BOMA 2014 National Issues Conference

and Winter Business Meeting

February 2 – 5, 2014

Washington D.C.

 

Last week delegations, from Texas (Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio) and others from Little Rock to Albuquerque to Des Moines to Oklahoma City, as well as other locales from coast to coast and border to border, attended Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) National Issues Conference and Winter Business Meeting in Washington, DC.

The conference was a great networking opportunity for BOMA Allied members to have a captive audience of senior level property professionals, as very few vendors realize the importance of this conference. I had the pleasure of meeting many new contacts from the markets that Western represents and rekindling relationships with old friends from all over the country.

In support of our real estate partners, we visited the offices of Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, Texas Congressmen Micheal Burgess, Kay Granger and Kenny Marchant to inform our elected officials and their staffs about far reaching industry concerns and to ask for their support of:

• Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) extension.
• Extending and permanently reducing the timeline for depreciating leasehold improvements to 15 years.
• Permanently reducing the timeline for depreciating fire sprinkler retro fits to 15 years.
• Policies to permanently reduce the timeline for depreciating new roofs to 20 years.
• Currently, TRIA is scheduled to expire at the end of 2014 and the three depreciation issues must be scheduled to amortize over 39 years.

 

Western Construction Group has been an active participant in the BOMA meetings and appreciates these conference opportunities to bring attention to issues and highlight solutions for our industry and our customers.

 

 

Greg Tankersley

Regional Business Development Manager

What does it take to continue to grow as a leader in the concrete and masonry restoration industry? With just shy of 100 years of experience in this industry, Western Construction Group continuously searches for innovative products and equipment in order to provide the craftsmanship we are known for to customers, and continue to remain competitive in today’s market.

Each year, members of Western attend the annual World of Concrete event in Las Vegas, NV. The World of Concrete showcases suppliers, products, safety products, equipment, construction software, as well as offering industry related training courses for both concrete and masonry construction.

As a member of Western, one of the key focuses this year was to look for products that would help increase productivity and still support Western's first class safety program.

This year RNP unveiled a new product to the industry that caught my attention, and fell right into the wheelhouse of what I was searching for. They introduced the PAM DEK, an ergonomic accessory tool that assists workers while performing chipping work on concrete decks. Traditional chipping can be strenuous on a workers hands, arms, shoulders, and backs, as the worker is performing work in an unnatural position. The PAM DEK is designed to take the strain off of the worker by neutralizing the weight of the chipping hammer, reducing vibration, and allowing the operator to maintain better posture while performing work. By providing these benefits to the worker, products like this will not only reduce injuries, but can increase productivity as the employee will not get as fatigued using this equipment, compared to traditional methods.

We are constantly striving to provide a safer and more productive work environment for our Team.