projects

Community Building

by
History Corner from the February 2, 2018 Culver Citizen

It’s always been kind of a joke that I don’t know how old Easterday Construction is. I tell people that Great Grandpa (Russell) Easterday was too busy running a new business to worry about commemorating business milestones. I’m sure, like all small business owners, at that point he was just concerned about keeping it in the black. He wasn’t thinking about any kind of legacy. We’ve done a little better with that regarding Becky’s new business, Berger Audiology. Chances are it won’t be here 85 years from now, but I’m sure that’s what Russell thought too!

Dad used to tell me he thought the company began in the 30’s, but on a walk to lunch I happened to notice the concrete marker on the Elementary School Gym named us as the contractor when the “Community Building” as it was known then, was dedicated in 1929. (Hard to read, but I’ve included a picture below.) That moved the date back to at least 1928. So the History Corner in the Culver Citizen last week qualifies as a Blast from the Past project. I’m assuming that this was one of the first large projects completed by Easterday Construction, though I can’t say for certain. Our current office is across the Slate Street to the west, but at that time the property was still part of Russell’s farm and was only used as staging for equipment and supplies. The current office wasn’t built until the 50’s (again history is sketchy), while in the beginning the offices were on the second floor of the State Exchange Bank Building (currently First Farmers Bank & Trust).

Dedication Marker on the south side of the Culver Elementary School Gym

Easterday Construction has been involved in several additions and renovations at the Culver Community Schools over the years, so there s a lot of history there. Dad played high school basketball there. (He still blames getting thrown into one of those block walls just off the court for his reoccurring back problems.) When I was in school, that was the Jr. High School Gym. I had gym class there and played (briefly) on the Jr. High basketball team before acknowledging that growth spurt didn’t translate into talent.

It’s always interesting when ties to the past like this come up. It usually results in conversations with those with memories of those times. Unfortunately those of that generation are getting fewer and fewer.

Blast From the Past – Robin Hood

by
Larry Berger (left) and P.T. McKinnis (right)

Our friends at SRKM Architecture shared a picture with us from the past. We think the project was Robin Hood Leisure Living at Grace Village in Winona Lake. That’s our best guess anyway (per John Singleton). Pictured are Larry Berger and P.T. McKinnis. (Check out that mullet!)

Robin Hood Homes are one and two bedroom duplexes in a condominium setting. They are part of the Grace Village Retirement Community. It is a staged community with several retirement living options.

This was the first project where we put radiant heating into the floor. It was a learning experience… particularly working with the residents to teach them the lag involved with this type of heat. Residents that were used to the instant gratification of forced air heat were often over-adjusting the thermostats. Until they got the hang of it, they struggled with temperature swings due to readjusting the thermostat before it had reached temperature and vice versa when they turned it down.

Thanks SRKM for the picture!

SRKM Christmas ’17

by

We received a very cool Christmas Card (right) from our friends at SRKM Architecture. They used an elevation from Sand Hill Farm apartments as their cover picture adding a couple of wreaths on the door. A great idea to memorialize the project this way! We really appreciate their efforts and can’t wait to see if the building looks as good in person as it does in pictures. Thanks guys! Merry Christmas!

Sand Hill Farm Apartments are moving along. Footing and frost walls have been poured. We’re taking advantage of this week’s warm spell to get the perimeter insulation in place and complete the backfill. Installation of interior underslab infrastructure will begin Thursday. We hope to be pouring slabs next week. Things are moving forward!

Sand Hill Farm Ground Breaking Ceremony

by
From Left to Right, Bob Porter – Culver Utilities Superintendent, Jack Jordan – State Representative, Dale Cramer – Lake City Bank, Joel Samuelson – Culver Town Council, Kevin Berger – Easterday Construction Co., Inc., Tammy Shaffer – Culver Town Council, Ginny Munroe – Culver Town Council President.

I was pretty impressed with the turn out for the Sand Hill Farm Ground Breaking Ceremony last Tuesday, November 5th. There were around 35 people there including representatives from the Town, County and State. Town Council President – Ginny Munroe, County Commissioner – Kevin Overmyer and Lake City Bank Representative – Dale Cramer all spoke in support of the project. I truly appreciated the kudos. We broke out the gold shovels and made a showing of it for the Press.

Speaking about Workforce Housing at the Stellarbration on November 5th. From Left to Right, Kevin Berger – Easterday Construction Co., Inc., Brian Meek – Elkay Wood Products, Karen Shuman – Culver Community School Corp., Don Fox – Culver Academies

The theme from everyone was how this was a first step towards addressing Culver and Marshall County’s workforce housing needs. Currently, Marshall County has an unemployment rate of less than 3%. The general “rule” is that once it gets below 4%, everyone that wants to work is working. Since there are still jobs going unfilled, the next step would be to recruit labor from outside the County. That’s difficult when there isn’t housing available for those new workers. Sand Hill Farm hopes to be a first step towards addressing this. This is Easterday Construction being a community partner/leader.

Along with the several of our area newspapers, we received coverage from the three major networks, ABC 57, WNDU 16 and WSBT 22. See WSBT links for video clips of the Stellerbration event and ABC 57 and WNDU 16 for a little more about the Sand Hill Farm ground breaking. They were all kind with their video editing and made us look good!

Housing was the signature piece of Culver’s Stellar Communities application and I truly think we wouldn’t have scored as highly without the Phase I portion of this project underway. It showed that even without winning Stellar designation last year, Culver moved forward, addressing the needs identified in our Strategic Investment Plan. Having Regional Cities also put money towards this project was positive too. It showed a regional commitment that the State values. At several of the presentations, I was pleased to stand with Culver’s three largest employers, Elkay Wood Products, Culver Community School Corporation and Culver Academies, as their representatives spoke about the needs this project was addressing and how this needs to be just the start.

Excavation underway at Sand Hill Farm. Some of the hill is going into the building pad.

Tuesday was a true ground breaking as we made our presentations with an excavator working in the background. Currently the building pad is nearly complete and the excavator should be cutting in footings in the next week. the site looks quite different.

We’re racing the weather to get the slab done so we can work through the winter. Since it is slab-on-grade construction, that means a fair amount of underground utility work needs to be completed as well. Cross your fingers for us!

It sounds like the Town will delay their street work until Spring. That shouldn’t affect us as long as they are complete sometime in June. The goal is to be open next summer before the new school year starts. That would meet many of our goals, i.e. increased Town population, increased school enrollment and an expanded labor pool.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks to Nancy Tyree at MCEDC for the pictures.

 

Sand Hill Farm Ground Breaking Ceremony

by

The Town of Culver and their Workforce Housing Committee have been working on solutions to workforce housing for the past three years. Housing was the centerpiece of our Stellar Communities plan the last two years. As the culmination of this hard work, Easterday Construction Co., Inc. and the Town of Culver are excited to announce the ground breaking ceremony for the Sand Hill Farm Apartments on November 8th at 3:00pm. The ground breaking will be at the site, 540 West Jefferson Street, in Culver.

Sand Hill Farm apartments will have a mix of one, two and three bedroom apartments totaling 24 units. The development is geared towards the goals of increasing housing opportunities, attracting new families, increasing population and increasing school enrollment.

This will be a great kick-off to our Stellarbration at the beach lodge immediately after this. Hopefully you have that event on your calendar as well.

Thank you to all that helped make this possible! We hope you can take the time to help us kick the project off right.