-art technology with an emphasis on quality, precision, and energy efficiency.

The Monterrey location will manufacture Bobcat M-Series compact loaders for North American distribution.

This strategic manufacturing capacity alignment will allow Bobcat to focus its R-Series compact loader production at its Gwinner, N.D. facility, and its Dobris, Czech Republic facility will continue to manufacture M-Series loaders for overseas regions.

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For more information visit https://pavemg.com/hotmix

NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL NAMES CALLAHAN CHAIRMAN AT CAMPBELL INSTITUTE Recently, the National Safety Council (NSC) revealed the new chair of the Campbell Institute, Brian Callahan. Callahan has years of experience serving on different boards and committees and is expected to make an impact as chair of Campbell Institute.

NSC founded the Campbell Institute in 2012 to help organizations of all sizes and sectors research, discuss, share, and implement practical safety solutions in their workplaces and communities. As the Institute’s chairman, Callahan will be responsible for guiding the organization’s strategic direction and partnerships across a global network of business leaders and professionals in government, nonprofit, education, and labor.

“Today’s business leaders know safety excellence and financial success go hand-inhand, but many may face uncertainty in deciding how to advance their organization’s unique safety journey,” said Lorraine Martin, NSC president and CEO. “Brian has been a vocal proponent of helping firms promote both physical and psychological safety in the workplace, and is the ideal leader to amplify the Institute’s ongoing work to create safer workplaces for all.”

Prior to serving in his current role as president and chief operating officer, Callahan served in a variety of business development and management roles throughout his nearly 20-year tenure with ISN. Earlier in his career, he worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and Koch Industries. He also served as an officer in the United States Army. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Oklahoma State University.

VOLVO GROUP, CRH COLLABORATE ON NET ZERO Volvo Group recently announced a partnership with building materials supplier CRH. This partnership will allow the groups to produce more reduced emissions vehicles and get them closer to net-zero emissions.

Leaders from Volvo Group and CRH met in Eskilstuna, Sweden in November to sign an agreement to collaborate to accelerate the transition to net zero. Volvo Group’s target is to have 35% fully electric sales by 2030 and be net zero in its value chain by 2040. CRH is targeting a 30% reduction in group-wide emissions by 2030 and to become a net-zero business by 2050. CRH has operations in 29 countries and has been a long-standing key customer of many Volvo Group companies.

Melker Jernberg, president of Volvo CE, who will lead Volvo Group’s off-road partnership team, commented, “Partnerships are key to accelerating decarbonization and our collaboration with building materials solutions leader CRH will help both companies to achieve their net-zero ambitions.”

From the extraction and processing of raw materials, to transport across the supply chain, to the point of use in construction, there are many types of equipment and vehicles in use across CRH, and many opportunities to drive down emissions.

CRH, through its Innovation Centre for Sustainable Construction, will provide its expertise to identify opportunities to maximize the value of sustainable innovation.

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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Get fast, relevant product information in the Buyers Guide at ForConstructionPros.com

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Ditch Witch SK1750 Ditch Witch

The Ditch Witch SK1750 skid steer is built with the power and reliability to complete various tasks on construction sites. This machine is equipped with a patent-pending track system that provides stable rides and versatility on rugged terrain.

Designed to handle a range of landscape, irrigation and tree-care projects, the new track system features a tension check window, which allows operators to visually check track tension without threading a separate gauge tool. The track design provides a smooth ride with maneuverability and stability, while transporting heavy loads across rough terrain.

The roller design adds to the lifespan of the machine.

Yanmar Next-gen ViO80-7 and SV1007 Mini Excavators Yanmar CE NA

Yanmar’s ViO80-7 and SV100-7 have updates to hydraulics, cab design and maintenance. The 18,122-lb. ViO80-7 features 18% more power over its predecessor with its new 67-hp Yanmar Tier 4 Final diesel engine. The 21,385-lb. SV100-7 includes a powerful 72-hp Yanmar Tier 4 Final diesel engine. Both machines provide operators with attachment performance with 20% more PTO flow rate. The ViO80-7 achieves a maximum dig depth of 14 ft., 3 in. while the SV100-7 can reach 14 ft., 11 in.

Trackunit Emissions Reporting Software Trackunit

Trackunit has launched its new Emissions Reporting software which will support fleet owners’ ability to meet CO2 targets and acquire contracts with sustainability criteria. Emissions Reporting harnesses synthesized machine metadata and individual equipment profiling to unlock fleet emissions reporting for off-highway machines and equipment. The new software will minimize ‘guesstimating’ emissions numbers. Governmentor state-mandated projects now typically require a raft of emissions-reporting stipulations.

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DICA Ground Protection Products DICA

DICA is set to showcase ground protection solutions for landscapers, hardscapers and contractors. The family-owned and operated company will feature SlatTrax, a Ground Protection Roadway, in addition to AlturnaMATS and VersaMATS Ground Protection Mats. SlatTrax is a linear roadway system that provides vehicle access to worksites while protecting the ground. Made of recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE), the plastic temporary roadway can support most residential construction, landscaping and tree care equipment. SlatTrax hydraulically powered systems are loaded with 100 ft. of Trax and can be reloaded with additional DIY or Rolled Trax sections to extend service roadways.

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Cat 304 Mini Excavator

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Road Widener Curb Backfiller

Caterpillar

The new TRS4 and TRS8 S45 plus updated TRS6 models allow attached work tools to rotate 360° and tilt 40° side-to-side. This enables the machine to reach more work areas from a single position, while maneuvering tools over, under and around obstructions when excavating, grading ditches, sorting recycle materials or placing pipe. The new TRS models multiply the mini excavator’s versatility and are available in various configurations to match the application. System design includes a top interface that connects the TRS to the carrier machine and a bottom interface that connects various work tools to the TRS. Models are standardized with an auxiliary TRSAux1 hydraulic function at the bottom.

Road Widener

The accessory extends to the left or right of the FH-R and dispenses material over the curb to backfill with dirt or aggregate. Paired with the FH-R, the Curb Backfiller supports safety by replacing a backfilling method typically done manually by workers with shovels. Crew members can operate it with the original FH-R remote, reducing the number of needed laborers to just one. The Curb Backfiller attaches to the FH-R and can fill on the righthand side by default, or the left, with dual configuration.

It provides a clean process by backfilling curbs and keeping debris off the roadway.

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PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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RAISING THE STANDARD Since its introduction, the Weiler P385 has set the standard for commercial pavers.

The P385C raises that standard.

Increase to 120 hp with the Cat® C3.6 Tier 4F/Stage V engine.

Variable speed and reversible conveyors and augers and a 25% increase in tunnel height provide optimal material output.

Modular conveyor drive and sealed chain case increase feeder system reliability and life.

Enhanced heat system performance with direct-drive hydraulic generator and elimination of GFCI breakers.

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CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR | By Jessica Lombardo, Contributing Editor

Integrity Fosters Success at

EOSSO BROTHERS

The Pavement 2024 Contractor of the Year winner has kept relationships and quality top of mind while continuing to grow and innovate their business for the past 30 years.

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rowing up, Tom Eosso and his brothers watched their dad own and operate an excavating business. They knew early on that finding a career in construction was a path they were going to follow based on his lead.

By the age of 12, their father Tony Eosso had taught Tom and Gary how to operate heavy equipment. Practicing every day after school was a skill that would serve them well. Tom entered the military after high school and became a heavy equipment operator. Eosso served for eight years, learning a lot about construction — but even more about leadership — he knew he was ready to start his own business.

“My brother Gary and I didn’t have any money but we knew the industry and we knew people and we took $2,500 that Gary had saved to buy our first truck and on Thanksgiving in 1992 we decided to officially start Eosso

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Brothers Paving,” Eosso said.

Through Tom’s connections, the company landed a large $50,000 project for a condo development and the manager paid them up front the money they needed to really get started.

“The manager named Daisy believed in us and she trusted we would do a good job,” Eosso said. “She gave us a copy of the Community Association

Congratulations to the 2024 Contractor of the Year winners: Eosso Brothers Paving.

Institute handbook and told us to make a brochure with this information and send it out to the local communities with our contact information on it. We did as she said and we blew up from there.”

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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The Eosso Brothers team built a solid business foundation with their community association and condo work right out of the gate, due to their attention to detail, clear communication and foundation for building lasting relationships. Today, the company maintains a strong business paving these housing associations in their community 32 years later, including properties still run by Daisy.

QUALITY FIRST, QUALITY ALWAYS Those first jobs completed by Eosso Brothers started them off on the right foot, but their commitment to their customers is what has continued their success.

“We always try to make our customers look good,” Eosso said. “That’s something Daisy asked us to do and it’s something we believe. We maintain that trust and integrity with our customers by doing that and we still have a lot of those same clients 30 years later.”

Once a job is completed by the company, they don’t consider their work done. They immediately create a pavement management plan for their customers, which includes a program for maintenance. They seal it two years after paving and then again three to

four years later. The plan is revisited with the property owners as needed to help them get the most out of their investment, extend the life of the pavement and solidify their relationships.

A few years after the company was founded, Tom and Gary’s youngest brother, Anthony, joined the company along with their sister, Kim, and from 1992 to 2004, the company achieved strong and steady growth. They adopted technology for their teams to help them complete their jobs more efficiently and added additional services like milling to better serve their customers.

In 2007, Eosso noticed his growth

was stalled. They were steadily making over $4 million a year, but could not break the $5 million mark. He visited companies he was close with and talked to other various business owners about their operations. It was at that time he decided he needed to create dedicated paving and milling crews instead of having one crew do both.

“We were milling one day and paving the next and we found out that wasn’t the most efficient way to get things done,” Eosso said. “As soon as we dedicated

Eosso Brothers Paving has been committed to quality and their customers since 1992.

www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement | January 2024 | PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION

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CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

Once a job is completed by the company, they immediately create a pavement management plan for their customers.

crews to each type of work, we made $9 million the very next year.”

Of course, adding on an additional crew doesn’t just happen overnight and Eosso knew he wanted to keep quality a top priority when doing so.

“Gary went to work, masteringminding the growth pattern with manpower and equipment needs,” Eosso said. “Gary today continues to drive the business with a production and quality mindset.

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“When you add another crew on, it’s not like you just call up 10 new people and start,” Eosso adds. “We do an analysis on how much equipment we need and how much it’s going to cost, and then we need to make sure we have the people who will do the quality of work we want.

“When you have one crew that creates a lot of quality and you start a whole brand new crew, you can go downhill fast if you don’t have good quality standards and standard operating procedures,” Eosso continues.

“But we have strong leadership and we let them lead, help them grow, give them everything they need, and let them win. So that’s what helps make it easy.”

Today, Eosso has 65 employees and 10 crews: two paving crews, two milling crews, three sealcoat crews and one cracksealing crew. The additional paving, milling and sealcoating crews were just added this year and Eosso had to reinvest in his sales team, led by his brother, Anthony, to help them keep up.

“It was really difficult at first to get that much work but we knew we

needed these additional crews to keep up with quality and growth,” he said.

“Approximately five years ago, we invested in HubSpot CRM to help our sales team. At that time, it was also imperative with our rapid growth to hire a CFO to create strong financial reporting to understand our production and profitability.”

Eosso understands putting the right people in the right positions is imperative for growth and success.

INVESTING IN EQUIPMENT & TRAINING TO DO THE WORK Eosso also knows the importance of investing in the latest equipment and technologies to keep his crews competitive.

“After 30 years, we’re still finding ways to innovate and it’s because it’s so competitive out there right now that we have to find ways to do things faster because we’re not sacrificing quality,” Eosso said. “If you don’t think outside the box and stay cutting edge and follow technology, you will get run over.”

The paving equipment at Eosso is equipped with lasers to help achieve Eosso Brothers employs 10 students directly from a vocational school with more in the pipeline.

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

smoothness while, their mills and rollers also feature the latest technology that his crews are given additional training on to be successful.

“We took 10 of our crew members and sent them to Wirtgen’s training school in Nashville and they came back with so much knowledge,” Eosso said.

“We know that it cost us a lot of money to send them there, but we got our value back. Their training changed our whole milling operation. These guys are milling faster. They’re using all the modules on these machines and it was some of the best money we spent.”

Team members have iPads to create estimates and bids on the go and their software has also helped them gain a competitive edge.

“Our software Pavement Soft has all the capabilities we need in one platform,” Eosso said. “We can do job costing, scheduling, make proposals, all with different dashboards, in one place.

We used to have to enter these things in multiple areas causing double work but now with a single entry, you get all your information, and it’s more accurate. So that’s been a big plus.”

The Eosso trucks are also equipped with GPS technology and safety features to help keep crew members secure when doing their jobs.

“I understand the importance of keeping up-to-date with everything

we need to be successful,” Eosso adds.

“Technology is an investment, but it’s one we can’t afford to skip out on if we want to be competitive.”

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION For 18 years, Eosso has been giving back by sharing his knowledge with contractors through educational seminars at national events. He has shared wisdom with them on utilizing technology, infrared, business growth and more.

In 2020, Eosso took his passion for education to the next level and got heavily involved with his local vocational school. At first, Eosso would lend equipment to the school and speak at a few events but he knew the way to get these kids passionate about the industry was to spend time with them and show them the work.

“Now, I go to the school once a month and I actually teach a class and I get to know the students and I sort of guide them to which way they want to go,” Eosso said. “We invite them to intern with us to drive our golf carts so they can see what they do before they even might pick up a shovel.”

Today, Eosso Brothers employs 10 students directly from the vocational school with more in the pipeline.

“My competitors who can’t find workers keep asking me what we’re

doing to fill our positions and I tell them about the school,” he adds. “I welcome them to come and help because it’s important for the industry that everyone gets involved, but in order to do this, they have to stay involved, they have to invest and they have to spend time with these kids. It’s really making a difference in our company and I think it can make a difference for a lot of others too.”

With a firm work ethic instilled in Eosso from a young age, every worker who comes in the door at Eosso Brothers — whether they are one of his 15 family members or not — starts by working the shovel to earn their place and earn their respect within the company.

“Everybody keeps saying that young kids are lazy, they don’t want to work, but that’s not always what we’re seeing,” Eosso said. “There are a lot of kids that might be a little uncertain.

They don’t want to go to college but they feel they have to because they feel that they’re going to be a loser if they don’t go to college. In this world though, blue collar is making far more than white collar and I’m an advocate for that. We want to keep showing kids a path to these careers and fulfilling lives.”

As for the future of Eosso Brothers paving, who are now a NJ division of the national company, Pave America.

They plan to scale and grow with the help and dedication of their people and are committed to maintaining the highest level of service in the paving industry. Congratulations to Pavement Maintenance and Reconstruction Magazine’s 2024 Contractor of the Year: Eosso Brothers Paving. ■

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/eosso

Eosso has 65 employees and 10 crews: two paving crews, two milling crews, three sealcoat crews and one cracksealing crew.

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PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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SWEEPER OF THE YEAR | By Brandon Noel, Editor

Staying The Course Is

THE KEY

S

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S a

Provided by Cantel

Cantel Sweeping believes in the mantra, “stay in your lane,” and it has paid off for three decades. As the winner of the 2024 Sweeper of the Year Award, they see themselves continuing on the same path that lead them here.

T

ime and time again, the story of the pavement maintenance industry is rooted in one core concept more than any other: People want to be able to make a good living, and to experience the freedom that comes from being your own boss.

It’s the true entrepreneurial spirit of America, to start your own business,

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and work for yourself. Thirty years ago, that was what drove Michael Wagoner, the now mostly retired owner of Cantel Sweeping, to leave behind a career in the corporate world in Portland, Ore., and break out on his own.

“At the time I started, we had six trucks and just seven employees,” said Wagoner.

He bought the company from a previous owner, but the growth that followed was 100 percent driven by Wagoner’s vision for what the company should be and how it should operate.

“What I discovered in the first 15-20 years, across the 90s and early 2000s, was that there were an increasing number of sweeping business owners who were reaching the age of retirement,” Wagoner said. “They wanted to retire but didn’t know how. Many thought the only value they had was their truck. What they didn’t appreciate was the value of their customer base. We paid them a fair price

for those customer relationships, so they benefited. Those customers became even more valuable to us because we were able to easily and profitably fold them into our existing routes.”

THE SEEDS OF SUCCESS AT THE START While the company’s current iteration began 30 years ago, one of the company’s most influential decisions was made just one year later. That was the hiring of it’s current general manager Dustin Moist, and he’s been with Cantel ever since. He was just 19 years old when Wagoner brought him on, put him in a sweeper, and set him out to work.

However, that humble start was only the beginning for Moist.

“I’m basically retired,” Wagoner explained. “Dustin runs the company now, better than I ever could. Over the years, he’s developed this Cantel into a truly well-oiled machine.”

M h

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You

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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SWEEPER OF THE YEAR

Michael Wagoner, owner, and his son Travis Wagoner Provided by Cantel

The question is, did Moist ever consider that one day he’d be in the role he is now, when he came on at such an early age?

“Not exactly when I first started, no,” Moist replied. “But, honestly, it wasn’t too long afterward that we actually did talk about it.”

Wagoner saw the potential in Moist to succeed him, that they shared a common understanding and vision for the business.

Their early discussions focused on the goals and benchmarks that they wanted to hit personally and professionally. Even early on, they were able to be honest with each other, and that collaborative partnership was essential to their success.

“Those open conversations made this whole thing work,” said Moist.

“Without those, we never would’ve made it to where we are today.”

“We aren’t related,” Moist chuckled.

“But I think that has been in our favor, because I can disconnect in certain ways. I can see things from a certain perspective, which has been a large facet of our success in working together.”

“I’d agree with that,” Wagoner added. “It gives it a different dynamic,

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one where you can compliment each other in a unique way.”

THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH At the start, Wagoner learned another important lesson, and one that would be a guidepost for its business model to this day. Some might view it as slightly unconventional, but for Cantel it was the right choice.

“When I took over, we had contracts with the largest shopping centers in the Portland area,” Wagoner said. “At first, I was so concerned with losing that single customer, that I put it ahead of everything else.”

Over time, it became clear that devoting the amount of time and energy to this single client was a detriment to the business, as a whole. Things had to change.

“We decided to end things with that customer,” Wagoner said. “It was a hard choice, at the time, but it turned out to be one of the best things for us.

It allowed us to branch out, grow, and expand our customer base in ways we weren’t able to before.”

Where, previously, they had been

operating with too narrow of a focus, now they had the freedom and the flexibility to build something consistent, sustainable, and more profitable.

“We focus on the smaller strip malls, shops and stores, corporate parks; they’re wonderful for us,” Wagoner continued.

“I think a lot of the industry has relied too much on the big box stores, the Walmarts, and the Home Depots, but we aren’t heavily dependent on them.”

That portfolio diversity has turned out to be a singularly smart play, as, across the country, many such stores have slashed their sweeping and maintenance budgets for their supersized parking lots.

While diversifying their clientele was the plan at one end, at the other end, they decided to keep things as simple as possible on the other. It’s not uncommon for companies to slowly branch out into other areas of pavement maintenance to grow their services, and hopefully, to grow their bottom line. This is another area where Cantel chooses to take a route that might, at first, seem unconventional.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve really made an effort to streamline the business, to make it as consistent as possible,” said Moist. “We call it, ‘stay in your lane,’ which basically means that we don’t do anything that we don’t want to do. We clean parking lots, but we don’t want to clean streets. We restripe parking lots, but we don’t do new layouts. We stay very much in our lane, and that makes our employees jobs and life much easier, we believe, because we’re not throwing curveballs at them.”

Their staff seems to largely agree with the, “stay in your lane” approach.

“I’ve had many conversations with a lot of our key employees,” Moist continued. “They appreciate the fact that we’re not doing everything under the sun. We’re doing what we do and we do it really well. It makes our profitability

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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so much higher and we don’t feel like we have to chase everything. Before, the stress level was off the charts, compared to how things are now.”

WHEN SIZE MATTERS...

BIGGER IS ACTUALLY BETTER Their employees stay in their lanes while operating either Schwarze or Tymco brand of sweepers, and, once again, Cantel takes a view to their machine selection that could be considered unconventional. However, like so many of their unique decisions, it has proven a smart and beneficial choice.

“In the last few years, we made the active decision to transition the type of trucks we buy into a slightly bigger size than what would be considered the standard for what we use them for,” said Moist. “We spend a little more, yes, but this has significantly reduced our overall downtime. Rather than maximizing our usage and pushing them to their limits, this gives our workers a piece of equipment that breaks far less often while operating far superior compared to the job.”

This translates into a much smaller maintenance burden while juggling 26 pieces of rolling stock. While they have

two yards, they are able to to maintain all their trucks with only a single mechanic, and they have zero backlog for repairs. That’s while serving an approximate customer base of between 850-900, serviced by a staff of 27.

THE CANTEL DIFFERENCE Between Wagoner and Moist, the biggest factor they keep in the forefront of their employees and the customers is this: professionalism.

“From the very beginning, I wanted to be the most professional parking lot sweeping company in the industry,” Wagoner explained his vision. “To me, that means you do things correctly, you do things right, you show up if you say you’re gonna show up. If you have an issue, you tell the boss or you tell the customer about it, and you don’t hide behind excuses. I think that’s served us well.”

“To add to that,” interjected Moist.

“The one thing that I think really sets us apart is our work environment and what it’s become. Even when things go wrong, or something happens, I don’t deal with things in an big emotional way. I try to stay removed from things in that way, and that keeps the

Dustin Moist, General Manager Provided by Cantel

overall stress levels down for all of our employees.”

Wagoner agreed. “Our job is to set our employees up for success. I see Dustin doing that every single day, and I, also, want to set him up for success in the future.”

“When he sees a problem,” Wagoner added. “He attacks it from a systems perspective and not from an emotional one.

He looks at how we can set things up so that it doesn’t happen again or that it’s avoided or it’s minimized. It’s been pretty successful, and someday, I’m not going to be here,” Wagoner paused for a moment.

“I’m 70 years old,” he said.” This business has been successful not just because of me. It has been a team effort.

My wife, Diona, has supported me throughout. My son, Travis, also works for the company. He and our daughter, Tracy, are going to own it someday and they will need Dustin and the entire team for it to continue being successful.

Dustin and I have had conversations about it. I want to make sure that it is set up for continued success.”

The duo have a strong connection, and Moist capped everything off poignantly.

“If I had to sum it up in one phrase,” Moist concluded. “It’s to stay the course.

So many people we talk to, their goal is to expand into this market or that market or this service or that service.

We’ve had so much success with staying in our lane, and we will continue to do that refining those systems into the future. Being able to continue to stay the course we’re on is what I really see for the future.”

Their work in Portland is recognized by its consistency and its quality, but, also, what sets them apart is their dedication to professionalism and dependability. Nothing means more to them than doing what they say they are going to do, and at the highest level.

These are the reasons Cantel Sweeping is the recipient of the 2024 Sweeper of the Year Award! ■

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/cantel

www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement | January 2024 | PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION

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ALAN CURTIS AWARD/HALL OF FAME | By Jessica Lombardo, Contributing Editor

30 YEARS of Industry Education

Allan Heydorn joins the Pavement Hall of Fame after 30 years of helping drive industry advancement for paving and pavement maintenance contractors

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oogle anything paving or pavement maintenance related, and you’re sure to find an article written by none other than our 2024 Alan Curtis Service Award winner, Allan Heydorn. Heydorn was editor of Pavement Maintenance and Reconstruction magazine for more than 30 years, serving the industry by providing the resources contractors needed to complete their jobs more efficiently. But it was his work off the pages of the magazine where his legacy will leave a lasting impact on us all.

LEARNING THE INDUSTRY Heydorn started his career in the mid 1980s working as a freelance writer for various news outlets and publications, until he landed with the Aberdeen group and Pavement magazine in the 1990s. The magazine was only a few years old at the time, and came with

22

a conference program and tradeshow to supplement it, so Heydorn knew he needed to learn the industry quickly in order to properly serve his audience.

“The company knew very little about asphalt, and I knew even less, but I did know how to put together a magazine,” Heydorn said. “I hit the road with my publisher and lead salesperson and we visited contractors and manufacturing facilities and tried to instill in them that the magazine wasn’t just there to suck money out of them. We wanted to enhance professionalism and help contractors with the business aspect of running their operations. That’s what the magazine was always going to be geared to do. And that’s what the conference was geared to do, as well.”

Heydorn quickly realized that in order to write about what he didn’t know, he needed to surround himself with people who were willing to share their expertise

with him; and through him.

“We really did rely on everybody else to teach us what we needed to know about the industry,” Heydorn said.

“There’s a whole bunch of contractors out there who probably still have stories about me working on their jobs, trying to do something productive and the crew standing around watching me, going ‘what?’ Manufacturers were also always willing to talk to us and explain their equipment and best practices to contractors who were willing to listen.

The magazine has always been the industry teaching itself through.”

Realizing what Heydorn was trying to build with the magazine, many in the industry even got over the idea of sharing their secrets with their competition, realizing that we’re all in this together.

“A contractor, if he has trade secrets, doesn’t want to necessarily give that to everybody out there, but a lot of these

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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ALAN CURTIS AWARD/HALL OF FAME

Heydorn surrounded himself with people who were willing to share their expertise with him, and through him.

people understood what we were trying to do, and believed in the industry and so they wanted to share whatever it was that they thought they knew so other contractors could benefit from that,” Heydorn said. “The whole idea behind everything that we did was that ‘a rising tide will lift all boats.’ Yes, we wanted to make money on the magazine and on the tradeshow, but we knew the way to do that was to grow the industry and help the industry grow itself. We decided to help educate the contractors, give them the tools that they needed to grow and run their business more professionally and more profitably, and help them do what they already wanted to do, just try and make it a little bit easier for them.”

LEVERAGING THE HELP OF EXPERTS The in-person event was the natural way to extend the education in the magazine and the early days of the pavement conference was modeled heavily off Aberdeen’s ownership of the World of Concrete show and conference program.

Heydorn and his team leveraged the help of industry experts to teach each other at these events. The conference program started out with around 30 sessions for attendees to choose from.

“We didn’t just bring in speakers to bring in speakers,” Heydorn explains, “we brought in speakers who knew the industry, who could relate to the contractors, and who could understand

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what they were going through on a daily basis. We didn’t want to bring in high level, general business management people because a lot of these contractors don’t fit that mode. Many of them are small to medium sized businesses and they needed someone who could talk to them on that level. The speakers we would try and find were contractors who were willing to either speak — or learn to speak — because I think we actually groomed a whole bunch of contractors over 30 years that became great speakers.”

The conference program also counted on speakers like Jeff Stokes, Brad Humphrey and Guy Gruenberg, who had a background in public speaking and consulting to round out the educational program and give attendees a variety of topics to choose from at these events.

As demand for education continued to grow, the conference expanded, adding a regional West Coast event to reach a different audience, in addition to the annual national conference and tradeshow. Heydorn also continually revamped the educational program, bringing in new sessions on trending industry topics and cycling out sessions to keep information fresh for attendees.

“We were always trying to be ahead

of where the industry was,” Heydorn said. “We would hear about an issue from a manufacturer or a contractor and we took responsibility for bringing education around that issue to the industry. Job costing was one of the first big ideas we brought to the conference program and the first year we held the session, maybe three people took the class. But you know, we just kept at it and we kept doing it because we knew that these contractors needed to cost their jobs before they did their bids and that that was something that we really pushed and pursued for a long time. Today, job costing is one of the most popular topics and that’s because it’s important. We knew it was important then and it’s still relevant today.”

Another tactic Heydorn used to teach the industry: Live equipment demonstrations.

“The industry really demanded these live equipment demos and we provided a place for them to go and see a bunch of different pieces of equipment working all at the same time,” Heydorn said. “These demos were always a hit for contractors, and while they were a lot of work to put on, they gave us credibility as an event and were a great benefit for the manufacturer partners, as well.”

LEAVING A LEGACY Heydorn’s legacy extends beyond just the magazine and national events.

Some of the things contractors in this space see every day are thanks to him understanding the industry and creating content and products around what would benefit the industry as a whole.

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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ALAN CURTIS AWARD/HALL OF FAME

The Pavement Awards were created

by Heydorn as a way to give contractors the recognition they deserved.

“The awards were created as a way to bring the industry together,” Heydorn said. “They bring a lot of attention to interesting projects, complex projects, unique projects, and when the articles are written, other contractors out there can learn from them. They might learn how to tackle a job that they might have turned down at some point or they might think of a different way to do a job moving forward.

“The awards also lend a level of credibility and professionalism to the industry,” Heydorn continues. “Contractors look at this and they want to be recognized, and they should be.”

Heydorn retired in 2019 and is spending his days traveling with his wife Ursula and enjoying his grandkids. Heydorn still consults on industry events like PAVE/X and IGNITE.

Heydorn also developed the IGNITE Construction Summit for business owners, in partnership with magazine publisher and company Chief Revenue Officer Amy Schwandt. The idea was to bring education to high-level executives in the industry and the program has taken off since its inception in 2019.

“There was a niche in the industry that wasn’t filled in this space,” Heydorn said. “At a lot of shows, the courses are not designed for high-level Blue Sky overall business management because you can’t really tackle that in 60-90

26

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SOF minutes. And, frankly, there aren’t enough high-level presidents and CEOs that are willing to go to these shows and sit at these seminars. We thought if we created a top level event, where we discussed Blue Sky operational tactics and long-term planning that wasn’t being addressed anywhere else, that could do really well.

“At IGNITE, we wanted owners, presidents, etc., to come and get a sense of what’s coming down the pike and what the issues are to help them do some long-term planning that they hadn’t taken the time to do. And maybe provide them a little bit of a kick in the butt to go do it.”

Heydorn has always been adamant that what he has done over the course of his career was only done as a conduit between contractors, but his hard work is evident in many businesses and on many jobsites of contractors who have attended the courses he helped facilitate.

“I don’t think there ever was a show where someone didn’t come up to me and tell me that they were able to grow their business because of the courses they attended,” Heydorn said. “But the thing to remember is that the industry taught itself. And that’s one of the great things about it. The manufacturers and dealers and contractors all trusted us enough that they were willing to share the information they had earned with each other; we were really just the conduit to make all of that happen.”

Thanks to Heydorn’s dedication, the program has maintained its prestige in the industry while continuing to grow with the needs of the contractor.

The Pavement Awards were created as a direct result of Heydorn wanting to give back to the industry and celebrate their hard work.

“I was always glad that we were able to maintain the educational focus of the program,” Heydorn said. “The idea from the start was just to help contractors do a better job in their skillwork, or a quicker job or more efficient job, and also from the business side, to help them run a more profitable operation so that they could grow their business.”

With this designation as the 2024 Alan Curtis Industry Service Award recipient, Heydorn also joins the Pavement Hall of Fame as the sole inductee for 2024. It is our privilege to honor Heydorn in this way and thank him for his massive contributions to our industry. We know his legacy will live on through the pages of this magazine and in the education at PAVE/X: The Pavement Experience.

“When I created the Pavement Hall of Fame, I never thought that I’d be in it. It never crossed my mind,” Heydon said. “It’s humbling. These contractors all have families and they all raise their kids and they all want to send them off to college, or send them on to a good life. It’s nice to think that somewhere along the way, maybe with the show or the magazine, that we were able to help them do that. That’s really a pretty nice thing to know.”.■

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/heydorn

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PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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SEAL & STRIPE SMALL | By Merina Shriver, Junior Editor

A Lineage of Pavers Sealing and Striping Growing up around pavement, JJ Premium Sealers originated from a love for blacktop taught by a father.

I

n the asphalt and paving industry, paving and paving maintenance are known to transform businesses and cities. Pavement line work can make or break the appeal of an establishment. Fresh sealing and striping can brighten up an entire parking lot. The job that JJ Premium Sealers did at a nursing home in Wisconsin is a clear indication of that.

With this job in mind, JJ Premium Sealers has earned the spot as the 2024 Small Seal and Stripe winner.

A TRADE PASSED DOWN Growing up with his father in the industry, owner of JJ Premium Sealers, Jesse Joles was always surrounded by pavement. While they didn’t take on a family business, Jesse and his brother, Marvin Joles, both ended up in the asphalt industry with their father. Joles said that when he first started in the industry 10 years ago, he faced the challenge of finding his own way of doing things.

“The first five or so [years] was definitely a struggle to figure it all out because my dad’s very old school,” Joles said.

JJ Premium Sealers

JJ Premium Sealers

While his dad was the reason he entered this field, Joles accredits his brother with his overall success.

Joles recalled, “Honestly, if it wasn’t for my brother and the Blacktop Banter Success Group … I probably wouldn’t have [gotten] where I am today.”

“It’s all I’ve ever known,” Joles revealed. “I look at blacktop like a blank canvas and there’s something about taking asphalt that doesn’t look the best or [isn’t] in the best condition and fixing it up and seeing the finished project.”

The way Joles looks at it, blacktop is more of a work of art — a blank canvas to be painted on. Joles said that there is real enjoyment in completing a paving job. He added that there is a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction that comes along with seeing a job’s finished product.

GETTING THE JOB AND JUMPING HURDLES The Augusta Health and Rehabilitation facility in Augusta, Wis., received a parking lot makeover when JJ Premium Sealers was hired to do a sealing and striping job. The building’s parking area hadn’t received any maintenance for nearly 15 years. Wanting to fix the lot up, Augusta Health and Rehabilitation started looking for bidders.

Going up against a few larger companies, Joles and his company ended up winning the bid. When the The Augusta Health and Rehabilitation parking lot received a facelift from JJ Premium Sealers after having no maintenance for nearly 15 years.

JJ Premium Sealers

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PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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crew set to work, one of the biggest hurdles they had to jump over was completing the job without interfering too much with the flow of traffic.

Joles said that the site was practically on a dead-end street, so figuring out a way to perform the job without blocking the one entrance (and exit) was an obstacle, to say the least.

“We had to more or less seal the backside of the parking lot first on the backside of the building, beyond the south side. Then the next day, we had to sealcoat the north side, so just trying to keep traffic flowing, especially around deliveries and stuff like that, was definitely a challenge,” explained Joles.

Other than keeping traffic flowing, Joles said that the runner-up issue was dealing with the weather. Weather can always pose challenges for the industry. But, Joles and his crew were able to push through with grace and proved to be strong professionals in the completion of the project.

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/jjprem

SEAL & STRIPE SMALL RUNNERS UP

Ox Asphalt (Carmel, IN) Arch City Sealcoating (St. Louis, MO)

A CUSTOM JOB Not only did Joles and his crew complete this job in a phenomenal manner, but they also completed it with a spray rig that Joles built himself.

Jole recounted, “I had an old 500 gal. tank laying around, ordered all the parts and the hoses, and pretty much built it from the ground up the way that I wanted to. I mean, I could have [gone and] bought something. But it would have [taken] all the fun out of building it myself.”

Once the job was completed, Joles and his team received many positive remarks and lots of uplifting feedback. They were told frequently that the nursing home had turned out really well. But the highest praise, and the most common piece of positive feedback they received, was that the job was very professional.

As a result of JJ Premium Sealers’ dedication to asphalt sealing and striping, it was chosen as the rightful winner of the Small Sealing and Striping award. ■

www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement | January 2024 | PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION

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SEAL AND STRIPE LARGE | By Brandon Noel, Editor

Doing The Work For

UNCLE SAM Provided by South Eastern Commercial Property Solutions

In the largest job to date for South Eastern Commercial Property Services Inc., they tackled a secretive project for the National Security Agency (NSA), where they weren’t even allowed to bring their phones. They went above and beyond.

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atrick Thomason didn’t start a pavement maintenance company. When he launched his business, South Eastern Commercial Property Services Inc. they were in an entirely different field.

“We actually started out as a landscaping company,” said Thomason.

“We did that for about five to seven years. Then we worked our way into commercial pressure washing.”

The company’s journey began in 1993, and then, around 2007, one of

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their clients approached them with a question that would alter the course of their history forever, bringing them inevitably to winning this year’s Seal and Stripe: Large Job Award.

THE FIRST STEPS INTO THE PAVEMENT WORLD One truth about commercial property managers is that they like to keep things as small a headache as possible. Which is what likely led to them approaching Thomason’s company about more than just landscaping services. When they needed some striping done, they came to South Eastern, hoping to find a solution without having to find a new contractor.

“We were approached about line striping,” Thomason said. “At the time, I was fairly ignorant to it. The only way I’d seen people doing it was taping off lines and using paint rollers.”

But he wasn’t quick to jump into anything, at first, and wasn’t exactly interested in launching into an entirely new unknown sector. However, the thought wouldn’t immediately go away, and he kept thinking about the possibilities.

“We decided to start by just doing some basic research into it,” he said, and eventually the prospects were too

good to pass up. “So, after we found the Graco line of machines, we went all in on it.”

But they didn’t stop there, of course, because the call of blacktop pulled them further into the industry.

“One thing led to another, of course, and we got into sealcoating and crack sealing too,” Thomason recalled.

Before Patrick knew it, he was roping in friends, family, and even some neighbors as the work grew.

South Eastern stays very busy, but they are still a fairly small company, boasting 11 full-time employees to cover all their jobs. While Thomason noted that they intend to hire more new fulltimers in the future, it’s something that he takes very seriously. If you join their team, it’s akin to joining the family.

“I would like to find people that don’t just want a job,” Thomason said.

“People who want more than that, who want a career, who could retire here.

We’re able to offer that to the people that work with us. I don’t add on anybody else until I can guarantee them that, because, even in slower times, there’s no such thing as laying people off. We don’t do that. Everybody stays on permanent, no matter what we do.”

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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SEAL AND STRIPE LARGE Provided by South Eastern Commercial Property Solutions

AFTER

BEFORE

WORKING FOR THE NSA The award-winning job had some unique challenges associated with it, since it was located at the NSA campus in Fort Gordon, Ga. The sealcoat and stripe work was across 178,600 square yards with 3,435 parking stalls, crosswalks, roadway center lines, and stop bars. They used approximately 10,000 lbs. of crack seal, 29,750 gallons of coal tar seal, and 5 whole pallets of paint.

“With it being a government job of this kind, we had to go through a lot of security clearances and background checks,” Thomason said, however, that wasn’t the biggest challenge they faced. “Honestly, one of the largest concerns we had to deal with was just the weather. We had a 60-day window for getting the job done, and we really lucked out because we only lost maybe one days to that. It’s extremely unusual for this time of year in this area.”

For South Eastern’s crew of almost a dozen employees, this was their largest job to-date. While they were certainly

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excited to tackle it, and they knew they had enough people and equipment to get it done on time; there was just one other thing they had to contend with.

“Trying to do this job, plus keep up with our other, usual customers was somewhat of a real challenge for us,” Thomason remembered that juggling those aspects required an all-hands-ondeck approach.

To accomplish it, they dedicated seven of their full-time people to it, while rotating the others where they were needed elsewhere. All-in-all, that team was able to get the job done in just 21 working days, far below the window they were allotted. The planning phase was crucial to this achievement.

“We broke the job down into seven sections,” he said the seven person crew split into two teams of three and four.

“We would go into a section, clean and crack seal it first, then follow it up the next day with seal coat, and the day after that, the team of three would work on the striping while the larger team moved onto the next section and start the process over.”

One by one, the dominoes fell into place.

ALL THE COOKS IN THE KITCHEN As you might imagine, though, when working for Uncle Sam, the NSA, the Department of Public Works (DPW) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, no less, there were a lot of eyes on what they were doing and how they were doing it.

“There were frequent inspections going on,” Thomason said. “Five or six people driving around or walking around, watching what we were doing, and keeping an eye on us. As soon as we finished the first major section, they came out to inspect the work. Of course, it just made me a little nervous.”

When the NSA is examining your sealing and striping, how could anyone not be, at least, the tiniest bit anxious about it.

“Thankfully, after they went and walked it down thoroughly, they told us

that they couldn’t find anything to say about it at all. It was perfect. Everyone was happy, shaking hands, and from then on everything went very smoothly.”

Sadly, due to heavy restrictions, including not being able to bring their phones onto the jobsite or take any before or after pictures of the parking lot, the only photos are from Google Earth. Even then, the product of their efforts comes through.

THE FUTURE FOR THE BUSINESS One new area where Thomason sees the potential for growth is in the realm of thermoplastics, and doing the heavy roadway line striping.

“In the next two years maybe, I’d like to have a dedicated sealcoat crew with at least six people, and a dedicated striping group, and then a dedicated thermoplastic crew going into the bigger roadway striping,” He said.

This is part of his larger and more long-term plan to eventually set the company up for its eventual future in the hands of his children, who already play a large daily role in its operations.

“We’ve been really blessed to have a lot of good loyal customers, and we don’t take anything for granted,” he continued. “When I finally do decide to step down, my goal is that it continues to be a self-sustainable thing for my daughter and my son, as well as for the people that work with us.”

Based not only on this award winning work, but on their long foundation and history doing it, it seems likely that South Eastern Commercial Property Services will continue performing quality and consistency for their customers and their community for the foreseeable future. ■

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/seprop SEAL & STRIPE LARGE RUNNERS UP

All County Paving (Delray Beach, FL) Asphalt Authority (Fort Wayne, IN)

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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PAVING: NON-PARKING LOT | By Merina Shriver, Junior Editor

Strong Paving Connections Howard Companies shows the importance of paving the way to strong client relationships as the company explains its experience with the city of Carmel.

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oundabouts are meant to keep traffic flowing and are a wonderful solution for hightraffic areas. But, when it’s already a high-traffic area, figuring out how to keep traffic flowing while paving the road can be challenging. The crews at Howard Companies mastered this situation when they paved roadways and roundabouts in Carmel, Ind. A WORKING ENVIRONMENT Howard Companies started out as Harding Group in the 1960s. The company was rebranded in 2021, after Shelby Howard bought the company a few years prior. The company evolved from performing driveway and commercial parking lot rehabilitation, to one that has added large municipal and new construction projects to its skillset.

Howard knows company culture is paramount to success. When he isn’t out with crews on jobsites, he’s in the office making sure the company is winning work.

Sean Rizer, chief financial officer, stated, “It’s fun being a part of a growing company. We’re always trying to do something better than what we did yesterday.”

Rizer stated, “It’s fun being a part of a growing company where we’re always trying to do something better than what we did yesterday.”

Mike Isaacs, director of quality control at Howard Companies, said he started in the industry because his family was already in it. Asphalt mix design is a passion to him rather than a job. He said he is driven by the science and engineering behind designing asphalt mixes and working to optimize

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asphalt’s performance.

“It’s just fascinating to me. Every day is a challenge; it’s never the same,” Isaacs said. “There’s never a dull moment.”

An example of this was when it rains.

He explained that weather results in additional tasks that have to be taken care of to make the mix look as good as it did when it wasn’t raining.

PAVING CONNECTIONS The city of Carmel is a recurring customer of Howard Companies. While the company has built up a strong relationship with the city, Carmel is a low-bid opportunity. The city added change orders to the project, showing confidence in the team at Howard Companies to deliver results.

“They’re willing to add … streets to the contract or things like that, where we’re able to do more work than originally performed, because they appreciate what we bring to the table — timeliness, quality, and on budget,” said Rizer.

When completing projects, it’s important to promote consistency, which aids in keeping quality and budget steady. The company relies on only a few equipment manufacturers. Keeping the number of brands to a minimum ensures consistency for not only the work but also for the crews.

Rizer said, “On the paving side, the majority of our equipment is Caterpillar.

We will also use some Hamm rollers behind the paver. We own our own fleet of dump trucks, which is not always common in our market. We use predominantly Kenworth dump trucks in our fleet. Our two HMA plants are Astec.”

Photo Above: The roundabouts weren’t in the original contract and were one of the things the city was able to add in due to the company fitting its budget and the stable trust already formed between them.

Provided by Howard Companies

FACING CHALLENGES Known for its vibrant landscapes, arts, and high quality of living, Carmel Ind., is consistently ranked as one of the best cities in America. With its 150 Roundabouts, Carmel is crowned “The Roundabout Capital of the United States.” While this level of popularity is excellent for the residents, it poses problems for companies hired to do any construction there.

Isaacs said, “That’s a challenge in itself, you know, knowing that when you go there, the bar is set tremendously high because you can’t go into a city like that and do a bad job.”

The city also didn’t want the streets to be closed due to the paving — yet another hoop to jump through. Carmel didn’t want people waiting or going through long detours due to lanes being shut down.

“Everything had to be paved in live traffic,” Isaacs stated.

Not only was paving this well-known city a stressor, but the fact that the city is already quite congested added to the pressure.

Tommy Johnson, paving division manager, added, “Our culture is about celebrating our exceptional paving crew and superintendent for turning challenges at demanding roundabouts into

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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a quality product, evidence to their unwavering dedication. This quality award reflects their personal commitment to excellence. A heartfelt thanks to the City of Carmel Street Department for their invaluable support.”

A ROUNDABOUT WAY TO A SOLUTION Isaacs discussed the strategies the crews had to come up with to keep the traffic moving while attempting to pave standard roundabouts and figure eight roundabouts. He emphasized the dedication the team put into ensuring the city’s expectations were met, and traffic could keep flowing.

Rizer mentioned since Howard Companies’ bid was below the city’s budget, expanding the roundabouts was one of the things the city was able to add. Carmel has the most roundabouts per total city intersection in the world

which aids the city’s ability to keep traffic moving and avoid congestion.

Isaacs explained, “Carmel’s traffic flows very smoothly, people will jump off the interstate and just go through the area to take advantage of the roundabouts. There’s no stopping, so traffic is just constantly flowing.”

CONSECUTIVE ACHIEVEMENT Howard Companies received lots of positive feedback about the job its crews completed in Carmel. The crews were told that the job they did was very professional, a form of high praise.

This outpouring of praise and winning this award may not have come as much of a surprise to them, though.

This is the second consecutive year that Howard Companies has won in this category. Last year, the company won in the Paving, Non-parking category for the city of Fishers. Now, they are back

at it, with the win in Carmel. Isaacs and Rizer discussed how huge it is for the company to have crews that keep winning these kinds of awards.

Isaacs said, “Winning this prestigious award for the second consecutive year is a testament to the exceptional culture the Howards have cultivated.

This award-winning culture not only inspires our team to consistently deliver outstanding results but also enables us to attract and retain top talent in our industry.” ■

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/howard PAVE NON-PARKING RUNNERS UP

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www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement | January 2024 | PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION

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PAVING: PARKING LOT | By Gigi Wood, Managing Editor

PRECISE PLANNING:

Project Management Overcomes Obstacles

Long Island paving company relies on longtime employees, attention to detail, to complete out-of-state project ahead of schedule.

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oyal Pavement Solutions of Islip, N.Y., used ingenuity, experienced employees and preplanning to tackle the many challenges of the job that earned it this year’s Parking Lot Pavement Award.

The company had landed a job in Shelton, Conn., 100 miles away from its Long Island headquarters. Once on site, the crew dealt with adverse weather conditions and equipment malfunctions.

“Despite facing unexpected challenges, the project showcases the team’s unwavering commitment to excellence. The team’s dedication was evident throughout the project, as they demonstrated a remarkable work ethic and adaptability,” the award nomination stated.

Royal Pavement won the bid for the large parking lot repaving project during the summer months. The job was for a new client, and Royal Pavement landed the job by putting together a unique project scope with fewer phases than the competitors.

“A lot of people present scopes that are very boilerplate, but I always want to look at the project in a unique way,” said Royal Pavement Founder Kenneth Roy. “If there’s another way to save money, potentially, why not?”

The customer did not contact Royal Pavement again until September, and asked if the job could be done before the end of the year. The main tenant of the building had left, and the property owner wanted the parking lot repaved before a new tenant moved in.

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“We were like, ‘What?’ And then we’re like, ‘We’ll figure it out, we always do,’” Roy said. “We were the only company who agreed that we could do it in less than three phases. Everybody else said they needed five or six phases. I didn’t understand why these other companies felt they needed so much time on it. We’re a pretty efficient crew, though, so it could have been a part of it.”

EXPEDITING AN OUT-OFSTATE JOB Royal Pavement drew up a schedule, booked hotels and planned out how to ship up their equipment and other supplies. Among the equipment they shipped to the site was two dump trucks, a utility body truck, paver, three loaders, skid steer, sweeper, rollers and a mini excavator.

It was new territory for Royal Pavement, with new vendors, new asphalt plants, new trucking companies.

“So, there’s all these new pieces, new vendors; it’s a new layer of complexities,

The building owner’s main tenant had moved out, and there was a brief window of time to repave the lot while fewer people were using it.

Royal Pavement Solutions

plus the weather at the end of the year,” Roy said.

They milled on a Thursday and Friday and returned to pave on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

“After Day One, we were almost complete. Day Two was used to finish the milling,” Roy said. “When you mill that fast, I find a lot of companies will say, ‘Oh, we can mill this much square feet in a day.’ But is it perfectly ready for paving? Or did you just get the stuff milled up and now there’s piles of dust everywhere? Is it pave ready or is it just milled? There’s a difference.”

Additional to the project was asphalt curbing that needed to be ripped out and a concrete sidewalk at grade that needed to be removed, which is why they brought along the mini excavator.

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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:

“Ownership was like blown out of the water,” he said. “They were like, ‘How the heck did you guys get this parking lot done in just two days?’”

The paving was completed in three days.

“I’ll be honest, we could have done it in two, but because we were working so far from home, we opted to do two shorter paving days and on the third day, finish paving by 11 a.m. or 12 p.m. and pack the equipment back up for the trip back to Long Island,” Roy said.

The crew finished with a yield that was less than 0.5 percent.

“I forget how many tons the job was, but if it called for 2,000 tons, we put down 2,003 tons. We were exactly where we needed to be,” he said.

Roy, the self-proclaimed “Yield God,” recently taught a class on project management and low yield results at PAVE/X, a tradeshow for the pavement industry that hosted its inaugural show earlier this month in San Antonio.

“I believe that by taking a proper look at it, I can get any project within 0.5 percent,” he said. “I get so excited about getting deals perfect.”

The crew spent the final day cleaning up and the customer was “thrilled,” Roy said.

REDUCING ERRORS THROUGH PREPLANNING Because of the company’s extensive preplanning, the crew is able to adapt to problems on the site as they arise.

“I’d say we have a relatively low amount of things that go wrong, but that’s because of how much emphasis we put on pre-planning and being prepared for the job,” Roy said. “That limits it, but stuff still happens.”

For example, on the first day of paving, the crew lost two hours of time because of an equipment mishap.

“We fired up the paver, everything’s good to go and we’re ready to work.

Asphalt showed up at the jobsite,” Roy said. “We go to move the paver, and the bolts that hold the tracks in were

sheared right off, which blew the tracks out. It’s out of commission.”

It was one of those moments where the company’s expertise paid off.

“Now, we’re sitting there, three hours away from my mechanic’s shop, asphalt is on site and we have a massive breakdown of our paver,” he said. “Our operations manager, Hector, he’s one of the most valuable guys you could have on a jobsite. This dude has it figured out and fixed in like an hour and a half. He fixed it enough to get us through the day.”

Hector later spent most of that evening to properly fix the paver so it would be functional the next day.

On a different day, the tack distribution truck was parked in a way that blocked the parking lot and work that needed to be done. When the driver was called to move the truck, it turned out that he had locked the truck, taken the keys with him and was two hours away, headed to another job. The truck driver turned around and the Royal Pavement crew adjusted, shifting to a different area of work while waiting for the truck driver.

“Not everything goes perfectly, things do go wrong,” Roy said. “But I think we pride ourselves on the fact that when things go wrong, we’re the best company to handle those challenges.

Nothing throws us off. You could throw anything at us. It’s like, ‘So this just happened, what are we going to do now?

We’ll deal with it.’ We’re very good at managing processes.”

On the first day of paving, it rained, and the temperature was not ideal. The crew saw the forecast ahead of time and decided to shift their attention to a binder repair during the worst of the downpour.

“Weather is always a challenge, but every paving company, at least in the Northeast, they’re always going to struggle with that, especially when you’re working far from home,” he said. “If that job was only 20 minutes away from our yard, maybe we would have handled it a little differently and rescheduled the job completely. But we were already up there, the equipment is in place, we’ve

already got the hotel rooms, so what are we supposed to do? So it’s just another complexity.”

All told, the company finished the project early.

“Completing the project ahead of schedule showed their meticulous planning and expert execution,” the award nomination stated. “The team’s attention to detail extended to cleanup and complex areas, emphasizing their commitment to a polished and aesthetically pleasing finished product.”

CONTINUING THE FAMILY BUSINESS For Roy, paving is the family business.

His grandfather, father and uncle all worked for the family’s paving company, before selling it to a private equity firm when Roy was in his early 20s. When the private equity firm went bankrupt a few years later, Roy was able to buy all the old equipment and hire the employees he and his family had worked with for decades.

“We handpicked all the really good people that were still there and/or had left the company,” Roy said. “We had picked this dream team. And we got the equipment. The customers that they were still working with, they needed help. They remembered us, they still liked us. So the customers are there, the equipment is there, the dream team is put back together. The flame has been lit; we just need to ignite it now.”

“My goal is to create an organization that can lead the industry,’” he said. “I want to be in that conversation. That’s what we’re trying to build.” ■

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/royal

PAVING: PARKING LOT RUNNERS UP

Piedmont Paving Inc. (Kernersville, NC) Advanced Asphalt Paving Inc. (Twinsburg, OH)

www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement | January 2024 | PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION

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BEST MARKETING VIDEO | By Brandon Noel, Editor

Turn The Camera On, Show People Who You Are Piedmont Paving Inc., the winners of this year’s Best Marketing Video Award, started recording and publishing videos without knowing exactly what they were doing. Now? It’s a ket part of how they engage with customers.

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hat started in 1991 has quickly grown and established itself as a major force to be reckoned with in North Carolina.

Eager to expand beyond paving, founder and owner David McGee expanded the business with sister-companies that could manage other essential aspects of the work like concrete, curb work, and, eventually, a recycling yard for reclaimed asphalt and concrete to be reincorporated.

“Piedmont Paving Concrete and Piedmont Recycling have helped us continue to grow and open up more avenues for different things that we’re doing,” McGee said.

McGee’s brother and two sisters all work alongside their dad in the familyrun business.

Where Matt says they really like to spend their time, however, is on the pavement maintenance side.

Focusing less time and energy on new construction, and more on the milling and repaving existing sites.

GETTING INTO VIDEO PRODUCTION As many contractors have already come to realize, the importance of having

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Still taken from Piedmont’s award winning video.

some form of a social media presence cannot be underestimated. More and more, platforms like Instagram, Tik-Tok, and even LinkedIn are places where contractors are not just able to show off their current projects to other people in the industry. They are able to connect with the potential customers and clients in their area looking for more than a website and a phone number.

Increasingly, the role of videos like Piedmont Paving’s award winning entry this year, provide a virtual window for a customer into who the contractors are.

What do they look like when they’re out working on your property? What are their personalities like? It may sound unconventional, but it’s valuable to people.

When McGee started full-time at the family business, he mostly engaged with social media as a source of fun, posting jobsite pictures. However, he began to see the potential of what it could be.

“I went and got a little GoPro camera,” Matt said. “The first few videos [still live on their company YouTube channel] were just shot by me and put together on one of our shop computers, trying to figure things out.

But, I’m completely illiterate when it comes to this type of thing, I don’t mind telling you. I played with it, best as I could, posting things here and there.”

The turning point was when McGee saw some content created by a friend who had just started his own media company, CDS Visuals, and he decided to reach out and see if he would be willing to come do a shoot for them.

“In the end, I just asked if would be willing to let us book him, to come out and just shoot some milling and paving, make a little promo video.” However, there was a lot of uncertainty still, at that point.

“He came out and shot it, and I really didn’t know what to expect,” said McGee. “But after he sent the first one back to me, I was in total shock. It was awesome!”

McGee recognized just how quickly things have changed in the relatively short time since they produced that first piece of video content and published it.

“From then to now, people are catching on, and you’re seeing more companies do it,” he noted. “When we posted those first few, I feel like, no one was doing it at that quality, yet, and I believed from the start that there was something here, something to this.”

Since that time, they’ve continued working with their video producer, filming bigger and more complex jobs, making better content as they go.

McGee also believes that in the future, it’s this type of content that will be sought after by the customer pool.

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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“The new people coming, the new generation [of property managers], that’s what they’re going to be looking at for credibility,” Matt said. “It’s a whole lot easier for them to look at you. When you can look us up on Instagram, Facebook ,and YouTube, and see what kind of work we’re doing and how we’re performing; having these avenues of social media is just another way for future customers to check our reputation.

IT’S NOT ALL FOR SHOW Something that many of the social media generation of contractors are likely familiar with, is the difficulty of juggling the nature of the work they are actually there to get done in a day, and the content creation side of the job. It can be tough to balance the two, but Piedmont Paving has slowly worked out a system that works for them.

“It can be difficult sometimes,” said McGee. “Because we’ll be paving, or something, and then we have to stop the process for a second, so I can get down and explain what we are doing, or shoot a little thing. Sometimes, especially with the shorter stuff, I’m just throwing my phone somewhere, just to make something, and then I have to post it and get right back up on the machine and finish the job.”

When they aren’t employing the skills of CD Visuals for the long-form jobsite videos, like this year’s award winning project, the video content for social media posts falls on Matt to accomplish.

All the hard work has paid off in some fairly tangible ways, however, as McGee relayed a story of a recent job they won the bid for with a company almost an hour away from their primary location. He was initially surprised that

they won the bid, but, as it turned out, they had access to some of their YouTube content and that played a role in their decision making.

“They hadn’t heard of us before,” he said. “We were able to say here’s our YouTube account, here’s our Instagram.

Check that out. You can see the kind of work that we are able to perform. I’m definitely seeing that more, because of the social media side, that we got the job. This puts us at the forefront, and I think that’s what’s going help set us apart, and continue to build a reputation that sets us apart.” ■

To watch the winning video! https://pavemg.com/video BEST VIDEO RUNNERS UP

Buck Brothers (Toledo, OH) Wis-Coat (Lone Rock, WI)

ADVERTISE HERE Contact Megan Perleberg Print and Digital Advertising

920-723-6314 mperleberg@iron.markets

www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement | January 2024 | PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION

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GOOD NEIGHBOR | By Gigi Wood, Managing Editor

Synergy Pavement Group sealed and striped the new parking lot at the South Beloit Boys & Girls Club, earning the paving company the 2024 Good Neighbor Award.

Synergy Pavement Group

THE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD PAVER Sometimes, being a good neighbor is as simple as doing the right thing.

N

ick Yoss had driven past the property now run by the South Beloit Boys & Girls Club in Illinois for more than a decade.

“This place is right between home and my job,” he said. “I drove by every day for 15 years.”

He had noticed the property’s worn out look and the cracked pavement.

Then, a few years ago, the property underwent a major renovation. Not only were there new gym floors and a new counter installed inside, on the exterior the parking lot was resurfaced, the landscaping cleaned up, and a new sign was installed.

“I saw the work that had been done and I didn’t want it to eventually end

42

up like it had, so I offered to seal it and stripe it,” Yoss said. “They were tickled pink.”

Yoss owns Synergy Pavement Group, which serves Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. It took a crew of three people to complete the sealcoating. They came back two hours later to do the striping. They used a seal rig, an edger, striper and other equipment on the job.

The work earned Synergy Pavement Group the 2024 Good Neighbor Award from Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction Magazine.

“To support the South Beloit community, Nick donated the sealing and striping at the South Beloit Boys and Girls Club,” the award nomination stated. “The previous parking lot had been poorly maintained, as the cost to maintain it weighs heavy on the budget of a nonprofit such as the Boys and Girls Club; when the lot was repaved in 2022, Nick decided to make sure that keeping

the integrity of the new lot would not be an issue for the club.”

Synergy is a full-service, nationwide pavement maintenance and repair company providing paving, patching, crack filling and of course, sealing and striping. Yoss started the business in 1998 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He had visited the local Menards, where he saw an advertisement about sealcoating. Something about it appealed to him.

“I thought to myself, ‘I can do that,’” he said. “So I drove across the street to Staples and printed out business cards.” ■

For more information visit https://pavemg.com/synergy

GOOD NEIGHBOR RUNNER UP Dan Gillette & Juan Perez, Rabing American Maintenance (Palatine, IL)

PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE & RECONSTRUCTION | January 2024 | www.ForConstructionPros.com/Pavement

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