CHAMPION, Ohio – Getting everyone on the same page can be difficult enough when everyone works in the same office.
Now try it with concrete finishers, laborers, ironworkers, carpenters, roofers, electricians, plumbers and other trades, each arriving at different stages of a construction project and often depending on the crew ahead of them to finish before they can begin.
Add a northeastern Ohio winter, unexpected problems, an operating school next door and a deadline that isn’t moving, and the importance of coordination becomes clear.
That was the task facing DeSalvo Construction and the contractors working on the expansion of the Trumbull Career & Technical Center in Champion.
Many of those companies are members of the Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. More importantly for keeping a project on schedule, many have worked together before.
Nick Maderitz, who manages office operations for Maderitz Concrete Construction, says that familiarity means contractors arrive on a project already understanding how their work affects everyone around them.
“Everybody knows what the trade before them expects, the trade after them expects, and it’s just pretty seamless,” Maderitz says. “These are professional trades, professional people that just are used to working together, and we all look out for each other.”
David Van Dusen, project manager for DeSalvo Construction, says that coordination starts with selecting subcontractors the company knows can perform.
“I think the process starts by choosing good contractors,” he says. “That’s part of the process: getting good people that you know how they work, and they cooperate with you, and that’s the key.”
At TCTC, that process started at ground level.
Miller Yount Paving cleared and prepared the site and building pad and installed storm sewer, sanitary and water lines and fire suppression infrastructure.
Dave Grayson, owner of Miller Yount, says his company typically arrives at the beginning of a project to prepare the site and infrastructure needed by the contractors following it. At TCTC, Miller Yount later returned to prepare sidewalks and other exterior areas for the final phases of construction.
Grayson says many of the companies on the TCTC project have worked together on other jobs.
“It’s always a great partnership,” he says. “DeSalvo runs a really tight ship and a good ship, so we have a team that we’ve put together on a lot of jobs. We all work together really, really well.”
Maderitz Concrete began foundation work in July 2025. Its scope included essentially anything made of concrete: foundations, the interior floor, mezzanine, stairs, locker bases, sidewalks, curbs, bollards and light pole bases.
The work required about 900 cubic yards of concrete and 42,500 pounds of rebar.
In January, Maderitz placed the 15,000-square-foot interior floor in one continuous pour. About 15 to 20 cement finishers, laborers, carpenters and ironworkers were involved that day. The company’s work continued through July.
That long involvement meant Maderitz had to coordinate with contractors at several stages.
Weekly project meetings helped keep the work organized, but Maderitz says repeated experience with the same companies makes much of that coordination easier.
The earthwork contractor knows what the concrete contractor needs when preparing the building pad. The concrete contractor knows what the mason needs when it finishes the foundations.
“We’re all used to working together on these projects,” Maderitz says. “Everybody kind of knows each other, which just helps with collaboration.”
Boak & Sons handled the roofing and metal wall panels, with about 12 to 16 employees working at the site at peak times.
Chris White, vice president of operations at Boak & Sons, says the sequencing involved more than simply waiting for a call telling his crews to show up.
Before roofing could begin, decking, curbs and drains had to be ready. Before portions of the wall system could be installed, block and penetrations had to be completed. Boak then had to finish its work and clear the area so contractors behind it could continue.
Winter added another complication.
As snow approached late last year, White says DeSalvo contacted Boak about accelerating its work so crews could continue working inside.
“We got a couple calls from Dave and Joe and their team, saying, ‘we’ve got snow coming. We want to get this thing dry to hit our schedule,’” White says. “So we ramped up. We got people here, and we got the roof covered.”
The building was enclosed by the end of December. That proved valuable during a difficult winter and wet spring, Van Dusen says.
The enclosed addition became a place where tradespeople could continue working regardless of conditions outside.
“We didn’t have any trouble getting people here to work during those months,” Van Dusen says.
About 20 to 30 tradespeople worked on the project on a typical day, he says. Because the building is relatively compact, DeSalvo sometimes had to “platoon people in and out” so crews weren’t working on top of one another, Van Dusen says.
Relationships Beyond the Jobsite
Kevin Reilly, executive vice president of the Builders Association, says those relationships are one of the benefits the organization brings to the local construction industry.
The association has about 150 members and primarily represents union commercial, industrial and heavy highway contractors. It also includes accounting firms, banks, insurance agencies and other businesses serving the construction industry.
“When you have a personal relationship with somebody, that makes things go that much smoother,” Reilly says.
The association helps build those relationships through membership meetings, educational programs and networking. Reilly says that can be particularly useful because company owners aren’t necessarily the people interacting every day on a jobsite.
White says those connections carry directly into projects such as TCTC.
“The Builders Association is not just a way to develop our industry and the trades, but it’s also a way to communicate and create relationships,” he says.
Reilly says the association also provides owners with a pool of established contractors and trained workers.
“We have not only a top-notch workforce, but we have a top-notch contractor base,” he says.
Reilly says owners don’t need to leave the Mahoning and Shenango valleys to find companies capable of performing sophisticated construction work. Even when a project is large enough to require an out-of-town general contractor, local companies have demonstrated their ability to perform substantial portions of the work.
Building a Workforce
The approximately $6.4 million TCTC project will expand space for industrial technology, career exploration and mental health services.
The industrial technology program will move into a lab more than twice the size of its former space. Students train in areas that include computer-integrated manufacturing, robotics, automation, logistics programming, CNC equipment and other technologies.
The program will welcome its largest incoming junior class this fall with 23 students, and TCTC eventually wants to expand it to two instructors.
For the contractors building it, the purpose of the project hits particularly close to home.
Grayson says companies such as Miller Yount need more young people looking to enter the trades.
“We need that blue-collar, hands-on work ethic in our field,” he says. “This I’m hoping will help fulfill that.”
Van Dusen says DeSalvo has already hired several TCTC students as summer interns.
“Finding labor in this timeline right now is very difficult. We don’t have enough tradespeople working,” he says. “The TCTC is exactly the product that we need for educating young tradespeople.”
The Builders Association has been working on the same problem.
Its initiatives include the Skilled Trades Expo and outreach designed to help students and school guidance counselors understand how to enter apprenticeship programs.
Reilly says those efforts are beginning to show results. Where apprenticeship programs once saw fewer students entering immediately after graduation, more 18- and 19-year-olds are now applying directly out of high school.
The association also holds an annual guidance counselor breakfast at local union training centers, where counselors can see the combination of classroom and hands-on education apprentices receive.
The workforce is needed.
Reilly says man-hours among Builders Association contractors were about 15% higher through the first three quarters of its fiscal year compared with the same period last year. The Kimberly-Clark project is contributing to that increase, but contractors also are working on TCTC, the nearby Mercy Health project, office renovations and work inside area manufacturing plants.
At TCTC, the contractors helping meet that demand today are building a facility designed to prepare some of the people who could meet it tomorrow.
White says that makes the project particularly rewarding.
“Anytime you do something that impacts the students, especially students that are inside this building that are learning what we’re actually doing every day,” he says, “I think it’s impactful on so many levels.”
Pictured at top: Kevin Reilly, executive vice president of the Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, says the region has the skilled workforce and experienced contractors needed to handle sophisticated construction projects.
