Kendall News—Ground to Sky

July

/ A

ug

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ept

2019

Inside this issue:

Word from our President

Safety and IT tips

GFs of the Past Quarter

Crew Pictures

From Our Customers

New People and Projects

Milestone Anniversaries

In January of this year our company took a giant step in its corporate evolution

and partnered with Blue Point Capital. We chose Blue Point after forming a re-

lationship with its leadership team over the course of the previous year. We are

very impressed with the Blue Point team’s experience in helping family owned

businesses such as Kendall take the next step towards a national presence. Blue

Point can provide us with business guidance, strategic planning, and economic

resources to achieve our goals.

One item Blue Point realized about our company from the beginning was the in-

credible stewardship provided by our founders, Warren and Becky Kendall. War-

ren and Becky have guided our company and laid the bedrock to remain success-

ful through the trials, tribulations, ups, and downs that come with running a busi-

ness for nearly one-half century. We have all been awed by the honesty, integrity,

wisdom and kindness portrayed by Warren and Becky. It’s all part of what we

call The Kendall Way. We are blessed to have them working with us as we take

the next steps with Blue Point.

Our first six months have been very busy. Through several new initiatives we are

laying the groundwork and building the infrastructure to allow our company to

continue its growth trajectory without overtaxing our systems. The initiatives

include: restructure of our office personnel with the addition of HR, IT, and Ac-

counting expertise, automated credit card expense tracking, business continuity

plan, disaster recovery plan, improving email efficiency, automated submittal of

labor and equipment time, and more. Another major step was the restructuring

of our field units into four Regions, each one led by a Regional Manager responsi-

ble for safety, sales, and operations within the Region.

Our First

Newsletter!

We are so excited to

publish our first ev-

er company news-

letter! This newslet-

ter is designed for

all of you—our em-

ployees. We wel-

come your sugges-

tions and submis-

sions for content,

especially any good

news you know

about from a profes-

sional or personal

standpoint.

Congratulations to

Josh Morgan and

Cliff Galloway

on submitting the

winning name for

our newsletter. We

combined their sub-

missions to come up

with “Kendall

News—Ground to

Sky. Both Josh and

Cliff will receive a

$50 WalMart gift

card.

Patching: Ensuring changes to your computer’s supporting data in order to up-date, fix, or improve it.

We have all been guilty of thinking “I don't have time for this” when your com-puter or other devices alert you that updates are available and it needs to shut down in order to install them. However, one of the most effective ways you can protect your devices is to not hold off on important or critical updates- they are rolled out for the express purpose of fixing some bug in that software that needs immediate attention. Believe it or not—ALL software has bugs.

The simplest way to ensure all devices are current is to enable automatic updat-ing whenever possible. It’s a critical step that anyone can take to secure their devices and it can make a huge difference in their performance.

iTree Technology Tip by Bryan Ballard

Tree Talk From The Top by Robert Williams

We need teammates to help us stay focused and be fully present to our work.

None of us can see all that is happening around us so someone to be our

keeper is critical to our safety. Being a brother or sister goes both ways – I

look after you and you look after me. This is a deep responsibility for us to be

doing so that no one gets hurt or killed and we all get the job done to the

highest standards. None of us have a right to work in a place where it is

okay for someone to get hurt. Taking on the roles and responsibilities of be-

ing our Brother’s and Sister’s Keepers is a big step in moving the organiza-

tion’s safety performance beyond compliance towards excellence.

Safety Tip—Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper by Matt Irvin

Way to go Greenville, Tennessee crew!

General Forepersons of the Second Quarter

GFs of the Month

are nominated by

the office and safety

staff for going

above and beyond

their regular job

duties and being

helpful with every-

thing that is asked

of them (and some-

times before they

are even asked).

“I look after you

and you look

after me.”

Page 3 Kendall News—Ground to Sky

June — Randall Johnson May — Stephen Flatt April—Steven Sisk

Accident free

for 14 months!

Life on a Limb

Just another day in paradise for Leonard Jimenez’s crew. The pictures below show the work they performed on an uprooted oak tree over the highway with their 100’ bucket truck. The work was for Southern Pine Electric in Newton, Mississippi.

Page 4 Volume 1, Issue 1

Juan Ramirez’s crew was doing a little bit of training on an open face notch. While they are on storm, there are plenty of opportunities for training. Their hard work did not go unnoticed as a woman came by with snacks and drinks for the crew.

Recently, Lee County, KY decided to pave our road, and selected your company to do the tree and vegetation trim-ming and clearing on our road. The crew included Claude Martin, Dennis Estep, Benny Brown, Fairrow Collins, and Jonathan Himes. They were very professional, efficient, and quite courteous. All too often, it is easy to complain, but rarely do we take the time to compliment those who have done an excellent job. KUDOS!! Please relay to these men that we certainly appreciate the fine work they accomplished. William & Sheila Dunlap—Beattyville, KY

Cutting Edge Compliments

These pictures show the area before and after the work that Juan’s crew performed.

“Like I always tell

my team, it’s a

group effort. I can’t

do the job alone,

it’s them and me

that make W. A.

Kendall look good

or bad. But when I

get complemented

they do as well.

--Leonard Jimenez

Page 5 Volume 1, Issue 1

A member called to brag on the ROW crews that trimmed at her house. She said they were really nice and went out of their way to be nice to her son and not damage anything at her house. She said they stacked all the brush and small stuff for her. She was very impressed with them and wanted us to know they are doing a great job. Juan [Ramirez] please tell your crew good job and keep up the good work! Steve Scott—VEC, Manager of Right of Way

I want to congratulate Oscar Navarro for his performance on circuit 1H03 in Senatobia, MS. Oscar and his men trimmed this circuit to perfection.

SIXTY-FOUR MILES and NO GOBACKS! He didn’t miss a thing. Very seldom do I only have to ride a circuit once. I’ve been around the ROW business for almost 20yrs and have never seen a perfect job such as this. I have seen zero gobacks on small 8-10 mile circuits but nev-er one this large. I couldn’t be more happy with Oscar.

Great Job Oscar!! And thank you for all you do.

Kevin McGuffee, Registered Forester—North MS Vegetation OC, Entergy Mississippi

A homeowner called to say what a wonderful job Leonard [Jimenez] did when he came back and cleaned up the limbs. She said he went above and beyond and she really appreci-ated him.

Vicki Stephens—Director of Inside Sales & Marketing

W.A. Kendall and Company, LLC

Seelbach and Company, LLC

P.O Box 831

Lawrenceville, GA 30046

770-963-6017

770-962-8510 (fax)

Email pictures and newsletter

ideas and submissions to:

ckasputis@wakendall.com

Here are the new hires who joined the Office staff during the second quarter:

Bryan Ballard—IT Director Jason Martin—S&R Clerk

Michelle Cagle—Payroll Clerk Nancy Mayo—Receptionist (part time)

Michael Dutzy—Assistant Controller Ruth Perri—Receptionist (full time)

Connie Kasputis—HR Director

1 Year

Jacob Aaron Larry Adams Christopher Adkins Kyle Ainsworth Jermaine Almond Jose Amaya Joseph Angel Ronald Ash Tyler Ash Saul Asmitia Thomas Babbitt Shawn Berry Justin Bolden Nichalaus Bullock Jon Burchett Victor Castellanos Jason Choate Brian Clark Ernesto Clark Kentrayl Clayton Jonathan Coakley Michael Creekmur Steven Dailey Terry Davidson Cyril Denney Edwin Dias Cintron Brian Edmonds Nicholas Elliott-Bradley Wayne Fomby Andrew Frogge Ruben Garcia-Ruiz Charles Goheen Clinton Green Benjamin Greer Neil Hancock

What’s the Buzz?

Like our Facebook page!

W A Kendall & Co

Some of the exciting changes we are working on include:

• Better options and offerings for our benefit plan

• Enhanced vacation policy

• Online application and onboarding portals for applicants/new hires

• Electronic time and equipment usage entry system

• New and improved website

Page 6 Kendall News—Ground to Sky

Cheers to the employees who are celebrating a milestone anniversary this third quarter!

Family Tree

1 Year

Randy Harbin Michael Harris Roger Haygood Justin Hendrick Luis Hernandez Clayton Hicks Cedric Horton Jeremy Howell Jesse Jewell Rodney Johnson, Jr. Robert Jones Jeremy Logan Willie Long John Malm David Mann Zachary Mardis Newt Marlow Cameron Martin Gabriel Martinez Bryce Mays Shawn McIntosh Jonathan McMillon Travis Mixon Yasmany Moreira Gonzalez Michael Morris Logan Noble Brandon Noland Cameron Padgett Timothy Paynton Terry Perry Jimmy Pierce Mark Ramey Shawn Rector Darren Reece Shawn Reeder Chris Reese

1 Year

Monroe Roark Michael Robinson Zachary Roddy Martin Rojas Adam Rouse Scott Runyan Chadonus Russell Dustin Seney Robert Sexton Bryan Sheeter Gary Shelton Holden Shipman Jeffrey Simmons Matthew Sisk Wayne Smith Donald Sparks Steven Taylor Jonathan Thacker Zephaniah Thompson Damon Trent Eddie Wallace Harold Westhafer Kenneth Wiggins Craig Williams Steven Wright

5 Years

Jeraldvick Adams Harry Butler Brandon Holloway Arthur Long Hubert Loveless Jason McGee Jimmie McGraw Emanuel Talton Stennis Williams

15 Years

Jimmy Adams

20 Years

Sarah Heidel

25 Years

Stevie Roach

Look for our

next newsletter

in October!