Easterday Construction

ECC Red Shirt Fridays Return for 2014

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Easterday Construction will be participating in Red Shirt Fridays again this year to show our support for our troops. All of our employees have been given red shirts like those to the right.  Participation is voluntary, but on random Fridays all ECC employees wearing their red shirts get a $5 bonus.  At the end of the summer, an equal amount will be contributed to Bugles Across America, a not-for-profit organization started by Tom Day of Berwyn Illinois to provide live bugle players for the funerals of service men and women.

Red Shirt Friday is a national not-for-profit organization that promotes recognition of those that serve in our armed forces and what they sacrifice for us.  All of us at ECC are proud to show our support.

ECC Volunteers

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Julie Heise and Bob Cooper at Culver's Relay for LIfe event
Julie Heise and Bob Cooper at Culver’s Relay for LIfe event

I put a lot on the blog about the volunteer work I do… mainly because that’s at the forefront of my mind.  But there’s no doubt that I’m not the only community minded employee at Easterday Construction Co., Inc.  Pictured at the right are two other ECC employees, Julie Heise and Bob Cooper, at the Culver Relay for Life event.  According to the website they were part of 432 participants raising nearly $42,000 in donations.

Julie is very involved in volunteer projects at the school with sports and cheerleading.  Bob is a volunteer with Culver EMS and serves on their board of directors.  We proud of all our employees that give back to the community.  While they’re not doing this as representatives of Easterday Construction, they no doubt enhance our image with their efforts.  Great Job!

Shell Building Groundbreaking

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I attended the groundbreaking for the new shell building in the Plymouth Industrial Park today.  I got to wear multiple hats at this.  Both PIDCO and MCEDC are partners in this venture and I sit on both boards.  Easterday Construction Co., Inc. is doing the electrical installation for the building.  There were a lot of nice words said about the project, but it’s hard to convey how much coordination went into getting all of the groups together on this.  Not only PIDCO and MCEDC as listed above, but also the City of Plymouth and the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission had to come to terms on the project.   It was a major effort over two years to make this happen.  The building is scheduled to be complete early this Fall.

I’m hopeful that this will lead to similar projects throughout Marshall county.  I have spoken to Culver about this.  Argos could easily pursue this on the new Shovel Ready site they’re developing.  The other Marshall County communities should be considering it as well.

For more particulars about the project, check out the MCEDC page on it here.

Dave Epley

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Picture borrowed from Johnson-Danielson website
Picture borrowed from Johnson-Danielson website

I lost another friend last Friday. Dave Epley passed away Friday night after battling cancer.  (You can read his obituary and find funeral arrangements here.)  Dave was a carpenter with Easterday Construction Co., Inc. from November 1989 to December 2012.  23 years of service is special and something to be noted.   We worked together to make a lot of projects come together.  Dave could be a craftsman and took pride in the work he completed.  The detail work he completed often pulled the project together.

Dave could be counted on to have a tool for anything and prided himself on the obscurity of some of the things he had.  He was always up for a challenge.  The area was always a mess where he was working, but the things he produced were often art.  For most people, the picture to the right is uncharacteristic, because the other thing that Dave could be counted on for was a smile.  Going through my collection of pictures proved that he was somewhat camera shy, because I couldn’t come up with a better one!

Cropped WindowMany of the projects where his legacy will continue are in the Churches we’ve worked on.  We were contracted by the Faith United Methodist Church in Wanatah to renovate their entrance and install a chair lift.  During construction, we found a round stained glass window that had been salvaged and placed in the attic.  Since it was a custom size, there was nothing off the shelf we could use as a frame.  I asked Dave about it and he said, “Let me take it home and see what I can do.”  He came back with the window framed in oak as you see to the left.  (Click on that picture to enlarge it to see the detail.  For a picture that shows the scale, click here.)

At the Grace Baptist Church in Plymouth I asked him to install new railings on the stairs in the Sanctuary.  The railings were laminated oak with wood balusters and newel posts.  They had to be anchored to the concrete floor at the base and attached to the carpeted stairs and wood daise at the top.  The west railing had to follow the curve of the baby grand piano they were protecting and then the east railing had to mirror that curve.  (The east railing is shown to the right.)  I had no doubt Dave could handle this challenge due to his previous work on the long sweeping curved stair rail at the Logansport – Cass County Public Library.  (Seen here)  The Church was extremely pleased.  Pastor Elliott said, “They look so nice people don’t even want to touch them!  They look like they’ve always been there.”

Window Sill (Reduced)We were asked to look at adding a chairlift at the First United Methodist Church in Winamac.  During planning we discovered existing stained glass windows that had been buried during a previous Narthex addition.   It was determined that we wanted to expose those windows as part of the renovation.  Unfortunately we found that the stone sills had been removed from the smaller flanking windows.  In order to retain the same mass as would have been there with the stone, Dave built heavy wood sills with base panes as shown at the left.   (Click on that picture to enlarge it to see the detail.)   Those windows sit above a catwalk we built across the face of the sanctuary.  Dave also built concealed hinge doors to allow the area under the catwalk to be used as storage.

Dave will be missed by the Easterday Construction family and by many of our clients that knew and respected him.