$17.5M college library project hits milestone

Final steel beam placed, symbolizing progress on campus, jobs in the Valley

By Kate York, kyork@mariettatimes.com
As the last major pieces of steel completed the structure of the Legacy Library at Marietta College Monday, it marked a milestone in a $17.5 million project that’s provided quite a boost for local companies.

Construction began on the facility in June and since then construction workers from around the Mid-Ohio Valley have been part of the process.

“I went after this project as painstakingly as I could,” said Chad Smith, 31, owner of Smith Brothers Steel Erection, based in Vienna, W.Va. “It’s the biggest project our company has done and, outside of the plants, this big of a project doesn’t come along locally very often.”

Smith has had five to 10 of his workers on the job since mid-September.

The project has also meant steady employment, even through the winter, for a number of area people working with Grae-Con Construction, based in Steubenville with a regional office in Marietta. Grae-Con is the general contractor for the project.

“It means work for the guys in our local (union),” said Roger Willford, 54, of Tuppers Plains. “Things are slow right now and a lot of times you might only work three or four months out of the year. It’s kind of tough.”

The project broke up a slow time in the construction industry when there weren’t a lot of new structures going up, said Jim Crider, foreman for Marietta electrical contractor Davis Pickering & Co.

“Speaking for the company, it makes an impact,” said Crider, 52, of Little Hocking. “This is what we call a commercial job instead of being on an industrial site and it’s something we really like to do.”

The Legacy Library is the latest in a recent string of large-scale projects Davis Pickering & Co. has completed at Marietta College, including the Dyson Baudo Recreation Center, McCoy Residence Hall and the renovated Fayerweather Hall.

“Our company’s really grown in the last several years and this is about the size project we like to do,” Crider said. “They sharpen their pencils a little more when there’s work here locally. It’s nice for us because we have to travel a lot for jobs sometimes and here I get home at four o’clock instead of dark.”

Many of the faces on site are the same when large local projects come along, said Smith.

“I’ve worked around these guys for years,” he said. “It’s great when they hire local companies even though it was very competitive. But I would put my workers up against anyone in the country.”

Grae-Con and all the construction workers have kept the library on track for a January 2009 opening, Marietta College President Jean Scott said Monday, as the college held a “topping off” ceremony to place the last steel beam on top of the building.

“They have worked through the cold and snow, rain and heat to keep this building coming,” she said.

The final steel beam was placed on the college’s mall for several hours before the ceremony, for students, staff and community members to sign.

“Your names are forever linked to the Legacy Library,” Scott told the crowd who watched in chilly temperatures Monday morning as the beam was put into place. “It’s your library.”

The same can also be said for the stamp all the workers in the Mid-Ohio Valley are putting on the building, one day at a time.

“It’s going to be a great building,” said Crider. “That makes it enjoyable to be a part of the process.”