Underground Construction - February 2019 - 18

C O N V E N T I O N

P R E V I E W

PCCA
T

Looks Forward to Busy 2019

The Power & Communications
Contractors Association (PCCA),
led by President Larry Pribyl,
MP Nexlevel, plans to follow a
productive 2018 with a new year
that focuses on aggressive advocacy efforts in our nation's capital, continued expansion of its
educational initiatives and meetings that help its members run
more successful businesses.
PCCA will hold three meetings
in 2019: a Congressional Fly-in
to Washington, D.C, its 74th Annual Convention in March in St.
Kitts, and a Mid-Year Meeting in
July in Park City, Utah.
Joining Pribyl in leading the
association are President-Elect
Dave Aubrey, Okay Construction;
1st Vice President John Fluharty,
Mears Group; 2nd Vice President
Bob Breeden, ElectriCom; Treasurer Jerrod Henschel, Michels
Corporation; Secretary Ed Campbell, HMI Communications; and
Past Presidents Jim Dillahunty,
Henkels & McCoy and Todd Myers, Kenneth G. Myers Construction.
The Education Committee
efforts are led by Heath Sellenriek, Sellenriek Construction,
and Chase Lapcinski, Push Inc.
PCCA's advocacy work is truly a
team effort by the Government
& Industry Affairs Committee,
led by Eben Wyman of Wyman
Associates.

Fly-in highlights 2019
agenda
While the Government & Industry Affairs Committee has
regularly met in Washington over
the years, including three times
in 2018, PCCA decided to put

FEBRUARY 2019 | UConOnline.com

Left: PCCA President Larry Pribyl; Middle: John Fluharty makes a point during the annual Contractors Roundtable;
Right: Long-time PCCA members Steve Spears and Robert Breeden enjoy a reception.

more members on the ground
on Capitol Hill this year. At the
end of January, PCCA members
visited with their federal lawmakers to advocate for power and
broadband construction funding,
especially in underserved areas, regulatory relief, and other
pro-business initiatives.
PCCA has also been discussing
damage prevention on its D.C.
visits, meeting with the Common
Ground Alliance and the National Utility Locating Contractors
Association and other excavating groups. In these discussions,
PCCA promotes three principal
pillars of damage prevention:
membership of all owners/operators of underground facilities in
the state one-call center; accurate
locating; and potholing of underground facilities. A top goal for
2019 is to increase excavator participation in CGA's DIRT Report.

Banking on education
As with most of the U.S. construction industry, contractors working in the power and
broadband sectors are experiencing serious worker shortages,
especially for skilled positions.
The PCCA Education & Research
Foundation has been addressing
the industry's worker shortage

with two initiatives. The first is a
scholarship fund that awards financial assistance to the children
and other dependents of PCCA
members' employees. PCCA Past
Presidents oversee the scholarship program and meet every
year to select the winners. In
2018, PCCA awarded scholarships to Oscar Zapien Maynez of
Norman, Okla., Garrett Vincent
of Paoli, Ind., and Emma Syverson of Menomonee Falls, Wis.
PCCA also works to develop
and endorse utility construction
programs for technical schools
and community colleges around
the nation. PCCA member Sellenriek Construction, Jonesburg,
Mo., has been working with the
State Technical College of Missouri, and students started in
the school's new Utility Systems
Technician program in the fall
of 2018. PCCA and Push Inc.
helped develop a utility construction technician program at the
Wisconsin Indianhead Technical
College in Rice Lake, Wis., and
classes began in November.

Value of PCCA
meetings
PCCA held its 73rd Annual Convention in March where nearly
350 industry professionals,

family, and friends met in Kauai,
Hawaii, for topical education,
great speakers, relaxed networking, fascinating tours, and lots
of good times. The meeting program was filled with educational
opportunities, including sessions
on workforce development, client
relationships and the state of the
utility construction industry.
One of the convention's most
anticipated sessions was PCCA
Solutions in Action: Who Will
Do the Work?. This introduced
members to the innovators and
leaders who have pushed forward
PCCA's efforts to support workforce development. Led by Mark
Bridgers, Continuum Capital, the
panel included the three presidents from the schools where
PCCA is working to develop utility construction programs and
the three contractors who have
been working diligently alongside them. Participants learned
about the challenges of getting
a program up and running (it
takes a lot of time and money),
the strategies being used, and the
quality graduates that the schools
already produce.
During the convention, PCCA
announced that it will restart its
Leadership Development Program (LDP) from the beginning

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Underground Construction - February 2019

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