Each year P1 gives the award to a promising student in the Kansas State University Construction Science program, fulfilling our commitment to help fill the pipeline of talented construction and trade workers.

Congratulations to Kansas State University Senior Tyler Collins, winner of P1 Group’s Fall 2020 Construction Science Scholarship.

Pictured above - Jamie with his dad, Jim Sr.

Not all generations decide to continue with “the family business”, but having a grandfather and father with a combined 68 years in the Local 441 Union inspired Topeka Service Technician Jamie Penry to follow in those footsteps.

It started as a conversation between P1 Group CEO Smitty Belcher and Patrick Kellett, General Secretary-Treasurer for the United Association, and materialized into P1 Group providing a healthy buildings strategy for the HVAC units located at the UA Headquarters in Annapolis, MD.

The UA Headquarters building is 110,000 sq. feet, containing both offices and retail space. It houses the leadership and supporting staff offices which represent and service approximately 355,000 plumbers, pipefitters, sprinkler fitters, service technicians and welders in local unions across North America.

“I’m pretty sure I have creative Attention Deficit Disorder because I want to do it all.” These are the words of Marketing Proposal Specialist Beth Martens, and while those who know her work would never call it a “disorder”, we think she just might be able to do it all.

Creativity is in Beth’s blood, coming from an artistic family. Her mom was a professional seamstress, which is where Beth mastered the art of sewing and fabric. This skill set has ultimately made Beth the P1 Group Marketing Department’s swag guru, where she has significantly improved our promotional apparel capabilities.

However, her true passion begins, and ends, with illustration. “I have always liked to draw,” Beth said. “I was awarded 2nd place at the Missouri State High School Art Show my senior year and went on to the University of Kansas to pursue a degree in Visual Communications.”

Although she had to leave after three years due to financial hardship, Beth began another of her life’s greatest projects: Her family.

“I got married and started a family, then went to work for Gear for Sports in the QA department because I had sewing experience and knowledge of fabric,” Beth explained.

With more creative support from her brothers, one a movie visual effects professional and prominent sculptor, and the other a professional painter (of the fine arts variety), Beth got even more into design.

“I started producing a small children’s magazine through my church,” Beth said. “I did all of the illustrations and my brother taught me Quark and Photoshop so I could do the layout.”

Over the years, Beth has had a series of jobs, from layout artist to working at Target. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, Beth found herself needing a more financially viable job to help support her family, and that’s how she found P1.

“My son played baseball with P1 Group Executive Vice President Phil Nehring’s son, and my husband and I became friends with Phil and his wife Rebecca,” Beth said. “Phil talked about what a great company P1 was, and encouraged me to try to get a job there, so I watched the openings for a while.”

In 2012, a service coordinator job opened up and Beth took the opportunity. “I enjoyed working with the techs and learned to really respect the job they do, and I think I got to be a decent dispatcher,” Beth said.

But every creative knows a good creative can’t be kept down, and Beth’s eye was always on the Marketing side of P1, hoping to join the department and bring her creativity to the table.

“I had this creative side that just wasn’t being fulfilled, and I really missed using those creative skills in my day-to-day job,” she said. When a position opened up in Marketing in spring 2019, Beth applied, and the rest is history.

P1 Group Brings Single-Source Advantage to University of Kansas Health System

“Success favors the prepared.” This famous philosophy from biologist Louis Pasteur is the reason P1 Group has all trades, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technologies, working to create single-source solutions for The University of Kansas Health System (TUKHS).

P1 Group Earns Top Safety Award from MCAA

When every associate - from executives, to foremen, to project managers and field personnel – consistently dedicate themselves to the company’s safety culture every day, it gets noticed.

Innovation and associate buy-in are just two of the reasons P1 Group was recently awarded the highly competitive Safety Excellence Award from the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) and CNA Insurance.

Supporting the communities in which we live and work is a fundamental goal at P1 Group each and every day.

One way in which we’re making a difference through “pop-up” swag sales. P1 Group’s Marketing Department periodically conducts “pop-up” stores during which P1 Group associates can purchase limited-edition swag featuring a one-of-a-kind design.

“The Expertise of Many, The Power of One” is the philosophy behind P1 Group, and St. Joseph Pipefitter Journeyman Aaron White is one associate who has truly embraced this concept during his employment.

Aaron started his career as an electrician and was hired at P1 shortly after the opening of the St. Joseph, MO, division in 2012.

There’s nothing better than that extra-fresh smell in the air near waterfalls, beaches, and immediately following a thunderstorm. But what you’re actually experiencing are the effects of an ion-rich environment naturally having cleaned the air, giving it that inexplicable “fresh” smell.

As part of the Healthy Buildings initiative, P1 Group continues to provide customers with options to create healthier spaces within their facilities by concentrating on ventilation, air purification, and surface cleaning.

When that circuit breaker goes out and the cost of all-new gear replacement is not an option, P1 Group has a convenient circuit breaker rebuild service that could save customers thousands of dollars.

Electrical Preventative Maintenance (EPM) Manager Jeff Gardner says circuit breaker shipping and rebuilding is a service not commonly offered by many companies. P1 Group is able to offer it after hiring Electrical Service Technician Nate Boettcher, who is particularly skilled at this type of rebuild.

This is the time of year some people might question their decision to live in Las Vegas, NV.

“When I got up this morning at 5 a.m. for a walk, it was already 96 degrees,” P1 Group Office Manager Catalina (Cat) De Leon told us at the time of this interview in late July.

P1 Group has been serving the healthcare community both locally and nationally with single-source facility solutions for many years, and our recent work on the Saint Luke’s East Hospital Flex Capacity Expansion is no exception. The SLE Expansion project will address the hospital’s need for growth by expanding the emergency department. It includes a small renovation of the ER waiting room, but the bulk of the job is the construction of additional ER patient rooms.

P1 is putting virtual design and construction, fabrication, and mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technologies construction (MEPT) capabilities to work, all while navigating new safety mandates and challenges due to COVID-19. Although P1 has done MEPT projects before, this will be the first MEPT project in the Kansas City metro area. The project has only been underway about five months, but Senior Project Manager Eric Affolter has already noticed a difference in the efficiency with which the project is progressing. “Having all trades within the company working together has really increased the level of communication and efficiency you just can’t get when you work with multiple entities,” Eric said. “Especially with all the COVID-19 guidelines we are now required to follow.” The SLE Expansion project is scheduled for completion in April of 2021.

Kaolin Silo Modifications at Central Plains

What do you do when your 500-ton capacity silo needs to be modified from a tapered, oval shape to “true round”? It’s not something most of us will ever face, but it’s exactly the type of challenge P1 Group Millwrights are highly trained to solve.

When Central Plains Cement in Sugar Creek, MO, needed to change the shape of its 500-ton capacity silo to accommodate a new material, P1 Group was chosen as the prime contractor to design, fabricate, and execute the modifications of the silo and also allow the install of a new 34,000 lb. flange-mounted rotary feeder.

Due to COVID-19, P1 Group was not able to have our typical summer intern program, but we are excited to introduce you to the following students who have joined our Lenexa and Las Vegas offices for the summer. Here’s a little bit about who’s getting some hands-on experience at P1 this summer!

NINA ZEPEDA
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

You don’t have to be a an HVAC expert to guess that increasing your building’s intake of fresh outside air is beneficial during a pandemic like COVID-19.

P1 Group values safety above all, and in order to follow CDC interim guidelines, has increased outside air (OA) rates during the pandemic at the company headquarters in Lenexa. In addition, P1 Group offers this service to customers as part of our Healthy Buildings initiative which includes options for UV-C treatment and surface sanitization as well.

With warm weather on the doorstep, attention is turning toward that time-honored tradition of the summer vacation. We plan, save money, look forward to new scenery and time with our family, and just plain relaxing. But with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has impacted the entire globe, many are opting not to travel this summer.

When physical travel isn’t desirable, our age of technology puts that vacation “virtually” at your fingertips.  

There’s just something about electrical things that appeals to P1 Group Electrical Preventative Maintenance Manager Jeff Gardner.

Jeff says he originally became an electrician because enjoys working with his hands. He finds great satisfaction in doing something tangible, so it is no surprise he also spends his leisure time in an equally fulfilling manner.

When Chart Industries called upon P1 Group as a trusted ESP (Engineered Systems Partner) to do the LN2 (liquid nitrogen) installation/replacement at Aisin Light Metals, Project Manager Nick Lawless knew there would be challenges.

Through the ESP Program, Chart helps P1 Group by bringing regional opportunities to our attention. In turn, P1 Group supports Chart by promoting their product and sharing opportunities with them as well.

The most challenging components of this project were:

• Measuring new piping while the equipment was in use and the new components were not in place
• Installing a new system while existing system was running, with limited down time

Overall, P1 Group installed 400 feet of new rigid piping and final connection hoses.

“In order to replace the system, I had to go out and field measure for new components being added while the equipment was up and running,” Nick explained.

Nick said that besides the equipment being in use while he was measuring, new sub-coolers were being added at a later date and were not yet in place, forcing the team to “best guess” final valve locations.

The team had to be nimble as well. During installation, the equipment was still up and running, producing parts. As each piece of equipment came off line, new piping was installed, requiring P1 Group to work quickly in between those production intervals.

Nick says Brock and Trace went the extra mile to ensure the success of such a challenging project.

“Not only were Brock and Trace able to make sense of the layout as I had intended, they had to make some on-the-fly adjustments to some pretty unforgiving piping,” Nick said.

“Since the system is engineered to order and it takes 4-6 weeks to produce, they had to be innovative in making the new system fit while the old system was still in play,” he explained. “While working safely, they had to crawl all over the equipment to place hangers and coordinate limited downtime for the more difficult-to-reach locations.”

“We did a similar project at Honeywell, but this was the first time we were called upon for an ESP installation outside of the Kansas City Metro area,” he added.

This meant the team was in an area with limited resources (compared to a metro area like Kansas City) and had to overcome obstacles in procuring parts installation.

In addition, Nick noted there was no way to make field alterations once the pipe was fabricated by Chart, leaving little room for error.

Stepping in to work while production is in full-swing and getting the job done right is what P1 Group is known for, and the Aisin Metals project was no exception.

“Brock and Trace really brought this one home for us,” Nick said. “Working right up until Christmas, away from their families, they put a nice big bow on the entire package.”

P1 Group was recently featured in The Fabricator magazine for our streamlined processes and innovations in fabrication, particularly our new WM-36 3D pipe cutting system.

"Sometimes meetings and proper scheduling can take you only so far in a fabricating operation. As business grows, maintaining that correct balance of flexibility and on-time delivery gets tougher if the same number of people have to tackle the increased work load in the same amount of space.

Celebrating Earth Day’s 50^th Anniversary

In the midst of social distancing and staying at home to slow the spread of COVID-19, it’s more important than ever to do our part to reduce, reuse, and recycle. In June of 2018, P1 Connection brought you a story about the recycling efforts of P1 Group and one of the program’s biggest champions, Manpower Coordinator Assistant Emily Barber.