Culver

Build Your Future Indiana

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Build Your Future Indiana CoverLest anyone think I know when to stop beating a dead horse, I thought I would share some pictures from the Build Your Future Indiana guide. It’s sponsored by Associated Buildings and Contractors of Indiana/Kentucky and as a Board Member, I received a copy at a meeting last week. The guide promotes construction as a career in Indiana. (I plan to share my copy with Jerry Chavez at MCEDC the next time I see him.) It gives job descriptions and base wages for careers in various construction trades.

Build Your Future Indiana BackOne of the things that currently is a problem in Indiana is finding construction workers. We need to encourage young people that the construction industry is a viable career and educate them that it is a career with potential, but one that requires mental as well as physical skills.

So about that poor horse… I’ve reprinted the rear cover of the guide to the right. Notice the Wind Turbines in the background? Seems that when I go to most other areas of the State, they’re proud of Indiana’s alternative energy initiatives. But not Marshall County… Even though we have people that work in the wind conversion industry living in our county and manufacturing parts for the industry in our county.

Build Your Future Indiana Wind Turbine TechMost pages in the guide have three trades per page. The Wind Turbine Maintenance Tech gets his own page and apparently around $46k per year. Sounds like it could be a sweet gig!

Okay, I’ve beat the poor beast enough. As if I hadn’t beat him enough here and here and here. Feel free to search for “turbine” in the search box on the right if you want more. Try “Extended Territorial Boundary” if you want to see me get really wound up!. No guaranties that I won’t run across something else that warrants a rant about this, but the poor horse could be an extra on The Walking Dead at this point…

FIrst National Bank of Monterey – Culver

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First National Bank of Monterey, Culver, Indiana
First National Bank of Monterey, Culver, Indiana

In another of his “Throw-back Thursdays”, Jeff Kenney mentioned the Culver Branch of the First National Bank of Monterey in an “If These Walls Could Talk” article.  This is yet another project in Easterday Construction Co., Inc.’s historic links to Culver.  Easterday Construction built this branch in 1992.  It was modeled after the branch in Winamac (To which we later remodeled and added to as well).  It’s always fun to see the legacy Easterday Construction has left through the buildings we constructed and sometimes the institutions those buildings represent.

FNBM Logo (thumb)Our long relationship with clients like this lead us to be the go to source when problems crop up. Those of you who use the drive through probably have noticed that someone backed into one of the columns. We’re currently working on obtaining a replacement. Unfortunately matching the column that was installed there 18 years ago won’t be as easy as just pulling something right off the shelf!

One of the cool details we did for the bank when we worked on the Monterey Annex a few years back was to recreate their new logo as a 3-D metal sculpture on the front of the building. We’re still quite proud of that and the way it sets off the building.

Happy Birthday Melba Easterday

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Red & Melba Easterday
Red & Melba Easterday

If you happen to see my Great Aunt Melba Easterday tomorrow, March 21st, wish her a Happy Birthday! It will be her 95th!

She’s become the family historian and contributed significantly to the article that Jeff Kenny wrote about Easterday Construction which I reprinted here.  I also wrote a bit about her previously on her 90th Birthday here. Just for fun and history, the picture to the right came from one of the old Easterday Construction Scrap Books and shows Red and Melba at the Cove for one of the Easterday Construction Retirement Parties. Melba is the last of that generation of the Easterday Construction family.

Aunt Melba still brings me and all of us at Easterday Construction homemade candy every Christmas. her laugh can still be heard across a crowded room, her good spirits are infectious and she’s always someone with a positive attitude and a smile to share.

I still try and keep an eye on her. She still lives on her own in the house just north of Easterday Construction. Just last month when we had a wind storm blow through, I snuck over and picked up a bunch of down branches in her yard. I had to do it quickly though! If I had waited too long, she’d have been out there doing it herself!