Excerpts from an interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover, mhoover@sbj.net.
Tell us about your company, Great River Associates.There are three principals – Spencer Jones, Mel Eakins and myself. We (do) civil engineering, surveying and landscape architecture and have geographic information systems and land planning. We have 32 employees (and) an office in the Columbia area. We mainly work in the southern two-thirds of the state and will travel out of state if we have a client who wants to go somewhere else. We do a lot of bridges for most of the counties in the southern part of the state. We (design for) roads, water and waste-water. (and) the majority of our work is in government.
What is the purpose of the Springfield Contractors Association, which you joined more than 16 years ago? It was started to improve communications between contractors and governmental bodies. That’s the main focus, and to promote the construction industry. We have committees that meet with Missouri State University and with Ozarks Technical Community College and the city of Springfield and Greene County, all kinds of different entities. It’s always an ongoing challenge to keep that dialogue current and make it useful and meaningful to both sides. I think communications are very good right now, but they can always be better.
Historically, SCA has been led by contractors. How did you become the second associate-member president, and why is involvement with the group important to you?It’s just years of involvement and working on committees and getting to know everybody, and everybody getting to a comfort level with you. (Engineers) design things, but the contractors are the people who actually take what we design from paper and turn it into real construction and done projects, so it’s a natural progression to be involved with contractors.
What are your priorities as SCA president?In a difficult (economic) time, we’re trying to keep the industry strong and to promote using local contractors as much as possible on jobs. (At my firm), we design things that can be built and fabricated in local shops, like the pedestrian bridge on Kearney Street for (Ed V. Williams) school. That was all fabricated here locally in a steel shop and constructed and erected by a local contractor. The city made a choice to spend its dollars locally.
What is a key challenge for SCA?Getting young people involved and bringing on that next generation (to be) involved in the association. We’re trying to bring younger people from different companies to the meetings, to involve them and get them started (as) members of the association. Our scholarship programs touch a lot of construction management people at OTC and MSU. We go to high schools and talk to kids about jobs in construction. They hear, “Everybody should go to college.” They don’t hear that there are jobs in construction out there. When you turn 18, if you’re good with a hammer, you can make a good living.
What’s your history in the local construction industry?I didn’t go to college until I was 30. I was a welder, but after three back surgeries, they told me I’d never work again. I did my pre-engineering at MSU, stood through about half my classes because I couldn’t sit, then went to Rolla. I got out of Rolla and went to work for (the Missouri Department of Transportation), then two engineering companies and the city of Springfield in the course of eight years, then we started Great River.
Are there parallels between welding and engineering? When you’re a welder, you build off a blueprint, and the engineers design the stuff. So I was on the other side. I’d have to call up and say, “Hey, this isn’t going to work.” Then, the engineers would come flying down from the front office saying, “It’s got to work.” Whoever’s building your stuff is always thinking, “Do they know what they’re doing?” Because on paper, anything can be done, but in reality, can your hand really fit behind (something) to put a nut on there, or is it something that can just be drawn on paper?
We try to make sure people can actually build what (we’re) drawing, so it was good for me to have those years of working before I went to college.
