Estimating
We completed a small portion of work on the Base Line Solar Farm site and removed some debris in order for the Engineer to observe the soils for any contamination and then finish his Environmental Assessment report. We are now waiting for the approval to complete the remaining work and decommission the wells. We also have a meeting scheduled with Q-Cells for January 5th and hope to learn more about their plans and schedule.

Tim was to submit his tender for a small pre-eng building for PWC Workshop G which closed on December 22nd except Tim was off on the 21st and Mike forgot to purolate the tender form to Toronto where the job was closing! Sorry about that Tim.

We submitted our pricing for the revised Adler Moving Warehouse and had a follow up meeting with them to go over a few details. We will be signing this one up shortly.

We are still working with Ellsin Environmental on securing the required financing for the building and property. It is a very tough market out there but we are hopeful about a few deals being presented. Obviously, the construction schedule has been delayed until spring.

We had to submit some optional pricing for the 16,500 square foot manufacturing plant as it has to be super clean inside for the manufacturing processes. The building will now require full height liner panel, ceiling liner and in-floor heating.

We are still waiting for our meeting with Elementa to discuss the requirements for their new facility. We understand that their land purchase deal was passed by City Council which clears the way for them to get going.

Nothing to report on the air hanger for Matheson Constructors and their client in Sudbury. We will have to sit tight on this one.

We also submitted a quote to Anmar for seven of the Essar Service Corridor bent foundations on December 16th. They want us to begin construction on December 21st and get some concrete poured prior to Christmas. Three more bent foundations are on hold and may require piling and the other 20 foundations require a soils report before they can be designed.

A request for quotation was received on December 17th for a 50' x 300' steel building with a 40' eave height for an out-of-town job from an out-of-town Contractor. It would be to supply and erect the building. They also require two other buildings both being 50' x 200' with a 20 foot eave height. They were planning on wood frame but will consider pre-engineered.

We have decided to decline bidding the new Francis H. Clergue French Emersion School for various reasons. We think that you would have to bid it extremely tight to have a chance at being the low bidder given the bidders list and we can't take a $15 million job with very little profit that would be too much risk!

New Employees
Nothing new to report here, we are in high gear. Jorge S has returned after a personal leave and we are glad to have him back.

AELP Co-Gen Foundations

John's crew poured the Gas Holding Tank's counterweight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, December 4th, 5th and 6th. They poured 147 metres on Friday, 53 metres on Saturday and 51 metres on Sunday using two concrete pumps. They had to have the top of each pour painted with a bond breaker in case one of the concrete counterweight rings had to be removed to adjust the weight. John has now poured 4,848.5 cubic metres of concrete on this job. His crew consisted of JR, Jake, John and Kevin. John said they all did an excellent job. We are almost wrapped up on this site now.

AELP Co-Gen Cladding Installation

John M and Jason S are still slugging away on this one, as is Clinton as the PM. We had some delays as there were some issues with CO gases being above acceptable levels. AELP staff had to repair several leaks before we could resume working. Our guys all have to wear personal CO detectors and we have set timelines for work in and work out in several locations on this project.
The personal CO detectors are set to sound an alarm when CO levels go above 25 ppm. We even went so far as to get pricing on Scott air packs and had Essar staff give several of our guy's air pack training. Things seem to have cleared up and we are back to work now. We are hoping to be completed on this job by early February.

Becker Cogeneration

We were on hold for a bit as we had to redesign the interior column spacing. We switched the sidewall column spacing to 30 foot bays and the interior to 60 foot bays using open web steel joists (OWSJ); this also changed the foundations. We are all squared around now and it is full speed ahead. We are waiting for a decision on the portable batch plant that will be put on site by the Owner. We are hoping to start the foundations in early February and Steelway is scheduled to begin delivery the week of March 8th. More on this one next month.

Algoma University Biosciences & Technology Convergence Centre

Wayne has been battling the elements on this project; heating and hoarding is the priority right now. They have been pouring walls, elevator shafts and stairwells. The remaining floor slab pour had to be broken into two pours as it would have been too much area to hoard all at once. General Contracting continues backfilling as Wayne's crew strip walls. Foundation insulation and waterproofing are ongoing. Depending on the weather, Wayne is hoping to be complete in early February as is his PM, Ken S.

Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3 | Photo #4 | Photo #5 | Photo #6 | Photo #7 | Photo #8

Essar Steel/Anmar Service Corridor Foundations

This project has been put on hold for some reason.

Brookfield Power Generating Station Misc. Repairs
Dwayne has almost completed this project and will have one final trip to finish some flashings. Tim, the PM on this, feels it is a job well done.

Tenaris Algoma Tubes Settling Pond Liner Replacement
KKC has this project moving along despite some hiccups; Andy S has been assisting KKC on this project. General Contracting completed the excavation of the sludge from the settling pond. In total, there was 950 tonnes of sludge hauled to the landfill and another 1,040 tonnes stockpiled on site. They completed the shaping and backfilling and were ready for the liner. The liner installation was delayed due to the weather conditions in our "great northern" environment. Our forces completed all of the concrete work. This job will be complete by the end of this month.
Photos:
Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3 | Photo #4 | Photo #5

Praxair T900 Oxygen Plant
We aren't doing much work on this project yet. I think it will be a spring start.

Essar #3 Heat Treat Furnace Foundations
Scotty has completed this project, as noted it would not take very long. We had to have some of our guys trained in Confined Spaces as this came into play when they had to strip some of the trench forms.

Essar No. 6 BF Cladding
Clinton tells me that this job is now complete. Donnie, Ryan and Trevor installed the 2,400 square feet of siding and trim in 7 days. The work was for SIS and they erected the scaffolding that we worked from. Our guys did a great job and everyone is happy with the finished product.

Algoma's Water Tower Inn Lobby Renovations
Sid and his crew continue to work with JJ and his crew. The Lobby renovations are almost complete and renovations to the Pavilion will begin this month. We had to prepare the area for the arrival of the Olympic Torch Relay which saw over 100 vehicles show up that travel with the group. We also had to gear up the area for the New Years celebration; and all went well. Our guys spent time in our shop planning down the existing wood trims and painting them for re-installation. JJ writes a newsletter called "The Mint Maker" and is up to edition 7; great info JJ but why is it called "The Mint Maker". All work should be completed by the end of this month. JJ will then hold the grand Re-opening or what he refers to as the "Totally Minted Event".
Photos:
Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3 | Photo #4

We held our year end Management Safety Meeting & Review on December 3rd. We will be holding our All Employees Health & Safety meeting on February 4th to review the same items with all of our employees.

Bob has lined up a Propane Handling course with Steve Hilderly from McDougal Fuels. The cost is $50.00 per person plus Steve charges $80.00/hour for the 2.5 hour course and he will do the course in our Training Room. It should cost us about $1,600.00 to have all of our crew certified.

Bob is also lining up some more recertification courses for Manlift Training, Basics of Fall Protection, First Aid/CPR- Level 3, Rigging & Hoisting and a WHMIS refresher course. Mr. James (our former Safety Director) has advised us that he is available to do some training and Bob has said he will be taking Ken up on that.

I have included a Safety Alert on carbon monoxide for your information and use.
Carbon Monoxide Alert

CONVENTIONS & SOCIAL EVENTS
Our staff Christmas Party was held on Friday, December 4th at the Water Tower Inn. Everyone had a great time, especially Lenny! The winners of the door prizes were as follows:

Photos:
Photo #1 | Photo #2 | Photo #3 | Photo #4 | Photo #5 | Photo #6 | Photo #7 | Photo #8 | Photo #9 | Photo #10

RBC Dominion Securities donated $4,500.00 to the Soup Kitchen and served up lunch on November 14th. There was a one page feature article about it in the Sault Star; I have attached the article. RBC Dominion Securities also issued a challenge to other businesses. Since our firm likes a good challenge (and I really do), we decided to take them up on it. We donated $4,500.00 to the Soup Kitchen and served up lunch on December 10th. RBC's Caroline Kelly showed up to donate their $1,150.00 as per their challenge. Our servers consisted of Fern, Mike, Clinton, Tim, Marion, Sylvia, Shauna, Stella, Scarlett, Michelle and Pax. We definitely had too many servers but we managed to trip over each other quite nicely. Tim and Clinton worked in the basement re-organizing the stock and checking the pasta. The rest of us made sandwiches and then Clinton, Mike, Shauna, Stella, Michelle and Pax served the meal, cafeteria style. The people were extremely appreciative and everyone thanked us. Fern and Shauna distributed various items, donated by other groups, to those in attendance. It was an event to remember and an experience to the eye.

I would like to put out another challenge to all businesses to take up the RBC challenge and make a $4,500.00 donation and serve up a lunch. I would like to see RBC pay out as much as possible, all for a very good cause. Let's all make a difference this year and give the Soup Kitchen a generous back-up in their bank account to make it through the winter without any financial worries. You can call Caroline Kelly at 759-7885 or Calna McGoldrick at 942-2694. GO FOR IT!
Soup Kitchen article

Congratulations
To Ken C & Natasha on the birth of their second son on December 2nd. Jett weighed in at 7 lbs, 10 oz. Hey Kenny, where are the cigars?
Ken and Natasha had a very scary experience as KKC had to do CPR on Jett on their kitchen table and then Jett was rushed to the hospital. He's OK but has a low blood count and his parents have been having quite the time with Doctors. Ken says he was sure glad to have had CPR training.

The January Birthday Club:
No Birthdays this month.

Mike Moore & Sons Construction's Donation Status

January Clinic Times
Tuesday, January 26th 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Wednesday, January 27th 11:00 am to 3:00 pm & 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm

Congratulations to us, we have surpassed our goal of 50 donations. Our employees have been with the Partners for Life Program for 3 years now and were the very first Partner in the Sault. We have made the following donations:
2007 108 donations
2008 69 donations
2009 56 donations

That is a three year total of 233 donations which has the potential to save up to 699 lives. Wow,
Congratulations to us!

Dwayne's "Kimmy" (Kim M) has jumped ship and joined the PUC Services Partners for Life team as that is where she works. (Trader). Well at least she is still donating the Gift of Life. PUC Services is currently at 9 donations out of their goal of 10, so they should make it.

Tibits

Here is a good one from Shauna about Swine Flu.

I'm not really concerned about swine flu.
Here's my concern.

Next year is the year of the cock . . . Anybody else worried?

We now have 594,718 man hours with no Lost Time Injuries (LTI) or a total of 4,135 days. We only have 405,282 man hours to go to reach our goal of 1,000,000 accident free hours. Great, great, fabulous job guys and keep it up please!

On a sad note, I lost my best friend on December 30th, 2009. My Aunt Audrey fondly referred to as the "Wee Warrior" or "Starkie" passed away in the hospital in Orillia; she was 89 years old. When things first looked bad for her in November, I immediately made the decision to drive down and visit her one final time. I loaded my 86 year old Mother and Fern into the truck and away we went. We had a very nice visit with her and she sure was surprised to see her sister Margie! It was the best decision possible and it was heart warming to see her one last time because we knew she didn't have long. You should never postpone doing important things like visiting family or friends who are ill because you may never have the chance to do it again. Audrey was quite frail but was a fighter to the very end. She even gave the nurses shit at the hospital for asking us to leave as visiting hours were over! I will miss her and our long distance chats; she certainly helped me through a lot of tough times in my life. Rock On!

Clinton sent me some information on baldness, not too sure why, but I think he is trying to prove a point or something. I thought I would attach it for your reading pleasure. Is he going some where with this?
Baldness article