The Owners' Manual

tions that I get called. I don’t know who came up with these but some are on business cards made up for me such as principal, chief engineer, prin- cipal engineer, director of QA/QC etc. but whatever it is ,the role is like being on a clean-up crew since I clean up or help to clean up messes, whether its assisting on claims matters or redlin- ing plans and specs and other work products (bleeding),assisting on docu- ment retention (our storage facilities that few have seen or want to see) or getting involved with projects that have higher risk and doing engineering tasks. I also get asked design ques- tions by staff or queried as to whether we have a detail for –you name it- or if we ever designed a – you name it, or do we still have the plans for- you name the old project. Things like that. WHAT IS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT OR PROJECT YOU WORKED ON FOR BL COMPANIES? SN: The Woodridge Estates project in Woodbridge, Connecticut. You could make a movie about it. Hollywood would do it because it involved voo- doo spells, the town first selectwoman sinking in mud, (she was rescued), people (more than one) going insane (really -like in the hospital insane), and a dramatic public hearing on a steamy July night in a non-air con- ditioned and packed public hearing room in an old New England town hall with the police present and the ap- plicant arriving late on his motorcycle while the crowd goes silent, -and not a word was said by the public in this public hearing! You’ll have to wait for the movie to find out what happened next!

WHAT WAS YOUR WORST JOB? SN: I don’t think I’ve had a “worst” job but there is a memorable job: I worked one summer during college in a factory that made metal fireplace parts and equipment. Pay was good (better than $1.91 per hour). This place was one of those old brick factories built 100 years ago. Inside was dark with no windows to the outside and had large machines that stamped metal plates or drilled holes or welded parts or lowered metal parts into degreasing vats. This big room had all of that and the regular staff that worked there had been there a long time - 15, 20, 25 years in the same room! Most had lost one, two or three fingers working there. The guy that ran the snack counter had lost an arm. You realized clearly why it was a good idea you went to college. HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED AT BL COMPANIES? SN: 24 years and 9 months – and not in the same room. WHAT IS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE? SN: Here’s the oldest I can remember. There was one trip to McIndoe Falls, Vermont when I was 3 years and 3months old in July 1960. My dad and my uncle were on the front lawn of my aunt’s childhood home talking about the new road planned to go through that town. (Future I-91 as I figured out several years later). I guess I thought building a road was cool stuff then- so maybe that’s when the civil engineer- ing seed got planted – who knows? WHAT IS YOUR TITLE/POSITION/ ROLE AT BL COMPANIES? SN: There are a lot of titles and posi-

We want to hear from you! Have an idea for the newsletter? Want to be the next “Get to Know”? Please reach out to Heather Halotek or Jessica Osborne. Please send questions, comments, story ideas and photos to: hhalotek@blcompanies.com WHAT DOES EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP MEAN TO YOU? SN: Not a lot of difference for me since I’ve practiced the edict that you should always conduct yourself at your job as if you are an owner, even if you are not at an employee owned company. After all, you want to keep the busi- ness going. You want to make sure you have a job, and you want take pride in what you do. If you do that and do it well, you’ll get rewarded with satisfaction, monetary and benefit compensation and job security. Also for a lot of us we can point to some- thing that we helped get built after we retire and that will still be here after we’re gone since those works will survive us. That’s a type of reward too. It still surprises me (if this is true) that some people might still need (or needed) ESOP to do the aforemen- tioned. Shouldn’t we be doing these things anyway? ESOP is one more reward. IF YOU WERE TO WIN THE LOTTERY TOMORROW, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR FIRST PURCHASE? SN: Probably a time machine - you can make money but you can’t make time. When they invent it, it will prob- ably be expensive. ◌

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