MIDLAND, MI ABC Greater Michigan Chapter held its annual award presentation event at the H Hotel, downtown Midland, Michigan. The chapter announces the member companies that won the 2016 Safety Training and Evaluation Process (STEP) Awards. STEP recognizes ABC member companies who consistently excel in the field of safety, but more importantly it provides an evaluation tool to help identify areas to improve a company's safety program. 

Rich Wells, President of Michigan Operations; The Dow Chemical Company assisted in the presenting the awards to the contractor companies. The following ABC Greater Michigan Chapter member companies received awards in the following categories:

Diamond

 Alloy Construction 

 Bay Aggregate 

 Blasy Electric 

 G.E. Insulation Co. 

 RCL Construction 

Platinum

 Architectural Metals 

 Fisher Sand & Gravel 

 Three Rivers Corporation 

 Windemuller Electric 

Gold

 Answer Heating & Cooling 

 Fisher Contracting 

 J.E. Johnson, Inc. 

 Lake Painting 

 Magnum Construction 

 Pyramid Control 

 Sugar Construction 

 The Tancor Corporation 

 Valley Electrical Contractors 

 Wolgast CorporationSilver

 A/C Electric 

 Central Concrete 

 Consolidated Electrical Contractors 

 Joseph M. Day CompanyBronze

 Albin Hengesbach Custom Cabinetry

The highest honor recognizing a safety program that demonstrates the highest commitment is the diamond-level. These companies must have an incident rate at least 50 percent below the National Bureau of Labor Statistics average in their particular NAICS code for the current year and each of the past two consecutive years and have an EMR (or "mod factor") at or below 0.700 (0.800 for companies under 100 employees).

In addition to the STEP award presentation the 2016 ABC/GMC Safety Leader Award was presented. The recipient, Pete Crawford of Alloy Construction Services, was recognized for his leadership in leading Alloy to nine years OSHA free and counting.

New to the event this year were the Excellence In Construction (EIC) award presentations. A staple for chapters across the country, EIC recognizes the outstanding projects, craftsmanship and work that that member companies do. Projects were submitted in a variety of categories. The following awards were presented:

New Construction Under $1 Milllion: 

Wolgast Corporation

PROJECT: NBS Commercial Interiors

New Construction Over $10 Milllion: 

Three Rivers Corporation

PROJECT: MidMichigan Health Gerstaker Building

Addition/Renovation $1-5 Milllion: 

Wolgast Corporation

PROJECT: Michigan Brand Meats

Electrical: 

Consolidated Electrical Contractors

PROJECT: Consumers Energy Innovation Center

Other awards presented during the event were:

Founders Award for an individual that best exemplifies the philosophy of The Association of Builders and Contractors over a period of time in the advocacy of both Merit Shop and Workforce Training.  

Recipient: John Bartos

Champion of Free Enterprise award for outstanding contributions into insuring that Free Enterprise continues to exist to this day.

Recipients: Gary Elza, G.E. Insulation and Brian Stadler, Wolgast Corporation

ABC Cares award for using the skilled trades to give back to the community.

Recipient: Corey Hannahs, Consolidated Electrical Contractors for starting a training program for homeless individuals in the Lansing area.

Giving for the Future award for outstanding support of the chapter and training initiatives

Recipient: Chelsea Lumber

Top Worker's Compensation Producer award for highest level of new members into the ABC Self-Insured worker's compensation fund

Recipient: Walton Insurance Group