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J-F Ahern is spending five (M) million dollars to expand its facility. Once completed next spring, the contractor plans to add another 165 jobs. C-E-O Tripp Ahern says its expansion is made possible by a strong industrial and commercial construction market in Wisconsin and the Midwest. J-F Ahren has branch offices in seven states, with its headquarters in Fond du Lac. (Thanks Bob Nelson, KFIZ Fond du Lac) Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. .
State officials are appealing a judge's order to pay $1.2 million that they have withheld from a construction contractor who gave a consulting contract to former Gov. John G. Rowland in 2004 and then resisted a legislative investigation into it.
Superior Court Judge Joseph M. Shortall ruled last month that officials weren't justified in withholding the money from C.R. Klewin Northeast LLC on the basis of its resistance to a legislative committee's probe of the $5,000-a-month consulting job it gave Rowland after his 2004 resignation.
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The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba has announced it's cutting rates for construction firms that encourage a safe workplace. The Incentive Plan in Construction will cut WCB rates by five percent for firms that earn safety association accreditation through the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, or the Consttruction Safety Association of Manitoba. The plan starts January 1st, and is open to over 5,500 construction firms. It will be funded by the construction firms through a small surcharge increase, which doesn't apply to other industries. CJOB's Brett Megarry reporting.
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So much to build and not enough builders. Governor Haley Barbour says rebuilding here is suffering because of a tremendous shortage of qualified construction workers. That's why on Monday the governor threw his support behind an initiative called "I'm GREAT." GREAT is an acronym for Gulf Rebuild: Education, Advancement and Training. The goal is to train 20,000 Gulf Coast residents from Texas to Mississippi in basic construction over the next three years. Once they get the skills, the students in a heating and air conditioning class at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College believe they'll have little trouble landing jobs. "I thought it would be a good opportunity," said William Tune. "The classes are free so you just come in get a good education that's real quick.
The death of a landscape contractor in Bermuda struck by a large branch that fell from a tree he was helping to lop has brought renewed calls for stricter controls on the training and certification of workers involved in potentially dangerous jobs. The owners of two of the largest landscaping companies in Bermuda, along with a qualified tree care professional and trainer, say there needs to be proper regulation of the industry as happens in many other countries. The circumstances surrounding the death of the 34-year-old Portuguese man, believed to be a father-of-one with another child on the way, are still being investigated. He was killed while working on a casuarina tree in a garden. The tree was the last in a row that was being cut back by a team from Island Construction and Landscaping Services.
THE dearth of funds has been variously fingered as the major problem besetting the construction industry. The plethora of uncompleted and abandoned projects that dot the nation's landscape has often been traced to this factor. Indigenous construction companies have been worst hit, hence, many of them have folded up, giving way to multinational construction companies who are often backed financially by their home governments. Both the Federal and state governments have often hinged their preference for expatriate construction companies on the fact that their indigenous counterparts lack the equipment to execute complex jobs. But how can they effectively compete with these offshore funded companies when borrowing from commercial banks is usually at cut-throat interest rates. Built environment professionals who have been badly affected by this scenario have not rested on their oars in a bid to float a specialized bank that would be sympathetic to the cause of construction industry operators.
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