Providing support for local charities, community activities, and events is an integral part of the P1 business plan. We take great pride in investing in our communities and the lives of our associates. To this end, P1 offers two sponsorships to P1 associates in the Spring and Fall. All associates may apply for the sponsorships, which are intended to assist in the financial support of those organizations and activities that are important to our associates and the communities in which they live and work.
COVID may have put a damper on last year’s activities, but we had a great turnout for Spring 2021 Corporate Sponsorship applicants!
P1’s Electrical and Piping Fabrication shops worked together to fabricate a Trip Cabinet for Exelon’s Hendley Station (an Emerson customer) in Fort Worth, Texas. According to Senior Project Manager Rick Ellis, P1 has built approximately six of these cabinets over the past three years for Emerson.
What set this fabrication apart is that it was fabricated from a schematic drawing only, whereas the cabinets are usually fabricated using a full set of drawings.
P1 Completes Historic Casino/Resort Project During Pandemic Year
The P1 Las Vegas team never shies away from a challenge. The mighty Circa Resort and Casino, the first ground-up resort built in downtown Las Vegas since 1980, is no exception.
With tourism facing record lows and many projects stopped or held due to the pandemic, P1 Group was part of a determined team. According to Senior Project Manager Brian Maginness, one of the most remarkable aspects of the project was no work stoppage throughout the entire 22-month project completion period.
There are few better causes than those that help and protect at-risk kids. P1 Group has supported The Children’s Shelter in Lawrence, KS, for many years by dedicating time and resources to the Shelter’s annual Festival of Trees event.
The mission of The Children's Shelter is to improve the lives of children and families, with a focus on youth at-risk in Douglas County and northeast Kansas. The nonprofit social service agency provides a variety of services designed to strengthen families and children who are experiencing major changes.
Recently, CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) funding has made its way to many organizations, including the University of Kansas (KU). When the University received the funding, one of the projects they decided upon was replacing faucets and flush valves with touchless fixtures in public spaces.
P1 Group was awarded a portion of the installs, which had to be done across the campus in just two weeks.
Each year, P1 Group challenges our youngest artists to share their interpretations of our Safety Culture for the annual Safety Calendar. The participants are all children or relatives of our associates.
Out of a total 25 entries, we ended up with 13 winners and one cool calendar.
We’d like to kick off 2021 with these entertaining creations from our P1 kids, and make it another “Safety First, Quality Always” year.
Over the years, the P1 Group service department has developed a reputation for providing quality service and excellent customer care. It is the service technician, out on the job site every day, who has become the face of P1 Group, but it is the diligent work of the Service Coordinator behind the scenes, that keeps everything running like a finely tuned machine.
Company wide, the P1 Service department currently has 680 active contracts and 145 technicians to take care of them, but it falls on the shoulders of 11 coordinators to oversee and manage the day-to-day activities.
Working on new construction around an active hospital is challenging enough, but the University of Kansas Health System (TUKHS) Cambridge Cancer Treatment Center project adds multiple floors to the mix – levels 8, 9, 10, and 12.
This means P1 Group had to create a high level of efficiency across capabilities. As usual, the team was ready for the challenge with innovations in fabrication, virtual design, and inventory management that have helped this impressive electrical project run smoothly.
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.
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).
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.
P1 Group remains your dedicated facility solutions provider during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are providing all of our services during regular business hours and are available for after-hours emergency calls as usual. Visit our COVID-19 Resource Center for more information or contact your local P1 office with any questions.
