For the last three years or so, we have been telling you how tough it has been to get road work in Iowa.  This year has proven no different as the Iowa Department of Transportation has slashed another $40 million in construction contracts.

Our approach, however, has been to get the cheap work early rather than getting cheap, cheap work in June.  That being said, I have to tell you that we probably have more work under contract at this time of the year than ever before.

The Newton Portable Asphalt Crew is close to full, and I know we have a lot of PCC Paving to do.  This translates to our trucks getting out of the Brooklyn yard in April rather than June.  I’ve always said that I can tell if we are making money or not by looking at how many trucks are in the yard.

This volume of work in the PCC Division and Portable Asphalt should translate to more hours of work and more take home pay for drivers, operators, and laborers.  That’s a good thing.

We still have work to do.  Many of the counties, cities, and towns we work in are cutting back on their spending.  We have to do some good selling and tough bidding to get the seal coat work that keeps us busy.  Our subdrain and milling work is way behind a full schedule at this time.  This has me worried.  We are good at being versatile, so maybe those crews will inevitably have to do different things for us.

Whatever you do, do it safely.

Switching gears, I’d like touch on another note of interest concerning recent acquisitions.

Last fall, Norris Aggregates Products  purchased thirteen quarries in northwest Missouri from Martin Marietta Aggregates.  The main quarry services St. Joseph with about 800,000 ton per year.  All together, we should sell about 1.2 million ton out of these quarries.

This was a very significant purchase and strategically fits Norris very well.

It has also been announced that March 25th, Norris will purchase the quarries and assets of Ideker Construction, also located close to St. Joseph, Missouri.  This should add another 300,000-400,000 ton to their capacity.

Patt Garrett is the manager of this operation and is anxious to put all these operations together, running as one, along with the Moberly Stone quarries.  Good luck guys!

In the same light, LL Pelling purchased the assets of Cedar Valley Asphalt in Cedar Rapids in January.  Most of the employees of the Cedar Valley Asphalt will join Pelling.  Hopefully, the combined forces of these two companies will make LL Pelling much stronger.

Chuck Finnegan and Brett Finnegan will have their plate full this construction season.  We are hoping this addition will add another 50,000 - 80,000 ton of asphalt work next summer.

The reason I mention these bolt-on companies to our sister companies is that I want you all to know we aren’t sitting back and not growing.  These kinds of acquisitions will make us all financially stronger in the long haul.  As managers, we have stated that we want to be the “buyer of choice” if a company is for sale in our geographic area.  As long as we continue to have a strong financial statement and treat people in our industry like we want to be treated, I believe these opportunities will continue to come our way.