Dylan Cook- Week 11

For the most part this week has been pretty easy up in Pontiac. Like usual, I took care of the weekly updates and three week look aheads that I send out to GM about who should be on site and the various job sites and when. On Monday mornings I also try and update the meeting minutes from the week before to get them out of the way. I usually take a look at them again and update more information as the statuses of some jobs change. On Wednesday there was a walkthrough for a job that requires the disassembly and removal of an old parts carousel and the installation of a new one in the same spot. These carousels are big square machines that house several long, skinny shelves that rotate to hold different tools, electronic parts and a number of other things. We had a guy from Barton Malow there who does rigging work, who we use often to remove or install large items like this. One problem we will face is simply moving the items, as the size  of both the new one and the old one being removed are quite large. Since there is no need to reuse the old one, they are just going to cut it into pieces and take care of it that way. We believe that the new one will also be in at least two pieces, which will be good because that way we wont have to worry as much about getting it in there including removing and reinstalling the doorway.
Last Friday, the interns spent the day in Detroit volunteering at the Cadilac Gardens and Scarcyny Park near the Ideal offices. In the morning, Steven and I built a frame for a sign going up at another park, and we also built a new sandbox, both out of existing scrap material. There was an old sandbox that was deteriorating, and we were asked to build a new one. The box had a painted backdrop of a city skyline with Detroit painted across it showing the parks roots. We were able to save that and put it on the new one. After lunch, a few of us worked outside at the park and helped set some pavers that were being placed. This helped to Ideal laborer working alone before and he was able to set a lot more after we were helping. One of the things I love about Ideal contracting is their involvement in the community, including sponsoring the park and garden as well as all that they do for Cristo Ray HS. This shows that this company is looking past just the money they make and really care about the community and bettering the city it so proudly resides in.