Vernon, in Traer, has had a good year without any large projects.  We have been supplying numerous residential and agricultural projects in Traer this year.  The Dysart Aquatic Center, which Traer supplied, won an Excellence in Concrete Award at the Better Concrete Conference this fall for its stunning appearance and importance to the city of Dysart.  La Porte City has had some nice projects that have helped push the yardage total over last year’s mark.  Darrell has supplied a street paving project in town as well as a few bridges.  Chad Schares stepped up from driving out of the Indy plant to take over the manager position at the Jesup plant in mid-Summer and is doing a very good job for us.  The Jesup plant is in the process of getting a much needed facelift.  The plant is in the process of being sandblasted and will be painted in the Spring.  Chad has also painted the inside of the office.

     The Denver plant has had a banner year doubling the yardage that it did last year.  Much of this can be attributed to major projects in town such as a new public works building and a large nursing home expansion.  Scott has also supplied to some bridges in addition to numerous above grade concrete houses.  Readlyn is having a decent year supplying residential projects in the area and a few bridges as well.  When things are slow in Readlyn, Dale has been busy helping Denver and Oelwein.

     Danny, in Oelwein, has had a good year as well.  There have been several IDOT projects in that area this year.  Oelwein is currently supplying a very large project at Upper Iowa University in Fayette.  There are a few large projects also that will be let in the near future.  In mid-Summer, Al Streitmatter assumed the manager position in Independence.  He was formerly the manager in Jesup.  In Jesup he had to batch manually versus using the computer that is in Indy.  Al quickly adjusted to the new technology and has been doing very well.  Russ & Jeff Upah recently moved the sand plant to Indy and will begin sand production this Spring.

     A lot has been going on in Grundy Center this year.  We are building a new plant across the street to the North of the old plant.  This will be quite a change for Jerry, he is used to double and triple batching but next year he will be using a computer instead.  I am sure Jerry will catch on quick and he will be happier than a kid in a candy store.  In addition to all the excitement across the street, Grundy has exceeded last year’s production.

     The Waterloo plant has had its best year since the year 2000.  There have been many large projects in the Cedar Valley this year.  The largest project is a new Ferguson Distribution Center on the Northeast side of Waterloo.  The Ferguson building is over 600,000 square feet.  Manatts joined forces with United Concrete to tackle this project.  United Concrete supplied the floors and Manatts supplied the footings and tilt-up walls.  Other projects that Waterloo supplied include a new Menards store, several projects at John Deere, some paving projects and Maucker Union at UNI.  Maucker Union received an Excellence in Concrete Award as well as the Dysart pool.