Sometimes it seems that nothing has changed much in 5 years, however, we have made several improvements during this time.

We now have a computerized central dispatch, which has increased the efficiency of our ready mix fleet and allowed us to have printed concrete tickets.

All of the Metro plants now have dust collectors, which not only is better for the employees and the environment, it also helps keep the trucks, plants, and yards cleaner.

In Ankeny, Charlie now has computerized batch controls and we have turned a useless lot into a great concrete and asphalt recycling yard.

At the West Des Moines plant, we have enclosed the plant and added a small shop that the paving crew uses.

Just this spring we reorganized our warehouse in Johnston. We added pallet and tire racks and purchased a forklift to better utilize these racks. This effort gave us so much extra room that we moved Ron Foshe out of the shop and into the warehouse to do body work and painting.

There are more changes coming, the biggest one in the near future is a new concrete plant in Ankeny. We have already taken a trip to several of the newer Manatts’ plants recently to come up with ideas on how we should build one here.

The Des Moines market has continued to be strong this year and the outlook for the rest of the season looks very good.

The work started out a little slow this spring due to wet weather, but things now are in full swing. We have numerous paving jobs on the books and our ready mix business has also been going well.

One of the jobs we had this spring was 5 miles of cart paths including grading and backfill at the Waveland Golf Course. Waveland is the oldest municipal golf course west of the Mississippi. The course is built on wooded and very hilly terrain. Every time we get one of these cart paths, I wonder how we are going to be able to get concrete to the paver. As always, Larry Adair and his crew come up with ways to get the job done with minimum disruption to the course. Our drivers get into some pretty tight spots without damaging our trucks on the hills and trees. This job took a little longer than we had planned due to wet weather. There were also several times we had to pull off the job because of tournaments and special events at the golf course.

We have finished the paths and received a punch list for the job. With five miles of paths, the only punch list items were 2 panels with a crack in them. That is very impressive for this size of job. Thanks to everyone involved for doing such a fine job and for doing it safely.