We have gotten off to a great start at some plants this year and still waiting for the rain to subside at others.  It has been an unusual weather year so far with summer like temperatures early in April and then cold & rainy conditions throughout much of May.  We hope the weather has cleared now so we can gear up for what looks to be a great year in the North. 

           This spring, we had two longtime employees retire.  Warren Gaede had worked for the Shirey Company before Manatt's Inc. acquired them and then continued to work at Manatts in Waterloo until this year.  Combining the years at Shirey’s and Manatts, Warren drove a mixer for 32 years.  The other retiree was Tim Manatt.  Tim contributed to the Manatts organization in more ways than people imagine.  Since his retirement, Tim has been very busy, but he still sticks his head in on occasion to see what is going on.  Congrats to both Warren and Tim.

Mike Watson will be telling about the workload in his article, so I will just touch on some large projects.  Oelwein is having an excellent year already and there is a lot more work coming up.  The Oelwein guys have been hauling to an ethanol plant between Oelwein and Fairbank on a daily basis.  We have supplied over 3000 cubic yards to that project to date.  We are also supplying concrete to the new wastewater treatment plant in Oelwein.  Work on the horizon includes a new public library in Oelwein. 

Independence is going strong as well.  Their workload includes a new Super Wal-Mart that has been keeping Al busy. 

The Waterloo plant has gotten off to a slow start but started a paving project today and picked up two large projects last week.  The new plant in Grundy Center is up and running.  Jerry caught on to the computer very quickly and is very happy with his new plant. 

Our quality control team of Dave Distler, Kevin Sorenson and Keith Randall has been working with Nate and Sandy in Brooklyn to develop an extensive database for concrete strength results at Manatts and United Concrete. 

As I travel plant to plant it is easy to see that we have so many people that excel in their positions and perform above and beyond their duties.  This is greatly appreciated, keep up the good work and please continue to work safely.