Masonry Magazine July 2001 Page. 46
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
ALEXANDER CONSTRUCTORS COMPLETES $22 MILLIO
Danny A. Batten, Blue Circle Cement, Garner NC
Danny A. Batten of Blue Circle Cement Company has been awarded the North Carolina Masonry Contractors Association's "Eleanor Flowers Upton Award." Association Board Chairman Freddy Koontz of Koontz Masonry (Lexington, NC presented the award to Batten on behalf of the mason contractor members of the Association at NCMCA's annual convention held during April in Greensboro.
The Upton Award, named in honor of NCMCA's first executive director, is presented to a supplier or service provider member of the Association who has made exceptional contribution to the Association and to the masonry industry over an extended period of years.
Batten, who lives in Garner, has been an active member of NCMCA'S Raleigh Chapter for more than seventeen years and served as NCMCA's state president during the period from 1989 to 1991 while a masonry contractor himself. Batten is a past president of the Raleigh Chapter.
National Civil War Museum, Harrisburg, PA
Harrisburg, PA- Alexander Constructors, Inc., a 73-year-old general contracting firm In Harrisburg, PA, completed the construction management for The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, the largest Civil War museum in the nation.
Breaking ground in August 1999, Alexander Constructors managed 21 different contractors, (including Caretti, Inc. - Camp Hill, PA) and more than 1,000 employees for the $22 million project. "The coordination alone for this project was unbelievable," said Larry Forbes, project manager at Alexander Constructors.
Winning the Museum contract over six other companies, Alexander Constructors' employees acted as the agents for the city, coordinating the project from the beginning of design to the official opening on February 12, 2001, President Lincoln's birthday. Alexander Constructors had a private party at The National Civil War Museum for
NORTH CAROLINA MASONRY CONTRACTORS ASSOC
Pleasant Garden, NC The North Carolina Masonry Contractors Association Inc. (NCMA) held its annual Apprentice Masonry Skills Contest on Saturday, May 19, 2001 at Boren Brick/Hanson's manufacturing facility in Pleasant Garden, NC. Forty-three apprentice brick masons from NCMA member firms from across North Carolina competed for more than $10,000 worth of cash and tool prizes. The highest score/first-place finisher also won the "David R. Sigmon Award," named in memory of the Association's late president-elect and long-time Skills Contest chairman, David Sigmon of Hickory, who passed away during the summer of 1998.
Contestants were given two hours to complete a small masonry project, which was judged for such qualities as proper dimension, level and plumb, true to plan, speed of production, manipulation of tools, safety, and over-all quality of construction.
The winner of this year's contest, with a score of 148 points out of a possible 160, is Brian Cook of Beam Construction Company in Cherryville. The twenty-one-year-old resident of Casar, NC began learning the masonry trade at Burns High School in Clevelend County and began working for Beam Construction just after his graduation in 1998. "I have to give credit to my (high school) teacher, Mr. Danny Gantt," said Cook. "He taught me as much about life as he did about masonry. The apprentice program at Beam Construction has made a big difference for me and is helping me make steps toward the future".
In addition to the David R. Sigmon Award, Cook won $600 in cash, matched by his employer, Beam Construction, and a wheelbarrow full of masonry tools and
146 MASONRY JULY, 2001