This production year has been very interesting to say the least.  We have come out of winter repairs and jumped into 12-hour days for several weeks.  This is a good problem to have, believe it or not.  It is a lot easier to gear up than gear down.  With the mild winter, a lot of projects kept going, and our inventory in a lot of places took a hit.  With commercial business and  a few State jobs right out of the chutes, we saw the need to step up production for a while to catch up.  I think we are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel now.  Some of the plants are still doing a little quarry jumping to put a fire out here and there but not bad now.

John and LuAnn of the safety department are out there keeping in touch with the crews and contractors to keep or motto going:  “SAFETY, QUALITY, PRODUCTION.”

Cedar Rapids South crew took the spare plant (Tony, this should only be called a spare plant when you don’t need it) to Peden’s to put up some shoulder stone for a Cedar County job that Manatts are paving. 

The stripping crew has been down now to clean up Pedens and went down into the floor so we’ll be ready for the next set in there. 

Moscow has been trying to play catch from up getting such a late start in the spring from the updating that was done there.  I think most of the bugs are getting worked out now, and things are looking a little better there for them. 

Tim McPherson’s crew is working out the bugs in their new plant.  Look out when this happens because this plant will eat rock.  They produced right at 7,200 ton the other day in 10.5 hours.  When the rest of the bugs are worked out, and the support equipment gets to where it needs to be, I believe we’ll see a few more tons consistently.  This is double what they were doing before. 

Steve Fisher is back out to Montour putting up the tons that are needed for a nice project there.  Russell’s plant has been doing a little more moving around this year and trying to keep ahead of the schedules. 

Oat’s plant has had some great tonnage days turned in this year also.  They are over on the Illinois side now for awhile. 

Dave‘s crew has been plagued with some problems with their secondary but hopefully this is finally fixed for 5-6 years.  If anyone sees Dave, congratulate him on taking on the production reports with his computer.  Dave is overcoming the statement that “OLD DOGS CAN’T LEARN NEW TRICKS.”  He is doing it.  Nice job Dave. 

The wash plants have been real busy starting the year out trying to get ahead of a few projects, and that seems to be coming together now. 

The sand crew always has four to five places out ahead of them it seems.  Another busy year for them again.  If they didn’t have to put it through such a small pipe, it would go better for them. 

The quality control department is really starting to get busy with plant inspections. 

Quarry Development crew seems to be everywhere trying to keep things ready to go for the production crews. 

Both the asphalt and ready-mix plants seem to be busier than other years also. 

With the increased production this year, the drill schedules have been very demanding on the drillers.  They have really stepped up to the plate to make things work.  Cal has been doing their scheduling lately, and this has definitely put a load on his plate. 

Marge Delarm is just doing a great job working with Roger T. and the equipment movers.  The maintenance shops are busy keeping everything up and running, helping set plants up and putting pumps in. 

DeWitt shop is definitely getting an extreme makeover this year.  It will be a great facility to help service everyone. 

As I travel and see some of the projects going on, the sales force have their scale house people and loader operators doing more in a days time now than we use to do in two.  I believe sometimes they are forgotten because the only time we hear from them is if they have a scale or loader problem, which is getting less and less.  When our loader selection wasn’t so good, we heard from everyone. 

Ron and Wendell’s office personnel are definitely another department behind the scenes that doesn’t get enough recognition as our busy time is also theirs.  Lets keep the rest of our summer SAFE and enjoyable.