The 2006 ARM Building Excellence Awards entry submission forms have been distributed to the ARM membership.  Entries are due in the ARM office no later than October 15, 2006.  Entries must be accompanied by four to six pictures (high-resolution digital preferred).

The Building Excellence Awards are a way for ARM to recognize ARM member companies for the outstanding efforts made in the course of their business. ARM uses the awards to promote member companies and their products, as well as the contractors, architects & owners associated with entries.

The Building Excellence Awards Banquet will be held December 13, 2006 at The Depot in downtown Minneapolis.  For additional information on the awards program, contact Margaret Mills.

Click Here to Download Awards Brochure

Click Here to Download Submission Form

ARM Aggregate Committee Chair Don Vry, Vice President and General Manager of the Aggregate Division of Aggregate Industries, and Fred Corrigan, Executive Director of the ARM, will be the guest speakers at the MC&MCA’s membership meeting on August 15, 2006.  Vry is slated to speak on the current status & future predictions of  Aggregate Supplies in Minnesota while Corrigan is scheduled to give a  status report on ready mix concrete use in Minnesota.

Don Vry, Vice President and General Manager of the Aggregate Division of Aggregate Industries is the Chair of the ARM Aggregate Committee.  He was featured recently in an article titled “Aggregate Becomes Big Business” that appeared in the July 21, 2006 issue of the Construction Bulletin.

Click Here to Read the Article

Dr. Kurt Helgeson is the Chair of the Environmental and Technological Studies Department at St. Cloud State University.  He is also the instructor of the Minnesota Concrete & Masonry Academy - a unique education program that provides a practical approach to masonry and concrete instruction through a combination of classroom, tours and hands-on activities. The program helps students implement a concrete or masonry technology education curriculum.

Since the inception of the Minnesota Concrete & Masonry Academy, literally thousands of Minnesota high school students have been exposed to masonry and concrete construction. St. Cloud State University records show that the course has averaged 14 students per year (140+ people) and 75% of those have been high school teachers - a total of about 105. If each of those teachers have about 25 students in each section and a section is taught every semester (twice per year), it is not hard to see the numbers add up pretty quickly. If even a small percentage of the teachers attending the Academy teach masonry and concrete regularly, over a period of time, the numbers grow exponentially.

There were nine students in the 2006 course.  Four of those participants are current teachers, two are future teachers, two are construction management students and one is a real estate major.

A heartfelt “thank you” is extended to all those individuals and organizations that continue to make the Academy successful.

The 2007 Minnesota Statewide Concrete Homes Open House will be held April 21-22, 2007 in conjunction with Severe Weather Awareness Week.  Sponsorships are available for this event that showcased close to eighty homes built by thirty builders across Minnesota.  Visit www.chooseconcretehomes.com for more information on the 2007 event.

Click Here to Download Sponsorship Information

NRMCA has hired Jon Hansen as National Resource Director for the Midwest Region. He has spent his entire 30-year career in the construction industry, most recently as Director of Marketing for the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association. Hansen will report to Dan Huffman, Managing Director, National Resources, and join Mike Zaldo, Vance Pool and Phil Kresge on NRMCA’s field promotion team. National Resource Directors focus on expanding concrete usage among large national organizations, working closely with national, regional state and local promotion partners and NRMCA members.

Hansen replaces Brad Burke, who is now Ready Mix Sales Manager at ARM Member Company Aggregate Industries.  Hansen will work from his home office in Pleasant Hill, IA, near Des Moines, beginning August 28.

It’s common sense – transportation taxes should go to transportation projects. A YES vote on Minnesota's Transportation Amendment will ensure that all of the existing sales tax Minnesotans pay on vehicles will be spent on our roads, bridges, highways and public transit.

Twenty-five years ago, the legislature decided that all revenue from the existing motor vehicle sales tax should be used for transportation, but every year all or some of the money gets diverted to other purposes.  By voting YES on this amendment, you can increase funding for transportation by $300 million each year – a significant investment in roads and transit.

Senate Environment and Public Works Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water Subcommittee Chairman Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) held an Aug. 1 hearing on the recent Supreme Court ruling on wetlands. Both the Army Corps and EPA's assistant administrator for water, Ben Grumbles, told committee members that they did not know when a guidance to clarify the scope of the ruling would be issued. The guidance is expected to define the "significant nexus" test and clarify the scope of Section 404 over seasonal rivers, perennial streams, and intermittent flows through desert regions.

Until the guidance is issued, Grumbles told the subcommittee EPA and the Corps have been told to defer making wetlands determinations. Full committee chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and subcommittee member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) expressed support for rulemakings to clarify the court ruling as opposed to legislative fixes endorsed by Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the full Committee James Jeffords (D-Vt.), and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).

NSSGA is filing a statement for the record of the Senate subcommittee hearing and is closely following agency action on the issue.

The Portland Cement Association's (PCA) Economic Research Department projects that domestic clinker capacity will increase 17.3% by 2010, compared to 2005 levels. Collectively, U.S. cement companies are currently engaged in an aggressive $3.6 billion expansion that will increase clinker output by 16.2 million metric tons over the next five years. Click here to read the PCA article.

Source: Cement Newsline electronic newsletter for July 21, 2006.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has moved one step closer to adopting a Pervious Concrete Best Management Practice (BMP) for Stormwater Management following a June meeting with NRMCA Northeast field promoter Phil Kresge and representatives from EPA Region III Water Protection Division. Also attending the meeting were representatives from the Prince George’s County (MD) Department of Environmental Resources (DER) and Villanova University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The group discussed the construction of a side-by-side water quality study for pervious concrete and porous asphalt. The study will be conducted by Villanova University as part of the Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership. There are currently several ongoing projects at the university, including bio-retention ponds and wetlands, rain gardens, infiltration trenches and a pervious concrete courtyard. Villanova is a participant in the EPA’s Nonpoint Source National Monitoring Program. The study will monitor both pavements for water quantity and quality over a three-year period and, in particular, will measure for heavy metals, sediments and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s).

Source:  PBF News Briefs (July 19, 2006)