Ok, let’s just address the elephant in the room.

What is Irish road bowling? If you read the March issue of the P1 Connection newsletter, you may have caught the term in the Associate Profile on Senior Project Manager Zack Kittle.

On May 7, 2022, 160 golfers and a crew of volunteers assembled at the Shamrock Hills Golf Course for the Annual Charity Golf Tournament FORE Safety.

As usual, this year’s tournament provided an opportunity for a whole lot of fun all while raising money for a good cause.

This year’s proceeds go to the family of Jay Brown, a fallen construction worker killed in an accident in December of 2021. Jay left behind his wife, Lynn, and twin sons, Justin and Wesley. 

Tournament Highlights

First Place: with 15 under par and a score of 56, Team Inventory Sales
Second Place: with 14 under par and a score of 57, Milwaukee Valve and P1's Taylor Jenkins
Third Place: with 13 under par and a score of 58, P1's Chelsie and Zack Kraft, and guests Lane and Jacob Kraft.

Hole 6 was a 50/50 hole
Total money collected was $850.00
Clinton Gechter received $425.00

Hole 11 was a 50/50 hole
Total money collected was $845.00
Keith Miller received $422.00

Potty Hole (that's right, you have to swing from the seat!)
Total collected was $655.00
Seneca Speith received $327.00

Putting Green
Total collected was $970.00
There was a putt-off at the end of the tournament, and Steve Hinshaw won $485.00.

Pictured, Top Row from Left: Joshua Farnan, Building Technologies Intern; Aaron Martin, Mechanical Intern; Lake Williams, Summer Fleet Assistant; Logan Alexander, Electrical Intern
Bottom Row from Left: Thomas O'Connor, Mechanical Intern; Matthew Harding, Mechanical Intern; Jacob Mendez, Mechanical Intern
Not Pictured: Carson Lutz, Construction Intern

Finding and retaining talented employees is an ongoing challenge for any organization, especially in this current precarious job market. The need to grow a talent base has become even more necessary, and the P1 internship program is helping address some of these needs for the immediate future and beyond.

P1’s pipe fabrication often includes the production of polypropylene pipe, an alternative - in some applications - to traditional pipe material. Aquatherm is economical, faster to install, and corrosion free.

P1 has forged a strong relationship with Aquatherm, a supplier of polypropylene pipe.

Pictured, above: Breaker Technician Zach Wilburn works on carefully disassembled parts from multiple circuit breakers.

According to Electrical Preventative Maintenance (EPM) Manager Jeff Gardner, having the ability to repair circuit breakers on site at P1 has been a top priority.

When it comes to customer service, serving our internal customers is just as important as serving the external ones, and there are critical support groups within P1 without whom our associates couldn’t serve their external customers.

One of those critical groups is our P1 Project Coordinators (PCs). A PC supports multiple project managers - and possibly other associates - within the organization. PCs may also carry titles other than “project coordinator” but perform many of the same functions.

Remember the artistic cows that used to pop up all over Kansas City? Well there’s a new installation in town - the “Parade of Hearts”.

You may have seen some of the fiberglass hearts on the news or around town. The Parade of Hearts is a public art installation that celebrates the Heart of America and benefits local neighborhoods, artists, small businesses, and others who are facing hardship due to the pandemic.

“I HAVE A NAME”. This simple yet profound philosophy is at the heart of Facility Maintenance Plumber Don Pardew’s ministry to local street and houseless communities in Kansas City.

“When someone asks if they can give you a hug, or they light up because you remembered their name, and maybe something personal, like their shoe size, that’s what makes it all worthwhile,” Don said.

You might say the “luck of the Irish” was with P1 Group when Senior Project Manager Zach Kittle came on board.

A 2005 graduate of the Construction Science program at K-State, Zach joined P1 for what he thought was just a temporary job while he looked for work with a general contractor.

It’s no surprise Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) Sheet Metal Specialist James Daugherty built a better way to enjoy cold beverages.

His skill for building things and curiosity about how things work not only led him down an entrepreneurial path, it also helped him find his career at P1.

The words “raw wastewater” might make you cringe, but the P1 crew working on the project at the Atherton WWTP were ready to take the plunge.

When challenges arose, quick thinking on the team's part not only kept their feet (mostly) dry, but also resulted in a successful pump discharge valve replacement.

In just the past few years, P1 Fabrication has come a long way. From increases in volume and manpower hours to the sheer size and complexity of the project we now fabricate, the increase of time and labor has been significant.

It’s a good place to be, but in order to ensure we are able to smoothly meet these demands, an enhancement to our processes was needed.

Adam Collier has been with P1 Group for 15 years. During this time, he has “made the rounds”, working in several different P1 locations, which has allowed him to gain a vast amount of knowledge and experience. 

He is currently a service manager in the Lenexa Office, specializing in start-up and test and balance (TAB).

When we build and maintain the mechanics of a building, we don’t always get to hear the stories of how that facility impacts quality of life for the people who use it, benefit from it, or work in it.

This is not so in the case of the Children’s Mercy Hospital Research Institute tower. This is a story that makes the connection between what we do and why it matters.

There’s a First Time for Everything.

Such was the case in a major modular fabrication project P1 Group took on in partnership with Modular Design +.

The project was for the The Los Angeles County + University of Southern California (LAC+USC) Restorative Care Village, and consisted of the multi-trade modular fabrication of 76 various “rooms”, all performed within the P1 Group fabrication facility in Lawrence, KS.

It’s not only beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but also sound a lot like Christmas. Holiday tunes are being played everywhere you turn. And whether you like the fun bouncy tunes that get you motivated to wrap gifts or bake goodies, the carols that connect to your spiritual side, or a combination of the two, we can all agree this music is an integral part of the magic we call the holiday season.

P1 Group is among a Select Group of Companies Partnering on a Program to Help Ft. Riley Army Soldiers Benefit from a Data Science Platform that Guides Military-Civilian Employment Transition

Critical Resources

Active-duty service members at Fort Riley, KS, one of the largest U.S. military installations, will receive data-guided recommendations for upskilling and employment opportunities as they prepare for the transition to the civilian workforce, thanks to a new pilot program. Using a career advising platform built by data services firm AstrumU®, the program will harness the power of data science to analyze the skillsets of thousands of active-duty soldiers, helping them to identify right-fit career opportunities across a network of some of the region’s largest employers.

The trend of keeping backyard chickens has been on the rise over the past few years, and VDC Specialist Nate Littlejohn has recently joined the ranks of back yard poultry farmers. 

Having fresh eggs available is one of the obvious reasons people are drawn to raising chickens, but Nate says his reason stemmed from just one thing – his daughter loves chickens.

Understanding Building Technologies

P1 Group's Building Technologies (BT) division may focus on a specific need, such as a sound system for a school or security system for a manufacturing facility. But it can also cover a much greater expanse, such as Low Voltage systems for an entire campus.

The following projects illustrate the diversity of P1 BT capabilities.

P1 Charity Golf Tournament organizer and P1 Vice President Dave Beebe will tell you every time: “It’s about the cause.”

Golfers and volunteers alike came back together for the annual P1 Charity Golf Tournament event in September, 2021, golfing for a great cause.