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A publication of the Marek Family of Companies

SPRING 1994

San Antonio’s New Library Reflects the City’s Cultural Diversity According to architects JohnsonDempsey & Associates, who designed San Antonio’s new Main Library, this is a world class building which will become a landmark for the city and the state. The elegant, seven-story library is designed to "speak to all the people of San Anto nio." Courtyards, shade terraces and strong, yet simple geometric forms make a strong design statement. Ground-level plazas invite people to participate in the multi-cultural activities that will take place inside, while the roof terraces, shaded by the sixth floor of the building, complement the climate and give outside spaciousness. Using the theme of sun and shadow to marry the exterior and interior of the building, the architects have de signed the inside to maximize the use of natural light. To accomplish this, the de sign calls for a 100-foot high atrium, barrel-vaulted and domed ceilings in the

reading rooms and mile upon mile of furrdowns. In addi tion, special sound-insulating ceilings in the basement keep the mode of the li brary open yet peaceful. Prior to the onset of this project last summer, key per sonnel from the City of San Antonio, the General Contractors

** " f 'fit The inside of the library combines natural lighting with large open areas and high ceilings.

H.A. Lott, Inc., the Architects and Engineers and all the major subcontractors, including MBS, met for i two-day partnering workshop

Modem geometric designs, terraces and patios will make the new library a San Antonio landmark.

to discuss the job design and manage ment and to build a team approach. Stan Marek, Grady Atnip and Alan Jezek represented MBS at the workshop. Work then began with a strong team of MBS leaders directing the project, including acoustical project manager Mark Wil liams; drywall project manager Alan Jezek; project superintendent Ron At nip; and working closely with the crews, Bobby Mirick, exterior drywall supervi sor; and Darwin Macat, the interior drywall supervisor. With a lot of different design features to accommodate, this project will be keep ing our crews busy for quite some time. On the exterior, we are framing outside walls, while on the inside our crews are installing around 100,000 sq. ft. of differ ent types of ceilings, which include 66,000 sq. ft. of Fineline Reveal Grid, metal studs for the walls, interior shaft wall construction around the elevators and HVAC shaft, escalator walls on the first floor and 30-foot high gypsum board ceilings on the second floor.

iijf]Nif!ir;firi¥iTiii: i riTrr rn1 r-rrfi^ MBS Dallas Work is beginning on the new USAA Claims office with G.C. Andres Construc tion Services. MBS will be installing ex terior heavy gauge framing and sheathing with perimeter offices surrounding a large open-plan space.

In his newly appointed position of fore man, Steve Nichols will be directing work at the K-Mart construction site in Arlington where we are installing heavy gauge 30- foot walls, double ceilings in some areas, a heavy gauge store front and exterior framing for a future garden shop. Work is also scheduled to start on two new Target outlets. Foreman Roland Gilmore

and his crews will be installing 14-foot ceilings, extensive amounts of furrdowns and heavy gauge exterior.

MBS Austin Our crews are starting on the new IRS service center where we will be remodel ing existing office space. All the work has to be carried out at night to allow regular business to begin each morning at 6:00 A.M., which is presenting quite a chal lenge to foreman Joe Knight and his team which includes Ernie Canales, Larry Ford and Garron Hanley. In July, foreman Jim Furr, assisted by Jeff Scott, will begin work on the last of

four HEB store being built or renovated ^ in the AUstin area, installing new walls } and furrdowns.

MBS San Antonio San Antonio predicts a very hectic sched ule through 1994 with plenty of new pro jects. There are currently three medical jobs starting up. At the Blood and Tissue Center, we are installing drywall and acoustical ceilings for G.C. BartlettCocke; work is starting on the renovation and expansion of the National Health Laboratories; and in July, work will start on the Gastroenterology Endoscopy Cen ter with MBS installing drywall and acoustical ceilings.

MBS Houston Our crews will be kept busy into next year working on the new Fort Bend County Jail and Sheriff’s office, a six-story addi tion to the existing space, where we are installing drywall and acoustical ceilings.

MBS Family Fun Day Held in conjunction with the AGC Safety Day, our March 23 Family Fun day at tracted an enthusiastic response from the Field. With plenty of activities for the children, including a petting zoo, ponycart rides, Moon Walk and clowns, par ents had a chance to sample the excellent barbecue and enjoy the music and general festivities.

Although they did not place in the barbecue contest, our"Old Timers'1 cooked up over 400 lbs. of meat and fed around 500 people, so it has to have been pretty good! Shown from It. to rt. are Ted Hajdik, James Han/el, Mike DeGroot and Jay Richard. Missing from the photo are head cook Ben Boatright, Kevin Turnbull and Kenny O'Brien.

Playing on the theme of "Don’t Gamble with Your Safety, "our brightly-colored wheel of fortune, spun by Carolyn Boatright, drew huge crowds and lots of interest.

fcjfe * Over 4,000 people attended the AGC barbecue cook-off and Safety Day.

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Darrell Johnson, Florentin Hernan dez, Paulino Velasquez and Juan Turcios are all to be congratulated for keeping the work on schedule.

MBS Dallas MBS Austin Foreman Steve Raynor, assisted by Hal Pollard, Ray Draper, David Oberman and Jeff Anderson, are completing work at the Arnold White and Durkee building installing drywall, acoustical ceilings, doors and lots of reveals. The Episcopal Theological Seminary project has been keeping foreman Jim Furr busy installing heavy gauge exte rior framing, cathedral sheetrock ceil ings, radius furrdowns and 12x12 concealed spline ceilings, as well as a theatre-type stepped seating area. Work ing with Jim on this job are Jeff Scott, Carlos Rivera and Jeff Hooper. Stores designed to attract young people generally have some unusual finishes, as foreman Lloyd Meredith, and his crew, which includes Matt Richardson, Lee Rivera and Larry Ford, are finding out at Gap Kids in the Highland Mall. MBS is installing furrdowns, walls, acoustical ceilings and recessed wall standards. Gary Danish, foreman on the Homer Thornberry project, along with Erin Sites, Sergio Sanchez and Carlos Vega, are working nights installing 72,000 square feet of acoustical ceilings and 4,000 square feet of acoustical wall pan-

els. The Capitol Renovation project is now 80% complete thanks to foreman Floyd Zahn, and a great crew of men which includes John Anderson, Alex Ruiz, Armando Garcia and Kevin Ragsdale. Work is also close to completion on the Austin CableVision building where we have been building out two floors of of fices, TV studios and service depart ments, installing heavy gauge exterior, one-hour fire "tunnel" corridors, and in stalling acoustical ceiling sheetrock. A The project includes some extensively detailed work including 2,500 feet of re veals coupled with 50-foot high catheHral ceilings, which have resulted in of challenge and some lofty scafplenty

folding! In addition, the sound studios have 30-foot high sound walls with 6inch studs, sound insulation, 5/8 sheetrock and 3/4 sound board. A 26-man crew has kept this project on track under foreman Clark O’Briant’s direction. Other key men on the job in clude assistant foreman Ben Oyler, lead men Brian Avey, Mike Kitchens and Ken Whitmire, Bill Lashbrook in charge of the acoustical ceilings work, laborer Frank Cordova and mechanic Rueben Herrera.

MBC Landscape Thanks to the great work that Homer Garza and his team - Jose Carabantes, Javier Herrera, Roberta Rivera and Jose Zelaya - have put into maintaining the grounds at Conoco World Headquar ters, the company has renewed its land scape maintenance contract with us for another three years. Work continues on the Woodlands Mall project where we are about half-way through the work installing major plant ing of ground cover, buffalo grass and trees.

Foreman Tommy Weeks and his crew got an education about earlier construc tion at the new Dallas Education Center where we renovated a former Joske’s store and unearthed lots of construction history. The old facility was refurbished to house administration offices and class rooms for a new education center. The work included lots of deck walls, sound insulation and individual grid ceilings, while in the lobby we installed extensive radius walls and magazine light coves. Keeping hi-rise renovation projects stocked while there are other tenants in the building is always something of a challenge, even when the freight elevator goes all the way to the top. But things really get hard when you are working on the 49th floor and the elevator stops on the 48th floor. This is the challenge fac ing foreman Richard Osterloh, who is working on a complete renovation of the 49th floor of the Thanksgiving Tower in Downtown Dallas. Materials for the pro ject have to be brought up through a five-foot square hole in the floor, 16-feet above the 48th floor freight elevator lobby. To make things even tougher, stocking can only be done after midnight! Little wonder that the insurance liability

MBC Houston Multi-Family Apartment construction is coming back to Texas. Unlike previous years when there has been no summer work, we are expecting a good summer for Marek Multi family with the following projects under construction, and a number of other very good prospects pending: General Contractor Camden Property

No. of Units 284

City Austin

Camden Property

144

Corpus Christi

Camden Property

288

Houston

Ingleside Ltd.

100

Ingleside

Davis Bros.

193

Houston

Davis Bros.

188

Houston

Jefferson Property

352

Houston

Gables Residential Trust

319

Irving

Construction Supervisors

166

Houston

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mi on the job is $2 million! Our thanks to Gypsum Supply and to Daniel for their assistance and help. Working with foreman Ed Kuta, some of our crews are getting a first-hand taste of what it feels like "behind bars" while working on the renovation of the Venus II minimum security prison in Venus, Texas. The offices, classrooms and stor age areas are all typical drywall construc tion. In addition, the job calls for large quantities of acoustical ceilings and toilet accessories, access doors and Tectum wall panels in the cells. Elsewhere in town, Steve Nichols and his crews have recently completed a joint project with MBC installing drywall and acoustical ceilings to finish out two twostory villas and a pavilion which were used during the recent GTE/Bryan-Nelson Golf Tournament. Work is nearing completion at the Denton Regional Medical Center, a three-story medical office building where foreman Terry Evans and superintendent Craig Dotterer have been performing the core

work. We are hoping to also land contracts to build out the tenant space as well as working on phase II of the hospital construction.

MBS Houston Virtually all the work we do involves either building or renovation work, so it makes a change when the assignment calls for tearing out the walls and ceil ings. But, over the next eight months, our crews will be doing just that at 1100 Milam, home of Houston Industries (Houston Lighting & Power) where we are working a double shift - days and nights - demolishing walls and ceilings. A major remodeling project is underway at the Stewart Title offices where fore man Dave Gordon, and finishing fore man Steve Laurence, are renovating seven floors while working around exist ing tenants. A fast-paced schedule resulted in a 30man crew working evenings and nights on the Meridian Oil company tenant build-out project where drywall foreman Wiley Pierce, finishing foreman Jim Bicki, and paint foreman Tony Cuellar have been working on eight floors install ing extensive mill work, a new stair well,

a new lobby area with radiused walls and plenty of high finishes, including po lymix paint. Churches always involve high elevations and some complicated construction de tails such as furrdowns and complex ceil ings. Diywall superintendent John Ellis and finishing foreman David Pryor are meeting the challenge at the St. John’s Church where a new building is being erected between two existing churches. In order to blend in with the two adjoin ing churches, the exterior heavy gauge framing has to match the other exteriors, while on the inside, 15-foot sound baffles in the gymnasium, and lots of furrdowns and acoustical ceiling work have kept our crews on their toes. Work will continue until the end of the year on the Allen Center renovation where our crews are bringing the build ing up to ADA standards, retrofitting the lobby areas and installing GRG covers. In One Allen Center, lead man Joe Sykora and his crews are working on some very intricate construction installing | glass box GRGs and reveals all around the ceilings to replace the old plaster ceil ings.

MBS Houston Wins APEX Award I I I

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Congratulations to everyone who worked on the Shaipstown Mall project, which won MBS the AGC Apex award for Project Excellence. Members of the project team

were honored at a dinner and reception on May 11 which included recognition of all

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the winners and a presentation to award the trophies to the winning companies.

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San Antonio Cashes In On A Major Bank Contract

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From left to right: Danny Yanowski, Fortunato Banda, Antonio Trujillo and Martin Salazar stand in front of Oak Forest Lumber’s latest acquisition, anew Stewart and Stevenson Hyster fork-lift.

I Oak Forest Lumber and Supply proudly honors four Yard men. With a combined tenure of over 60 years, this group re ceives materials by truck and rail, inven tories over 200 items and loads the delivery trucks for MBC and MBS. Mar tin Salazar, our warehouse foreman, is primarily responsible for our three-million square feet of wallboard inventory.

Antonio Trujillo handles over 150 tons of steel framing. Fortunato Banda is mainly responsible for finishing, insula tion and wall covering materials and Daniel Yanowski has to maintain 45,000 square feet of covered warehouse as well as the grounds and surrounding area. We doubt that any other group could cover so much, so well.

Drywall foreman Wayne Schultze, and acoustical ceilings foreman Eddie Atnip, have worked on a lot of high profile, quality jobs in the past, so they were the obvious choice to lead opera tions when H.C. Beck awarded MBS San Antonio a major contract to build out the highly prestigious USAA North Campus Building. Located just West of Down town San Antonio on I-10, no money is being spared in ensuring that this is a really top-notch job. Built on four floors with a sub-level, the building will have lots of large open areas as well as an open plan office layout. Setting off these areas will be several thousand feet of continu ous drywall furrdowns and elaborate wood ceilings (particularly on the first floor), acoustical ceilings, metal ceilings and acoustical wall panels, all of which will be installed by MBS. Working in a partnering agreement with H.C. Beck, we have pledged to this being a safe, quality project. A look at the statistics shows just how much this project entails: Over200,000 sq. ft. of acoustical ceilings Over 5,000 sq. ft. of acoustical walls Over 11,000 sq. ft. of acoustical panels Over 10,000 sq. ft. of metal ceilings Over 10,000 sq. ft. of custom wood ceilings

Annual Divot Team Classic Featured Unique 27=hole Format On April 23, the Office-Field golf tour nament attracted 64 participants from Houston, San Antonio and Austin. Winning the tournament was John Bicki and Rickey Benge from MBS Field Crews, and Ken Neschwitz and Rick Ferguson from sponsors, Clintas Uniforms. The course had a unique 27-hole for mat, which made for a lot of playing time and plenty of opportunity for everyone to meet and mix. records during their careers with our companies Page 5

All four men have the right people skills, Qk Jr coupled with the sharp eye for detail that the job demands. Together they work well as a team, covering each other’s territories and helping one another when a need arises.

Jorge Guerro is recognized by MBC Houston for his contribution and outstanding performance.

Landscape crew supervisor Darrell Johnson has used his experience on the Woodlands project.

MBS Austin

have won him the respect of our custom ers. Having guys like Jorge on the team enables us to stand out from our compe tition. Thank you, Jorge, for a job well done!

Special recognition goes to John Ander son, lead man at the Capitol Renovation Project. Working under the direction of superintendent Floyd Zahn, John has been framing S/R ceilings and furrdowns. He is doing an outstanding job, and consistently beats the budget.MBC Landscape Knowledge and experience in the land scape industry win Darrell Johnson, our landscape crew supervisor, outstanding employee recognition this issue. Darrell joined the company last November and has been responsible for the ongoing Woodlands Mall project. His talents have been a big factor in helping this project move along so well.

MBC Houston MBC would like to recognize Jorge Guerro, who works as a customer service representative in our residential department, for his outstanding perform ance. Jorge started with the company as a trainee on a finishing crew 15 years ago. Since then he has worked his way up, proving himself to be a real asset to the company. He is currently working in our custom housing division taking care of a number of accounts. His ability as a drywall craftsman, and his willing attitude and ability to get the job done properly,

MBC Dallas Outstanding employee recognition goes to a team of field supervisors: Fred Ken nedy, Tim Ramsey, Phil Scardino and Armando Zubiri who, together, oversee the work of all our stocking, hanging, finishing and texture crews. With home building activity in the Dallas area at the highest level for several years, these guys typically put in long hours and six-day weeks to get the job done. Fred, Tim, Phil and Armando each cover large geographical areas with many different subdivisions. Deal ing with builders and their superin tendents on a daily basis means that they play an impor tant role in estab lishing and maintaining cus tomer relations.

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Fred Kennedy has more than nine-years experience with MBC, and has run both house and apartment projects. Armando Zubiri has been with the company two years and has earned his promotions. Phil Scardino and Tim Ramsey joined MBC last year. They were both previously in similar positions with another company. Our thanks and well deserved recogni tion to these four outstanding supervi sors. Welcome to four new faces. After inter viewing numerous applicants, like the marines, we were able to find "a few good men." Previously self-employed as a drywall contractor, Chris Cariker will add experience and confidence to our team. Stacy Murphy has an impressive back ground in drywall, painting, remodel work, apartment make-ready and plumbing. Joining us from another drywall con tractor, Sam Ralls and C.T. Stringer bring to MBC many years of experience and great personalities. We welcome Chris, Stacy, Sam and C.T. to our team and wish them continued success.

MBC Houston Multi-Family Rafael Andaverde recently completed the most challenging out-of-state apart ment job in the history of MBC Houston.

■ SPECIAL REPORT FROM ATLANTA y

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LJ Big buildoutjobs, like the Fire Fund building in Atlanta, take plenty of sheetrock, skill and patience, particularly when the job entails loading easily damaged sheetrock through an upper-story window.

Recognition goes to foreman Dave Wil liams. Dave is a real people pleaser when it comes to customers and he also works hard to get the job done. Welcome to Teresa Oliver, our new re ceptionist, who is certainly a bright addi tion to the Atlanta office.

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a Being outside Texas, Marek Interior Systerns in Atlanta sometimes tends to be a bit forgotten. But, that isn’t because noth ing is going on up in Georgia. On the contrary, Atlanta is a vital and rapidly growing city which hosts many major corporations headquarters, Our Atlanta office, headed up by Steve Shockley, is hard at work, and involved in building some of the city’s most prestigious and attractive landmark buildings. ^; Several new projects are starting this summer and Steve is predicting plenty of heavy tenant buildout work and a fastpaced schedule throughout the summer months

Work is kicking off on the new Heidel berg USA building where job supervisor Mike O’Brien, project foreman Mike Perry and finishing foreman Bill O’Brien are working with Choate Con struction installing drywall, acoustical ceilings and EIFS.

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Working with general contractors, Beers Construction, who are an on going cus tomer of MIS Atlanta, foreman superin tendent Fred Lay and foreman John Collum are installing drywall and acous-

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tical ceilings at the multistory Joan Glancy Medical Office. Then, elsewhere in town, our crews are working on an other job for Beers Construction, where we are also installing drywall and acous tical ceilings in the new Dun and Bradstreet building. Foreman John Porter is playing a key role keeping a fast-track project on sched ule at the CNN television broadcasting building where the client is anxious to move in and the time schedule leaves no room for mistakes or delays. Foreman Gilbert Shelton, a 20-year veteran with MIS has overseen many of the most pres tigious projects handled out of this office. He is now directing operations at the Delta Reservations building where we are installing drywall and acoustical ceil ings. Tenant buildout and build-backs are big business in Atlanta, and Craig Dreyovich and Jimmy Hallmark are keeping busy building back tenant space in a number of downtown buildings for GA Pacific including the Marquise 1 building and Harris Tower. Keep up the good work, Atlanta!

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Congratulations to Steve and Terry Ann Shockley on the birth of their son. Congratulations also to newly weds, Bart and Vickie Lord who got married in April, and not-so-newly-weds Cindy Roberts, our payroll clerk and her hus band Bob, who tied the knot a year ago.

<5 Girls Club is just one of several high profile jobs that MIS in Atlanta has worked on in recent

& Suppliers!

Preparing for a great day of golfing Some called it the tournament to end all tournaments, but for those who know the Marek Brothers Companies, the MIS Golf Tournament was just another com pany success! Beautiful spring-like weather, a fabulous golf course, great team spirit and plenty of refreshments were the perfect ingredi ents for a great day of outdoor fun and

friendship. With MIS hosting the event to show appreciation to our many customers, we were delighted to welcome partici pants from many of Atlanta’s leading builders, develop ers and general contractors including representatives fromAbacus,Arco, Armstrong Con struction, Alpha In sulation, Barber, Batson Cook, Good weather and good cheer made the tournament an all-round success Beers Construc tion, Capco Cen tex, Choate Construction, Dietrich, EllisFirst Place Winners: Don, HCB, G. D. Hines Interests, Holder, Interim, C.D. Moody, New South Con Brendon Doyle, MIS struction, Parker, Patton, R. J. Griffin, Roy Veh, Unimast Turner, Unimast, USGI, Universal Staff Paul Little, Turner Construction ing and Workers Atlanta. John Welborn, Barber Construction Representives from MIS included Jeff Burns, Doyle Crow, Brendon Doyle, Mike Feather, Bud Hudson, Fred Lay, Bruce Marek, Stan Marek, Mike O’Brien, Teresa Oliver, Becky Paramore, Bonnie Reece, Cindy Roberts, David Salyers, Steve Shockley, Brian Skinner, Greg Stine and Ralph Stilz.

Second Place Winners: Tom Sarris, Batson Cook Marty Perrin, Beers Construction Jim Boocher, Ellis-Don Vic Verman, Alpha Insulation

"It was our first and absolutely last venture into Denver, Colorado," says sales manager, Gary Marek. Houston builder The Morgan Group hired a local Denver superintendent and other local subcon tractors. According to operations manager, Ray Campbell, their working situation was very difficult with contin ued stops and starts to the production schedule. Each week, different inspec tors were put on the job, with each new inspector overruling the direction gi ven by the previous inspector. Through it all, Rafael hung in and completed the job. He proved himself to be tougher than both challenging job conditions and the cold Colorado winter!

Combining the Fishin’ Fools with the Annual Cook-Off Proves a Recipe for Success

MBS San Antonio MBS San Antonio held its fifth Annual Golf Tournament on May 6 at Woodlake Country Club. Watch for the results in your next Insights.

It was difficult to tell who was most excited - Tammy or Tim Matatall - when Tim landed this 7.65 lb. Big Mouth bass to claim first prize in the Fishing Tournament.

MBS Houston

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! Phil Nevlud - a real asset to the team.

Phil Nevlud is a dedicated employee with a tremendous capacity for work. He unflinchingly takes on additional workload as necessary while still managing to juggle all his other priorities. Phil is veiy involved in the jobs he manages and works well with our production depart ment who report that "he is always there when he is needed." Somehow, despite his long working hours, Phil finds time to Wri spend with his wife, Kelli and their eleven-month old son, Preston, as well as working on restoring a 1970 Pontiac GTO. We are really fortunate to have a guy like Phil on our team.

Plenty of sunshine, great food and some stiff competition were the order of the day at MBS Houston’s Cook-Off and Fishin’Fools combined party this spring.

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MBS Austin Congratulations to Doug and Kelly Prew, who are celebrating the birth of their first child, a daughter, Mandie Ni cole, April 3 and weighing 7.5 lbs. Floydborn Zahn is the proud grandparent of a baby granddaughter, Alana-Ann, bom April 25 and weighing 71bs lloz.

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MBC Houston Congratulations to Carlos and Juany Rodriguez-Morin on the birth of their daughter, Jocelyn, who weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz. at birth and joins eight-year old Joanna and five-years old Carlos Jr.

MBS San Antonio Congratulations to Preston and Kim arragan on the birth of their new son, PreS'0n Taj,|or’ born °" AP"' 1 ™d weighing71bs lloz.

future. How can we attract young people into an industry that has so little to offer? At What can we do? First, we need to under- *

Wmrm&MP Recently, several of our top executives met with a special task force of the Asso ciated General Contractors. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the effect on our industry of drywall contractors classifying employees as independent subcontractors, and then paying them for piece work. I have addressed the issue with many of you in the past. It’s no secret that the residential market here, and everywhere else in Texas, has gone the way of the independent subcontrac tor. Builders are contracting with subcon tractors who re-sub work to workers who are paid by the piece without any money being paid for unemployment, social se curity, workers’ compensation, or any other benefits at all. And, this isn’t just in the drywall trades, it is pervasive throughout all sub trades in the residen tial market. For years, in the school and retail mar kets, we have seen commercial drywall contractors using independent subcon tractors. Those kinds of jobs have typi cally been easy to convert to piece work and, with the shortage of work in our city, it hasn’t been hard to find people to work for a square foot price with no benefits. Unfortunately, the larger work hasn’t come back as much we thought, and we are seeing a large segment of our tradiThe Marek Family Of Companies ATLANTA, GEORGIA Marek Interior Systems, Inc. (MISI)

AUSTIN, TEXAS Marek Brothers Systems, Inc. (MBS)

tional markets falling to the contractors who perform the majority of their work by the piece. General contractors may not be that excited about using them because of scheduling problems, safety viola tions, and lesser quality, but their cost of doing business is certainly less than an hourly subcontractor who pays the re quired taxes and provides benefits. And our industry is now more concerned about price than quality and fairness. Many people have written volumes about where our construction industry is headed if we don’t start policing inequi ties. It’s hard enough to attract young men and women into an industry, but offer them jobs that don’t comply with state and federal labor laws, or offer any benefits, and soon we’ll be looking for labor that doesn’t exist. The purpose of our meeting was to ask our local AGC for help. We have built a good company over many years. We do feel that our employees are our greatest asset, and we do believe in our Statement of Values. But, all of this will be mean ingless if we can’t be the low-cost pro ducer, and as long as we pay the required taxes and pay benefits, we won’t be. I know that many of you have worked in the piece work market before. It’s a tough way to make a living and not much of a

stand the problem. The owners gets a less expensive product, the general contractor doesn’t make any more money, the drywall contractor, who plays by the rules, doesn’t make any money, and the work ing man suffers in the end. Educating owners, general contractors and other subcontractors is a start. Maybe, if we all looked down the road at the industry we’re creating, people would think about changing it. Taxing authorities are missing a golden opportunity by not enforcing the unem ployment, social security, and withhold ing laws that affect the rest of us since many so-called independent subcontrac tors go into the underground economy and don’t pay taxes. The problem didn’t just happen over night and we won’t solve it overnight, but we must face the problems in our indus try and not ignore the fact that we must do our part to find a solution. We all have too much invested in this company and our way of doing business. General contractors, please educate the owners on the pitfalls of using the lowdollar bid when it means using subcon tractors not complying with the law. And, please examine the way you select sub contractors to make sure that you re not fostering a system that is contrary to all our long-term interests.

Stan Marek

Insights 3539 Oak Forest Drive Suite 200 Houston, Texas 77018

DALLAS, TEXAS Marek Brothers Systems, Inc. (MBS) Marek Brothers Company (MBC)

HOUSTON, TEXAS Blue Bell Pace Builders Marek Brothers Company (MBC) Marek Brothers Systems (MBS) Marek Brothers Landscaping Oak Forest Lumber and Supply Company Stanley Construction Company SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS Marek Brothers Systems (MBS) SAN ANTONIO/HARLINGEN,TEXAS Marek Brothers Systems, Inc. (MBS)