Congratulations to Harris’ 2021 Employee Award Winners

(ST. PAUL, Minn.) – National mechanical contractor, Harris, is pleased to share the winners of its 2021 Employee Awards. Nominated by their peers in the categories of Prefabrication (project and region), Safety, Culture, Innovation and Lifetime Achievement, the winners are:

Prefabrication Project Award – Manufacturing Facility, Salt Lake City, Utah Team
Harris’ Salt Lake City team provided design-build services for the mechanical and plumbing systems of a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that has changed the dynamic of an industry by allowing functions of an important manufacturing process to come together under one roof. Harris’ collaborative approach between its Design Studio, BIM/VDC, prefabrication shop and other teams allowed the mechanical contractor to deliver air and water for the manufacturing floor, as well as a Class A administration office. The team also installed process piping and ductwork.

Harris had to overcome a tight project schedule due to a roof structure not rated to carry the loads of a heavy industrial manufacturing facility. As such, the team needed to support and hang pipe from a mezzanine system on the ground. With only two months of install time available once the steel was erected and before production equipment startup, Harris’ field team got to work and successfully installed approximately 25K linear feet of pipe – thanks to a major prefabrication plan, field crews working seven days a week, two shifts, a fab shop on-site to manage field verified fabrication and lots of hard work. Prefab included over 1,000 spools ranging from 14” to 3” carb steel, over 500 spools in 6” stainless steel and about 100 12” x 12” beam piping supports. Congratulations to: Project Manager Robert Lee; Shop Foreman Josh Price; Preconstruction Manager Dean Owen; Assistant Project Manager Bryant Adams; Plumber, General Foreman David Toone; Technical Associate Gina Wade; Estimator Jason Hatcher; Estimator Nick Kemp; Pipefitter Journeyman AW Price; Plumber, Apprentice Nathan Jelte; and Plumber, Apprentice Tawnie Munsen.

Prefabrication Region Award – St. Paul, Minnesota Construction Team
On a regional basis, winners of this award have shown cost savings, creativity, labor reduction, customer recognition and more. The type and quality of work done by the St. Paul Construction team and the St. Paul 909 fabrication shop is highly rated by customers. A sophisticated and efficient shop that provides prefab for Harris projects around the country, one would never know the space started with only a few benches.

The team tackles an array of components for local and national projects, including large underground PVC piping. Doubling its footprint and tripling the fab shop’s output in 2021, the team has also been innovative in utilizing new methods and driving local leadership to invest in more and better tooling for increased efficiency. Congratulations to: Plumbing Foreman Justin Money; Project Manager Ryan Cousineau; Plumbing Foreman Gordie Beaman; Plumber Foreman Chris Adams; Plumber Journeyman Ben Haen; Senior Project Manager Logan Marks; Plumber Journeyman Karl Dodge; Plumber Foreman AJ Hilpisch; Senior Project Manager Andrew Bloom; and Plumber Foreman Justin Graham.

Safety Champion Award: John Godbold, Vice President, Service Operations
This award is given to a Harris employee who influences others to work in a safe manner, goes above and beyond the job requirements, is proactive about safety, has a strong work ethic and a personal safety record. Based in Bowie, Maryland, John Godbold has been an excellent ambassador of safety for Harris’ Service + Building Automation teams and instrumental in fostering overall engagement in maintaining high safety standards company-wide.

Godbold’s leadership on safety and operational excellence has made Harris’ teams better and improved safety ratings by more than half. He has overseen the deployment of safety absolutes, truck audits, FieldLogix GPS (which includes the safe driving KPIs) and the game-changing implementation of the Tyfoom app, which has improved daily safety briefings and trainings. Further evidence of Godbold’s efforts is a reduction from 2020 to 2021 in total cases by 55.56%, injuries by 50% and a Total Case Incident Rate (TCIR) reduction of 3.16 to 1.52.

“Jerry Dalton” Culture Award: Todd Thiele, Vice President, Building Automation
This award is named after Jerry Dalton, an exceptional employee who truly represented Harris’ values before his 2004 passing. Given to employees who demonstrate honesty, integrity, loyalty, pride for the company and foster high team morale, Todd Thiele exemplifies this award. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Thiele is a 25-year Harris veteran who demonstrates the Harris Culture and its values on a daily basis. His honesty, integrity, dedication, service to others, helpful presence, sense of fairness, patience, transparency, depth of knowledge, strategic insight, and willingness to always go above and beyond the call of duty are greatly valued and second to none.

Thiele is the go-to person for the BA teams, pulling ‘all-nighters’ to bid jobs or providing a helping hand anytime it’s needed. A role model of operational consistency throughout his tenure, Thiele has also taken it upon himself during recent acquisitions to mentor new team members, not only in the use of systems and tools, but also in what it means to be part of Harris. He is a passionate proponent of our Safety Culture: First, Last & Always and an esteemed leader.

Innovation Award: Utah Olympic Park Slide Track
This project is literally one for the record books and one that deserves the award that reflects the impact innovation has on products and applications, work processes, as well as overall company benefit. Harris’ Salt Lake City Service + Building Automation team is honored for their work in bringing Utah Olympic Park’s (UOP) Slide Track back to “world-class levels” as the facility gears up for a potential 2030 Olympic bid. Originally built for the 2002 Winter Olympics, UOP’s Slide Track began experiencing issues with its ammonia-based refrigeration systems in recent years due to aging systems, design challenges and increasingly varied outside air temperatures. Portions of the track were simply unable to stay consistent with the necessary and appropriate temperatures needed to hold ice.

Harris’ Salt Lake City BA team managed a complete controls upgrade. An extremely high-tech project, Harris’ team brought the track’s ammonia safeties up-to-date as well as revamping the refrigeration controls process. Where the previous process required track crews to walk the track manually operating valves at various times of the day and night, Harris upgraded the track to a main panel operation in the Ammonia Plant with new track temperature sensors and automatic refrigerant valves. Additional control panels were all made to go along the track. The automation solution Harris used is a unique industrial control PLC that runs Niagara software. Considered to be one of only two ice slide tracks in the world to have this level of automation, athletes competing this year on the renovated track have already broken records in bobsled and luge. Team members: General Manager, Service + Building Automation Jarvis Hofhines; Building Automation Operations Manager Oliver Brown; BA Systems Specialist Kevin Healy; BA System Designer + Standards Lead Gavino “Bud” Gutierrez; BA Installation Team Lead Ross Brown; Lead Controls System Designer Glen Wells; and BA Fabrication + System Designer Warren Thompson.

Lifetime Achievement Robert F. Hosch Award: Craig Baller, General Manager, Conveyors
Named after Harris’ former CEO who passed away in 2018, the Robert F. Hosch Lifetime Achievement Award honors an employee who has built strong relationships, empowers and creates opportunities for others, and shows humility, selflessness and respect. Craig Baller is recognized for having all of these attributes as well as for his tremendous work in starting Harris’ Conveyors division. Baller was a president at HiMEC Conveyors when Harris acquired the company in 2005. Baller saw an opportunity as he worked in the shop and created the division within Harris as it is known today. Baller helped weather the 2009 recession and brought Harris’ conveyors business back stronger than ever by 2011. Through continued growth, relationship building and depth of knowledge, the division continues to grow, thanks to his efforts

CONTACTS:
Gina Swanson
[email protected]
612.298.2631

Angela Mork
[email protected]
651.602.6538