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Reconstruction ("Through a Grinder and Back Again – Joplin, Mo., Two Years Later" continued from page 35) Foundation, which, among other things, responds to disasters. "Lots of people in our organization felt very strongly about going to Joplin," said Fred Earley, Vermeer's environmental engineering manager and coordinator of such responses. So within days, a Vermeer crew drove south with trucks and trailers and two mini skid-steer loaders. Vermeer workers later returned to help rid the city of tree stumps. Earley worked out a deal with Vermeer's Great Plains dealership, which has locations in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri: The dealer leased a SC252 DON'T REGRET YOUR DECISION! TOO MANY OTHERS ALREADY DO. Only Pierce-built long reach booms are designed to meet the strict design demands of leading OEMs – as well as your toughest jobs. And unlike cheaper offshore imitations, Pierce booms come with "no worries" warranty coverage, top-level support and guaranteed performance. Hey, it's your hard-earned money, don't you think you should compare apples to apples? A Pierce boom is not an imitation wrapped in a different skin…can they make the same claim? WWW.PIERCEPACIFIC.COM 800.760.3270 stump grinder to the foundation, which, in turn, turned it over to members of Joplin's Immanuel Lutheran Church. Trained church members operated the grinder the rest of the year. Then Vermeer returned a third time with S600 and S800TX mini-loaders to help move balled trees. Plus, the foundation triggered its alliance with Kubota Tractor Corp. and delivered a Kubota SVL75 compact track loader. The machine was equipped with an auger specially designed for digging tree-planting holes in rocky soils. Vermeer personnel trained the Lutheran volunteers to operate the auger – and then stayed around long enough to plant 150 trees themselves. Progress and Projections Hertzberg looks at the whole redevelopment picture and concludes the city is further along in its recovery than he had expected it to be at this point. Some 85 percent of needed building permits have been issued for home construction and 90 percent of businesses are back in operation. Yet he foresees four intense years of project management as the community establishes new medical, retail, cultural, and convention center facilities. In 2012, Joplin recorded $554 million in building construction, a four-fold increase over the previous year. This year, construction has halved, but that is still a two-fold increase of pre-tornado activity in the city. Hertzberg anticipates one more year of relatively heavy construction activity as Joplin continues to develop itself into a place unimagined before the fateful Sunday in 2011. GILES LAMBERTSON is a retired journalist and freelance writer whose interest in the construction industry goes back to his carpentry days. He can be reached at geepeela@yahoo.com. PORTLAND, OREGON EDMONTON, ALBERTA JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 36 | www.cedmag.com | Construction Equipment Distribution | November 2013