Chuck the Contractor
July 1, 2007
In each issue of Site Prep, we will introduce you to a different individual from the industry and share a little about his or her background and personal philosophy.
Name: Mitch Lloyd
Where you reside: Lindon, Utah
Positions/Companies: “Everything from the top to the bottom at Rocky Mountain Boulder (established in 1993).”
Responsibilities: “Contracting retention work, rockwalls. I also have my own quarry (about 2,000 acres).”
Year you started in construction: 1973
How you started in construction: “Basically running a shovel for the Provo City Water Department. I really liked drafting and got my associate’s degree in engineering, but I didn’t want to sit behind a desk my whole life. I stayed with construction and worked for the Operating Engineers Local 3 as an equipment operator for 20 years, then went to Peter Kiewit Construction. I worked from an operator up to a foreman.”
What you like best about construction: “Payday! You don’t know when it is, so it’s great when it comes! Really, I like to look back and see what I did with my life. I can say, ‘I helped build that.’”
What grinds you: “Incompetence. I don’t like to get started on a job on general good faith and find out there’s a lack of funds. Or when the client doesn’t recognize an add-on to a contract.”
What keeps you going in your job: “Debt. Nah, I guess it’s the smell of diesel fuel in the morning.”
Weirdest thing you’ve seen on a jobsite: “Oh, I have a hundred stories. This one time we had a couple of dozers and were hooking up a cable to pull out a stuck scraper. The dozer jumped just as the superintendent [no, not Mitch’s dog Zach] got the cable hooked up. And it pulled his thumb off. We got him to the hospital in a hurry with his thumb in an oily rag. Another time a crane tipped over on a guy in a pickup--I’ve never seen skin stretch like that.”
Personal philosophy: “Keep the shiny side up.”
Favorite equipment you use in your job: “A Terex trackhoe.”
Why it’s your favorite: “They’re the most versatile.”
Advice for contractors new to the business: [For employers] “Don’t be afraid to pay a good hand a decent wage.” [For employees] “Watch the ones at the top, the best operators, and try to copy them.”
Do you know a contractor who deserves to be profiled as the next “Chuck”? E-mail the editor at jensenk@bnpmedia.com to nominate a worthy candidate.
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