The 2006 production season is off and running.  Most of our plants are now scheduled out past July.  Some out further than that.  We have been doing some Asphalt Stone this year with gradations that are absolutely fantastic.  We started to put some 8x20 screen plants in our system and crusher support that gradations have been achieved and maintained.  This has been done consistently even with all the rain.  This doesn’t happen with equipment alone.  It takes people that care about quality.

Russ’s crew has been on the road custom crushing for Doud Stone since the 24th of April and looks like they will be there through the first week of June at least.  They are doing a great job and their efforts are greatly appreciated.

The drillers have also had a busy schedule so far this year.  There have been many nights on the road for this department and it appears we are still in the growth mode.  Matt has had his hands full scheduling these drills out between the drilling required of ourselves and our custom drilling that we do.

It seems that Roger T’s equipment hauling department has been on the road non-stop since the production season started.  If it’s not bad enough with all the loads they haul, the routes that they use are constantly getting changed due to weak bridges or box culverts.  This in return adds miles to each and every trip that they haul.

 This year, we have had some superintendent changes in the crushing departments that will give some great opportunity to Scott Bormann and Howard Fruehling.  Dave Kagemann will be retiring next year at the end of March, so we moved some people around to accommodate this and to make Dave’s last year with us a little easier on him.  He is setting up plants and doing some utility work for me.  Dave is a person I will truly miss.  I, as well as everyone else, have a lot of fond memories of him.  He is truly a unique individual.  I mean this in a good way and I hope he has many enjoyable years of retirement.  I’m not so sure Sue, his wife, is ready for him full time.  I wish her all the best.  Scott was looking for an opportunity to move back to the Preston area where he and his wife are from and Dave’s retirement gave us an opportunity to make this happen.  Howard than became the new superintendent at our C.R. South Quarry.

Steve Fisher’s crew just received a new 8x20 screen plant and a HSI secondary crusher.  This has picked up their tons and versatility in products.

Tim McPherson got his new plant last year and we like the results we are seeing.  Tim is still doing new things all the time to help his quality of product and production and trying to do this with less fines.

Oats still has his small crushing plant but has it super tuned.  He gets a lot of tons done in a short amount of time, even with some of the goat trails that he has to go to.  I was talking to him a couple weeks ago when he had just moved.  He said that he crushed till 8:00 in the morning in one quarry, moved, I think, 30 miles and was crushing at 4:00 in the afternoon of the same day at another quarry.

Shawn is still enjoying the reconstruction of Moscow last year and the versatility that the cone crushing has brought him.  It seems that some of the “out of the box thinking” has been worth its time.

The dredging department will probably be on its third site by the time this article is printed.  They stay on the move and have a very extensive schedule.

The wash plants have been busy so far this year and it looks as if they will continue to be the rest of the year.

Russ at the asphalt plant will have a trying start up with the new controls they just installed until he gets use to it.  After the initial start up and the problems associated with that, it should be so much better.  “Progress is wonderful”.

The stripping crew is out there fighting the weather trying to complete some projects and getting a lot of others done that normally wouldn’t be.  They are trying to keep sites ahead of the crushing plant stripped and doing a great job.

Our material trucker’s season is just getting off to a good start now and we hope that they will be busy throughout the whole year.

Shops are gearing up to maintain the equipment as the year proceeds and can become very demanding on schedules.  The new facility in DeWitt is working out great and really helped this winter during our repair season.

Most of all, our entire safety department needs to be recognized and supported through out the year.  They can only do their job if we do ours safely.  We have a field committee made up of crew members, shop members, and truckers.  This committee will be around through the year to inspect each other and see how safety is being done throughout the company.

REMEMBER OUR CULTURE “SAFETY – ENVIRONMENT – QUALITY - PRODUCTION”  If you do things safe the other 3 will happen.  If you aren’t safe you just can’t make the other three happen when you’re laid up.