Wehr family ventures grow new branch

It's not easy to keep the Wehr family businesses straight. Scott Wehr jokes that bookkeepers hate them.

Wait until they see the books of the full-scale launch of another business.

Wehr Striping and Sealing LLC has existed since fall 2008, but it's only been sealing driveways and parking lots for the Wehr family's development and construction companies. This year, Scott Wehr plans to offer the services to unrelated businesses as well.

Wehr Striping and Sealing will be the third family business to sprout from CRW Inc., a development company founded by Bob Wehr, Scott Wehr's grandfather, in the 1970s. Twenty years later, Bob Wehr's children joined him in the property development business, and Wehr Wehr Johnson & Bridgeforth Inc. was formed, Scott Wehr said. Bob Wehr and three of his children, Jim Wehr, Connie Jo Johnson and Patricia Johnson (formerly Bridgeforth) own WWJB, which is in the process of changing its name to Wehr Johnson, according to Jim Wehr.

Family members say the name change has nothing to do with changes in management.

Secretary of State records show Wehr Wehr Johnson & Bridgeforth is the owner of Wehr Johnson Properties, which Scott Wehr said owns and manages about 2 million square feet of property in southwest Missouri and other states, including Florida and North Carolina.

From Wehr Properties came Wehr Construction LLC, which was created in 2003 by Jim, Scott and Bronson Wehr, Scott's brother. The company began by doing construction work - from excavation to infill - for family developments.

The first project Wehr Construction took on was Chestnut Center, an approximately $1 million, two-acre development with a restaurant, convenience store and car wash on the corner of Chestnut Expressway and Main Avenue.

After two years of construction projects for Wehr Properties, Scott Wehr said, the company started working on projects outside the family business. Today, the majority of the company's work comes from companies outside of Wehr Properties. Wehr Construction has grown from first-year revenues of $2 million to about $10 million in 2009, Wehr said.

Both Wehr's property and construction businesses will benefit from the formation of the new company, Jim Wehr said.

"They'll benefit because we own and build properties - and that means a lot of parking lots. Cost-wise, it will help tremendously," he said.

Wehr Striping and Sealing has a handful of full-time employees, Scott Wehr said, who have been working on promoting the service to businesses. The business has been targeting commercial clients through flyers and door-to-door sales since September, Wehr said. By year's end, he hopes that work on family properties will only make up about 25 percent of the company's workload.

Overhead costs for the asphalt business are lessened through the use of shared office space at 4136 McCann Court. The business shares a warehouse with Wehr Construction, and there's also the opportunity to share workers.

"The employees respond well because it keeps them employed. In winter, they can work on construction projects and do some (in-house work), and when the weather's good and we have (asphalt) work, we can also use them to seal," Scott Wehr said.

While the striping and sealing business could keep staffing costs low because its initial staff was shared with Wehr Construction, there were still startup costs for equipment, including a striper, seal truck, spray truck, striping painter and crack filler, Scott Wehr said, although he declined to disclose the costs.

The biggest expense, he said, is for the products themselves. The company has decided to use an asphalt emulsion-based sealant billed as an environmentally friendly alternative to the more traditional coal-tar sealant, Wehr said.

Coal-tar sealants have been a topic of discussion in environmental circles and, more recently, within the city of Springfield. The key issue is that the rate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carcinogens, is much higher in coal tar sealants than other options. The Springfield-Greene County Environmental Advisory Board first brought the issue to City Council in the fall, and a council committee was asked to research coal tar sealants, said Todd Wagner, principal storm-water engineer for Public Works, who has been researching the topic.

"Simply put, coal tar sealants are allowing a way for more (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) to get into the environment, through rainwater wash off and through tracking in on people's shoes and on tires. The idea is that they're pretty sure from these studies that there are more PAHs getting into the environment because of that and that's going to have a detrimental effect on aquatic life and people that are walking across the parking lot," Wagner said, noting that he spoke with several Springfield businesses about what they're using.

"Some of the companies in town use 99 percent coal tar because they say that's what people want, they want a good black parking lot," Wagner said, adding that other vendors have stopped using coal tar based on studies and others use both, depending on the client's preference.

For Wehr Striping and Sealing, the greener choice is one that coincides with environmentally friendly measures Wehr Construction has been taking for the past couple of years, Jim Wehr said.

"We decided to only offer the asphalt emulsion sealant because of the environmental reasons, but also because it's healthier for the workers, and the people that use the lots," Scott Wehr added. "We just think it's the right thing to do."[[In-content Ad]]