General Excavating

General Excavating's Material Sales Department is prepared for an influx of orders for landscaping supplies. A wet start to spring has not deterred our customers from working in their yards and gardens. As most of you are aware, General Excavating offers a variety of material to fit most of your landscaping needs.

This season, General Excavating has increased its inventory of products and services. For those of you that enjoy water features, we are offering a Mexican Beach Pebble. This pebble, which is black in color, can be used as an attractive accent in ponds and streams.

Another new product we are currently stocking is bucks creek cobblers. They are tan in color with sprinkles of mica. These boulders are ideal for use as an accent material in landscaping and in water features.

Shanandoah steppers are a new flagstone stepper we have added to the current stock of five flagstone steppers. This material is buff to gray in color and averages about 18 inches in diameter.

An increased number of homeowners have decided to improve the quality of their yard on their own. For those people, we now offer Bed Edger rentals. This piece of equipment is used to install black plastic edging and cuts a nice trench. It can be rented at the rate of $35.00 for a half-day and $55.00 for a full day. If you plan to utilize this equipment on a Saturday, plan ahead and reserve it early because it is a popular item.

General Excavating's material sales department is committed to offering the widest range of landscaping material in Lincoln. We offer products useful for the do-it-yourselfer to the landscape architects.

Remember to call Roy at 467-1627 or stop in and see him at 6701 Cornhusker Highway with your landscaping material needs. We offer free loading and we are happy to deliver our products.

General Excavating was selected by the Lincoln Independent Business Association (LIBA) to receive the 1999 Enterprising Gambler Award. This award recognizes business owners that have taken the bold step to either begin or expand local business.

The current owners, Scott Fitzgerald, Joe D'Amico and John Hendricks still lead the company with the same vision with which it was started.

LIBA recognized that General Excavating provides full time jobs to over 90 people in the community. The employees of General Excavating are committed to excellence in the areas of underground utilities, environmental remediation, communications, trenchless technology, land-scaping material sales and dredging.

LIBA noted that General Excavating was a company that prides themselves on being dependable, innovative, diverse and willing to work hard to satisfy their customer's needs.

There were a number of other categories for which attendees received awards and recognition. Bill Riggs of Li-Cor was named business owner of the year and Russ Bayer of Bayer Family Partnership received the Independence Award. There were three additional awards which recognized efforts on behalf of the Lincoln Business Community. Former Governor, Ben Nelson, received the Business Champion Award, Michael Carpenter of the Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau received the Business Resource Award and Larry Hudkins, Lancaster County Commissioner, was awarded the Free Enterprise Award.

In all, the event drew over 400 attendees, honored local businessmen and women and raised approximately $30,000.

In its attempts to stay at the forefront of the construction industry, General Excavating has recognized that continuously training and educating its employees is key. General Excavating has offered a number of classes over the past four months to its personnel in order to better equip them for the future. The classes that have been offered, at no cost to employees, are as follows; Introduction to Computers (level I), Introduction to Computers (level II), Backhoe Training, CPR and First Aid.

For many employees, the computer classes were the first time they ever interacted with a computer. Many of the attendees were construction workers and heavy equipment operators that felt they would never have any need for a computer on the job, but wanted to become familiar with its operation.

General Excavating realizes that technology is progressing rapidly and it will only be a matter of time until computers play an integral part in every phase of construction. General Excavating will be ready to adapt the new technology to its construction methods because its employees will be ready.

The Association of Builders & Contractors sponsored a construction fair at Lincoln's Northeast JR/SR High School on May 5, 1999 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Not even the rain deterred the presenters or the attendees from participating. General Excavating participated in the fair in an effort to educate students and parents about the possibilities of a profession within the construction industry.

Dan Nelson, a General Excavating employee, set up a backhoe on which students were afforded the opportunity to practice operating the equipment. Dan directed the students on the equipment and instructed them on the finer points of equipment operation and safety.

It is important that young people entering the workforce think of the construction industry as a career, rather than just a job. By participating in events such as this, General Excavating hopes to relay the possibilities the construction industry has to offer to prospective future employees and get them excited about this great industry.