December 18, 2017
A Holiday Letter from the President
2017 has been a remarkable year for H&S! From working on cool, cutting-edge projects, to expanding our services and introducing our clients to revolutionary technology in the field, our focus has always been on identifying areas for improvement to benefit both our employees and our clients.
At the beginning of the year, our leadership team placed an emphasis on employee development and job satisfaction. To that end, we sent 25 of our project managers to project management training. We will continue to see the fruits of this endeavor for years to come through improved job performance, satisfaction, and as a benefit to our clients, better service. We have also expanded our employee benefits to include parental leave and domestic partner benefits.
In addition to project management improvements and improved employee benefits, we placed an emphasis on improving our communication, both internally and externally. One of the by-products of this effort was a selection as a “2017 Top Workplace” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
We are grateful to you, our clients and partners, for the opportunities we have been given to grow our firm by working with you on challenging projects. Together we have done great things that will benefit our region for years to come. For example:
- In St. Charles and Franklin Counties in Missouri, the MoDOT Safety Design-Build project will save lives through select safety improvements.
- In O’Fallon, Illinois, children are playing on state-of-the-art soccer fields lit by high-efficiency lights.
- In Lake St. Louis, Missouri, seniors are settling into the Cottages of Lake St. Louis, a skilled care community built as a neighborhood of six 10-resident homes.
- In Grand Tower, Illinois, levees are being repaired to hold back floodwaters and protect lives and property.
- In Springfield, Illinois, millions of survey data points on a busy interstate interchange were collected through cutting-edge LIDAR without exposing surveyors to dangerous traffic.
- In Granite City, Illinois, studies are winding down and detailed design is starting on the high priority project to replace the bridge carrying I-270 over the Mississippi River.
- In Arbyrd, Missouri, upgrades to the wastewater collection system will improve reliability and performance.
As we move into 2018, we will continue to work on these and many more projects. We look forward to exciting new opportunities to work together and improve the quality of life in the communities in which we live. From all of us at Horner & Shifrin, we wish you the happiest of holidays and a prosperous new year!
Steve Donahue – President, Horner & Shifrin, Inc.