Illinois / Kentucky Update

Important Issues

Timesheet / Expense Training

Starting on July 27th, we will be having a once a month training session on timesheets and expense reports and what errors we are seeing.  This training will be for the 3 or 4 people who consistently have the most errors on their timesheets or expense reports through the month.  This will be mandatory for these people who are invited to attend.

Labor Codes      

We are now into the full use of labor codes on timesheets.  Please remember that the most often used codes are 00 for billable time and 98 for Drive Time.  Please make sure you just take a 2nd look at these when filling out your timesheet.

OH-Odometer  

For those of you who are driving a company vehicle, the use of the OH-Odometer project will be replacing our use of the OH-GEN OH, 10, Odometer project, phase and task. 

Personnel Changes

We have added Darrell Leipert on the crew in Alabama.  He will be doing construction inspection on the Southside project to start and then will move on to Elliotsville.

Miscellaneous       

Safety

I appreciate everyone getting their pictures in to Charles for the ISN badges.  Also, everyone now should have ID badges.  If you do not have one, please contact Emily in the Lexington office.

The following link is to a short humorous safety (??) video on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAsyxhaGezs

Operations        

I am still working to develop a firm staking process for us.  I think there is a lot to be gained by having a single method of staking (within client guidelines).  So I am working and developing that.  Hopefully I will have that completed by the end of August.  I am collecting that information now and we should have something put mostly together in the next coming weeks.

Also coming, Scott Johnson and several others are going to come out with a set of standards for detail engineering base (or cut) sheets.  If we are going to detail engineer to standards, you have to have something to start with that is standard.

Upcoming Events

I am traveling back to Alabama and Tennessee to check in with personnel there as well as Alabama Power.  We are also going to make a visit to Duck River as I think they have decided to have us look at their fiber strategy for the future.

Mini-Projects

Project Setup   

This is going to be folded in with Project Planning in the system.  WE are going to be using the planning module in Atlas more as we move forward so this will become part of the project setup and estimating effort.

Equipment Info Center

The equipment inventory project is waiting on Suzy to finish a break-down for each employee. We have the letter ready to submit to employees regarding the inventory. Suzy has a large list of all equipment assigned to each person (from Charles), and was breaking the big list into small lists by employee.

Contracts in Atlas            

We are working to try to determine how best to manage contracts that span multiple projects within the Atlas system.  While one contract to one project is very feasible, we have issues trying to get multiple project details to roll up to one contract.  Ann is working on this aspect.

Client Projects  

Thacker-Grigsby              

Edgar Alvarado has taken on the responsibilities of Resident for the Topmost Phase 2 project from Newell.  The project is progressing better now and the construction crews are finally doing a better job.                        

The Hindman Phase 1 and Hindman Dawson/Mallie contracts are in final preparation to go out for bid.  We are waiting for RUS approval on the use of the pre-order of the cable for the project.

Viola

This project is finally under construction.  Mike Freeman is resident with help from Ken Pick and Rick Favre.  Feedback from Mike is that the contractor, Push Construction is doing a good job.

Montrose           

We have been delayed in submitting the Montrose loan application due to the financial consultant not being available to work on numbers.  We are expecting interim financing approval in the next week or two and that would allow us to start staking the build for 2018.

Lightstream       

Lightstream continues to be very busy this year.  Mike and crew are working several projects at the same time.  Monticello Phase 5 and Winimac Phase 1 are progressing forward. 

Brent has indicated that he would like to move forward with the design and cost estimate for Monticello Phase 6 and Winimac Phase 2

Wabash               

Kevin Glassford is now engineering a number of CLEC routes for Wabash.        

Wabash also has several communities they want us to engineer for FTTH.  Mike Walter will be working on once he gets done with his Prairie Power builds in central Illinois.

Wabash completed the acquisition of the US Sonet assets in Salem, IL.  We have been asked to design a new network in Salem, making use of as much of the existing facilities as possible.  Mike Walter and Thomas will be working that project.

Thomas (Trey) Romine is going to be going to Wabash to work on the Orchardville drop project.  This is where Patriot Cable did not bury drops to depth and our inspector did not shut the job down.  So we will be back trying to get them to do it right this time.

Fairpoint             

Construction is getting started with Fairpoint.  They have started with one of the Martinsville projects and it looks like we will be tied up inspecting these for a while.

Ballard 

Floyd Construction is starting to work the Barlow and Bandana projects.  He is making some progress but it is slow with the personnel he has on the project.  We will also begin to do inspection on the 2017 drop project.  That will require at least one person to manage the drop crews.

Logan   

Dunmor is finishing up with A&C moving to work on the Shaker Ridge project.  Jeff Cornelius is working both projects which is stretching him in covering them both.

We continue to work on the Logan RUS loan application and are shooting for a completion or submission date of August 30th.  Ann is doing most of the work on this project.  I have talked with Greg Hale about doing an interim financing letter to have us get started on staking the 2018 build areas.

Duo       

We continue to maintain 3 full time personnel at Duo assisting them with a variety of engineering efforts.  Steve Reed is also there but supports several other clients in addition to Duo.

Duo is one of Bluegrass Networks partners and has undertaken a portion of the overall build.  The guys are busy working through design and engineering issues associated with that project.

Bluegrass            

We have awarded the construction contract to A&C for the build associated with the KiH work.  We are still staking some, but should be finished in a week or two.  Mike Bandy is working on getting RoW and Bill Pennington is working on permits.

Alabama Power               

The group in Alabama has completed the detail engineering on the Southside and Elliotsville projects for Alabama Power.  We expect to see a 3rd project in the next week to do approximately 19 miles of detail engineering in downtown Birmingham.

We also are doing construction observation for the Southside project.  Darrell Leipert is working on that for us.

Proposals 

Pikeville              

We are staying in touch with the Eastern Telephone people on this project.  We believe that we have a good chance of being selected for the engineering on this project, in partnership with a local engineering firm. It is believed that this probably would be a 2018 project at the earliest.

Duck River EMC

We believe that this client is ready to move forward with us.  I will be working with them over the next couple of weeks to determine their overall strategy and what moves need to be made to implement that.

Ballard Mapcom              

We provided pricing to Ballard to enter four of their exchanges into their Mapcom database. We are still waiting on them to make a decision.

Letcher County

We have been asked to come up with an estimated engineering cost to design and detail engineer a portion of Letcher County around the Line Fork area.

Middle Tennessee

Andy Heins has been talking with Middle Tennessee regarding fiber deployment.  We are going to try to make a visit to meet them in early August.

OTELCO

In conjunction with the Lamar office, we provided pricing to OTELCO to do design on a FTTH network for their exchanges in MO and AL.  They have indicated they have not made any decisions at this point.

OneFinley Updates        

Strategic Planning           

In July, Finley managers will meet to review and assess our strategic planning.  We will be participating in a new program called “Find the Lost Dollars” which provides insight in to how an engineering firm can make changes that find or recover additional revenues and reduce expenses.  More on that as we get through the session

Final Thoughts  

With summer well under way, this becomes our busiest time of the year.  We have over 45 employees working in the IL/KY group and it is good to see everyone busy and productive.  Summer is also a time to make sure you take care of yourself.  Please do not overlook staying hydrated and as cool as possible.

This newsletter is an attempt to provide more communication with everyone and allow everyone a chance to hear the same thing and maybe ask some questions that will make us all think.