The Pipeline - December 2020

The Pipeline

December 2020

Company Corner A Message from our President

Dear W. W. Gay Family,

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the famous Jacksonville office Christmas decorations are officially up, which must mean that December has finally arrived!

It’s hard to believe that another year is fast approaching, but like most of you, I am looking forward to putting 2020 behind us. We have faced many roadblocks this past year between the loss of Mr. Gay, the fire at our corporate office and a global pandemic. However, as big as those challenges have been, we have never let that stop us from moving forward and creating opportunities. I am proud of your resilience and cannot wait for what is poised to be a great 2021.

Before we ring in the new year, we have many celebrations scheduled company wide. The Christmas party for the Jacksonville office is this Saturday, December 5. We are switching things up this year and hosting them off-property, which is sure to be a great time. I know the Orlando and Gainesville offices also have their parties this month, so I look forward to seeing photos and hearing all about them!

In other news, we kicked off our Project Manager training last month in Orlando. This is a project I have been excited about for a long time, so it was thrilling to finally see it come to fruition. For those who may have not been aware, a handful of PMs from across all offices were invited to take part in this first group of training sessions. This is such a great opportunity to bring our company and office locations together in order to learn from each other. Our Director of Learning & Development Cyndi Gundy put so much time and effort into getting this off the ground, and I thank her for making it happen. If you did not partake in this session, don’t fret! All Project Managers company-wide will have the opportunity to go through this training course. For a wrap-up of the 2-day training in Orlando, please refer to pages 10 & 11.

In the spirit of the Christmas season, all offices will be closed on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so that you can enjoy the long weekend. I wish you and your families a special holiday season.

Thank you for always being the best in the business!

Paul Jones President/CCO

In the Know

Employee News & Updates

Introducing iVenture Solutions

The WWGMC family of companies is excited to announce that we have partnered with iVenture Solutions to provide IT support to our users. iVenture has been in business for over 20 years, is headquartered in Jacksonville, and has satellite locations in Orlando and Tampa to better serve our business needs. They have branded themselves as the “Chick-Fil-A of IT” given their impressive track record of timely, stellar customer service and advanced problem solving. While we interviewed several companies, we knew that iVenture was the right fit for our organization and we are excited to begin this partnership.

The last day to submit support requests to Blacktip is Friday, December 11, 2020. Beginning December 14, 2020 please contact iVenture for IT support. To request support, you have several options:

-Call 888-380-1235 anytime 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. If you have a desk phone, you can also dial extension 8414 to be connected to the iVenture support team.

-Send an email to help@wwgmc.com. A ticket will be created automatically and emailed to you.

While the typical working hours for iVenture are weekdays 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, our package also includes 24x7x365 support for mission critical, work-stoppage events. If you encounter a situation that meets this criteria, please call the number listed above and be sure to mention the severity of the situation.

For more information on this transition, please refer to the company wide email sent out on Friday, December 4 from Wesley Lopez.

Company Vehicle Reminder

For those in the Jacksonville office, please accept this as a friendly reminder to submit any vehicle changes directly to FMS Maintenance. Even if it is just a driver change within your team, this still needs to be submitted. Any changes within the Gainesville and Orlando offices, please speak with John Combs (Jacksonville) at jcombs@wwgmc.com.

"The Pipeline" Information

Watch your inboxes for a new issue of "The Pipeline" the first Friday of each month! We hope this company newsletter not only keeps us all connected, but helps relay important and fun information to each of you. Do you have information or photos of your project you would like included in a future newsletter? Do you have an employee who has gone above and beyond that deserves to be recognized? If so, please forward any recent employee success stories, project updates or photos to Marketing Manager Emily Vurnakes at evurnakes@wwgmc.com. Thank you!

UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER OFFICE DAY

Friday, December 18

Calling all offices, tis the season to rock your ugly sweater!

Put on your best ugly sweater and join us for a festive day company wide on Friday, December 18. Dress to impress in your holiday worst because the ugliest sweater in each office will win a prize!

Personal Development Workshop - 11/12/20

On Thursday, November 12 our Director of Learning & Development, Cyndi Gundy held a personal development workshop in the Jacksonville office. This monthly series, held both live and virtually, features a different topic each month. The topic of discussion for November was "Tips for Women Working in a Predominantly Male Industry". This informative discussion covered a variety of subject matters including challenges women face, how to be more confident and the importance of body language. We were thrilled to even have some gentlemen in the audience who felt it important to learn more on this topic!

The next workshop is scheduled for Thursday, December 10 at 11:30 am in the Jacksonville office, but you can attend virtually as well. The topic for this session will be "Generations in the Workspace". For more information, please contact Cyndi Gundy at cgundy@ wwgmc.com or Miranda Carr at mcarr@wwgmc.com.

Celebrating You

Anniversaries & Birthdays

December

Anniversaries

12/1 - Ronald Newman: 20 years (Jacksonville)

12/1 - Austin Parker: 3 years (Jacksonville)

12/1 - Larry Thompson: 17 years (Jacksonville)

12/3 - Richard Jackson: 10 years (Jacksonville)

12/3 - Seth Miller: 7 years (Jacksonville)

12/3 - Jahquan Stinson: 1 year (Jacksonville)

12/4 - Andrew Bent: 5 years (Orlando)

12/4 - Jean Burmester: 31 years (Jacksonville)

12/4 - Brandon Kutylo: 3 years (Jacksonville)

12/4 - Ashley Smith: 1 year (Gainesville)

12/4 - Craig Young: 1 year (Jacksonville)

12/5 - Tangela Morse: 4 years (Orlando)

12/5 - Steven Pinner: 1 year (Gainesville)

12/5 - Johnny Velazquez: 2 years (Orlando)

12/6 - Duwan Smith: 2 years (Jacksonville)

12/7 - Michael Kratky 4 years (Jacksonville)

12/7 - Aaron White: 10 years (Gainesville)

12/9 - Phillip Ergle: 1 year (Gainesville)

12/9 - Everett Glisson: 10 years (Orlando)

12/9 - Andrew Pendley: 1 year (Gainesville)

12/9 - Jason Strickland: 18 years (Orlando)

12/9 - Trevor Yawn: 1 year (Gainesville)

12/10 - Stephen Beatty: 5 years (Jacksonville)

12/10 - Toussaint Louverture: 1 year (Jacksonville)

12/11 - Michael Carroll: 6 years (Gainesville)

12/11 - Mary Douglass: 1 year (Jacksonville)

12/11 - Shane Hughes: 6 years (Gainesville)

12/11 - Bradley Jackson: 8 years (Jacksonville)

12/11 - Michael Tomlinson: 7 years (Jacksonville)

12/11 - Steven Trammell: 1 year (Jacksonville)

12/12 - Melissa Clay: 4 years (Jacksonville)

12/12 - Joseph Tedesco, III.: 2 years (Jacksonville)

12/13 - Nicholas Busbin: 10 years (Jacksonville)

12/14 - Justin Smith: 9 years (Gainesville)

12/15 - Kenneth Hall, Jr.: 10 years (Jacksonville)

12/16 - Austin Carroll: 7 years (Gainesville)

12/16 - William Craven: 23 years (Jacksonville)

12/16 - Brandon Graves: 7 years (Jacksonville)

12/16 - Jesus Rios: 1 year (Gainesville)

12/16 - John Songer: 9 years (Orlando)

12/16 - Enver Valjevac: 18 years (Jacksonville)

12/16 - Amanda Wenzel: 5 years (Jacksonville)

12/17 - Artis Bryant: 1 year (Jacksonville)

12/17 - Travis Camp: 13 years (Jacksonville)

12/18 - Cory Southard: 1 year (Orlando)

12/18 - Eric Hersey: 3 years (Jacksonville)

12/18 - Gary Sharpe: 1 year (Jacksonville)

12/19 - John Emond: 9 years (Jacksonville)

12/18 - Daniel Mullis: 14 years (Jacksonville)

12/18 - Howard Tuten: 2 years (Jacksonville)

12/20 - Robert Quillen: 3 years (Jacksonville)

12/21 - Klinton Kennard: 5 years (Gainesville)

12/21 - Michael Razvaliaeff: 11 years (Jacksonville)

12/22 - Leslie Ellison: 9 years (Jacksonville)

12/22 - Vernon Walwyn: 6 years (Jacksonville)

12/26 - Laura Jones: 1 year (Orlando)

12/26 - Jason Odom: 2 years (Jacksonville)

12/27 - Darrell Griffin: 9 years (Jacksonville)

12/27 - Lawrence Richey: 3 years (Orlando)

12/28 - Robert Collins: 9 years (Jacksonville)

12/31 - Jamahl Jones: 2 years (Jacksonville)

**If you find that any of the above information is incorrect, please reach out to Marketing Manager Emily Vurnakes at evurnakes@wwgmc.com so that it can be corrected in our system.

12/1 - Chaton Croft (Gainesville)

12/1 - Juan Quintana (Orlando)

12/2 - David Boree (Jacksonville)

12/2 - Caesar Gomez (Orlando)

12/2 - Dennis Graybush (Jacksonville)

12/2 - Donovan Hornacek (Jacksonville)

12/2 - Kenneth Sims (Jacksonville)

12/2 - T Williamson (Jacksonville)

12/3 - Scott Durban (Jacksonville)

12/3 - Nathanial Taylor (Jacksonville)

12/4 - Kaine Bennett (Jacksonville)

12/5 - Brent Worthington (Jacksonville)

12/6 - Nicholas Overmyer (Jacksonville)

12/6 - Marcus Seyler (Jacksonville)

12/6 - William Waller, Jr. (Jacksonville)

12/7 - Christopher Cron (Jacksonville)

12/7 - Eric Surrency (Jacksonville)

12/7 - Levi Williams (Jacksonville)

12/8 - Chad Cushman (Jacksonville)

12/8 - James Poff (Orlando)

12/9 - Dustin Combs (Jacksonville)

12/10 - Stephen Arnold (Gainesville)

12/10 - Bryan Pitman (Orlando)

12/11 - Jeremy Stout (Orlando)

12/12 - Jorge Cruz (Orlando)

12/12 - Cody Nipper (Jacksonville)

12/12 - Ashleigh Rondon (Jacksonville)

12/12 - Joshua Scheider (Jacksonville)

12/13 - Starlina Hunt (Orlando)

12/13 - Jason Odom (Jacksonville)

December Birthdays

12/14 - Richard Depontes, Sr. (Jacksonville)

12/14 - Walter Shaver (Jacksonville)

12/14 - Steven Terranova (Orlando)

12/15 - Ashley Butler (Jacksonville)

12/15 - Virgilio Fernandes (Orlando)

12/15 - Ashley Smith (Gainesville)

12/15 - Cody Zak (Gainesville)

12/16 - Brian Fogarty (Gainesville)

12/17 - Morris Carroll (Jacksonville)

12/17 - Jeffrey Prescott (Gainesville)

12/17 - Shannon Turner (Gainesville)

12/18 - Eric Hersey (Jacksonville)

12/18 - Anual Ray, III. (Jacksonville)

12/19 - David Broome (Jacksonville)

12/19 - Bobby Vereen, III. (Jacksonville)

12/19 - Scott York (Jacksonville)

12/21 - Ransom Moxley (Gainesville)

12/22 - Aaron Fosegan (Jacksonville)

12/22 - Tanya Veitinger (Jacksonville)

12/23 - Holly Crews (Jacksonville)

12/24 - Darren Raulerson (Gainesville)

12/25 - Everett Glisson (Orlando)

12/25 - Charles Griner (Jacksonville)

12/25 - Amy Messer (Jacksonville)

12/25 - Chad Rowe (Jacksonville)

12/25 - Emily Vurnakes (Jacksonville)

12/26 - Jon Byrd (Jacksonville)

12/26 - Jeremiah Davis (Jacksonville)

12/26 - William Odom, Jr. (Jacksonville)

12/26 - William Roberts (Jacksonville)

12/27 - Jeffrey Andrews (Gainesville)

12/27 - Colicia Chavis (Orlando)

12/27 - William Johnson (Jacksonville)

12/27 - Matthew Marcusky (Orlando)

12/28 - Michael Bass, Jr. (Jacksonville)

12/28 - Adam Bates (Jacksonville)

12/28 - Rebecca Bowen (Jacksonville)

12/28 - Latricia Burrell (Jacksonville)

12/28 - David Colding (Gainesville)

12/28 - Casen Crews (Jacksonville)

12/28 - Keith Griffin, Jr. (Jacksonville)

12/28 - Samuel Hall (Jacksonville)

12/29 - Christopher Bolstein (Gainesville)

12/29 - Robby Cornett (Jacksonville)

12/29 - Joshua Curtis, Sr. (Jacksonville)

12/29 - Benjamin Gauch (Jacksonville)

12/29 - Ronald Loder, Jr. (Jacksonville)

12/29 - Madelyn Morro (Jacksonville)

12/29 - Stephen Napoli (Jacksonville)

12/30 - Marina Hoak (Orlando)

12/30 - Christopher McAnney (Orlando)

12/31 - Jeffrey Carter (Orlando)

12/31 - Brent Cason (Gainesville)

12/31 -Roy Rutherford (Jacksonville)

**If you find that any of the above information is incorrect, please reach out to Marketing Manager Emily Vurnakes at evurnakes@wwgmc.com so that it can be corrected in our system.

Employee Spotlight

Michael Runge Orlando

The Employee Spotlight for the month of December is shining on Orlando’s Michael Runge who has been with W. W. Gay for over 41 years. Michael began his career in 1979 with an apprenticeship at the Local Union 803 of Orlando and turned out in 1983. Much of his career was spent on the service side of the business, where he drove a service truck beginning in 1986. His very first job in the field was at the Booth Towers in Downtown Orlando for Mr. Bernie Newman. Then in 2000 he took on the Field Operations role for the Orlando office and has held that position for the last 20 years. Over his career in the field, Michael has had the chance to work on many exciting projects, but the ones he enjoyed the most were the jobs in the theme parks, especially Typhoon Lagoon and MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios). His final job before leaving the field was working on Disney’s Animal Kingdom when it opened in 1998. While he may not be out in the field as much these days, he still enjoys the opportunity to walk and price jobs with those familiar theme park clients.

Michael was born and raised in Orlando and cannot imagine living anywhere else. He and his wife Jennifer have been married for 6 years and have five children between them. Michael has one daughter and two sons, while Jennifer has one son and one daughter. Jennifer's daughter currently lives at home with the couple and will soon be attending the University of Central Florida. Michael’s oldest son just recently moved to Manhattan and got married in Central Park, which was his first trip to “The Big Apple”. He also has two grandsons, Aaron and Carter, that he absolutely loves spending time with.

When Michael and Jennifer aren’t spending time with their family, they enjoy tending to projects around their home, visiting Florida's coastline and traveling. For his 50th birthday, they visited Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam, which was a trip Michael will never forget. While this year has halted many travel plans, they are missing cruises the most. Their cruise to the Eastern Caribbean was their favorite so far but they are looking forward to the day they are finally able to hop back on board another ship, hopefully sometime in the very near future. The couple also loves craft beer and they have a fun ritual of visiting breweries across the state. Even though they have been to over 50 different breweries just in the state of Florida, Ten10 Brewery in Orlando is, by far, their favorite, and just so happens to be right down the road from their home.

Looking back over the years he’s spent with W. W. Gay, Michael can’t say enough good things about his career. Without hesitation, he credits his fellow employees for his long tenure and absolute enjoyment of the job. “The reason I’ve been here for as long as I have is because of the people and the relationships I’ve built over the years”, he says. “I’ve enjoyed coming to work everyday with so many of the same people for all these years”. Michael also appreciates the fact that management not only gives employees the tools they need to accomplish the job, but they also recognize their hard work, too. “There’s minimal turnover here because employees feel appreciated. Everyone knows what this company is capable of and does what they can to make it happen. We’re all in it for the same reason”.

Thanks for your continued dedication, Michael!

Quick Answers

Favorite quote: "Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day" by Rory Vaden

Last movie you saw: "Parasite"

Dream dinner guest: "John F. Kennedy"

Best Orlando recommendation: "Walking around Lake Eola or visiting Leu Gardens"

I'm happiest when... "I'm at home or visiting with my family"

Christmas Decorations History

Jacksonville Office

If you are at all familiar with the Jacksonville office, you know that during the holiday season each year, huge Christmas decorations are put atop one of our buildings to be seen from I-10. You have more than likely heard stories and seen pictures, but do you know the history behind these famous decorations?

Christmas was Mr. Gay’s favorite holiday, and he was always finding ways to celebrate it as much as possible. More than 35 years ago, he found a larger than life way of bringing Christmas cheer to those driving by. Little did Mr. Gay know that this would become a Jacksonville tradition that residents from across the city would look forward to each year.

Most of the pieces were brought in at different times, the oldest being the camels. These first pieces were acquired from another location not far from the Jacksonville office. They were then cleaned and modified to look as they do today. To help with more of the pieces, Mr. Gay enlisted the help of Al, an artist from Daytona who was responsible for painting many of the W. W. Gay trailers. Al designed, created, and painted many of the remaining pieces. The "Merry Christmas" sign was acquired only a few years ago and was the final piece that completed the special Christmas mural.

For many decades, these decorations were always put up the day after Thanksgiving. However, to allow our employees more time with their families after the holiday, they are now installed the day before Thanksgiving. Over the years the team has also found more efficient ways of assembling the decorations. In the beginning, installation would begin with the camels and end with the large signs, but they came to find the wind made it extremely difficult to hang the signs. The process now begins with the signs and ends with the camels. They also built frames, brackets and poles which helped tremendously with the installation. What used to take multiple days to put up now only takes 4-5 hours.

A big shout out to the crew who installs these each year, as it brings smiles to so many people! We are so excited to continue this tradition that has always meant so much to the city of Jacksonville and Mr. Gay. We know he’s looking at these this year and smiling, too.

Project Manager Training

Orlando Wrap-Up

Project Manager training has been in the works for quite some time and officially kicked off last month in Orlando! For those not aware, a group of PMs from across all offices were invited to take part in the first group of sessions. This was a great opportunity that brought all office locations together so they could learn from one another. The goals of the overall program are to highlight industry trends, learn new approaches, share best practices and, most importantly, get to know each other.

The two-day workshop in Orlando covered four separate topics with a different presenter, or team of presenters, for each module. Each presenter created and prepared their own presentation, and some even included fun activities to help drive home their topic. The modules and presenters were as follows:

Module 1: "Traits of Great Project Managers" - Paul Jones

Module 2: "Industry Trends" - Matt Furlong & Josh Whitley

Module 3: "Anatomy of a Project" - Jon Byrd & Amanda Wenzel

Module 4: "Project Pursuit: How We Win Work" - Wayne Durban & Tom Smith

The training program has 4 sessions total, with the second in December and final two in January. Session 2, which was held earlier this week in Gainesville, covered two modules: "Effective Project Meetings" & "Project Scheduling". The final two sessions will be held in Jacksonville and will cover the following topics: "Material Procurement", "Document Control", "Project Finance", "Handling Project Risks", "Project Close-Out", "Effective Communication for PMs".

If you are a Project Manager and did not partake in the first session, don't worry! All PMs company wide will have the opportunity to go through the training course soon.

Great job to Cyndi and the entire team for all their hard work in creating such a fun & informative first session!

Tom Smith, Paul Jones & Mike Rizzo

Matt Furlong & Josh Whitley (Jacksonville)

Ron Corbin (Jacksonville), Chris Stalnaker, Tiffany Allen & Ron Lowe (Gainesville)

Jon Byrd & Joey Roach (Jacksonville)

Jacksonville Office Update

One project the Jacksonville office wanted to highlight this month was the CSX building located in the downtown area. Jobs at this location have recently included chiller replacements and remodels on multiple floors of the 15-story building. One team has been hard at work replacing 3 chillers and other related projects in the basement, while other teams have been focusing on bathroom renovations and new water fountain installations. The chillers that were replaced were the original ones, which were over 60 years old. This portion of the project was a true team effort as they were able to complete it with little or no impact to the client. The floor updates are still in progress.

Great job to the foremen Isaac Hayes, Dalton Stenbeck, Micah Hodges and all their apprentices for a job well done on this big project!

Gainesville Office Updates

The Gainesville crew has been busy with some major projects that they have spent most of the year focusing on.

One of their biggest projects has been the North Florida Regional Medical Center (NFRMC) located off of Newberry Road. This HCA client job has been a large vertical expansion, adding on multiple floors to the hospital. The 6th and 7th floors were just recently turned over and cleared for patients, while the 5th floor is still being worked on. The NICU, located on the 3rd floor, is also being remodeled and is scheduled to be completed the first quarter of 2021.

A shout out to the team working on this project: Ryan Sullivan, Andy Owens, Danny Renard, Scott Arrington and support team

Orlando Office Update

The Orlando office is currently working on the Orange County Convention Center West Building renovation. The Convention Center provides approximately $3 billion in economic impact to the Central Florida area annually. In recent years the Convention Center has averaged nearly 200 events including 115 conventions and tradeshows that attract more than 1.5 million attendees to the region each year. It is the 2nd largest Convention Center in the United States and the 19th largest in the world at approximately 7 million square feet including 74 meeting rooms, 479,190 square feet of exhibition hall, 232 breakout rooms and the Chapin Theater. Orlando's contract on this project is to replace 60 air handler units, 15 fan coil units, 5 heating hot water coils in the mechanical rooms, and renovate the mechanical in 37meeting rooms (pictured top left) that include 78 VAV’s. All work on this project must be coordinated through Capital Planning and the Convention Center Staff.

The AHU’s, FCU’s and HHW coils are located in mezzanines and mechanical rooms throughout the building. Most of the units must be disassembled in the exhibit halls (pictured right), transported to the mechanical rooms and reassembled in place (pictured bottom left). In some instances, doors and walls will have to be made larger to accommodate the units. There may even be some areas where they will have to utilize a helicopter for installation! To help with this process, all of the chilled water coil connections are being coordinated and prefabbed at the Jacksonville Pipe Shop. The large double wall ductwork is being fabricated by one of our teams at the Port Orange Sheet Metal Shop and installed by our sheet metal employees.

In order to accommodate the prescheduled conventions and shows, this was originally slated as a 3 year project with very tight deadlines to complete all 37 meeting rooms. However, with many shows cancelling due to COVID-19, this has allowed the teams to accelerate that schedule. The renovations on the Meeting Rooms began in December 2019 and will now be completed by the end of this month.

Even with the accelerated schedule, this project has still been very challenging due to coordination with the owner, the location of units and the size of the building. Our very own Pipe Fitting Foreman Scott Robinson and Sheet Metal Foreman Jahnoy Davis have done a tremendous job coordinating this project to ensure timely installation while keeping our customer happy. The entire team is looking forward to a successful project and hoping to have it completed by the end of 2021, well ahead of schedule.

Florida Mechanical Company Update

Ever wondered what life looks like from a crane operator's perspective? Well here is your chance! The top left photo shows a member of the team comfortably sitting in the cabin of Florida Mechanical's Liebherr LTM1200 220 ton crane. Awaiting them is a cooling tower that is dauntlessly set 179 ft away atop Florida Blue. In a situation like this, communication is key! To ensure safe and proper placement of the equipment, the operator, signalmen and rigger must work seamlessly with the customer. Definitely not as easy as it looks!

Over in Clermont, the Florida Mechanical team was hard at work to safely remove old transmission towers. As you can see from the top right photo, it took three cranes working in unison to accomplish this. High voltage lines, which are shockingly dangerous, was a huge concern during this project. Luckily, no company knows that better than C&C Powerline and no company respects that responsibility more than Florida Mechanical. They are forever grateful to be selected as C&C's exclusive crane service provider.

Florida Mechanical commends the operators and linemen that risk their lives every day to keep America running!