Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/320559
June 2014 | EquipmentWorld.com 42 contractor of the year | continued and took a job teaching industrial arts in Grove City. But when a teachers' strike forced him to seek a more stable living, he decided to give construction a try. "I was going to make a blister- ing $8,000 a year for that fi rst year of teaching. I didn't have enough money to withstand a strike so I decided to do a little bit of remod- eling," Thomas recalls. Within six years, he had started his own business. He incorporated the business in 1985 and embarked on his fi rst ma- jor project, a housing development. Thomas says. "I didn't realize what I was getting into. I didn't under- stand all the parameters and the cost so I went into it with a little bit of naiveté." Thomas did a majority of the work himself, from designing and pricing the jobs to driving nails on site. It proved to be a trial by fi re, but he persevered and eventually ended up adding an excavation business, Rock Excavation, to his company. He also gained a mentor. "Joe Gaunts was the township engi- neer and he practically did it on a volunteer basis. He took both the township's perspective and my perspective. It was the kind of relationship that is rare. He wanted to make sure the township got what it needed and that I got what I needed," Thomas says. Since then, Thomas has also added Pine Grove Environmental, which mediates contaminated in- dustrial sites. He says the company is also in the process of getting the permits together for entering the aggregate business. Today, Thomas Construction does an even amount of work for public and private customers and brings in between $14 million and $15 mil- lion each year, serving the under- ground utilities, excavation and site development markets. "In this region, in order for us to grow to the size we are, we needed to be diverse," Thomas says. The burden of regulations When discussing the challenges of running a construction busi- ness with Thomas, the usual talk of struggles with leadership and man- aging a company don't often come up. Instead, regulations are the aspect of the business most burden- some to him. "I don't think I could start this business today," Thomas says. "It would be too diffi cult to start it today with all those regulations." As an example, he cites the Environmental Protection Agen- cy's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program, which controls water pollution by regulating potential point sources. "In the past, the NPDES permit was only necessary if you were going to disturb 50 acres. Then it went to 25, then to 12, then to 5 and now it's down to one. We have engi- neers now that all they do is chase permits," Thomas says. "We understand the need of those types of regulations and we don't want to do anything that's harm- ful to the environment. I just feel like more timely responses from the government agencies would be incredibly helpful." Serious safety Thomas takes safety seriously. "I don't want to see our people hurt," he says. The company has a safety com- mittee and a mod rate of 0.60. Thomas says he is not part of the safety committee because he wants Keeping equipment in tip-top shape is key to retaining good people, Thomas says.