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.
Paul Smith is retiring after 38 years of service to AD Jacobson and P1 Group.
Vice President Paul Smith can recall his very first job at P1 (then AD Jacobson Company) – right down to the exact day.
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.
By Tiffany Oldham
Hi. My name is Tiffany, and I am a Christmas movie addict.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
