ECA Newsletter
3-7-19
With the recent history of emergencies that Sonoma, Marin, Lake, Mendo, Napa, and Solano Counties have experienced, further strain has been put on our already “stretched” capacity for available men, women, and equipment. Obviously, the fire cleanup was the most memorable applied use of our workforces, but flooding and cleanup is now becoming the “main course”.
Recently, there was an article in the Press Democrat about a house builder buying a concrete company because “he was tired of the delays” in getting concrete to his projects. Within that article, he referenced that he was using surveyors from Grass Valley to do his surveying on his projects. I got to thinking that maybe folks are not aware that we have capacity available here locally to do some of this work that has recently been “farmed out” to outside the area contractors, engineers, and workers. Do we have capacity? I am talking to folks and I hear that yes we do if the projects are scheduled properly.
What goes into the nuts and bolts of “scheduling properly”? Some of the bigger firms may be able to draw additional workers from the union halls, and redeploy equipment from other areas, but many of the mid sized to smaller contractors need to be able to identify their markets, focus on their clients, and get the work done “bookend to bookend” to be extremely efficient.
Sometimes, it is easy to have your business plans “overwhelmed” by the urgency and 24/7 nature of the emergency work. Eventually, this emergency work will go away. Sooner rather than later. I am thinking it is a good time to review your business and marketing schemes and where your work is going to be coming from as well as “fitting” the available crews and equipment you may have at your disposal to do said work.
You all know what your bidding success rate is for private and public work. You are also very capable of fostering the relationships you have now that will lead to some future projects. How good are you at identifying new customers? How efficient is your company methodology for cultivating those new customers? And how good is your firm at retaining existing workers and keeping your equipment fleet available to serve new customers?
These are some of the thoughts rattling around in my head, and I have reached out to two of our ECA Members (Tom Boylan and Don Mills of Boylan Point Agency and Sound Ideas respectively) to assist in putting together a workshop to address this dynamic issue. We plan on presenting both Affiliates and Contractors and Engineers some ideas to focus in on potential clients they want to retain or attract to suit their business plan. Boylan Point is adept at Website design and marketing strategies, and Sound Ideas is an expert on video creation that can attract the attention of clients and make the company morale improve. I am sure there is something for most everyone at this workshop.
We understand how busy everyone is, but we are planning a workshop from 7:30-9am on Tuesday, April 23, 2019. We will have coffee, fruit, pastries, and juice from 7:30-8 and the Workshop will start promptly at 8am. We will do everything we can to get you out of there by 9am.
If you are interested, please contact Mary at your earliest convenience. I think this one might fill up quickly.
That’s All Folks
County Supervisor and Planning Commission Meetings:
Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Meeting:
2-27-19 Meeting was Closed
March 4 was cancelled
March 7 is a Special Meeting to deal with the Emergency Declaration from flooding
Sonoma County Planning Commission Meeting:
Next scheduled meeting is in April
Marin County Board of Supervisor and Planning Commission Meeting:
Nothing of major interest in February
Solano County Board of Supervisors Meeting:
Nothing of interest in the Feb 26 Supervisor Meeting
Solano County Planning Commission Meeting:
2/21/19 Meeting-
Two Items of Importance to ECA Members-
- Item 1 on Regular Consent Calendar for PC-19-013-Timbers Silveyville Tree and Pumpkin Farm improvements on 6229 Silveyville Road NW of Dixon.
- Item 2 on Regular Consent Calendar for PC-19-012 Hubert and Aurelia Goudie and William and Sylvia Marshalones to rezone 15.69 acres to higher density rural residential.
To see both reports, click on the link below-
https://www.solanocounty.com/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=30050
Napa County Board of Supervisors Meeting:
2-26-19 Meeting, Item 6m discusses emergency slide repair contract with ADKO Engineering and also lists the Budget and the various slide repairs that need to be worked on. To see the item, click on the link below-
http://services.countyofnapa.org/AgendaNet/GranicusMeetingDocuments.aspx?id=5604
Item 6N from same meeting shows storm drain budget and detail. You can review by same link as above.
Item 10b is about the Award to Ghilotti Construction for Devlin Road work and some American Canyon utility work for $4,159,319 (Congrats!). Same link as above.
Napa County Planning Commission Meeting:
2/20/19 Meeting-
Item 7A is about the Kenefick Winery project and that was continued to the regular PC meeting on 3-6-19. To see the info, click on the following link-
http://services.countyofnapa.org/AgendaNet/GranicusMeetingDocuments.aspx?id=5721
3/6/19 Meeting-
Item 7B is the Kenefick Winery Project-click on the link here to see the info-
http://services.countyofnapa.org/AgendaNet/GranicusMeetingDocuments.aspx?id=5722
Item 7C is about the Darms Lane Winery Project and they are approving the negative declaration-to see this item, click on the link following-
http://services.countyofnapa.org/AgendaNet/GranicusMeetingDocuments.aspx?id=5722
Lake County Board of Supervisor Meeting:
3/5/19 Meeting
Item 5.12 is about the Engineering and Inspection contract for replace/repair Bartlett Creek Bridge and Cache Creek Bridge. To see the item, click on the following link-
https://countyoflake.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=655032&GUID=A84FF091-652C-4838-9D37-9B732580BA0A
Lake County Planning Commission Meeting:
2/28/19 Meeting
Brelje and Race Engineers are on the agenda to move forward with major water treatment works-to see the item in more detail, click the link below-
https://countyoflake.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=655042&GUID=A0C5DC2D-43F5-4F80-97F3-F9A130E9DAF5
