What better theme for the annual convention of an association consisting mainly of family-owned businesses that is meeting in Orlando, Fla., than family? According to Michael Taylor, executive director of the National Association of Demolition Contractors, Doylestown, Pa., that is exactly the focus of the NADC’s annual convention March 17 to 20 at the Omni Rosen Hotel.
"Because it’s in Orlando, and we anticipate drawing a couple hundred children, we have decided that it should have a distinctive family orientation," Taylor explains. "So we hired a company called The Construction Group – which is really two guys, Greg Hoyle and Don Shelley – from Denver. They are going to talk about a lot of the issues that face family-owned businesses, such as succession planning, communication problems, and the tax and accounting consequences you have as you move towards retirement."
Most demolition contractors are family-owned, he says.
"There are no publicly-held demolition companies in the United States," says Taylor. "Some are publicly-held and do demolition, but they also do other things. All the other companies are owned by one or two guys."
For the edification and entertainment of both young and old, the two other speakers at the convention will be Colonel Mike Malane, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration shuttle astronaut, and Jay Honeycutt, the current director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
"Those two programs, I hope, will attract the entire family audience," says Taylor.
The past two NADC conventions had more technical themes, including partnering within the industry and a lead-in-construction seminar, and future conventions will return to these sorts of programs.
About 1,200 attendees are expected at this year’s convention. This is fewer than last year’s 1,600, which was a record for the association. Part of that convention’s success was its location in Las Vegas, a hot spot for demolition contractors, according to Taylor.
"The industry likes Vegas," he says. "Phoenix and New Orleans don’t draw as well as Vegas does." In addition, another construction industry convention, CONEXPO-CON/AGG, is being held back-to-back with NADC’s meeting this year, providing some competition for attendees and exhibitor dollars.
LEGISLATIVE CONCERNS
Although the convention will be lighthearted, the NADC is still paying attention to substantive issues affecting the demolition industry. Fortunately, with the current mood of Congress, there is little likelihood of additional regulations affecting the industry being enacted any time soon, says Taylor.
"There’s very little that’s of great concern to us in Washington," he says. "We recently won a big victory when flow control died." Related to flow control is possible legislation concerning interstate transportation of solid waste.
"We’ve been fighting very hard to make sure that C&D be excluded specifically," says Taylor. "But flow control took such a thumping that they may not even do interstate transportation this year."
However, the NADC is closely watching the bill to make sure C&D debris is not included in the definition of solid waste. "It’s not a major issue for the industry," he adds, "but if you’re working in Kansas City, Kansas, and your landfill is in Kansas City, Missouri, why should you have to go through some elaborate bureaucratic hurdle? There’s no environmental reason, and there’s no public health reason. Nobody is trucking C&D waste across seven states."
The association also supports EPA Administrator Carol Browner’s brownfields initiative, says Taylor, which would support the redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites in cities.
"For our industry, that represents an incredible potential for work – both in gutting out industrial facilities for reuse, and also for cleaning them up to the level that the land would again be marketable and attractive to bankers and industrial real estate brokers," he says.
In addition, the NADC is interested in the possibility of reforming the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (see related story), although the association has enjoyed a generally positive relationship with OSHA over the years.
"The idea of OSHA’s role being at least partly consultive is attractive to us, and I think it’s attractive to the people from OSHA too," says Taylor. "Right now, the inspector shows up, finds problems, and you’re willing to correct them right away. But he still has to fine you, and sometimes go through judicial proceedings."
Even if the agency were made less punitive, he says, most companies would immediately work to correct any possible safety problems "because you don’t want to jeopardize the largest single asset you have, which is your workforce."
As part of its efforts to improve safety in the demolition industry, the NADC is currently developing a new employee orientation video. "The association’s doing this on their own – no government funding or anything – because the vast majority of injuries to our members are the untrained guy in his first two weeks on the job," says Taylor. "What this film will do in 12 or 15 minutes is to orient them to the demolition job site, show them what issues they will confront almost immediately, tell them what their responsibilities are."
IMPROVING IMAGE
As part of the NADC’s public relations effort, the association has developed a brochure called "Ten Misconceptions About The Demolition Industry," says Taylor.
Some misconceptions include the idea that all demolition contractors are involved in blasting – actually only about five companies in the industry do blasting – and that demolition contractors don’t recycle, which of course they do.
"The idea is, when you submit a bid or write proposal, you stick one of these in there, and it’s nice, readable stuff for the potential client," he says. "This is a way in which we support our membership and try to make their dues worthwhile by seeing that they get the job and put money in their pockets."
The amount of recycling being done by the industry is increasing every year, says Taylor, as evidenced by the increased amount of recycling equipment being purchased.
"Equipment manufacturers are building more portable plants for small to medium sized processors," he says. "This means that contractors can process material on site, or set up recycling equipment at a satellite location near the job site. These guys wouldn’t be investing this money unless they saw a significant market coming."
Even in states like Texas where there is significant remaining landfill space and waste is disposed of by volume rather than by weight, contractors are interested in recycling equipment because they realize that the handwriting is on the wall.
"As years pass and there is increased closing of C&D landfills, recycling is going to continue to increase," explains Taylor.
The author is editor of
Recycling Today.
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