Newsletter:  September 2005 a "We couldn't do this without our volunteers or the companies that help us" – Christine Dahl Silva, Project Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County "This is a big project for us.  We have an estimated completion date of June '06" – Ron Stewart, JLC Project Manager for the Carneros Inn project "My long term goal with LeDuc & Dexter is to grow as the company grows by gaining the knowledge and having the energy to do it" – Kristina Harris, Company Controller at LeDuc & Dexter, Inc.

Habitat for Humanity

Residential

Christine Dahl Silva, Habitat for Humanity Project Coordinator is grateful for volunteers and companies that help them build the homes.

Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County is building a "community" in Santa Rosa. A total of six homes will have been built on Mera Court when the project is completed. Two homes are completed and occupied. Two homes are under construction and two additional homes are planned for the cul de sac off West Ave. about a mile from Hearn Ave.

One of the homes under construction on Mera Court in Santa Rosa. (click image to enlarge)

Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County is a non-profit, faith based organization dedicated to improving lives by building modest, affordable homes in partnership with the community and families in need. Partner families qualify to live in these homes if they have 50% or less of the median family of four income, which is $74,000 in Sonoma County. 500 hours of "sweat equity" is required as a down payment. Habitat for Humanity provides 0% down loans for these families, who must have previously lived in sub-standard housing, such as a family of four or five living in a two-bedroom apartment.

Habitat for Humanity has a partnership with the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County to acquire the properties. The Housing Land Trust also provides the infrastructure including streets, curbs and driveways. "We couldn't do this without them," says Christine Dahl  Silva, Project Coordinator for the Mera Court project. "We couldn't do this without our volunteers or the companies that help us, either."

One of the two homes that LeDuc & Dexter is helping to build. (click image to enlarge)

LeDuc & Dexter is using Vanguard piping and Manabloc manifolds in the homes. (click image to enlarge)

LeDuc and Dexter is one of the companies that have volunteered to help out on this project by volunteering time and materials on the two currently under construction. "Jim Kempers has been great. When we're ready for them I call Jim and tell him what we need and they come out and help us," says Silva. Some of the other construction companies working on this project are Adams & Co. Homebuilders, Schalich Brothers Construction of Novato and Creative Roofing in Santa Rosa.

Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County has eleven homes built or under construction with a goal for twenty homes to be completed by 2010. They have recently acquired two lots for four homes in Cotati and property in Sebastopol for five homes.

One of two completed Habitat for Humanity homes on Mera Court. (click image to enlarge)

Carneros Inn

Commercial

LeDuc & Dexter's Gonzalo Ochoa checks the trench depth for piping. Completed phase one of Carneros Inn is in the background. (click image to enlarge)

The Carneros Inn has begun the construction of phase two of their luxury resort complex on Hwy. 121 in Napa County. Jeff Luchetti Construction, Inc., with joint venture partner Western Slopes Construction, Inc., is the general contractor for the project that will add 20 cottages to the 96 existing cottages plus a campus facility that will include an additional 8 buildings providing the Carneros Inn with a new restaurant, bar and meeting space in the lodge building, a retail area, a new pool and related structures and facilities for the administrative and housekeep staff.

LeDuc & Dexter's Ron Romack working on under slab plumbing for the lodge building. (click image to enlarge)

The pool area facilities will include, a spa, a yoga center with hydronic floor heating, a lap pool with outdoor showers, and a cardio-gym building. "The retail store may be similar to the Oakville Grocery," says Ron Stewart, JLC Project Manager for the Carneros Inn project, referring to the gourmet stores located in Oakville, Healdsburg and Palo Alto.

Don Morris, JLC Superintendent on the project, estimates the building shells should be complete in about nine months. The lodge building is under construction and will be the first structure completed. There are two completed restaurants from the first phase of construction in operation at the Carneros Inn, the Hilltop Dining Room and the Boon Fly Café, which is located just off Hwy. 121.

Wastewater piping goes through the wide footing of the lodge building. (click image to enlarge)

LeDuc & Dexter foreman Jeff Shank. (click image to enlarge)

"This is a big project for us," says Stewart, "we have an estimated completion date of June '06". This is the first time that LeDuc & Dexter has worked with JLC, but Stewart remembers a time about 15 years ago when he was with Ross Construction and he worked with LeDuc & Dexter on an apartment complex in Petaluma. "It worked out pretty well," recalls Stewart.

LeDuc & Dexter, which has been on site less than a month, is busy with trenching and installing underground waste and vent piping for the lodge building and other structures along with several thousand feet of gas piping. LeDuc & Dexter has had 6 to 8 employees on the project daily to maintain an up-tempo pace on the job.

Under slab wastewater plumbing for the lodge building bathrooms. (click image to enlarge)

Kristina Harris – Company Controller

The Company

Kristina Harris, LeDuc & Dexter Company Controller

Kristina Harris is the controller for LeDuc & Dexter, Inc. She began her tenure at the company in June of this year with some definite ideas in mind, "I want to help Tom (LeDuc) and Arty (Dexter) achieve their goals with the company." With 22 years of experience, mostly in construction, as a financial consultant with accounting, bookkeeping, scheduling and a myriad of organization and management skills, Kristina Harris is well prepared to take on the challenge. 'One of my goals is to assist the various departments in the company with their operations so that we can achieve and maintain the highest levels of consistency and efficiency," says Harris, "We have to have a high level of efficiency in the departments to grow the company." Much of the strategy that Harris will deploy comes from the business systems and financial controls that she will develop for the departments and the company overall. Harris's past success stories include a 7-year stint at Pacific Environments, a landscaping company, where the company grew from 18 to 65 employees and revenues grew from $200,000 to 3 ½ million dollars annually. Harris also spent 6 years with Gallaher Construction, which evolved into a multi-faceted real estate development company with over 20 separate business entities. She left there as assistant controller to join Merga Foundations, a concrete company, as controller for two years and then went to Mead Clark Lumber for three years before joining LeDuc & Dexter. At LeDuc & Dexter Harris will work closely with management and department heads including human resources and accounting to hone a consistency of company procedures and structure. Harris will also interface with customers regarding construction contracts and collections, "The contact with customers will also give me the opportunity to provide customer service to them," says Harris. Harris sums up her overall view of the future with LeDuc & Dexter this way, "My long term goal with LeDuc & Dexter is to grow as the company grows by gaining the knowledge and having the energy to do it."