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Estimating
GoodLife Fitness Club in North Bay is ongoing with design
work taking place. We are gearing up Trow to do some bore
holes and a soils report. We hope to be able to start this
project in early April.
Mike is now in the process of contacting some government
agencies with respect to approvals for the island project
for the developer from Georgia. The developer is quite anxious
to get the project underway, but there could be a wee bit
of red tape ahead. Something about spawning grounds and
dredging that could cause some grief.
Mike submitted pricing for the Steelway Building erection
for two new Canadian Tire Stores, one in Deep River and
one in Hearst. The buildings are about 37,000 square feet
and both have a very tight schedule. They want them started
in February and opened by mid June. CTC has two more stores
coming out for tender as soon as they get the poor soil
problems resolved.
Mr. Moore, here he goes again, submitted pricing to Praxair
for the supply and erection of a Steelway building c/w a
25 tonne overhead crane for their proposed T- 900 Compressor
building in the Sault. The foundation design should be ready
for pricing soon.
Mike's also working on a Mini Storage complex to be located
in the Sault. It will be a complete design-build project.
He is submitting a tender for the supply and erection of
two 40' x 60' Steelway buildings at CFB Borden and has a
small renovation job to price at the Goulais River LCBO.
Hey Sid, you can be the Super on this one!
Fern would like to know what happened to our Estimating
Department! Mike is working with Anmar in Sudbury for two
more buildings, one will be 20,000 s.f. and the other will
be 50,000 s.f. Both of them will be Steelway buildings and
we would be doing the foundations and cladding installations.
Anmar would do the steel erection with their union erectors.
We have been approached by a local developer who wants
us to build one of the recently announced projects on Great
Northern Road. More on this one later.
The Chateau Georgian Retirement Residence addition in Timmins
will require some attention from the Estimating Department
(yes Fern, they are still with us) soon as final negotiations
will be taking place early this year.
We are hoping to get together with PGG early in the New
Year to go over planning and scheduling and finalize negotiations.
We are waiting for the DFO Sea Lamprey Building tender
and are hoping to see it out very soon. Hope that we can
stay within Gord's $7 million budget!
We were sent drawings from Anmar and asked to bid a design-build
project with them for Inco in Thompson, Manitoba. It was
for the Scavenger Cell replacement and was a very nice concrete
job for us but we had to decline. We do not have the manpower
to send there as we will be very busy right here in good
old Northern Ontario!
Tom is still in the final negotiation stages for the concrete
bent foundations with ASI. It looks like we could get going
on part of it soon.
Tom's also bidding on the No. 6 Blast Furnace Welfare Room
upgrade which closes this month; he put in a quick price
for some concrete slab work in Tenaris, he only had a few
days to put it together and he was around $220,000.00. Unfortunately,
we were not the low bidder. We understand that the low bidder
was about half of our price so we are wondering what the
low bidder forgot in his price.
Tenaris has also requested pricing for a Control Pulpit
renovation and guard rail replacement at their truck scale.
We are getting "auction" requests sent to us from
Tenaris electronically through Exiros.
Tom's submitting pricing to PGE (yes the estimating department
is back and working strong) for a wind turbine foundation
and a "gin pole & winch system" foundation
which is used to erect the wind turbine tower. This proposed
turbine would be a 36 meter lattice tower. They are not
sure of the location for this tower so we had to price a
typical foundation for a typical site.
We are preparing a budget estimate for the PUC for the
relocation of their Engineering Department. Once we submit
our budget price and they get approval to proceed, it will
be out for tender.
Tom is preparing a tender for an addition to the Croatian
Hall on Second Line. Clinton is assisting Tom by using our
new digitizer estimating board and pen. Clinton was having
a few minor problems and we had enlisted the expertise of
Carmine Richichi (Advance Interior Contracting) who stopped
in to show Clint a few tricks from a veteran digitizer.
All is working fine now. Thanks Carmine!
Tom attended a meeting in December for the Northern Ontario
School of Medicine project regarding the proposed student
Doctors Accommodations. Although this project has been delayed
due to funding, Andrea has been working diligently. She
is in the final stages and is bringing abroad some new participants.
We are hopeful that this project will commence within the
next few months.
Ken submitted a tender for the eight classroom addition
to St. Mary's French Immersion School on December 11th.
The results were not that great. Ruscio Construction was
$2,423,000.00, Cy Rheault Construction was $2,430,000.00,
we were third at $2,457,000.00 and Progressive Systems was
$2,840,134.00. Tight bidding, nice job Kenny but shouldn't
you have been the low guy? No cigars for 3rd place.
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New Employees
We re-hired Phil Olendy in December and he is working on
the Howard Avery building. Welcome back Phillip, we've missed
you since Sept. 2006.
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Wayne has Donnie and Jerry C. working with him. They are
doing the fire stopping, wire mesh partitions and shelving.
Although we have been suffering from delays by the Owner
and a few of the subtrades, we are still planning on Substantial
by the end of January. The trades on site are McLeod Bros.
Mechanical who are installing the duct insulation, radiant
heating, hot water tanks, controls and steam lines, Soo
Mill have installed the overhead doors, Henderson Metal
are installing diffusers and louvers, Phase Four are tying
in the panels, install lighting and the fire alarm, Ideal
Colour is painting, installing acoustic ceilings and epoxy
paint, Vipond was installing sprinkler heads, Mobile Glass
has finally installed all of the windows and entrances,
Interior Technologies has installed the tile and sheet flooring,
StonCor has installed the epoxy flooring and we are awaiting
the arrival of Nova Steel to begin the exterior siding.
Working for ORC is definitely a challenge to say the least.
And we believe that Ken Dutchak is Wayne's best buddy!
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Collegiate Heights Retirement Home Addition
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KC and Randy are plugging away at this project. City Wide
Electric continue with their rough-ins, KM Certified Construction
continue with the third floor framing and had the building
closed in prior to the Christmas break, DNM Plumbing continue
with their rough-ins and the gas line installation, Spira
Fire Protection have arrived from Southern Ontario to install
the sprinkler system, Ideal Colour is on site framing the
interior partitions, Ontario Concrete Finishing was on site
to pour the last floor slab and Gough Masonry is almost
complete. KC has made arrangements with National Supply
for some heaters and had them installed.
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John M. and his crew consisting of Mike M, Scott G, Scott
M, Cal D, Jake K, Gerry B, Dan M, Andy B, Jake M, Cris P,
JR and Joe F continue to form and pour concrete. They poured
about 222 cubic meters in December bringing the total to
around 484 meters. They finished the last turbine table
column and have been working on the transformer base, duct
banks and various other foundations. The site has become
really busy and congested now; safety is a real concern
and still number one priority. They have been installing
the shoring for the 8 foot thick suspended turbine slab
that sits on top of the columns. Ontario Concrete Finishing
poured the mezzanine slab on December 19th along with the
assistance of some of our guys; it was a 6,000 square foot
pour, 10" thick slab and had 115 cubic meters of concrete.
The Project Manager, Dan Hedley has been kind enough to
supply us with pictures when he can get the manlift started.
Overall, John is doing a great job and AELP is quite pleased.
We will be on this project for quite some time yet.
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No photos this month!
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EPTCON Garden River Foundations
The remaining concrete work has been put on hold again,
not too sure when we will be finishing it. We are anticipating
the spring of this year.
INCO Revert Building, Copper Cliff
This job is basically complete now except for any extra
work that Anmar may require. Good job Jason, the original!
Kenworth Truck Centre Building,
Sudbury
Jason and his crew have this job well under control and
had the building closed in before shutting down for the
holidays, much to the relief of David Vitone from Anmar.
Jason's crew consisted of Ryan, Tyler, Justin, Chris M.
and Trevor. We switched Trevor out and sent Len B. the second
week. Terry and Bill will be heading down in the New Year
to help out. Jason fondly refers to Terry as the "Roof
Boss" so I guess we know what Terry will be doing.
The crew started the wall sheeting on December 3rd and completed
it on the 11th; then they loaded the roof and started it
while battling the elements. Anmar decided they wanted all
of the roof liner installed prior to Christmas, so they
had to hoist the RTL roofing crates back off the roof and
proceeded to install all of the roof liner. The guys also
got about 100 lineal feet of RTL roofing and insulation
installed; that leaves them about 300 feet more to go. Could
be some shoveling coming up! Jay's crew will also have the
wall insulation and liner panel to install and this should
not be affected by the weather like the roofing will be.
This Steelway building is 100' x 200' and our crew has been
doing an excellent job.
 Photos:
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#8
Howard Avery Construction Building
Dwayne and his crew consisting of Phil, Trevor and Nick
began erecting the steel on Monday, December 10th. They
got all of the steel up by the end of that week except for
two rafters. Hey David Vitone, that's 20,000 square feet
in one week. Since Phil had to take some time off to pick
up his daughter from University, Scott M. has been filling
in (on loan from the Co-Gen site) Nick has also been moved
to the Tenaris project and assisted OCF with the Co-Gen
slab. Wayne M. is now helping out as the GoodLife re-roofing
project is complete. Dwayne intends on starting the cladding
installation in the New Year. Tim is the PM on this project.
Bob Askins from the MOL stopped by to chat with Dwayne who
informed him that we were a subtrade on this project. Dwayne
also had a lengthy discussion with Bob regarding various
jobsites in town.
Photos:
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Tenaris Algoma Tubes Oil Storage
Building
This project has not gone as we had hoped. We had some further
delays which have been sorted out but have put us behind.
Ken M. and his crew consisting of Bob, Craig and Nick occasionally
have had to erect an "inflatable tent" over the
entire slab area and we used our boom truck as one of the
anchor points. Hey Ken, we have heard rumours that your
"tent" has collapsed a few times! General Contracting
had to rip up about 10" of frost in order to do their
preparation work for the slab. Caswell Concrete Products
delivered the precast tanks and they have been installed.
They have poured the trench floors, installed the SM board
and DMC have installed most of the rebar. We were hoping
to pour the slab on Friday, December 21st but were informed
by OCF that they were having their Christmas Party that
day and it started at noon hour. We then attempted to put
our own crew together but not all of them had the Tenaris
safety indoctrination, so we were beat. The slab will now
be poured on January 3rd. The Steelway building will be
delivered in late February and then we can begin the erection.
GoodLife Fitness Re-roofing
Terry and his crew have now completed this re-roofing project.
The RTL seamer from Steelway showed up on the last day,
so Terry and Bill M. spent two days seaming and shoveling.
Trans Pro Wawa Terminal - Loading
Dock
Dwayne and Nick have this job completed, well almost. They
still have a few minor items to finish and Dwayne will be
heading up to Wawa to complete them soon.
Pollard Banknote Renovations
Sid has this project well in hand and his EdgeBuilder daily
reports continue to be very informative and educational.
Sid's recent insert was regarding the NFPA guide lines of
sprinkler head locations and the painting of them. His subtrades
consist of Red Star Electric, Advanced Interior Contracting,
Henderson Metal, CanFab Steel, Mobile Glass, S & T (plumbing
& sprinklers) and Hollow Metal. The Pollard crew has
taken over the warehouse portion of the building and Sid
has informed them that they will require PPE and have to
abide by our safety program at all times. Ken James and
Sid have really kept the subs on their toes with regards
to man lifts. Advanced had their scissor lift removed from
site for its' inspection and safety stickers and Henderson
Metal had to have Equipment World come to site to do an
inspection. Ken nabbed one person for not performing a daily
inspection and one for using the scissor lift to lift equipment
instead of people. Sid involves all of his subtrades in
safety meetings and discussions and is doing an excellent
job. We can only hope that he learns how to attach pictures
to his EdgeBuilder reports without losing them.
Photos:
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#5
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I would like to take this time to give everyone a summary
report on the two different surveys (audit reports) that
we completed this past year, 2007.
The first that I will share was our Ontario General Contractors
Association / Workplace Safety and Insurance Board veterans
group self evaluation results. A big thank you must go out
to the Construction Safety Association of Ontario for facilitating
all the format and meetings etc.
There were sixteen elements, and each firm under the guidance
and leadership of CSAO had to look at their own program
and compare it to the requirements for each of these elements,
then if there were any holes to fix them and then communicate
to all, these changes or additions. Based on the size of
your firm we were then required to complete a self evaluation
comprising of documentation checks and interviews with both
workers and management. Then based on this, we were to formulate
an action plan to correct any deficiencies. All of this
was to be completed, complied, and submitted to CSAO by
December.
The attached PDF file contains our results.
 Veteran's
Group
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""Walk your talk, always
check, audit, measure, etc. your program. It is often not
what you think it is"
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We have received the CSAO Northern Region Training Schedule
for January to June, 2008. The course offerings include
the following:
Basics of Supervising (3 days) in January and April,
Chain Saw Safety (half day) in March $75.00),
Confined Space Hazard Awareness (half day) in March,
Construction Health & Safety Rep (5 days) in February,
Health & Safety Policy and Program (half day) in March,
Hoisting & Rigging-Basic Safety Training (2 days) in
May
We will be sending several employees to the Construction
Health & Safety Rep course in order to work towards
our goal of having all of our employees trained as a Safety
Rep (Part One). This five day course is scheduled for February
11th to the 15th. If you have an interest in this course
or any of the other courses, please contact Ken James.
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Conventions & Social Events
Our annual Christmas Party was held on Friday, December
7th at Algoma's Water Tower. We are quite sure that everyone
had a good time, they certainly appeared to. The food was
fantastic; Shauna did an excellent job at planning this
event and we're counting on her to do the same in 2008.
Marty did the annual PowerPoint presentation; each year
we say we aren't leaving it to the last minute BUT guess
what, that's what happened!!! Thanks to Marty for his last
minute efforts. Black Loon donated the table prizes for
each of the 12 tables, door prizes were donated by MM&S,
winners were Scott MacKinnon (again), Blair McLeod, Steve
Roberts, Sid Benwell, Cris Pilon, Jean Styles, Eileen Hayes,
Don Coventry, Ollie Viotto and a mystery person as we can't
remember who it was.
Photos:
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#5
Phyllis and Barb Whalen, Black Loon and Mike Moore &
Sons cleaning ladies, were presented with some "wet
floor signs". Ken James took great pride in presenting
the ladies with these safety signs and added some of his
own verbal flair to the presentation.
Some staff booked hotel rooms (thanks to Shauna's event
planner skills) and stayed overnight at the Water Tower.
We understand they enjoyed a great brunch on Saturday; well
at least Sid, Michelle and Randy did. We hear that Kelly
was missing in action.
MM&S and BL raised $600.00 for the Soup Kitchen and
the two companies matched that with an additional $600.00.
We are certain that this $1,200.00 helped them provide some
good food over the holidays.
The SSMCA held their Christmas Party on December 14th at
the Marconi. I hear everyone had a great time and were all
well behaved. As the Association President, I wanted to
be there but had to go home early that day due to the flu.
Marty was going to fill in for me and bring Fern as his
date, but he fell ill as well. Fern had to go by herself
but had the good company of Dwayne and Kim, Jim and Maureen
and Wayne and Anna.
Congratulations To:
Doctor David Walde for his recent Order of Ontario award.
He has worked very hard for the Sault and is most deserving.
Congratulations David.
Ellis Don for being selected as the #1 Best Employer in
Canada by Report on Business magazine who select the 50
Best Employers annually. Ellis Don was # 2 last year. To
participate in the Best Employers in Canada study, a firm
must have at least 400 permanent employees in Canada and
have been in operation for at least three years. We can
handle the three year thing but we have a ways to go to
get to the 400 employees deal.
Mike & Fern on their 7th anniversary which they will
be celebrating at Arturo's Restaurant on January 5th. Always
good food and good times at Art's.
A big Congratulations to the Sault Steelers Football club
for receiving the City of Sault Ste. Marie 2007 Medal of
Merit Award. Great job guys!
The January Birthday Club:
Kelly Blake (Randy) January 8th
Michelle Gillespie January 12th
Emily Murphy (Craig) January 21st
Tianna Derasp (Sid) January 29th
Belated greetings to Emma McLeod (Blair) December 27th
Mike Moore & Sons Construction's
Final Donation Status
2007 Donation Goal- 100
2007 Total Donations- 108
Yes, we did it and big congratulations to all of our employees
and friends who participated and helped us surpass our hefty
target. With 108 donations, we have saved up to 324 lives
and we should all be very proud of this huge accomplishment.
You have made Ken James and I very proud of all of you donors.
We were quite concerned heading into the December clinic
with 84 donations under our belt. But everyone pulled through
and we got 24 donations at the clinic. Jason Shuttleworth
and Len B. even donated to the cause in Sudbury and Ken
Coventry dragged his entire jobsite over. Another outstanding
community performance by the caring employees at Mike Moore
& Sons Construction. We will be back at it in January
and we think we will leave our target at 100 units. I sent
Tom Quirk the info on putting together a Partners for Life
program at Praxair. Good Luck Tom and I hope that you can
do it.
Ken and I also challenge every other construction firm out
there to join Partners for Life, set a target and actually
meet or exceed it. Go ahead, we dare you too!
JANUARY CLINIC TIMES
Tuesday, January 8th, 4:00 pm to 7:45 pm
Wednesday, January 9th, 12 noon to 2:30 pm and 4:00 to 7:45
pm
Thursday, January 10th, 9:00 am to 11:00 am
Tidbits
A quick reminder to all company President's and CEO's, don't
forget to review your Health & Safety Policy Statement,
revise it if required and sign and date it for 2008. Then
make sure it is posted accordingly.
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Fern and I would like to thank all of our employees for
the Christmas gift they presented us with. Although they
did not listen to our request that they give us nothing,
they did listen a bit. They made a $460.00 donation to the
Humane Society in lieu of a gift to us. That is the best
present they could have ever given us, thanks again.
The WSIB Accreditation pilot project and financial incentives
are now a go. Congratulations to OGCA and COCA for all of
their hard work on this issue.
The 2008 ManuLife Walk for Memories will take place on
Sunday, January 27th at the White Pines C&VS. The company
has sponsored this event for the last few years under Fern's
commitment and I have taken some interest of late in the
local Alzheimer Society. A good friend of mine lost his
wife to Alzheimer's in November and it was a very tough
time for him. Alzheimer's Disease affects men and women
of all races, religions and socio-economic backgrounds.
Currently in Canada, one out of thirteen Canadians over
65 has Alzheimer's. It is a very crippling disease. There
are approximately 1,900 individuals in the Sault and Algoma
District affected with Alzheimer's disease and yet there
are a little over 100 actual members of the Alzheimer Society.
You can visit their website at the link below to get more
information and read about it. I urge you to print out the
attached membership form, fill it out and send it in along
with your donation to show your support. Membership fees
are only $15.00 for an individual and $10.00 for Seniors
and Students. Mike Moore & Sons has supported the Alzheimer
Society for quite some time. Please consider making the
effort to join and I thank you.
Please take some time to visit their website at http://www.alzheimeralgoma.org/membership.php
Alzheimer
Membership
I read the news article about the women in Chapleau who
was charged under the Criminal Code of Canada for willfully
failing to provide suitable and adequate care for her dog
and willfully causing unnecessary pain and suffering to
her dog. Investigators found the dog, known as "Chase"
to be emaciated, lethargic, having difficulty walking and
suffering from a severe eye infection and various wounds
to his body. Sadly, due to the nature and advanced state
of his illness, he had to be put down. They should have
put the Owner down as well. How can people treat their pets
like this and why are they even allowed to have pets? The
women was sentenced to a conditional discharge, 12 months
probation and ordered to pay restitution to the Humane Society.
This makes me sick to my stomach and is disgusting.
Ontario is the only Province in Canada in which it is not
a provincial offence to cause an animal pain or distress.
This limits the powers of the Ontario SPCA and its agents
or inspectors. Under the current law, the maximum sentence
a person can serve for animal cruelty is six months in jail,
two years probation or a $2,000.00 fine. No one has ever
received any jail time. The longest a judge can ban someone
from owing a pet is two years, it should be a lifetime ban.
I intend on writing a letter to all of the MPP's and asking
that they commit to providing stronger animal protection
in Ontario and encourage the quick implementation of the
amendments to the Ontario SPCA Act. I would ask that all
you pet lovers out there do the same.
Visit the link below to find the contact information for
your MPP or send the letter to all of them, that is what
I intend on doing.
http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/member_addresses.do?AddType=CONT&locale=en
I had an unexpected visitor on Tuesday morning, December
11th at 5:50 am as I was working in my office. I heard someone
come in the building and I just knew it was none of our
guys at that time of the morning. It was none other than
John Hollingsworth who as he explained forgot his keys to
open the Soo Mill store. Since he had nothing to do until
someone came in to unlock, he said he knew that I would
be the only other crazy person in his office at that time
of the morning. He said he also thought that Fern might
be locked in the compound over night and he could visit
her! No such luck.
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"Sid's Ford Taurus Pickup
Truck and Trailer!"
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