2020 Contractor of the Year by Randall Reilly

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CONTRACTOR2020OFTHEYEAR SPONSORED BY

Congratulations again on being named to the 2020 class of Equipment World’s Contractor of the Year! We wanted to give you this Yearbook in recognition and remembrance of this accomplishment. In it you’ll see your story along with those of each member of the 2020 class. We’ve also added a selection of photos from the event. We hope you enjoy this look back! Equipment World Editors and The Caterpillar Team

Scenes from the 2020 event .......... p. 6 Winner Toby Drake, Drake Construction ............ p. 10 Finalists Bret Barnhart Excavating ...................... p. 15 CLS Excavation ....................................... p. 18 C.M. Mitchell Construction .................... p. 21 Dirtworks Incorporated ........................ p. 24 Giordano Construction .......................... p. 27 Goodmanson Construction ................... p. 30 JLR Contractors ..................................... p. 33 Muggli Contracting .............................. p. 36 Ray Lippis Excavating ............................. p. 39 Mountain Valley Contracting ................ p. 42 T & K Utilities ........................................ p. 45 2020OFCONTRACTORTHEYEAR TABLE OF CONTENTS

6 SCENES FROM CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR SCENES FROM CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

7 SCENES FROM CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

8 SCENES FROM CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

9 SCENES FROM CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

From left, Mike Florer, mechanic; Daniel Paajanen, engineer; Richard Gilliver, Pegson & Powerscreen sales representative; Ben “Dude” Bennett-Foreman; and Toby Drake.

Toby Drake Drake Construction City, State: Kotzebue, Alaska Year Started: 1982 Number employees:of 35 Annual revenue: $8 million to $10 million Markets served: Civil concreteaggregatespiledevelopment,construction,undergroundroads,includingconstructionairports,sitefoundations,and

Kotzebue is 548 miles north and west of Anchorage. Materials and equipment are transported on barges or ice roads the company builds. Snowmobiles serve as light-duty pickup trucks. Bush pilots carry Drake crews to jobsites unreachable by sea or river. On more than one occasion, Drake has hired a C-130 Galaxy aircraft to fly machines and materials to a jobsite.

by Tom Jackson

Much of the work Drake Construction performs supports 11 off-the-grid Native American villages that trail off into the tundra north and east. Without this infrastructure, many of these villages could not survive.

2020 ofContractortheYear

Drake has six months to get 12 months’ worth of work done. How he does it is worth studying for any contractor faced with a shortened work season. The key, he says, is exhaustive planning, great crews and the ability to improvise, adapt and overcome.

oby Drake is no stranger to short seasons. His firm, Drake Construction, is in Kotzebue, Alaska, 33 miles above the Arctic Circle. The sun disappears for a month in winter. Wind chill temperatures can plunge to minus 90 degrees at times, colder than the top of Mount Everest. Most of the time, there are no roads to take crews to jobs. In this harsh environment

Toby Drake found his calling in the wilds of Alaska, as well as a genius for logistics and a can-do crew.

livelihood.Andlater

Scariest job ever But all the preparation in the world isn’t enough to succeed at construction in Alaska. You also need an abundance ofIngrit.the dead of winter one year while Drake was still in his teens, his dad got a call about a burst sewer line in Kotzebue. With wind chill temperatures plunging to minus 90-degree territory, Drake, his dad and a helper somehow coaxed an excavator to crank and started digging. Almost immediately they hit an unmarked water main. Because of the permafrost, public water systems in Alaska continually reheat and recirculate the water in the pipes underground. Otherwise, entire municipal water systems would freeze solid.

Where his dad used one barge and tugboat, Drake’s now running four barges and three tugboats and supplying gravel not only to his own jobs but to other contractors all over western Alaska. And he’s continued to build on his dad’s exemplary crew by adding more likeminded, can-do individuals.

If there is anything Drake does differently than his father it is taking Toby and Daniel Paajanen, next to Drake’s largest and most recent barge acquisition.

What do you do when it absolutely has to be there overnight? Load it on a C-130 Hercules cargo plane and fly it to the jobsite.

And if you wanted to learn about construction, you couldn’t do much better than to be adopted by Wayne Drake, Toby’s father. Wayne Drake was a serial entrepreneur, heading up at various times a homebuilding company, a cabinet shop and commercial construction companies. Drake’s earliest impressions of his father still inform his approach to people and business. He remembers as a child waking up before dawn and listening to his dad talk with the crews and observing his calm authority and the respect he got from the workers who depended on him for their when he was in his teens and early 20s, Drake continued to see the example he’d need to succeed on his own. “I’d come home in the early morning hours after having beers with my buddies, and Dad would be sitting at the counter with a yellow legal pad writing out the next week’s tasks, working up a bid or figuring out how to make something happen.”

Drake accepted the deal and admits some trepidation, but for naught. He had a construction education that no amount of money could buy, a solid crew to work with and his dad’s example to guide him. He has grown the company since.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR WINNER

“We figured we had eight to 12 hours before the whole system started freezing up,” says Drake. Just as they saw progress, the excavator threw off one of its tracks. Wayne Drake sacrificed the undercarriage on that side of the machine and continued to claw out the frozen ground around the burst main. They worked through the night while reheating extra boots and gloves in the truck cab to ward off frostbite. With their wounded excavator, the three managed to dig out the broken water main and repair it. They then immediately turned to the original problem, the broken sewer line, and fixed it with little time to spare.

The transition After high school, Drake studied construction management in Anchorage but came home to work in Kotzebue and never looked back. In 2001, he assumed most of the office functions for theIncompany.2006,Drake bought out his dad’s business. There was no transition. His dad wrote out how much he thought the company was worth and handed the paper to Drake. Then he said, “Your mom and I are getting on a plane to Arizona next week. Take it or leave it.”

The best teacher Drake himself is Native American. Adopted in California as a child, he was told he was Cherokee. But when the family moved to Alaska, a deeper search of the records discovered otherwise. He is actually Athabaskan, a tribe from the interior of Alaska. By accident or providence, he found his home.

Today’s challenges

The cost to ship an excavator or wheel loader from Anchorage to Kotzebue is $1 a pound, which is another reason Drake uses his own barges. The rivers in western Alaska run hundreds of miles inland, but most are shallow. Drake’s standard barges and tugboats run about 5 feet of draft. But when considering a job in an area with even shallower water, Drake and his crew figured out a way to modify a small tugboat commonly used in Louisiana.

“Most of the folks we hire are known by somebody who either knows us, works for us or who has worked for us,” says Drake. “I don’t get a recommendation from my core guys unless they know it’s going to work.”

problem saying, ‘How do you do this’ or ‘I’m not sure about this, could you show me again,’” he adds. “I want guys with opinions and guys who will think, but guys who will ask questions, too.”

Since then the GPS has proved its value on numerous runways and DOT How do you get a barge onshore for the winter? You hook it up to a big Cat and tow it over the top of these giant airbags.

The barge business Using his barges and tugboats, Drake will often put machines and material in place in the fall so crews can start to work the following spring before the ice thaws on the river or the Chukchi Sea.

Even with all that Drake has going for him, no construction enterprise is a oneman band, and he has put a great deal of thought and effort into finding and keeping the best possible crews.

Attitude is number one on Drake’s list of qualifications. “I’ll take a supergood attitude and a willingness to learn versus a guy who has been around for 30 years, knows his craft but is otherwise a jerk,” he says. For younger guys just coming into the trades, Drake likes to see curiosity and a desire to learn. “For us, a great way to get your foot in the door is to get your flaggers card or get your CDL,” he says. “If I know you’re trying to do all you can to be useful, that’s a huge help.”

The solution was to fabricate sponsons to put on both sides of the hull. (Sponsons are torpedo shaped flotation devices), doubling the displacement. The end result was a tugboat that could push a barge through waist-deep water. “It can be out of the water, disassembled and on a trailer in 45 minutes,” Drake says. “We did that a couple years ago and have been using the heck out of it ever since.”

When the weather warms in April and May, Drake’s employee roster swells from a handful to 50 or more, including three mechanics and two mechanic’s helpers. The company is on its own when a machine breaks down. There’s nobody to call for service. Getting Tier 4 equipment and diesel exhaust fluid to work in Alaskan temperatures requires mechanics with skills and problemsolving abilities far in excess of what other contractors need. These situations also require people with multiple skills and the ability to think on their feet. Yet not all of those who come to work at Drake Construction bring a heavy equipment or operator background.

Drake Construction got its first GPS rover in 2005 and second rover shortly after that, says Paajanen, the company’s technology lead. “We kept talking about machine control, but it was such a huge cost, we had to wait for a job to justify it.”

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR WINNER

12 on more risk. “I bought a few pieces of equipment when I was pretty sure, but not entirely sure, we had the work,” he says. “Up here you have to have the machinery almost a season before the work begins. Otherwise, by the time you buy it, get it on the barge and get it to the site, you might miss the job.”

“My three top guys were in construction and around heavy civil, but not immersed in it,” says Drake. “Jon Gregg was a carpenter when he came on board. Mike Cain was an electrician and welder. Daniel Paajanen was an

But Drake’s appetite for risk was well timed. North Slope oil made all Alaskans and the state government richer, and the federal government in recent years has seen the need to better fund infrastructure projects for the Native populations and their villages throughout the state.

That first grade-control job was a harbor dredging in 2012. “It didn’t have the tight tolerances of a runway or a paved road, but there wasn’t a straight line on it. Everything was contoured, so trying to do that with stakes would have been a nightmare,” says Paajanen.

The promise and peril of technology

The job Gregg found most challenging, however, was the construction of a series of lift station improvements in Kotzebue, 20 to 30 feet below grade. “What we did no one had done in rural Alaska before,” says Gregg. “We bought the forms and built our own precast wet wells with all the penetrations for the piping coming in and out and the ladders and hangers. It was fun to use all of our assets, from pushing sheet pile perimeter to constructing the building over the top, and installing the pumps, all the tie-ins and all the pipework and connections back to the existing system. We did every single bit of that work ourselves, and it was a good example of how multi-disciplined Toby’s crew is.”

The harbor dredge job is a good example of the kinds of challenges that get Drake’s crews fired up. Timing was critical because the harbor had to be blocked off and drained with dewatering pumps just as the ground was starting to freeze, but not so late that everything turned to solid ice.

“You had to rip that frozen layer off and truck it out, but once you opened it up, it would freeze back twice as deep as before,” says Gregg. “It was a fine line. If you got too far down, you would get into this mucky, loam-type of material that you couldn’t handle, and then it would turn to glacier the next day. Trying to keep the pumps running in all that was pretty entertaining.”

13 projects and has saved the company countless hours, made all the more valuable by the compressed construction season in Alaska, says Paajanen. That’s not to say they haven’t had problems. Several of the units they’ve bought proved unreliable, and when you’re almost 600 miles from the nearest dealer, that causes more than a little consternation. Some of the problems may have been due to the cold and battery issues, but Paajanen thinks sometimes they just got a lemon.

Mike Cain, vice president of operations, mans a rover on a jobsite for Drake Construction, which has used GPS and rovers since 2005. A new loader is being delivered on a small barge. Notice the sponsons on either side of the tugboat hull. These retrofits increased the buoyancy of the tug, enabling it to maneuver into waters barely waist deep.

Still, technology plays a huge role in the company’s ability to work a short season. It recently bought a drone (at Best Buy, no less) and use it to photograph and map sites. And where cellular or internet connections are not available, it leases satellite dishes and equipment to create its own local area network.

A dozen emergencies a day

That’s also one of the reasons why so many talented people are attracted to Drake Construction. “When you’re figuring stuff out on the fly, you get the feeling that you’re coming up with ideas instead of just being handed a manual,” says Gregg. “You may face a dozen emergencies a day, but it’s still a big draw, being able to be creative.”

Nature’s challenge Drake Construction doesn’t have western Alaska all to itself. There’s even a competitor in Kotzebue. But what’s interesting about this business climate is that even competitors sometimes cooperate. The ever-present threat of the cold makes allies of all. If a competitor needs a part and calls you, there’s no question, you help them out. The next time it could be you needing the favor. Competition is good,

Safety protocols are followed to the letter. There is no margin for error when crews may be working hundreds of roadless miles from the nearest hospital.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR WINNER

But as a Native American with roots in the Athabaskan tribe and his wife, Amber, who is also a Native American, Drake is all too aware of the importance of the coronavirus restrictions. The health and well-being of the people and especially the elders in many of the native villages is of paramount concern. “We’ve already agreed to delay one project 30 days just to see what happens,” he says. “And we’ve been keeping in close contact with all our ongoing projects.”

Some of this Drake learned from his father, who he says never seemed to get rattled. But part of it is also comes from Alaska’s Native American culture, which values collaboration and cooperation.

Snow machines are used to move around when weather turns inclement. For safety ,Drake gives workers venturing out of cellphone range a Garmin Inreach, a GPS tracking device that also lets users send texts and alerts if there is a problem.

14 but survival is paramount. The weather also tends to have a leveling effect on egos as well.

Cursing the darkness – or the job or the equipment or the crew – will earn you a one-way ticket out of Kotzebue, as one hapless employee found out. Nobody benefits from an outburst when everybody is working as hard as they can in difficult circumstances. There’s an expectation of decency put on all who work here if they want to survive in Alaska. Even with all their problems with technology and Tier 4 engines, the attitude is: keep your cool, improvise, adapt and overcome.

When the usual construction dust and grit builds up in the office and shop in Kotzebue, Drake writes all the needed housekeeping chores on individual slips of paper, puts them in a bucket and passes the bucket around. Whatever it says on your slip of paper is what you do that day. “If I draw the paper that says clean the bathrooms, I clean the bathrooms,” says Drake. It’s a good way to keep egos in check, and it reminds the crews that everybody needs to wear a different hat now and then.

COVID-19 concerns Alaska has state guidelines on what you can and can’t do regarding the coronavirus. The state DOT put out its own guidelines, and many of the small towns and native villages have their ownDrakeprotocols.Construction, with its rigorous planning, is on top of it all. Lodging and meals are being arranged so that, where necessary, crews (many of whom are just now coming back from the lower 48) don’t have to break social distancing protocols with local people. Sanitation processes at the office, the shop and on the equipment are already in place.

From left, Byron Nelson, operator; Reed Henry, laborer; Evelyn Monroe, traffic control; Henry Booth, operator; Wayne Drake; Arvid “Junie” Nelson, foreman; Daniel Paajanen, engineer; Aubrey “Tex” Beasley, laborer; and Tim Kurka, foreman.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR WINNER

The virus it turns out, is one risk Toby Drake is unwilling to take, because as he says: “Every life is more important to us than any construction project.”

From left, Toby Drake; Cecil Taylor, health and safety officer; Eric Olsen, operator; John Healey, crushing superintendent; Mike Florer, mechanic.

Bret Barnhart’s roots in the construction business go deep. Way deep. His great grandfather started an excavating business with a pair of mules. His dad spent a lifetime in the business. And so beginning at the age of 10, Bret worked for his dad and granddad, starting as early as they did. He relished every opportunity to work alongside the men who loomed so large in his eyes. But when it came time to try his hand at his own business, Bret knew he had to go it alone.

Bret Barnhart, Bret Barnhart Excavating State: Mounds, Oklahoma Year Started: 2002 Number employees:of 21 Annual revenue: $3 million to $5 million Markets served: governmentalCommercial, and residential utilitydevelopmentsiteandinstallation.

City,

A truck, trailer and a backhoe So in 2002 Bret bought a truck, trailer and backhoe and started scrapping for work. The knowledge and old-school discipline he learned from his dad and grandad quickly paid off. Within a year his business was sustainable and developing a growing client list.

Paying attention to costs propels this Oklahoma contractor forward 2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

by Marcia Doyle and Tom Jackson

People in place But technology can only go so far if you don’t first have the people in place – people who are not only trained but developed through mentoring and leadership.EachTuesday, Bret has lunch with one of his four lieutenants. It’s more than just a time to socialize; the idea is to speak candidly about everything.

Bret looks for people who both complement his skill set and who have skills he doesn’t. For example, his estimator John Mozingo had been in the field for 20 years but was getting tired of outdoor work.

16 Bret saw opportunity in commercial and municipal projects, and today he offers full site packages throughout central and northeastern Oklahoma. He now has 21 employees and an annual volume of $3 million to $5 million.

Equipment insurance costs are also under Bret’s eagle eye. “I look at auction and retail sale prices and update my equipment insurance every year,” he explains. “Why insure a machine for $100,000 when it’s only worth $50,000?”

As it turns out, John knew a lot about computers, so Barnhart brought him on board as chief estimator, setting him up with software that enables the company to put out about 270 bids per year.

Justin Delcoure brought his expertise in GPS and machine control into the company, something Barnhart knew he needed but didn’t have the time for setting up systems and finessing Barnhart employees Eugene McNew, Ryan Gullo and Brandon Bailey with Bret Barnhart.

“The time is theirs,” he says. “I want to hear what they are thinking and what they are seeing.” He prefers for them to lead the discussion, and to listen to what they’re saying. These discussions are fruitful. In one, his mechanic opened up and said he was thinking about quitting. “I told him that if he thought that was the right path for him, he should take it and I wouldn’t hold any grudges.”

But he also pointed out to the mechanic that excessive job switching might lead some owners to look askance. He underlined that loyalty and consistency were paramount to company owners. The two worked out their issues and the mechanic is still with the company.

Bret, for example, uses his employee timecard data as part of his ownership cost for each piece of equipment. “We take those numbers and plug them into a job cost estimator,” he says.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“You have to know your costs,” he says. “If you don’t work smart, you’re going to be left behind.” This especially includes his equipment owning and operating costs.

For Bret, technology means everything, from bidding and estimating software, office management and recordkeeping systems to GPS.

And buying a machine needs to make financial sense in the company’s big picture. “We need to keep our financials in a place where we can withstand any obstacle,” he says.

While he learned much from the masters of the old-school, Bret recognized that the world is changing.

He sums it up: “The old my-way-orthe-highway doesn’t work anymore. You have to either recognize this and change the way you manage people or you’re never going to have enough people.”

Barnhart’s emphasis on people has yielded notice in the field. “They do excellent work,” says Brent Jacobs of Core and Main, a utility materials provider. “They are good at quickly getting in and out. Every piece of machinery they have has GPS on it and telematics so they know where it is.”

How big?

“If you have a company of 300 people and discover an ingrained institutional flaw, it’s almost impossible to rectify it,” Bret says. With 20 people, however, the dynamic is more flexible.

The biggest project

then, they told me, could I in good conscience fire anyone.”

Future generation: Cole Barnhart poses on his father Bret Barnhart’s backhoe.

Barnhart Excavating does a variety of commercial, governmental and residential site development.

17 the technology. Justin, his general superintendent, is now in charge of all fieldRealizingtechnology.thata lot of employee issues start at home, Bret has also started a monthly men’s group through his church, open to both employees and others in the community – including workers from other construction companies. Rather than meet in a conference room, the 20 to 30 guys put up folding chairs in his shop. The venue puts everyone at ease. “It’s a place they understand and are comfortable with,” he says.

Jacobs continues: “Bret sends a lot of his people to training sessions to teach them how to relate better to people, to the public and customers. They’re always asking, ‘Do you need anything more?’”

“In my dad’s day, you achieved scale by adding people,” he adds. “Today you achieve scale through technology and systems.”

You could say that Bret’s biggest people project is himself. He’s put considerable time and effort into studying management and selfimprovement programs. He’s an active participant in a program called Masterminds, a weekly teleconference of business peers. He’s also invested in John Maxwell and Dave Ramsey leadership programs. These groups have helped him learn leadership practices that differ from ways ingrained as he was growing up in the business. When he talked to his Masterminds peer group about dismissing an employee, for example, the group challenged him. “They told me I had to first face the possibility that I had failed to communicate my expectations to this employee,” Bret says. “I might also have failed to help that employee remove the roadblocks that were in his way to achieving what I wanted. Only

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Bret has put a lot of thought into how big his company should be. He sees a sweet spot between the smaller firms that just run compact equipment and the large general contractors in his area.

“Until all of your systems are scalable and perfected, however, you should not attempt to add more people,” he argues. If your systems are still imperfect, he says, every time you add people you magnify the impact of those imperfections.

“I knew I wanted my own business a year or less after I graduated college in 1993,” says Stephenson, co-owner of CLS Excavation. He played football at Texas Christian University and after school moved to Colorado to work for his father. During college he met his wife and future business partner, Amber. “I went into this because I had a wife. She was counting on me, and I have to take care of her.

Stephenson’s people have been moving dirt a long time. His grandfather John D. Wright started in Titus County, Texas, with mule-drawn scrapers before he bought what is thought to be the first bulldozer in

Clint and Amber Stephenson

Not just husband and wife, but business partners.

“This was what I knew how to do.”

Clint and Amber Stephenson split the day-to-day management of CLS, with Amber handling the money and Clint overseeing jobsite operations.

As he blazed that trail from Wyoming to Montana to Texas to Colorado, his boy was behind him the whole way. Watching his father’s dedication to hard work, attention to detail and providing for his family, Clint Stephenson was raised on construction, but also on the importance of creating your own opportunities instead of waiting on them to come to you.

CLS Excavation City, State: Liberty Hill, Texas

Year Started: 1996 Number employees:of 8-15, depending on season Annual revenue: $3 million to $5 million Markets served: Commercial site prep, materialsutilities,supply by Wayne Grayson Fred Stephenson didn’t just go to work. He chased it, digging up and pushing earth across a wide swath of the American West.

A long line of earthmovers

Couple start with dump truck, grit to grow successful excavation business

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“I started to learn how to run a D8 dozer in sixth grade. It was an old 8H with an angle blade and with no cab, and you ran the lever up here,” he says, gesturing with his hand near his shoulders.Bythetime he was in ninth grade, he was running D8s, a 988 loader and a 633 paddle wheel scraper.

19 that piece of country, between Dallas and Texarkana. The machine was such a new concept that Wright had to go clear across Texas before he found someone to run it. With the momentum of that lineage behind him, Stephenson got an early introduction to equipment operation.

“This isn’t just a job to me,” Clint Stephenson says. “We’re not just there to get done and go on to the next one. I need to be able to sleep at night knowing that I went above and beyond.”

In 1998, following the purchase of a Cat D5H dozer, Stephenson took out an ad in the yellow pages and landed his first commercial job. From there, CLS amassed more machines and more work.

Just as his father, Fred, had worked for his father in-law, Stephenson spent much of his early years working alongside his father. But in 1996, he and Amber decided to strike out on their own. They packed up everything they owned and split it between his dump truck and her Geo Tracker and moved from Mt. Pleasant, Texas, to Austin. It didn’t take long for the Stephensons to find their first consistent work.

Stephenson ran that dump truck all over Austin for about a year and a half before he bought a 416 Cat backhoe from his brother. “I had made as much money as I could from the dump truck, and eventually the backhoe started doing so much more that I had to sub out the trucking work I was doing,” he says.

Buying used The CLS equipment fleet is 100 percent owned, Stephenson said, though the company occasionally leases. It buys used machines and does most of its own

“We moved into an apartment complex that was still under construction, and I asked who was hauling their dirt,” he recalls. “I offered to cut that price by $5 a load and asked if they’d give me the job.”

“Wemaintenance.buygoodquality, low-hour machines. It costs me less to get into it, but I still can do the same amount of work as a brand new one,” Stephenson says. “And we treat all of our equipment like it provides for our families.”

Stephenson says repairability is becoming a big concern. “Some of this brand-new stuff...they’re not making it end-user friendly as far as being able to work on it,” he says. “Plus, the dealerships are two to four weeks backed up in getting out to us.”

In 2019, the company brought in $3 million and is anticipating $4 million to $5 million in revenue for 2020.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Though he isn’t enthusiastic about engine aftertreatment technology, he does advocate machine control technology. He first invested in GPS in the early 2000s when he bought two Leica systems that he moved between three machines.

Stephenson says his attention to detail and the pride he and his employees take in their work give the company a competitive edge. “This isn’t just a job to me. We’re not just there to get done and go on to the next one,” he says. “I need to be able to sleep at night knowing that I went above and beyond.“Plus, I know if it’s good enough for me, it’s good enough for my client.

“I don’t want junk”

In addition to the work CLS does, the Stephensons invest in land development. They have a water business at a nearby oilfield, and they own a storage facility. “The excavation is what I call my ‘real job,’” Stephenson says. “The other businesses are my side jobs, and that’s where you help keep things coming in when your dirt work gets slow. “You need to have as many revenue streams as you can. It helps keep the ship afloat.”

Clint Stephenson points to a frame containing mementos from when he and Amber started the company, including a photo of their first machine, a Cat 416 backhoe.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Today, CLS uses GPS on its excavators, motor graders and dozers. Playing the long game Stephenson says CLS performs no public work. “Everybody on the commercial side is there to make money. Nobody has an agenda,” he says. The biggest key to the company’s success has been long-term planning, Stephenson says. For instance, when the company was starting out, he and Amber decided they would be known for paying their bills. “We paid everything off and stayed cash poor, including our first house,” Stephenson says. That strategy continues today. “Ninetyfive percent of the time, we pay before we get paid ourselves. Just because you have money in the bank doesn’t mean you’re rich. You have to be disciplined with your money because it leaves just as fast as it comes in.”

He says Amber’s strong attention to detail, organization and honesty when it comes to making big business decisions tend to balance out his weaknesses.

Because I have high standards, I don’t want“Hejunk.”looks out for the customer,” says Kent Burkhart of the Kent Burkhart Company. “Clint is very involved with everything going on on the site. If he can make some money and save you some money, everyone wins, and he doesn’t get “Everythinggreedy.”he’sdone he leaves a better mark on the area than when he first showed up,” says Jon Brangan of Copper Ridge Investments. “That’s big for a smaller community. That goes to show his overall character. He cares about the people and the town he lives in.”

Though they’re always on the lookout for potential investment opportunities, the Stephensons say their primary focus with CLS now is landing bigger jobs in the markets they serve. As with so many other contractors, the primary challenge is finding quality laborers and equipment operators.

While Stephenson roves the company’s jobsites and manages operations, Amber handles just about everything else from the office. Among other duties, she oversees the payroll, accounts receivable and payable, equipment financing and manages the company’s website. “We know what we started with, and we have relied on each other from the beginning,” he says. “We talk, not just about work, [and] I trust her 100 percent with the money.”

“It’s gotten even worse now because everybody’s busy,” Stephenson says. “Everybody wants to be paid top dollar, but not many of them can show up five days in a row.”

“The big decisions take months and years to make. I come to her with ideas and plans, and she helps poke holes into it, which is needed,” he says.

“When we got going with GPS, that was such a game-changer for us,” Stephenson says. “Hardly anybody had it at that point and it made me so much more efficient, and I could do larger jobs with fewer pieces and fewer people. For a while there, if I wanted a job, I could get it.”

Year Started:

City,

wo things you quickly learn about Matt Mitchell is that he loves Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, where he has lived all his life. And he loves dirt. “A grown man might be a grown man, but somewhere deep down he’s still got a little boy in him,” he says. “And they all like to play with little toys and dirt.”

Loves to Move Dirt 2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

That attitude has led his business, C.M. Mitchell Construction Company, to grow to more than 50 employees, 35 pieces of equipment and annual revenues of $10 million to $13 million.

$13 million Markets served: Water and haulingrenurishment,drainage,demolition,andinstallation,sewerroadhighway,stormbeach

“I love the challenges,” he adds, when explaining why he loves being a contractor. “I really like doing the things they say you can’t do, or can’t be done.”

From Beaches to Bases, N.C. Contractor

This

Matt Mitchell

by Don McLoud

C.M. Mitchell Construction Company State: Sneads Ferry, North Carolina 1994 to

Number employees:of 50 Annual revenue: $10 million

“I don’t think you can afford me,” she told him. But in time he won her over, and they’ve been keeping C.M. Mitchell growing ever since. With her as chief financial officer and Matt running the construction business, they’ve landed many multimillion dollar projects over the years. Landing big jobs

The contractor eventually paid the $800,000 he owed Mitchell. But the stress of trying to collect it had left Matt and Theresa rethinking their business.

Matt bought a commercial fishing boat, but that new career lasted only about 10 weeks. “I was there one day fishing, and I just said, ‘I’m done with this. I’m going back in the dirt business. I’m going to do it myself.’”

That was in 1994. He used the money from selling the boat to buy a farm tractor and a trailer. His parents co-signed for a $25,000 loan. Matt used that money to buy a 1974 dump truck, a backhoe and a dozer. His brother Mel drove the dump truck, and Matt moved dirt. They cleared lots, put in driveway culverts, whatever people needed done. He did a lot of subcontracting work and landed his first big job at Camp Lejeune. During that job, he met Theresa who was working for the general contractor on the project. She helped him with the paperwork, and he told her if she ever decided to leave her job, he wanted her to come work for him.

The company won its first job over $1 million by traveling to Virginia to meet with a large construction firm. The company was planning a complicated project involving a 100-square-foot amphibious boat ramp at Camp Lejeune. Matt convinced them he could handle the work.

“We were so excited,” recalls Theresa. “We had a $2 million job.” They began hiring more employees. Along with the boat ramp, the project involved building docks, ponds and a parking lot, as well as installing sewer and drainage lines. The work was going well, but the finances ran into trouble. Mitchell wasn’t getting paid by the contractor on the project, and the company needed the money to pay off the project’s financing.

“One minute you’re up there, and the next minute you could lose your home if somebody doesn’t pay you,” says Theresa. The couple were also raising their three sons at the time. With Matt running the construction operations and Theresa running the office, the couple have built a successful construction firm in Sneads Ferry, N.C.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Hard lessons Matt learned about hard work, honesty and integrity from his father, a retired Marine who had been stationed at nearby Camp Lejeune. His father and mother ran a little country store and tackle shop on Vultures Landing. “Son, your word is all you’ve got,” his dad would tell him. He helped instill a strong work ethic in “AsMatt.a Marine, he taught us how to work, and he taught us what our backs are made for,” Matt recalls. “When I was growing up, it was all back-breaking work. He wasn’t taking any shortcuts.” They would also dig the graves for local residents who passed away. It was a free service his father started, and Mitchell Construction continues it to this day. As a teen, Matt worked for a family friend who owned a construction company. Matt would run a dozer and excavator and drive a dump truck. He worked for him for about 10 years. Then the owner had a heart attack and sold the business.

“You’vecontractors.gotto work hard. You’ve got to put your time in,” he says. “When everybody else is off having fun, you’ve got to go make a deal with somebody.” Dump trucks haul in sand and an excavator fills dump trucks on the beach to rebuild dunes in North Carolina eroded by Hurricane Florence.

Moving dirt One of Mitchell’s latest projects has been rebuilding the sand dunes on Surf City and North Topsail beaches, which had eroded during Hurricane Florence.

“Our real passion that really drives us is here,” Theresa says, referring to Mitchell Construction. Two of their sons love construction work, and the couple want the company to be available for them.

The company has grown back to 50 employees. It updated its accounting software, switched to project management software and began using iPads on jobsites. They also increased pay and benefits to attract and keep goodAlongemployees.withthe changes, the company has continued to benefit from Matt’s work ethic and quality standards.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“A lot of people really respect Matt,” Theresa says. “A lot of his employees respect him because he’s the type of guy who is out there in the ditch with them.”

Matt attributes his success to hard work and recommends the same for new

Matt just laughs. “But one thing about my husband,” she adds. “He has no hobbies. Everything he does has to generate revenue.”

A number of the employees are actual familyTheirmembers.oldestson, Mark, has worked with them since 2000 and recently branched out on his own to start a concrete business. Their youngest son, Matthew, is the company’s asphalt division supervisor. Matt’s two brothers and Theresa’s sisters also work for the company.“We’vealways been a real tightknit family,” Matt says.

The projects involved hauling in and placing more than 200,000 cubic yards of sand. Mitchell dump trucks came and went hauling sand from miles away, while excavators and dozers moved like clockwork to build the dunes.“Ican move dirt, and I love moving dirt,” Matt says. Surf City Town Clerk Stephanie Hobbs“They’reagrees.agreat company,” she says. “I would give them the highest rating you have. They show up in a timely manner and get the job done on time and on budget.”

Ramping back up Meanwhile, the construction firm was doing well, holding steady. And eventually, many of the side ventures drifted away.

The company also maintains a family atmosphere. Theresa cooks lunch each day at the office for employees.

After another episode in which they had to take a contractor to court to get paid, they decided to reorganize and trim down. “We’re going to stop going after the big work,” she says. “Let’s gain control of what we’re doing.” They became more cautious about the contractors they subbed for. They landed work with large contractors, which brought them multiple projects. And they paid on time. “We were able to pick and choose who we worked for,” Theresa says. “We could do some background on them and make sure that the people we were trying to be a subcontractor for were of good character.”

Then the September 11 terrorist attacks caused the local construction economy to tank. Mitchell was able make it through with projects on military bases. Government projects also got them through the Great Recession. In 2011, the company had grown to 40 or so employees. And Matt decided to scale back to about 25 workers. He started turning some of his attention toward other ventures. He opened a restaurant and a boat store. He bought two shrimp boats. He bought and renovated boats and sold them. Then he spent about five years building his own boat – all while still running his construction firm. “I don’t know why this was going on,” says Theresa. She calls it his “nostalgia tour.”

Scott and Dianne Johnson Dirtworks Incorporated City, State: Palmer, Alaska Year Started: 1989 Number employees:of 15 Annual revenue: $5 million to $7 million Markets served: Civil, materialproduction,aggregatesdemolition,siteresidential,commercial,utilities,development,hauling

he and his father, who had been a mechanic at the N C Machinery Caterpillar dealership, went out to take a look. On the way back, Scott began to have second thoughts.

“I don’t know,” he recalls telling his father. “I don’t think I want to buy that stuff.”

by Marcia Doyle and Tom Jackson

“Scott and I have, since we started the company, tried to do everything as much as possible out of pocket,” Dianne Johnson says. “There’s no money owed on this, there really never has been.”

t all started with a newspaper ad and a dare. Scott Johnson had worked for 20 years in residential construction, advancing to superintendent. Then the bottom fell out of the housing market in 1987 in Alaska. He went to work at an oilfield on the North Slope running heavy equipment, but he didn’t like it much. Then in 1989, he saw the newspaper ad: a backhoe and dozer with only 400 hours each and a trailer and a dump truck for $65,000. For that price, the truck and trailer were essentially thrown in for free.

Alaskan couple grow excavation firm on a dare and hard work

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“He has spent a lot of time brainstorming ways to diversify, and he’s done a lot of research,” Dianne says. “He’s become a huge part of the company.”

In 2013, the company added Conroy to help with the commercial bidding and estimating, and he and Scotty have formed a solid partnership. He also sometimes has to work in the field. After the company’s first $1 million commercial project, it entered the aggregate business, opening a 40-acre gravel pity. Then came a $2 million city utility job. Scott says the company has stayed steady in commercial work ever since. It has also landed multiple jobs on military bases for such projects as water and sewer systems and building footprints.Oneofits most challenging jobs was rebuilding a road and utilities to the Toklat River Camp deep in Denali National Park, which is home to Mount McKinley. The unpaved road, which was as narrow as 12 feet in sections, was sliding away. The project involved hauling in material and heavy equipment on the narrow winding road, including a crusher for crushing 22,000 yards of rock. The rock was mixed with a powdery clay in a cement mixer to form a slimy mixture to be applied for the road’s surface. The powder came in 45,000-pound containers. It took two wheel loaders just to lift the containers up a couple of Dawn Johnson, in the trench box, has been instrumental in introducing GPS surveying and machine control to Dirtworks.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

And with Alaska’s short construction season, where commercial work basically comes to a standstill because of the harsh winters, the residential work provides steady revenue. It also helps draw in bigger jobs. “I think the residential is really important because of your connection with the community, and we get a lot of business by word-of-mouth,” Dianne says. Moving into commercial As the housing market started picking up, so did the business. In 2000, the company moved to its first building. The years of 2000 to 2010, saw 50 percent growth.

Being able to do both requires employees that can do both, which is also rare. “We have multi-talented people,” Dianne says. “They aren’t just able to do one thing.”

Scott heard a challenge in that response. “And it was almost a dare,” Scott says and laughs. “And I bought it.” So began Dirtworks Incorporated in Palmer, Alaska. Dianne Johnson, Scott’s wife, turned the kitchen table into the fledgling company’s office. She kept the books, handled the finances and whatever else was needed to help get the business off the ground. She had a good teacher in her mother, who had done the same for their family’s dairy farm, which at one point had been the largest in Alaska. Scott began landing jobs: a subdivision road, demolition work, septic tanks. He later brought on board two workers. His 8-year-old son, Scottie, was also ever-present on the jobsites.

“It is very unusual that a company combines commercial and residential to the level this company does,” says Ben Conroy, Dirtworks estimator. “I’ve never been anywhere else that does a pure hundred-dollar-up residential crew and a pure full-on commercial crew integrated well.”

Today, Scott and Dianne have built a business worth $5 million to $7 million that has branched out into multimillion commercial and government projects. Their son Scottie and daughter Dawn are also on board helping the company diversify and using technology to increase efficiency and productivity. Though it has grown exponentially, Dirtworks continues to hold to its humble beginnings, still willing to install septic tanks, build driveways or other small jobs that many commercial companies shun.

The work to this point was mostly private residential with some large projects flowing their way. In 2010, they began bidding for commercial work. Scottie, who has grown up with the company, has taken on the commercial side of the business.

His father quickly responded, “Well, if you don’t buy it, I will.”

“I’ve only worked one other place,” Scottie says. That was one summer doing civil and demolition work for a cousin in Anchorage. He tries to focus as much time as he can on bidding and estimating, but sometimes a worker quits mid-season, which means he has to return to operating equipment.

Maintaining integrity Though the company has advanced in technology, it has held onto some old-school values. One important one being, no debt, including on their 7,200-square-foot shop and office.

Along with staying debt-free, the company believes in building a reputation for integrity, which Dirtworks’ owners and employees have done for 31 years.

“In my years working here, I’ve seen lots of companies come and go,” Scott says. “There’s a lot of competition here, and no matter how long you’ve been in business, you’ve got to continually do good work.”

“Scott and I have, since we started the company, tried to do everything as much as possible out of pocket,” Dianne says. “There’s no money owed on this, there really never has been. “So we feel good about that. We can look and say, ‘Yeah, we did this, and we owe nothing on it.’”

“I believe the high quality of their work stems from the owners’ direct influence on all their employees,” says Micah Schoming with CRW Engineering. “I appreciate the genuine and caring attitude all Dirtworks employees have toward the work they create for each project.”

26 inches so the haul trucks could drive out from underneath. The crew had to work at night so as not to disrupt the heavy tourist traffic. Alaska’s midnight sun helped, but it was still a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. job. Dirtworks doesn’t have a night shift, so the crew was doing round-the-clock double shifts, catching a few hours of sleep in between jobs. Another challenge was the park’s strict rules to prevent invasive species from entering the gates. The trucks and equipment had to be pressure-washed and spotless. “I’m talking showroom clean to bring it in there,” Conroy says. The company’s hard work won high praise, earning Dirtworks the 2018 Excellence in Construction Award from the Associated General Contractors of Alaska. Taking advantage of technology Dawn joined the company in 2011. She operates equipment and keeps the maintenance shop running during the winter offseason. She was instrumental in the company’s transition to GPS surveying and machine control. The technology proved itself on a 7-acre parking lot job. “If you took the GPS off the dozer, you had to put another person on the ground, and you would have probably had to reduce your trucks by at least 50 percent,” Scott says. “Then there’s a danger factor, too. It really makes things safer. No one’s around you. “We don’t do anything without it.” The company has also been shifting away from paper documents to a cloud-based app. Conroy says the app gives a daily time-stamped, partially pre-filled report of the project with photos and that day’s weather. “It’s recorded forever,” Conroy says. “There’s no paperwork.”

Anything less, Scott says, won’t cut it.

Ben Conroy, left, and Scottie Johnson estimate and bid on commercial jobs, growing the firm by landing multimillion-dollar projects.

Dirtworks on its award-winning project in Denali National Park.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Attention to detail key to approachqualityConstruction’sGiordano an electrician for four or five years, but I enjoyed the site work and concrete foundations the most.”

“Dad’s theory always was, if a customer is paying for a 6-inch concrete floor, it better be 7 inches when we’re done with it before it’s 5 ½,” Giordano says. “We will never do anything that could cheat a customer.”

Giordano is the co-owner and vice president of Giordano Construction of New Castle, Pennsylvania. His father and company president, Joseph, started the company in 1974 before handing off oversight of daily operations to Tom in 1999. Over the last 46 years, the Giordanos have built a company that values attention to detail and taking excellent care of its customers.

Beginnings Before he was a contractor, Joseph Giordano was a millwright at Sharon Steel in Sharon, Pennsylvania. For extra cash, he started wiring houses on the weekend, and in the mid-1970s decided to leave the mill and become a homebuilder.Ashewasbuilding his company, Joseph raised Tom with an exposure to everything the construction industry had to offer. “I started working for my dad at a young age, and he made sure I learned all the trades, from operating a shovel, to welding, to trim carpentry and electrical,” Tom Giordano says. “I was

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Over the next 10 years, the homebuilding slowly gave way to commercial and industrial concrete work for the Giordanos. In the 1980s the company was still subbing out excavation work. But in 1992 the company took its first major growth step when it started performing cell tower carrier installations. Giordano was a key contractor in many states that built out entire markets for Nextel, Sprint and AT&T, as well as two of the largest vertical real estate companies in tower owners Crown Castle Communications and SBA.

by Wayne Grayson

e’re known for top quality,” says Tom Giordano from behind his desk. “We’re not known for being cheap. I tell people that call here for a bid the same thing.”

Tom and Joseph Giordano Giordano Construction City, State: New PennsylvaniaCastle, Year Started: 1974 Number employees:of 30 Annual revenue: $10 million Markets served: Civil, site work, site utilities, concrete and workADA-compliantmetalpre-engineeredfoundations,buildings,

Today, the company employs 30 workers and performs civil site work, concrete work, demolition, metal building installation, and foundation work. Following its transition from telecom work, the company built a key relationship with First Energy, a major electric utility corporation based in Akron, Ohio.

During the summer we typically work about 50 hours a week, and one guy from there tells me, ‘Whoa, I don’t want to work that much. I want to work 30 hours each week,’” he recalls.

Finding new talent a struggle Giordano says the main challenge the company faces is hiring new employees.

However, in 2001 the work became less desirable for the Giordanos as carriers started paying less.

Giordano says the company prides itself on full benefits, good pay, highquality safety gear and clothing. But it hasn’t been enough to attract enough young workers that will stick around.

“We started just doing repair work for them. They liked how we were doing it and how neat everything was, and it just grew from there to yard restorations to building whole substations for them,” Giordano says.

Today the company’s equipment fleet has more than 30 pieces. Cellphone tower construction became the company’s foremost money maker. By 2001, Tom Giordano says, 80 percent of the company’s revenue came from these projects as the company’s crews performed installations throughout the country.

“Kids nowadays will quit a job without having somewhere to go,” he says. “I advertised for a truck driver for nine months. I got one application, and there was a 15-year gap in their work experience.”Giordanohas also coordinated with a local trade school for new hires. “I call them up and they send me resumes.

The company brought in $10 million in revenues for 2019 and is hoping to get into more large earthwork jobs.

The company pivoted into more commercial and industrial work while doing fewer cell tower jobs. In 2019 it stopped doing cell tower carrier installations, though it still performs modifications on existing towers and builds a few new towers each year.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“That year we went from 130 to 40 employees due to the dip in telecom work,” Giordano says.

Versatility key

“We have guys that have been here 20 and 25 years. All of our

The move meant doing their own excavation work, and in 1997 the company started buying larger excavators, including a Cat 315BL, in addition to a D5 dozer and a 433 roller.

For much of Giordano’s history, the company’s primary market has been cellphone-tower carrier installations. The company has since transitioned away from that business to other commercial and industrial work.

“Our guys were versatile and the equipment was versatile. That’s what made the change work,” Giordano says.

“Some of our customers have on-site safety there all the time, too,” Giordano says. “And they can drug test 20 percent of your workforce each week, and they do. So you’ve got two to three guys they’re checking out every week, and I don’t have a problem with that. That’s how I expect it to be. That’s why they get the benefits they get and the pay that they’re paid. I want the highest quality guys I can get.”

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

The company also uses Lancaster Safety as a third-party consultant. Its impeccable record and reputation for safety is why Equipment World tapped Giordano as the 2020 Contractor of the Year Safety Award winner.

In addition to the certifications and consultant, Randy Angelucci serves as Giordano’s in-office safety manager. Angelucci does site inspections of his own and manages jobsite awareness forms, PPE inspections, daily toolbox topics and more.

“We have probably done 20 jobs together, from things that are smaller in scope to things that are larger in scope and everything in between, and I have not ever had to call him out for any rework,” says Dave Cochenour of First Energy. “Because of their reputation, when we have emergency work they’re the first firm that I call, because I know that they will be there and that they will get it done for what they say it’s going to cost.” “It has been many years since our office buildings were renovated by Tom and Giordano Construction,” says Amy Carbone of Treloar & Heisel. “Still to this day we reach out to Tom for advice or recommendations for any type of problem or maintenance issue we may be having. He always takes our calls and emails and gets back to us in a timely fashion. He has even sent his crew out to help us in a pinch at no charge. He really is honest and can be trusted. You can tell he cares.”

“The first year, Lancaster came in and set up our policy books on every task. They do a yearly training, and they provide general safety training. Then they also provide training on specific machines,” Giordano says.

29 superintendents and foremen have been with us a long time. They’re very talented and they could go anywhere, and they choose to work here,” he says. “I would like to think that is due to how they are treated and respected.” No rework Clients and vendors offered up glowing endorsements of the company.

The company’s lost-time incident rate is 0.0003, and its experience modification rate is 0.79.

“We went eight years without a lost-time accident until a broken finger in 2017,” Giordano says. “Since then, we’ve been good.”

“We’re known for top quality,” Tom Giordano says. “We’re not known for being cheap.”

Impeccable safety

Lancaster also visits Giordano jobsites four times each year and provides an assessment of the company’s safety practices before advising them on areas to improve or change.

With all of the industrial work Giordano Construction performs, safety certifications and a clean record are primary ingredients to success. To ensure it can work with as many industrial clients as possible, Giordano holds safety qualifications through ISNetworld, BROWZ and Avetta.

His son, Rick Goodmanson, remembers when his dad traded in the pickup in the late 1980s to buy the company’s first dump truck. It became the family vehicle.

by Don McLoud

GPS: Technology the Key Ingredient for This

Rapid Growth 2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

erl Goodmanson started his construction business in 1971 in Roseville, Minnesota, with a pickup truck and a wheelbarrow.

As the company grew, Rick grew along with it, working after school throughout middle school and high school and during summers. He also worked summers there while in college studying business management and aviation.

“When I was a kid, they were replacing people’s driveways with a sledgehammer and a bar,” he says. “It would take them a week to do that, something that we do now in just a portion of a day.”

From Wheelbarrow to Contractor’s

Rick GoodmansonGoodmansonConstructionCity,State: MinnesotaRoseville, Year Started: 1971 Number employees:of 60 Annual revenue: $10 million to $13 million Markets served: andconcrete,Commercialasphaltexcavation

“That’s what I rode to school in every day,” Rick says. “I thought it was the coolest thing ever.” It took 20 years before the fledgling company bought its first backhoe.

Most of the company’s business is from long-term repeat clients. Some of its largest customers include BNSF Railway, FedEx and UPS. Goodmanson provides a full range of site-development, asphalt and concrete paving services for industrial and commercial properties, as well as snow removal.

He graduated in 2003 and returned to Goodmanson Construction with the idea of eventually entering the aviation field, but as it turned out, he fell in love with construction. Through a succession plan, he eventually became company owner, enabling his parents to retire in 2016.

Embracing technology

“To me, that’s the important thing,” Peterson adds. “We want to be able to get good people in and keep them … so that they can join the team and grow and move up.”

Rick says the adoption of technology to increase quality and productivity is a hallmark of the company.

“We look at things as, ‘If we’re winning, how can we be winning by more? Could it work better?’” he says.

The company uses a variety of methods, from old-school signs on trucks to active campaigns on various social media platforms. It also spends time and money ensuring its employees stay on board. One edge over its competition is providing year-round work. During Minnesota’s brutally cold winters, Goodmanson continues to deliver snowplowing services. It accounts for about 20 percent of its business and keeps the company busy during the offseason.Goodmanson also allows employees flexible work schedules. Some prefer to sit out the winter and work 80-hour

“We’re constantly making progress and improving because we have that type of culture here.”

Goodmanson has GPS tracking on all of its equipment, including trailers, so it knows where it is at any given time. The shop uses telematics to keep up with maintenance. Human resources uses software to track employees’ safety credentials and makes sure they are up to date.

“They go so far as to guarantee that their sidewalks won’t crack, and no one in the industry in 43 years has gone so far as that,” says client Rick Schroeder of Doran Companies.

The new tech has extended to the company’s equipment. It applies 3D machine control for site work, grading and paving and does its own 3D modeling.“We’reable to build in efficiencies and work smarter,” says Goodmanson Vice President Neil Peterson.

Finding workers and keeping them happy Attracting and retaining employees has taken on a larger focus as the competition for skilled workers continues to increase. The company has shifted marketing resources from new business development toward recruiting, appointing two office staff members to talent acquisition.

It also means reduced worker fatigue.

Now at age 38 and the company’s CEO, Rick has continued to steer Goodmanson’s growth. Over the past 15 years, the company has doubled its revenues every three years – an average of 30 percent annually.

Goodmanson landed paving work for the U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings.

One of the keys to the company’s growth and work quality has been adopting new technology. Field workers use smartphones to clock in and out. Cameras are on jobsites to provide job updates, and all project managers, foremen and supervisors have mobile devices and laptops that can immediately check in on project plans and information.

“So if something gets changed, it’s changed in real time,” Rick says. “We don’t have to print out a new set of plans and courier it over to the jobsite.”

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“It’s been an aggressive pace,” Rick says. “The thing that I’m most proud of our team for is that we’ve been able to sustain that for such a long period of time.”The company has more than 100 pieces of equipment and 60 employees. It brings in total revenues of between $10 million and $13 million. Along with the growth, the company has made sure to foster the customerservice principles instituted by Merl Goodmanson.“That’sthemost important thing to us,” Rick says. “We’ve spent almost 50 years building the reputation that we have, and we’re not willing to sacrifice that over one big year of growth.”

Rick has found, too, that the company’s fleet management plays a role in employee morale and retention.

32 weeks during the summer season. The year-round workers prefer to spread their work hours out. Weekend work is voluntary for those who want to make extra money during summer.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

A loan from the federal Paycheck Protection Program came in handy. “That really helped keep us strong,” RickTheysays.were able to avoid layoffs.

Production dropped for about a month to half its typical level. During the last two quarters of the year, however, the company returned to full throttle. New construction in apartment complexes and the industrial sector, particularly for logistics companies like FedEx and UPS, delivered a boost.

The company ended up with 10 percent revenue growth over 2019. That’s 20 percent lower than projected at the beginning of 2020, but after the toughest year of his career, Rick is pleased with how the company bounced back. He also has high hopes for the new year.

Goodmanson Construction’s Jimmer Moses, in the excavator cab, competed in Caterpillar’s 2019 North American Operator Challenge.

Goodmanson also offers employees profit-sharing on individual projects they work on. If a project makes a profit, they receive a percentage of that profit as a bonus.

Each fall the company sends out a questionnaire to staff, asking how many hours they want to work, which hours they prefer, as well as any training they need or want.

“We definitely operate one of the newest fleets of any of our competitors in town,” he says. “Our equipment is always clean. It’s always very new.”

It’s also a big benefit for equipment operators to have access to the latest machine upgrades. “I’m proud at the end of the day that their bodies aren’t exhausted,” he says.

“Absent of some new crisis, we’re expecting that 2021 continues just like the third and fourth quarter of 2020,” he says. “We’ve been on a big, strong uptick for the last couple of quarters, and hopefully that just continues the way that it’s been.”

Along with providing workers flexibility, Goodmanson strives to help them grow in their careers. Reviews are performed every six months, in which employees are asked about their career goals and how the company can help.

“We were doing everything we could just to keep them at 40 hours,” Rick says. “Luckily, we had enough projects to make that work.”

Then as the company started to turn the corner in the fall, workers got sick or were exposed to Covid-19.

Dealing with Covid-19 Heading into 2020, Goodmanson was looking at another year of 30 percent revenue growth. But the pandemic suddenly changed thatTheoutlook.company halted some of its expected purchases for software and equipment in the first six months of the pandemic. Projects were delayed. Overtime was cut.

One of Goodmanson Construction’s latest technology acquisitions is a remote-control 3D laser screed.

“It’s a lifelong dream to do what we’re doing,” Tyler says.

City, State: Provo, Utah Year Started: 1912 Number employees:of 50 Annual revenue: $14 million to $15 million Markets served: Commercial, city, state, concreteresidential, by Marcia Doyle

o say brothers Scott and Tyler Roberts grew up in construction is anTheunderstatement.twocantrace the lineage of JLR Contractors back to their great-grandfather, J. Lyne Roberts Sr., who in 1912 started building homes in Provo. As they shared a bedroom growing up, the brothers talked about following their grandfather John Roberts and father Greg Roberts into construction.

Scott and Tyler Roberts

But after college both brothers went their separate ways, Scott working for Hensel Phelps and Tyler for a local developer. It took Scott less time to come back into the family fold. “I took a pay cut when I did, but I knew it was the right thing to do,” he says. Tyler joined the firm a few years later.

JLR Contractors

Brothers steer 4th-generation company with clear view to legacy

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“Then we found the right guy,” Scott says. They convinced their former subcontractor Kirk Nish to join JLR and bring his crew. On board now for two years, the concrete crew and its skills were part of the reason JLR added equipment. Another was a 380-unit housing development project in which JLR is putting in all the curbs and gutters, along with other infrastructure elements.

“The dozers are great, but the laser grader has a fine touch and cleans things up nice with a smaller machine,” Scott says. “It’s great for a warehouse floor; it makes quick work of it.”

Equipment mix

While working with their family gave them a firm foundation in producing quality work, the brothers recognized the need to bring in technology. “It was basically pen and paper before,” Scott says. The fourth generation added estimating software and machine GPS. “The first splash pad we did was without GPS, and I spent so much time hand-staking and grading and using site levels and lasers,” Scott relates. “Using GPS cut that time in half. It was amazing.”

“We’re two different people,” Tyler says, “but we complement each other in ways that allows it to work. We’re better together than we are as individuals.”Tylersays

JLR’s fleet includes compact excavators, compact track loaders, skid steers, excavators, wheel loaders and dozers.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Growing during a recession “We actually grew during the recession,” says Tyler. “We started self-performing more of our work and being more diverse. Now we can act as either a sub or a general, and we don’t have all our eggs in one market.”

Two skid steer attachments have been especially useful: Mr. Manhole, for putting in concrete collars around manholes after paving, and a dualslope laser grader from Level Best.

Although JLR has always performed its own concrete work, during the Great Recession it struggled to find workers qualified to do the finishing. This caused it to pull back until it found the personnel it needed.

With $14 million to $15 million in annual revenues, the firm now has 50 employees doing a variety of commercial, municipal, residential, concrete and excavation work.

The company also bought a large curb-and-gutter paver in the past year.

Scott has a strong business mind and his memory is phenomenal. He’s also a good leader who looks for opportunities to help and serve others. Scott says Tyler genuinely cares and loves people and takes responsibility for project execution to heart. “He’s my older brother, and I couldn’t have a better example,” Scott says. After taking over the helm of the business, the brothers have both grown and diversified JLR Contractors.

JLR primarily works within the four-county greater Salt Lake City area. Work on Utah’s parkway trail system has helped the company develop its public sector market. JLR has worked on several trailhead projects, adding parking lots, restrooms, as well as performing trail work.

JLR crews work on a mountain-bike trailhead in Draper City, Utah.

“There is something different about these guys,” says Jeff Shuster with Wheeler Cat. “There is a value system in place that ingrains itself in everything they do. The one word I would use to describe these guys is stewardship; they just have a real sense of purpose that’s bigger than themselves. None of the moves they make are in the lens of the next five years. Every move they make is for the next generation.”

JLR crews install a pedestrian bridge on a trail project.

Early education

Building the family home are, left to right, Tyler Roberts, Brian Roberts, Marc Sucher (now JLR’s lead superintendent), Scott Roberts, and Jack Roberts – Tyler and Scott’s grandfather who headed the family firm in its second generation.

JLR moved into its new 10,000-squarefoot building last year. The building has offices on two floors with an open area in the middle. “We rebranded our company a bit when we moved in,” Scott says, converting from the original J. Lynn Roberts & Sons to JLR Contractors. “Everything is now under a JLR umbrella.” The millwork division is offsite in Lehi and has around 27 employees.“Wepicked up a lot of key people during the Great Recession because we were able to dip into our resources and weather the storm,” Scott says.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“Construction’s demanding,” continues Tyler, “and we know there are days they are going to come home late. But we also tell people, if you need to be at a soccer game or a dance recital, be there. We can be flexible, and in return, they are flexible with us.” “You make a life by what you give,” Scott says. “If we don’t build relationships along with building buildings, we don’t have anything.” Clients and vendors like their approach. “JLR could teach others the value of honesty, integrity and kindness,” says Shannon Anderson with client One Enterprises. “I trust themClientimplicitly.”AlexRoylance with Lindon City has a unique viewpoint. He’s a former JLR employee. “It was a good place to work,” he says. “They treated employees like family, and they treat their clients the same way.”

“We started stepping up to the bigger dirt work about 10 years ago and with that started buying larger machines,” says Scott. Offering both concrete and dirt work helps JLR control its projects. “We know when we can start, and we don’t have to rely on someone else to start. It’s given us a competitive edge.”

Company matters

JLR is looking to grow its landscaping capabilities, which the Roberts believe will further help their self-performing know-how. “Just the diversity we have inside our company has been beneficial,” he says. Currently, the company does roughly 40 percent earthwork and 20 percent concrete. The rest of its revenues come from residential projects and millwork, which the company added last year when it bought a millwork firm.

“With all the change this pandemic has brought on as far as policy and procedural changes, we have continued to stay busy,” he adds. “We are starting to notice the ripple effects of getting some materials and other supplies in a timely manner, but for the most part, it has been business as usual. We feel very blessed to be able to keep all our employees on and working. The pandemic has really helped us see how great our team reallyPersonnelis.” is front and center for the two. “One of our big goals is training because we see a huge lack of qualified personnel coming into the industry,” Tyler says. “We want to bring in younger talent and use the talent we have to encourage growth.” But expectations also must be managed.

“It’s like a school degree, it takes years to get. This is your real-life degree.”

Another application: building pickleball courts, which are popular in the Salt Lake City area and look like miniature tennis courts.

And for these folks it’s not so much a quick way to summarize the type of work they perform, but the recitation of a creed. Muggli Contracting does a little bit of everything because they believe they can do a little bit of everything. And more often than not, it’s been a necessary outlook.

But the hard-nosed business strategy is just one side of the coin. The mindset would likely be of little use if the folks at Muggli didn’t enjoy the work so much. “Sometimes after we do something that’s new, we won’t do it again, just because we can say we’ve had the experience,” says John Muggli. “Some of this stuff you might call checkmarks on a bucket list.”

John, Michelle and TJ Muggli Muggli Contracting City, State: Miles City, Montana Year Started: 1988 Number employees:of 10-15, depending on season Annual revenue: $3 million Markets served: Site work, underground utilities, irrigation preparation, reservoir repair, dirt roads for farms and ranches, scoria mining, landfill management, bridge installation for ranches, demolition, concrete plant and supplier by Wayne Grayson

“In this small community, we have to diversify and do a lot of different things. We’ll do whatever it takes to stay busy,” says Muggli veteran equipment operator Bob Server. The company, owned by John, Michelle and TJ Muggli, is based out of Miles City, Montana, where the winters are so severe and last so long, that a cold-weather off-season isn’t really an option if you want to stay in business.

anything.”just“WeCreed:Contractor’sThiscandoabout

John and Michelle Muggli take a walk across the family’s property in Miles City.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

T alk to just about anybody from Muggli Contracting long enough and you’re likely to hear the phrase “We can do just about anything.”

Another unique business the Mugglis have drummed up deals with railroad cars. The company takes old tanker cars with capacities between 20,000 and 30,000 gallons that have been retired from service and turns them into underground reservoir tanks for ranchers to water their cattle. The Mugglis will clean and sanitize the old tanks, perform any necessary repairs to make them water tight and then install them underground.

More surprising than the sight of this massive collection is the fact that 95% of the machines on the property actually run. John and TJ spend the majority of their free time keeping them in operating condition or resurrecting a new find.

The Mugglis’ property plays host to a massive vintage machine collection.

As noted earlier, the company does a “little bit of everything,” including site prep work, underground utilities installation, irrigation preparation, reservoir repair, dirt road construction, bridge installation, tree removal and demolition work. The Mugglis also have a scoria mining operation, operate a concrete plant and manage the local landfill.

A love of work John Muggli grew up on a 1,200-acre farm near Miles City. Due to wheel tractors not being able to properly cut the hard-packed clay soil on their fram, Muggli’s father and brothers used Caterpillar D4s, D6s and D8s on their crops. And while he loved those machines, John never really saw himself as a farmer. Instead, when he was old enough, John went to welding school and worked for a construction contractor named L.P. Anderson. Eventually he decided to go out on his own, and in 1988, he started Muggli Contracting.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Today the company employs between 10 and 15 workers, depending on the season, and in 2019 brought in revenues of $3 million. About 80 percent of the firm’s work is private, but John says he likes public work when he can get it.

A love for vintage equipment When you visit the Muggli offices, the first thing you’ll likely see is John’s massive collection of vintage machines, covering much of the sprawling country that the company buildings and the Mugglis’ home sit on.

John Muggli with his custom “Caterpillar” work truck built from an old International cab and chassis and parts from Cat machines.

Over the years, the Mugglis estimate they’ve collected between 100 and 150 pieces of vintage construction equipment. Caterpillar dozers, specifically D6 models, make up the majority of the collection, which ranges from a 1928 International T20 crawler tractor to machines from the 1970s.

“We have a good time,” John says. “The time that we have spent together doing this has been unbelievable. You can’t put a price on that.”

“I just like history. We have saved so much iron that other companies would have scrapped,” he adds. “The best thing on earth that you can have is iron. You cannot build skyscrapers out of gold. You gotta have iron.”

“It will take at least five years on the job for a new hire to see everything we do,” she says. “It takes about five years for us to be able to send them out to any given job and not worry about them.”

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“I always try to treat people the way I like to be treated, so we go back until a job is right or as right as we can get it,” John says. “My main concern has always been people wanting us back to do“Whenwork. we get done with a project, will they call us back? They usually do.”

With the company’s willingness to diversify and try any kind of work at least once, jobs have not been hard to come by, the Mugglis say. The company is enjoying steady growth, but John says an inability to find enough skilled workers is holding the company back. “This summer, we bought a crusher and it’s just been sitting over there,” he says. “We could have run it 20 more days this year if we’d had enough people.”Thecompany lists jobs locally and on job websites and has worked the local community college’s equipment operator training program to find new hires. It hasn’t been enough. Michelle Muggli says the problem is compounded by the fact that the company does so many types of work.

Hiring challenges

Quality First The Mugglis say their primary competitive advantage is their quality of work and the pride they take in it.

“John Muggli Construction can be counted on to not only get the job done, but to do it in a safe and professional manner. John is a very honest and trustworthy person and is always dependable when needed,” says Scott Gray, with the city of Miles City. “They have very skilled HEOs, including the best excavator and backhoe operator in this area of the country.”

“We might have to look at buying an apartment or two for them to stay in” to attract new hires, says John. “They do that in Williston.”

“When John tells you he will get something done, it’s as good as gold,” says Mike Preller, plant manager at Transco Railway. “I have had John Muggli Construction perform jobs for me at my residence as well at the rail yard. Every project has been completed right the first time, done on or under budget, and they leave the location better than they arrived. ... There is no job too big or too small for [Muggli Contracting].” Cat D6 dozers make up the majority of the vintage Muggli machine collection.

THE YEAR FINALIST

Ray Lippis started his company in 1980 and still runs equipment daily. 2020 CONTRACTOR OF

Along with hundreds of houses for which the company did site work and installed water and sewer, the company also rebuilt the Main Street area’s sidewalks and performed other downtown revitalization projects. The company built most of the county’s river walk beside the Arkansas River, and it is the contractor for four of the area’s water districts. In addition, the company has strong ties to the community, a reputation for quality work and demonstrated the ability to grow during tough times.Ray Lippis started the company in 1980 with a backhoe, dump truck and trailer he bought from his father-in-law. He took out a $25,000 loan from the bank. That first year, he grossed $50,000. He hired his first employee six years later. The company continued to grow and so did Ray’s family. His son Anthony would bring his pillow and blanket and curl up in the backhoe while Ray Work Ethic

Year Started: 1980 Number employees:of 7 Annual revenue: $3 million to $5 million Markets served: Commercial and residential water, sewer, basements, river stabilization and retainingstructuralwalls by Don McLoud It doesn’t take long to drive around Cañon City, Colorado, to find evidence of work by Ray Lippis Excavating.

“We Don’t Shut Down.” Colorado Contractor Displays Mighty

Ray Lippis Ray Lippis Excavating City, State: Cañon ColoradoCity,

Lippis keeps construction equipment on the base year-round for handling emergencies.Builtin1942, the depot still has mustard gas on the site that it is getting rid of, and Lippis crews sometimes have to wear masks for protection. The security is tight, taking an hour to get in and out of the gates. Landing the work proved a turning point for Lippis Excavating, which at the time was doing mostly residential and some commercial work. With the housing crisis starting to hit Cañon City in 2010, Ray knew he had to venture into new territory.

“I took a chance and went to the depot, and we were scared,” he says. “We didn’t know what we were getting into. I’d never been on a base.”

40 worked. Now 42, Anthony has been coming to work with his father ever since. At age 18, Anthony led the Main Street revitalization project. Ray and his wife, Vicky, also opened a greenhouse business that sells flowers and vegetables, where their daughter and grandchildren work. Through the 1990s and much of the 2000s, Lippis was busy with residential projects, providing site work and utilities for as many as 150 homes a year. The housing market crashed in 2010 in Cañon City. During that time, the company landed its largest customer, the U.S. Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

The depot now accounts for nearly one-third of the business at about $900,000. Along with providing steady

A turning point Work at the Pueblo Chemical Depot, which Ray oversees, has continued to increase over the past 10 years. They landed work there due to their expertise with underground water systems after the depot became dissatisfied with the previous contractor.

Jeremy “Woody” Woodward, who has been with Lippis for 18 years, is in charge of water and sewer projects. The company handles about 100 emergency jobs a year, from failed septic tanks to municipal waterline breaks. Their toughest emergency call came about six years ago. They were the excavator contractor on a project to stop a water leak at a site that was on an artesian well about 3,000 feet down. Another contractor had drilled down about 40 feet from the well and left for the day. At 4 a.m., Ray got the call that the well had blown. “When I got up to that site, it was throwing rocks the size of basketballs –3,000 gallons a minute,” Ray says. “We had to build an emergency road to get people in and out. It took us almost two weeks before we got that water shut down.”

Anthony also ventured into stream stabilization work to replace the lost housing business. He found his first project online and won the bid to create habitat for greenback cutthroat trout. After the recession, the housing market bounced back. Along with environmental projects, Anthony is in charge of residential and commercial excavation.

From left, Anthony and Ray Lippis and Jerome “Woody” Woodward

“One of us is always on a job, making sure it’s done the way it should be. That makes us very successful,” Anthony says. “We’re very versatile. It doesn’t matter what it is, we’ll tackle it.”

‘Our worst nightmare’ One of the biggest challenges for Lippis is finding workers in the small town of Cañon City. Ray does a lot of outreach at the high school to try to encourage kids to enter the trades. He’s involved with a program that builds a house each year with the students. “But there’s nothing here, so when those kids get out of school, they’re gone,” Ray says. “Our worst nightmare day-to-day, we cannot find anybody.”

The company usually has 20 or more projects it’s juggling at one time. Ray, Anthony and Woody check in on each one of them to ensure their quality standards are being met.

“They’re a 24/7 service company,” says Randy Diluzio of Tezak Heavy Equipment, a highway and heavy construction contractor in Cañon City. “I’ve seen them out late at night, early in the mornings, Sundays, holidays. If they get the call, they go.”

“If a guy calls here today and his water line is broken in his yard, someone between today and tomorrow is going to get him water back in his house,” he says. “That’s how we started, and we won’t ever leave that aspect of the business. Even though there’s not a lot of money in it, If things go bad, we always have that to fall back to.”

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

Ray also hasn’t forgotten his roots. The company is still willing to go out on the small $2,000 jobs.

Lippis has 11 year-round employees and usually 19 at peak season. But because it’s so difficult to find workers, Lippis crews work long days and at all hours.“We don’t shut down,” Ray says. “You get a call at midnight and go fix that water line by 8, and you’re back on job you had to do. We don’t have a choice.”

With no retirement plan and no interest in turning over the company’s finances, the break from work gave Ray some foresight into the business. He grew impressed with Anthony and Woody’s management skills. Soon after, Ray made them partners in the busines. “I have a lot better feeling about the future,” Ray says. “They’ve done a magnificent job. I’m very lucky to have them.”Since starting with a $25,000 loan, Lippis has grown its annual revenues to $3 million. Ray attributes much of the company’s success to its customer service and the relationships he’s built up over the years in his hometown.

“They are a great example of what a good family-owned business should be,” adds Doug Snyder of D. Snyder Construction. “Honest and hardworking, always doing the highest-quality work and making sure it’s done as promised no matter what the circumstances.”

“I look at our customers as we’re actually business partners,” he says. “Because of who we are here, we’re usually the first ones called, because we will work at night. We will take care of people. Most people don’t want to do that.” That attitude and their quality work has won them lots of fans, making them the go-to contractor in Cañon City.

Ray Lippis, where you can find him most days, in the cab.

41 work, the depot has helped the company improve its safety practices, due to daily inspections and strict rules. Lippis earned the U.S. Army Certificate of Achievement in Safety in 2010 for its work there. “They have helped this company progress immensely for safety, how to do things correctly,” Ray says. “We had to come up to date because of the style of work we were doing.”

“It’s the reward of doing something no one else will do,” says Woody. ‘A 24/7 service company’ During 2019, Ray underwent hipreplacement surgery, preventing him from getting out in the field and running equipment. For more than two months, Anthony and Woody ran the business while Ray recuperated. It was the first time since he started the company 41 years ago that he wasn’t on the job. “This office about drove me insane,” Ray says. “I am not an office person, but I am the office person. I do all the payroll. I do everything.”

His father eventually retired – an event that was quickly followed by a local oil bust. “The old-timers call it Black Sunday,” Davis says. “This town turned into a ghost town. You couldn’t buy a job.”

by Marcia Doyle

Rick Davis, president, Mountain Valley Contracting, has had plenty of practice riding those economic cycles: he started working summers in his father’s excavating firm when he was 15. He also knows there is always a job for anyone who can read plans, run a crew, hustle and understands how a job works. He’s been out of a job before, but never for long.

Mountain

Still, Davis managed to stay busy for a time. “We had an excellent reputation for our abilities in utilities, and people started to call us to close out projects,” he says. During this time, a flood wiped out the water lines going to several smaller communities, which also provided work. But everything dried up in about two years. With no jobs in sight, Davis

This Colorado Contractor Explores Equipment Solutions To Save Clients Cost, Time 2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“I’ve got a doctorate in hard knocks,” Davis says with a laugh. “Reading plans came naturally.”

he ups and downs of the oil field – always a factor in the Grand Junction, Colorado area of the country – can create a feast-orfamine cycle for the local contractors.

Rick Davis Valley

Contracting City, State: Grand ColoradoJunction, Year Started: 1996 Number employees:of 40 Annual revenue: $10 million to $12 million Markets served: excavationandmanholeramming,milling,utilities,embankment,Excavation,asphaltpipesliplining,adjustingvacuum

So Davis started Mountain Valley with two partners in 1996, doing concrete alley improvements, utility, demolition and grading work. He soon was running a single-owner operation. Today the $10 million to $12 million firm does a variety of primarily government projects, including civil construction, road construction, utilities and asphalt milling. “We thrive on involved, complex jobs,” Davis says. “A lot of people do not like high-intensity, complicated projects, and that just moves us up on the scale of being able to get them.”

While Mountain Valley crews

“Mountain Valley will take on any project, but they seem to excel at the more difficult projects,” says Kevin Boggs with Wagner Equipment. “They are always looking for ways to differentiate their business from the other contractors.”

No sitting around Mountain Valley’s equipment yard is south of the city on a 2-acre lot. “I’m of the philosophy that if my equipment is sitting in the yard and not working, I don’t need it,” Davis says.

Lead crew: Davis with Vice President Tracy DiGesualdo (left) and Operations Manager Lane Johnson (center).

“Mountain Valley is typically viewed as the ‘ones to beat’ given their solid reputation as a competitive bidder,” says Scott Murphy, Montrose city engineer. “They’ve always worked to bring cutting-edge equipment technologies to our projects, which has saved us large amounts of money and oversight time.”

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

43 closed his doors and headed for thenbooming Phoenix. But he eventually headed back home, hating the 10-hour drives it took to see his family every other weekend. At home he could make good use of the network he had developed after years in construction. “I went back to my local pipe supplier company at the time and told them I was back in town and looking for work,” he relates. He quickly got a call. Davis likes to tell this story about his job progression: “They made me a laborer and found out I couldn’t do that, so they made me an operator, and I couldn’t do that, so they made me a foreman and found out I sucked at it, so then they made me a superintendent.”

Others have observed the company’s willingness to tackle challenges.

“The time is right.” A city inspector’s question prompted Davis to take the next step. “When are going to go into business again?” the inspector asked. “The time is right,” the inspector continued. “There’s a bunch of work coming up and we need qualified contractors, and we don’t have them.”

Field of operation As with many contractors, Davis’ natural habitat is in the driver’s seat of his pickup.Mountain Valley usually works within a 200-mile radius of Grand Junction, with more than $10 million in projects completed for the city of Montrose, about an hour south.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

For example, Davis has long

To do a toe dip into the milling market, Davis rented a milling machine for a $13,000 two-day job that didn’t cover the $15,000-a-month rental. “I told my dealer that he had to carry me on it,” Davis relates. “You got to start somewhere.”Heendedup buying the milling machine, and a few years ago moved up to a larger, half-lane Cat PM200.

examined the issue of dealing with manhole castings during milling. “When you mill you have to come up to them, lift up, go over and set the milling rotor back down, and you leave the asphalt around it.” He now uses a custom truckmounted manhole cutter that can be remotely controlled and comes with a selection of cutter heads.

Integral to success Vice President Tracy DiGesualdo and Operations Manager Lane Johnson are integral to Mountain Valley’s success.

Along with being innovative, Davis is an avid networker. He values the contacts he’s made throughout his career and has served as president of the Colorado Chapter of the National Utility Contractors Association and is actively involved in the Western Colorado Contractors Association.

The shared information has also proven valuable, and Davis has many stories on how experiences of one member have saved money for other members.Afterthe Covid-19 pandemic hit, Mountain Valley saw two large projects postponed. “It was painful,” Davis says. “We missed our prime season, and we were down 36% in revenues.”

“Tracy has grown with the company and been a tremendous help through good and bad times, holding everything together,” Davis says. “Lane walked into the office one day during the recession,” Davis comments. “He came from Kiewit, and he’s been a huge catalyst to this company. He had worked there on the first generation of machine control and brought that knowledge to us. He knows it.”

“That gave me enough money to pay for putting the controls on the dozer plus a little more to do the modeling work,” Davis says. The company accomplished what would have taken eight hours to get the project to grade in 30 minutes, he says. Since then, Mountain Valley has added 3D machine control to some of its“Theyexcavators.haveinnovative thinking and practices,” Boggs says. “They are always thinking outside of the box.”

44 perform minor equipment fixes, Davis has Wagner Equipment maintain his machines.

But don’t forget that Davis is an expert surfer of construction’s cycles.

Johnson reached out to Trimble for a solution. Mountain Valley used a Trimble GCS900 grade control system with a universal total station installed on the milling machine. The project was written up in a Federal Highway Administration white paper. Mountain Valley went on to beta test a Trimble 3D machine control system on its Cat 135 grader the company uses forJohnsonfinish. soon convinced Davis they needed a machine control system for the dozer. To pay for it, Davis persuaded a client to pay him half of a project’s budgeted survey costs, saying he’d take care of the survey needed for his own work.

“The first year we did that, our maintenance costs were cut in half,” Davis says, “and our costs are now predictable.”Mountain Valley took on asphalt milling after Davis observed there were no milling contractors between Denver and Salt Lake City. He asked the local road contractors why they hadn’t added milling services. The response: none of them individually had enough work to pay for an expensive milling machine. But, they added, if a contractor who wasn’t a paving competitor took it on, they would use that contractor.

Because of his knowledge, in 2013 the company served as a product tester for a Trimble 3D milling machine control system. A client asked them to profile mill – essentially take out the humps and bumps – on a job before white topping a road.

“If you don’t do that, it becomes boring,” Davis says. “Sometimes ideas work great and sometimes not. That’s where we have our fun, in trying to find different ways to do things.”

“This year is looking a lot better for us, and it looks like we’re going to be back up to $12 million,” he says.

continues. “Wendell checks all the boxes.”

The mountainous area presents plenty of challenges as the company builds roads and installs utilities in high-end housing developments.

Year Started: 1995 Number employees:of 52 Annual revenue: $10 million to $13 million Markets served: Site gradingwater,development,sewerand by Marcia Doyle

Wendell Howard T & K Utilities City, State: NorthAsheville,Carolina

“You’ve got to work with what you know,” Howard says. “We work hard at getting it right the first time.”

For the next nine years he gained experience working under mentors such as Clarence Little and Garland Terry, who provided guidance he values today. “I soon learned around them that I didn’t want to be the guy who didn’t know what he was talking about,” Howard says with a laugh. “And they showed how to treat people well.”

Howard went out on his own in 1995 and formed T & K Utilities, named after his children Taylor and Keri. He lined up some sewer service work, did an RPO on a backhoe and a Cat 120 excavator and dipped into the equity of his home. He was up and running. His company now has revenues of $10 million to $13 million doing site development, water, sewer and grading projects throughout greater Asheville.

For example, when one developer needed a road paved late in the season, Wendell went to his asphalt supplier and convinced them to supply mix for the road. “That saved me a lot of money through the winter,” says client Andy Baker with TFM Carolina. “I wouldn’t trust anyone else with the projects I put out for bid,” Baker gainsmountains,tacklesTcontractorAsheville&Kfans

Howard’s son Taylor joined the firm 10 years ago and heads up equipment maintenance, safety and other business operations. He’s learning from Howard what it takes to handle the reins of the company, including the networking skills that have been finely honed by his father. (The two are also partners in an interesting side gig, H & H Distillery, which currently offers six different spirits, including Asheville Coffee Liqueur, a recipe from Howard’s mother.)

Itook off my coat and tie and went into the ditch,” is how Wendell Howard describes his introduction to construction after majoring in accounting and business in college and working at a bank.

The company’s current mix is 70 percent private/30 percent public.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST

“We cut back to 40 hours for maybe three weeks and then we started to have the workload and we still had the people and were still able to do work,” he relates. “When there was a job, they

Letterman with the City of Asheville remembers a pump station job where T & K went to an alternative supplier to get the job done per specs and on time. “They ate the difference in cost to finish the job on time,” he says. Thriving and surviving When the Great Recession hit, T & K was building golf courses. Howard realized adjustments had to be made, and he started bidding public work. “But then there were 15 bidders on every job,” he says. “We were just trying to break even and just turn it around,” he comments. But all in all, the downturn didn’t have a huge impact on company fortunes.

Getting it right

“Your people are what makes your business,” Howard says. “I don’t have a lot of turnover on my key people. If I make money, I share it.” His philosophy extends beyond money. “I don’t ask them to do something in a ditch or on a job that I wouldn’t do,” he says. “Truth is, sometimes I’d rather be in a ditch than in an Theoffice.”day’swork can start at a gas station located a short distance from the T & K office. Some mornings the location serves as the backdrop for coffee and planning before crews separate out on jobs. “They kind of let us use it as our office since our shop is located about five miles down the road,” Howard says. After that, Howard is usually on site at one of several jobs around town, something you sense is the best part of his day. And all along, he’s making notes on the pad that’s always within reach. “I’ll be making notes when I’m at a stop light, going over what we need, what materials are ordered,” Howard says. “Time is where you make or lose money on a job.” This appreciation for “time is money” gets noticed by clients and extends even to project disputes. You get the feeling that Howard doesn’t want to spend a lot of time dickering. Baker calls him “incredibly fair. In fact,” he adds, “we find ourselves negotiating against ourselves, with me trying to pay him more and him trying to charge meAndless.”Mark

Part of the T & K Utilities crew: Monette Bauer, Ashley Dean, Wendell Howard, Spencer Simmons, Lyle Lance 2020 CONTRACTOR OF FINALIST

THE YEAR

It took some time for Howard to get to that point, however. “One of the first machines I had was a Cat 120, and I asked my salesman Doug Lassiter for a month’s demo,” Howard recalls. “I also asked to pay my rent in arrears. I told him, ‘If I make it, I’ll stay with you,’ and that’s what happened.”

Today T &K has a variety of earthmoving equipment, including excavators, wheel loaders, dozers, compact excavators and skid steers.

“And we’ve been blessed to be able continue working during this pandemic,” Howard adds.

“On a typical utility job, we’ll have one excavator digging, another excavator with a roller bucket for compaction, and a wheel loader to handle stone and sometimes a dozer to clean up after everything,” Howard says.

The company also recently bought an Asphalt Zipper milling attachment, which it uses instead of saw cutting a road. “We work on a lot of downtown streets, and we’re able to just quickly mill it up using that attachment,” he says.

It also helped that Howard wasn’t carrying much debt. “We had some money laid back and I tried to be conservative about it,” he says.

T & K Utilities now has revenues of $10 million to $13 million and does site development, water, sewer and grading projects throughout greater Asheville.

Quality reputation Client Preston Kendall with Ingles Markets likes to use T & K’s name when he’s getting city approval of new construction. “If the meeting’s not going well,” he relates, “I’ll say that I’m asking T & K to do the job, and then it usually gets approved. They have that kind of reputation for doing quality work.”

Howard believes in maintenance agreements, particularly when buying new equipment. “I don’t like being down because my equipment is down,” he says.

“They are a contractor you can trust and count on,” adds Letterman with the City of Asheville. “We can always count on them to meet a deadline even if things are working against them.”

The right equipment Asheville’s scenic terrain presents challenges, especially as T & K creates roads and places utilities in high-end housing developments. “He does significant mass grading for us, and he always has the right equipment for the job,” says client Baker. “He’s always conscious of what a road system will take, and if he has to, he will go about getting the equipment on site a different way.”

Rentals are usually restricted to smaller machines, although Howard sometimes rents an artic or a sheepsfoot roller. “I almost would rather have a payment on a newer machine instead of a rental,” he says. “I haven’t done an RPO in a long time, because I’m either going to keep it or not.”

47 wanted us back.”

Continues Kendall: “He shows up and gets the job done when he says he will. He could teach others craftmanship, caring for the job and how to treat the people you are around.”

This relationship with Carolina Cat is now part of the way T & K does business. “Our dealer will listen when we have an issue on a machine,” Howard says. “They’ll take it seriously. They know our business and they help us find equipment.” “We have a strong service relationship,” agrees Steve Norton with Carolina Cat. “And Wendell will do anything to help anyone and will go past any expectation to get the work done. His attitude is extremely contagious.”

Three generations of Howards – Wendell, Taylor and 5-year-old Hawkins – in front of a project in downtown Asheville. T & K is working as a Tennoca Construction sub on the project.

2020 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR FINALIST