Construction Industry

New trade group is created for Md. contractorsA new nonprofit trade association has been formed to serve Maryland's construction industry.Licensed Contractors of Maryland is offering membership to all of Maryland's more than 40,000 contractors with state construction licenses or specific trade licenses from the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.The new association's primary function is to present a comprehensive industry view on proposed legislation and regulations dealing with licensed contractors.

The deep freeze on development seems a distant memory, with construction sites throughout the state bustling once more.But finding workers to lay brick, fit pipes, saw wallboard, install sheet metal and wire buildings poses a dilemma for contractors: They can't fill jobs fast enough -- or at all.Contractors have been forced to turn down jobs or work double shifts to meet deadlines. They've borrowed competitors' workers, hired temporary labor and sought help in other cities."It is a terrible problem, and it's going to get worse," said Ann Kurlander, co-owner with husband Marty of 25-year-old Kurlander Electric Inc., which needs at least three more full-time electricians and helpers.

The deep freeze on development seems a distant memory, with construction sites throughout the state bustling once more.But finding workers to lay brick, fit pipes, saw wallboard, install sheet metal and wire buildings poses a dilemma for contractors: They can't fill jobs fast enough -- or at all.Contractors have been forced to turn down jobs or work double shifts to meet deadlines. They've borrowed competitors' workers, hired temporary labor and sought help in other cities."It is a terrible problem, and it's going to get worse," said Ann Kurlander, co-owner with husband Marty of 25-year-old Kurlander Electric Inc., which needs at least three more full-time electricians and helpers.

County Council members sharply questioned Board of Education officials who asked last night for additional money to complete building projects whose costs had been underestimated.The longest and most heated discussion centered on a request for an additional $500,000 to upgrade media centers, which are basically libraries converted to include computer stations. Because of low estimates and higher-than-anticipated construction costs, the average price for each of the seven schools where the work will be done more than doubled, from $50,000 each to $120,000 each.

2 architects finish state requirementsMarilee Tortorelli and Pam Davison of John E. Harms Jr. and Associates recently completed requirements for becoming registered landscape architects in Maryland.Ms. Davison is the senior planner within the land planning division at Harms and Associates, which is based in Pasadena.Ms. Tortorelli manages the Land planning division.Gardiner to chair membership driveFrancis E. Gardiner Jr. president of Gardiner and Gardiner Inc. has been named area chairman to the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)

The economist would tell him to get a bus ticket. The construction company president would tell him to go into computers.Meet John Duffy, 48-year-old husband, father and 19-year construction worker from Towson. His job has been gone since July. And he doesn't know whether it will ever come back."I'll be dead before I get back to work, it looks like," he said recently, with a small laugh. "1974 was the worst I'd seen it. People seem more hopeless this time. Guys are talking about retiring, getting into other lines of work.

Nancy S. Copeland entered the building construction industry on the ground floor, but now has her sights set on the ceiling.Tile, that is, especially those that are stained, warped or otherwise in need of repair or cleaning.After three years of research and development, Columbia-based Ceiling Seal is trying to establish a niche in the building management market as a company that can help building owners save money and do a good deed for the environment, said Ms. Copeland, the owner and founder.

Richard of Severna Park walked out of the state employment office, facing a cold, idle afternoon. He'd been out of work six weeks, laid off by a home-building firm in Severna Park."

The construction industry must work to expand and enhance training programs if a serious shortage of skilled workers in the 1990s is to be overcome, a new study concludes.The study, released at the recent convention of the National Association of Home Builders, attributes the predicted shortage to continuing growth in the number of jobs in the industry, coupled with a decline in the number of people available to fill them.California will need 13,236 more carpenters and 5,130 more electricians during that period, according to the study, "An Analysis of America's Construction Work Force and Occupational Projections (1990-1996)

One on One is a weekly feature offering excerpts of interviews conducted by The Evening Sun with newsworthy business leaders. Accountant Robert S. Permison is a partner at Kamanitz, Uhlfelder & Permison P.A. and recently was named president of the 330-member Baltimore Metropolitan Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors. On Jan. 1, he will become the group's first president who did not come from the construction industry.Q. How is it that someone who is an accountant has ended up as the head of an organization representing local builders and contractors?

A national contractors group is calling for tax breaks, federal investments in highway and water projects and other measures to pull the construction industry from a "depression," boost the overall economy and stem the past year's loss of construction jobs throughout the United States, including in Maryland. The Associated General Contractors of America unveiled a plan Wednesday designed to revive the construction industry and reverse expectations that construction will struggle through the next year.

After wrangling for nearly a year over development impact fees that supporters say are vital to pay for schools, roads and other services, County Executive John R. Leopold announced a new plan Tuesday aimed at easing a difficult business climate for builders and developers, providing a 20-month reprieve from new fees that could spark hiring and avoid layoffs. Leopold, who calls the plan an economic stimulus, says phasing in the fees would allow the construction industry time to recover from an economic downturn that has brought development to a virtual standstill in recent months.

What footprint? Years from now, the prior existence of Loblolly House may be imperceptible to those wandering the property it once occupied on Taylors Island. Having served its purpose by then, the house overlooking the Chesapeake Bay will have been disassembled, its pre-fabricated components perhaps resold on eBay to become part of another house on another shore. No rusty nails or construction debris will betray the house's former presence. The promise of impermanence is part of the beauty inherent in Loblolly, the archetype of a new generation of pre-fabricated homes designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm KieranTimberlake Associates.

Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services, which provides pipeline infrastructure and building materials for the construction industry, is moving an operations center that will employ about 100 workers from Beltsville to a redeveloped warehouse in Southeast Baltimore. Construction is to start at the Holabird Industrial Park on Monday to redevelop the 15-acre site of the former Lesaffre Yeast Corp. manufacturing plant, which closed in late 2005. Principals of Baltimore brokerage firm Corridor Reznick LLC acquired the property for $2 million in December 2006 and have been doing environmental cleanup and marketing, Michael B. Glick, chairman of Corridor Reznick LLC, said yesterday.

A construction foreman missing since Wednesday afternoon was found dead yesterday morning at the bottom of a shaft inside the Constellation Energy Group headquarters near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, authorities said. The man, Wayne Kerr, 55, of Glen Burnie, was a longtime employee of Centerline Construction Co. He was working at the Constellation building when he apparently fell from the ninth floor to the fourth floor in the 6-by-6-foot metal construction shaft. The building is at 750 E. Pratt St. "Wayne Kerr had a lot of long-time friends here," said Mark Green, the president of Centerline Construction.

Maryland's job growth from April to June was faster than in all but eight other states, helped in part by the hot local housing market, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said yesterday. Employers in the state increased jobs by 2.2 percent compared with the second quarter last year. At the same time, Maryland's growth in home prices was nearly 23 percent, seventh-fastest in the nation, the FDIC said. Washington, D.C., ranked sixth. "Housing activity has been quite strong in the area," said Kathy Kalser, regional manager for the federal agency's division of insurance and research in New York.

Kent Thomas is the new president of the Building Congress & Exchange Foundation in Baltimore. The nonprofit organization develops educational and public-awareness programs for the region's construction industry. Since its inception in 1998, the foundation has awarded $25,000 a year to construction-education programs in the Baltimore area. Thomas will serve a one-year term as president. BCEF works under the auspices of KAWG&F, a public accounting firm based in Towson. Thomas is co-chairman of the firm's construction services practice group.

New Positions Reed, Murphy are named to posts at Performax Performax has named Scott Reed director of communications and Christie Murphy director of marketing for the Baltimore-based health and benefits plans development, administrator and managerial firm. Reed will have responsibility for internal and external communications development, strategy and supervision. A graduate of the University of Maryland, he was formerly with Health Care Strategies Inc. Murphy, previously with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, is an MBA graduate of Loyola College.

Maryland's economic and labor departments have released figures showing the state's construction industry may be enjoying a rebound - good news for the state's lagging economy. Construction companies surveyed reported that they expect a fourth-quarter turnaround and anticipate hiring more than 1,000 workers overall. Because the construction industry is usually a leading indicator, Maryland economic experts are optimistic about the state's business prospects. Separately, McGraw-Hill Construction Information Group reported that the value of residential building contracts in the state in August was $435.

Brian Wojcik isn't really sure what's in his future, but he's sure what's not - college. "I know enough," said the 17-year-old senior at Loch Raven High School. The Maryland Construction Trades Association knows precisely what it wants in its future, however - people like Brian Wojcik. The association, a newly formed group of unions and employers in the construction business, held its first job fair yesterday, at a union training facility in White Marsh. It invited students from 78 area high schools and offered to pay for their bus fare and buy them lunch.