Friday, November 30, 2012

Davis to Participate in Coin Toss Before KSU and Texas Game

Garver Senior Project Manager Darold Davis will be at midfield before Saturday's college football game between No. 6 Kansas State Wildcats and No. 18 Texas Longhorns. Davis is participating in the coin toss after being nominated for the honor as part of KSU's Fan Appreciation Day. The game will be aired on ABC at 7 p.m. central time.

Davis is a 1970 KSU graduate and has supported his university for years as a season-ticket holder. In August, Davis had surgery and wasn't able to attend three KSU home games. However, a month after the operation, he took his usual seat at the stadium to cheer for his team.

In an interview with the Broken Arrow Ledger, Davis said, "I am absolutely excited. How many people get to do this?"

The public was encouraged to nominate fans who embody one of KSU Coach Bill Snyder's 16 Goals for Success. The KSU Athletics Department selected the nomination submitted by Davis' daughter Kim.

"My dad never gave up and is the strongest man I know," said Kim in the nomination letter explaining that Davis exemplified the goal, Never Give Up. "He continued to be so strong as we all grieved and healed. My father taught me to never give up."

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Big Dam Bridge Full Moon Walk


Garver Director of Marketing Diane Barton participated in Sunday's third annual Big Dam Bridge Full Moon Walk in Pulaski County, Arkansas with Garver's Bert Parker and Lawren Wilcox (both are also members of the Big Dam Bridge Foundation) and hundreds of other walkers.


Sponsored by the Big Dam Bridge Foundation and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, the walk encourages families to exercise together and enjoy a nighttime walk across the Arkansas River on the Big Dam Bridge.
 

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Serving Others at Our House

Human Resources and Finance employees ready to serve lunch.

Garver’s Human Resources and Finance teams left the office for a lunch hour, but they didn’t go to a restaurant. Instead, several employees from the North Little Rock, Arkansas office spent their hour serving others at Our House.

Our House is a charitable organization that shelters the homeless, trains them for jobs, and assists in their transition from poverty. The Our House facility in southeast Little Rock shelters up to 80 residents, with 220 meals served every day. The Garver team didn’t just serve a great meal for over 50 people­— they also cooked pots of homemade chili and brought sides, desserts, and drinks.

Beverly Green, who organized the volunteer effort, has worked with Our House before. “This organization appealed to me because it not only provides shelter for the displaced, but it also requires employment within 16 days of entering the facility.  They teach money management skills and offer job skills training programs to better prepare them for success.”

The Garver team is not done yet: they plan to sponsor a family at Our House, and they will be serving lunch again. “As a matter of fact, we plan to provide lunch monthly,” Beverly said. “I encourage anyone looking for volunteer opportunities this holiday season to contact them.”

Monday, November 19, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving

Friday, November 16, 2012

Holder Named Director of Transportation

Garver has hired Jerry Holder, Jr. as its Director of Transportation. Holder brings more than 25 years of transportation and program management experience to Garver, and he is directing our transportation services from our North Texas office in Frisco.

“Jerry began his career at Garver and spent his first 14 years with us,” said Garver President and CEO Dan Williams. “After working the last 12 years with one of the largest transportation and program management firms in the country, we are very excited to have him back in the Garver family. His experience, insight, and leadership enables us to better serve our clients.”

In the last five years, Holder has been involved in Texas and Mississippi program management projects valued at more than $7 billion. These programs include the City of Dallas stormwater improvements, the North Texas Tollway, and the City of Biloxi Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

Holder’s engineering background includes projects for departments of transportation in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. His prominent projects include I-540 in northwest Arkansas, the High-Five Interchange in Dallas, and the Trinity River Levees analysis and recertification in Dallas.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Spirit of Garver Award Winners

Garver has honored two employees with the Spirit of Garver Award for their outstanding work.

This year's winners are Daphne Ruck, a finance administrator in our North Little Rock, Arkansas office, and Jenny Sallee, a transportation project manager in our Tulsa, Oklahoma office. The Spirit of Garver Award is one of our firm's highest honors, and each year's nominees are employees who exhibit passion, dedication, and leadership in their jobs.


This past year, Daphne pursued and developed an internal process to better track expenses with fleet vehicles. Daphne strives for excellence and exceeds customer expectations.



Jenny provides clients with an organized project management approach and offers coworkers technical mentoring. She also is regularly involved in meeting with future engineers through the Garver externship program and by visiting students on their college campuses.

Additional nominees for this year's award included the following employees:

  • Colin Bible, Aviation Project Manager, Frisco, Texas
  • Mike Harrison, Survey Party Chief, Franklin, Tennessee
  • Jon Hetzel, Marketing Communications Manager, North Little Rock, Arkansas
  • Kyle Kruger, Water Project Manager, Fayetteville, Arkansas
  • Jim Morris, Senior Construction Engineer, Fayetteville, Arkansas
  • David Rogers, Energy Designer, Fayetteville, Arkansas
  • Mike Spayd, Transportation Project Manager, Huntsville, Alabama
  • Kevin Sullivan, Federal Senior Designer, North Little Rock, Arkansas
  • Rusty Tate, Water Project Engineer, Fayetteville, Arkansas
  • Adam White, Aviation Project Engineer, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Monday, November 12, 2012

Zweig Letter 2012 Hot Firm List



Garver is ranked in this year's Zweig Letter Hot Firm List, which recognizes the 100 fastest-growing engineering, architecture, planning, and environmental consulting firms in the United States and Canada.

According to a ZweigWhite press release, the listed firms have "outperformed the economy and competitors to become leaders in their chosen fields."

Garver is ranked #65. Rankings are based on a ZweigWhite survey, and firms are ranked according to their three-year growth rate in gross revenue for fiscal years 2008-2011. Half of the ranking is based on percentage growth and 50 percent on dollar growth.

Garver also made the list in 2011.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

35th Annual Tulsa Run

Brent Schniers

The 35th Annual Tulsa Run may have been on a cold Saturday morning at the end of the workweek, but that did not stop Garver employees from running. Kirsten McCullough, Jeff Rundle and Brent Schniers from the Tulsa, Oklahoma office joined over 9,500 others to run the 15k race, which benefits several charitable organizations.

Kirsten McCullough

“The Tulsa Run is a great community event,” Kirsten said. “It has all the energy of a big race but still feels local.” This year, the race gave $25,000 to Camp Fire Green Country, a youth and family sponsorship program.

Jeff Rundle

'Team Garver' had other reasons for running besides supporting the community. “Our next goal is to run the Oklahoma City Memorial Half-Marathon in April,” said Jeff. He trained for six weeks with his wife for the Tulsa Run and they both finished under their target times.

Kirsten, running the race for the second time, beat her personal record. She also plans to run again in the Williams Route 66 Half Marathon on Nov. 18.

Brent raced once in 2005, and he decided to "test my physical and mental strength," training several times a week before the big day. "It was a beautiful day to run a race."

Congratulations to Team Garver on a good Saturday’s work.

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