Our Program Committee has been very busy this year putting together many interesting programs as well as our June Outing. The rest of the year is pretty exciting as well. We plan to end the year with our Holiday Extravaganza. December is always such a hectic time of year and this year we have moved our Holiday celebration up a bit. The Holiday Extravaganza will be held November 2, 2007 at The Ivanhoe Club, in Ivanhoe, IL. Please mark this date on your calendar and plan to attend. The evening plans to be an eventful one with our Annual Meeting and Awards combined with our Holiday Party.

Every two years we change leadership and providing he gets enough votes at the meeting, Lyle Ehlers, Boller Construction, will be given the gavel to lead LCCA for the next two years becoming our 43^rd President. We will also welcome a new face to the Board as Tim Staples, Camosy, Inc. takes the place of our departing Past President Mike Temple, Mechanical, Inc., who has served LCCA in so many capacities over the years.

In addition, I will have the honor of presenting the Governor’s Award to a truly deserving member. Award winners will be decided in the next few weeks and you will receive a special mailing on who they are a couple weeks before the meeting.

And if that is not enough, we will also take some time to look back over the last 60 years as we kick off LCCA’s 60^th Anniversary. Allan Pickus, chair of the 60^th Anniversary Task Force, has several surprises in store for attendees.

And later we have entertainment guaranteed to bring you back to the Rat Pack days, a good recipe for the start of the Holiday season. Don’t miss it!

Information concerning time and place will be sent this week, but I wanted to make sure that you kept the date available. 2007 has been a very interesting year . . . it will be great to celebrate the close of the year with all of you.

Mike Temple, Mechanical, Inc. and Chair of the LCCA Nominating Committee, presented the following slate of Officers and Directors for 2008 to the Board of Directors at their last meeting.

Lyle Ehlers, Boller Construction Company - President
Rick Grabowski, Pickus Construction & Equipment – 1^st Vice President
Mike Ryan, H.H. Holmes Testing – 2^nd Vice President
Steve Dalbec, Jos. J. Henderson & Son - Treasurer
Gary L. Dowty, LCCA - Secretary
Micky Day, DK Contractors – Past President
Karen Johnson, Roughneck Concrete Cutters - Director
Skip McCann, Dam, Snell & Taveirne - Director
Tim Staples, Camosy - Director
Steve Thelen, Thelen Sand & Gravel – Director
Suzanne Zupec, Campanella & Sons - Director

Elections will be held at the November Annual Meeting. Be there to cast your vote!

LCCA will officially begin celebrating our 60 years of “Building Lake County” this month. As part of the celebration, we will be taking a nostalgic look back at America in 1947. Most of you were not even born, while others were not old enough to even know that Harry Truman was President. So watch your Newsbrief each month for the “Remember When” trivia corner. You might be surprised what was going on when LCCA was created.

The 60^th Anniversary Committee, chaired by Allan Pickus, is also putting finishing touches on the program for the next year and this will be available soon. Stay tuned!

WE WANT YOUR PHOTOS!! If you have any photos of projects spanning the past 60 years that you would like to share with LCCA, we’d love to see them. Give Heidi a call to discuss the details (847-623-2345 x3).

LCCA will join the Association of Subcontractors and Affiliates (ASA Chicago) for a trip to Cancun in January. Already registered from LCCA are:

Jim & Tracy Becker, Becker Electrical Group
Gerry & Kathy Dumalski, Boller Construction
Barry & Debbie Heinrichs, Burris Equipment
Mary & Larry Kenar, Jr., Campanella & Sons
Don & Sheila Mors, Pipe Freezing Services
Scott Nelson & Todd Nelson, H.H. Holmes Testing
Tim & Mikey Staples, Camosy, Inc.
Suzanne & Kevin Zupec, Campanella & Sons
Gary & Sandy Dowty, LCCA

Get on the ball and make your reservation soon. Here are the details. Rooms are limited and going fast.

Date:           January 10-14, 2008
Location:    Le Blanc Spa Resort, Cancún, Mexico
Cost:           $1,350 per person double occupancy
                (Land only, ALL INCLUSIVE)
Air:              Assistance with air transportation is available from Travel by Marcy. 
                Call Marcy Gelber at (847) 597-5911 for more information.

During the first week of July, 1947, rancher Mac Brazel was making his rounds following a thunderstorm, during which he thought he heard an explosion, and found a large area filled with some type of debris or wreckage. The wreckage was tiny pieces of shiny, metallic material unfamiliar to the rancher. This debris led to the famous newspaper headlines “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.”

Local Gas Tax Authorization Vetoed – Senate Bill 831 which would permit Lake County and others to place a local option motor fuel tax on the referendum ballot, has passed both house and has been sent to the Governor for signature. Unfortunately, the Governor vetoed the bill claiming it was a “tax increase.” Apparently he does not even want a tax increase when the voters do!

An effort to over ride the Governor’s veto will be made. The Over Ride Session begins next week. Stay tuned!

Chicago Area Transportation Bill Moving, Barely – In spite of Gov. Blagojevich’s vow to Veto SB 572, the bill was voted out of committee and will be heard by the full House on September 4. This bill provides for a ½% increase in the sales tax to get Chicago Mass Transit back in the black and will also provide needed road construction funds for the collar counties.

Capital Bill Passes Senate - State Senator Michael Bond (D – Grayslake) announced the passage of a capital budget in the Illinois Senate, which will provide vital statewide funding for roads, education and transit comes after years of debate and disagreement at the state capital in Springfield.

The capital bill funds the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) road plan for northern Lake County with an existing $74 million plus approximately $100 million for a total of $174 million that will fund numerous road projects.

Details of the capital plan include funding for the following projects in northern Lake County:

- $32,113,500 for additional lanes, land acquisition, construction and engineering of US Route 45 from Washington Street to north of Illinois Route 120 (Belvidere Road)
-  $31,521,000 for additional lanes, land acquisition, construction and engineering of US Route 45 from south of Illinois Route 120 to Illinois Route 137
-  $16,945,500 for construction of Illinois Route 83 from the Wisconsin State Line to Petite Lake Road
-  $11,850,000 for engineering work on Illinois Route 83 from Petite Lake Road to Illinois Route 120
-  $3,199,500 for engineering work on US Route 45 from south of Millburn Bypass to north of Illinois Route 132
-  $3,555,000 for engineering work on Illinois Route 137 from Illinois Route 83 to Peterson Road
-  $10,813,125 for engineering work on Illinois Route 173 from Illinois Route 83 to Interstate 94

“As Vice Chair of the important Senate Transportation Committee, I feel this is a good first step in improving the road infrastructure in northern Lake County,” Senator Bond said. All the projects above were incorporated in the Lake County Transportation Consensus Agenda that was developed with input at the transportation summits co-hosted by LCTA and Lake County.

It remains to be seen if Sen. Bond can get the list in the FINAL bill that can be agreed to by the House and the Governor. One hurdle crossed, several more in the way of construction.

The Illinois State Fire Marshal has filed draft administrative rules that essentially will require extensive changes to building codes throughout Illinois. Their proposal is a little confusing, but according to ICIC, these are the main parameters:

-  All local units of government, including home rule, will be required to document that their building codes are equivalent to the NFPA Uniform Fire Code and portions of the NFPA 5000 building code. There is only one jurisdiction in Illinois that currently references the NFPA 5000 code: Jersey County.
-  The IFC code is the more widely used building and fire code in Illinois among those jurisdictions that have adopted a code.
-  One of the major differences between the two codes is that the UFC requires retro-fitting of all buildings in order to be compliant. The IFC mandates retro-fitting only where there is an imminent threat to public safety.
-  No other states have adopted the UFC.
-  The State Board of Education recently proposed its code policies for schools and intends to follow the IFC.
-  Under the new proposal, all building designs would have to be approved by the State Fire Marshal if the local jurisdiction does not have review capability. State agency plans would ALL be reviewed by the Fire Marshal. We have no idea now the Fire Marshal will be able to accommodate the increased work load.
-  These new rules would make it even more confusing for contractors or designers to determine the appropriate code to follow. They will, however, be held liable for selecting the proper code.
-  The proposal is currently being opposed by the Capital Development Board, the Illinois Healthcare Association, the Hotel industry, the Illinois Municipal League, the City of Chicago, the Homebuilders Association, BOMA, the association of code officials, AIA and ACEC. Others are expected to follow suit.
-  No architects, engineers or contractor groups sat on the task force that made this recommendation.

The way the economy is today, you need to make sure you get paid for all materials used and work performed on a job.

LCCA has scheduled a Construction Mechanic’s Lien Seminar for Wednesday, October 24, 2007. The seminar will be held at LCCA in Waukegan from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. Tom Morris, Hinshaw & Culbertson and Margery Newman, Ogletree Deakins will be covering the 2007 revisions to the lien law and what all is involved with filing a lien.

Don’t miss this important seminar. The cost is $20 per person for members and space is limited. Registration information is available on the LCCA website (www.lcca-il.org/events).

LCCA in association with the College of Lake County, will offer a Supervisor Training Seminar on “Project Management” beginning on October 8^th and will meet on 4 Monday nights for 4 hours each concluding on November 5^th.

The seminar is designed to develop key project management skills that will improve the flow and reduce the cost of construction projects. The course will touch on:

-  Assigning costs to resources
-  Preparing project budgets
-  Connecting the project plan with the schedule
-  Managing budgets and controlling costs

Wayne Pratt will once again facilitate the class and his experience with construction and our members makes him a valuable asset for participants. The cost of the course is just $215 per person and a registration form is enclosed for your use. Training your key employees can make the difference in your ability to compete with your competitors. Make sure you are not working at half your capacity. Register today!

The cooperatively produced standard-form contracts written mainly by owners and contractors under the ConsensusDOCS banner contain new payment security for subcontractors among other terms. With all of the 70-plus forms due to be released Sept. 28, the effort represents three years of work by 23 industry associations and an attempt to speed up contract negotiations and build trouble-free projects by starting from mutually agreed ideas of what is fair.

Under the agreement reached by a coalition of industry associations, core participating associations, such as the Associated General Contractors (AGC) and the American Subcontractors Association (ASA) will cease publishing their own documents as ConsensusDOCS forms become available, and the associations will invest in and share profits from the sale of ConsensusDOCS documents.

The consensus represented in the new standard-form agreements was reached with less input from designers than from other groups. Engineering associations, for example, had been invited to participate but were late in joining and limited their participation until recently. The En­gineers Joint Contract Documents Committee is “the newest kid on the block” to join the effort and “is not at this point prepared to endorse any of the Consensus DOCS” pending completion of its review, says Wilcox Dunn, a Richmond, Va.-based attorney and spokesman for EJCDC.

The American Institute of Architects represents a bigger problem for ConsensusDOCS. As the industry powerhouse in standard-form agreements, AIA politely declined to participate in ConsensusDOCS.

A key AIA staff member fails to see the value of uniting behind a single set of documents. “When they first brought it up and we had a big meeting about it three years ago, they wanted everyone who was currently publishing any document to turn their intellectual property over to the new nonprofit for ConsensusDOCS,” says Suzanne Harness, AIA’s managing director and counsel for contract documents. “You could see, if you have a successful program, that is risky.” Terms of participation later were relaxed but AIA still was not interested, she says.

We just had a fundamental question of whether there is a need for new programs,” says Harness, who notes that AIA consults all industry groups in preparing new versions of its documents. “It seems the market is well-served and offers people a choice. It’s hard to see the value in only having one program, a monopoly, if you will.

EJCDC’s Dunn says that organization’s review of ConsensusDOCS’s design-build agreement will be critical to its decision on whether to fully participate in the program. Even so, EJCDC’s participation so far has been “pretty significant,” says Brian Perlberg, AGC’s senior counsel for construction law and contract document programs.

Updates to several 10-year-old AIA standard forms of agreement are due in November. Standard agreements from both ConsensusDOCS and AIA have been written with changing industry technology, such as building information modeling (BIM), in mind. ConsensusDOCS’ standard-form agreements grapple with some of the stickier aspects of risk. For example, ConsensusDOCS forms require dispute mitigation, mediation and the parties decide at the time of contract signing on whether to use arbitration or litigation as the last resort.

In AIA’s latest version of its A201 agreement, General Conditions for the Contract for Construction, all initial claims are subject to an initial decision by the architect before the parties move to mediation or arbitration.

ConsensusDOCS has another key improvement for subcontractors: the contractor-sub agreement does not re­quire subs to indemnify the contractor, owner, architect or others for all kinds of claims.