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How did you land your new position?

I bought part of the company in July, so that is how that came up. I’ve also been with the company since 2000.

What inspired you to buy a minority stake in the business?

I had just been here for a long time. I knew the business really well, and the other owner, Jeff (Pettiecord), and I are really close, so it was just a good fit. It is the business I want to be in and want to continue to be in and I would rather own part of it than work my whole life for someone else.

What are your responsibilities in your new position?

I do all the sales and estimating, running the crews out in the field. I am a little more involved in the general company oversight than I have been in the past. I try to keep tabs on every part of the company, just general company oversight as well as sales and estimating and field work.

What was your first position at Pettiecord?

I was going to college full time and I stopped up here and applied for a job. I was hired as a part-time truck driver and mechanic helper when I first started. I started at the very bottom; I was under trucks, cleaning tracks, always dirty. I would go to school with nice clothes on and have to change to go work out in the shop. Then, after about a year, I interned under a project manager for about two months, and then he left, and Jeff Pettiecord gave me the opportunity to step in and do that. So, I finished my last three years of college, worked full time, and went to school full time. Then right after I graduated, I got an offer to go work for the Gillotti Cos., and I took that, and I was there for about a year and a half, and then I came back (to Pettiecord) in the summer of 2005 and have been back ever since. I started at the bottom and worked my way up.

What does J. Pettiecord Inc. specialize in?

We are a construction and environmental services company. We do hazmat response, emergency spill cleanups, chemical spills, environmental remediation – clean up old gas stations’ underground storage tanks, heavy land clearing, clearing a lot of trees and grinding them for mulch, and then a lot of trucking. So a little bit of everything. We are a very diversified company.

How would you describe a normal workday?

You know, it could be anything. I’ve seen some wild things: trains that are derailed hanging off the side of bridges, chemical spills. I have a college education, and I am not the kind of guy that sits behind a desk the whole time. One day I’m in the office trying to close a big project for us, and the next day I might be out running a heavy piece of equipment or have a shovel in my hand. There is never a dull moment here. Being a smaller company, it’s whatever it takes to get the job done; it’s kind of our mentality. Whatever needs to be done, we will do.

What hours do you work?

I work a lot. I’ll be the first to admit I work a lot. One week I’ll work 50 to 60 hours, and I worked 120 this summer at one point. Last week, I came in at 6:30 in the morning, and at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon we received a call about a train derailment, and so I worked until about 1 o’clock the next morning cleaning it up and then drove back the next day. When you only have 40 employees and it gets busy, I’ll have to go out and drive a semi or operate a piece of heavy equipment because it needs to get done. Sometimes it can make for late nights when I have to come back to the office and return e-mails and get estimates out, so it makes for a really late night.