In these times of uncertain supply chain delivery, AGC East Tennessee's Subcontractor Committee has created a quick cheat sheet for members to share estimated lead times on materials.  Please note that these lead times are subject to change.  If any member would like to add or edit information, please mail leslie@agcetn.org.

AS OF APRIL 18, 2022
Plumbing:

• Fuel tanks – 50 weeks
• Dispensers – 24 weeks
• Floor drains / cleanouts/ specialty fixtures – 8-12 weeks
• Fuel filters – 3-4 months
• Man holes -  6 weeks
• Spill buckets and overfill drop tubes  – 6 -8 weeks
• Tank Monitors – 6 months

Brick:

• Modular and Queen Sizes in popular colors and textures are available.
• Large quantity, custom, or different size orders can expect between an 8-20 week lead time.
• Distributors are under allocation from manufactures.
• Flexibility in selection can mitigate any lead time issues.
  

CMU:

• Standard Gray CMU in all sizes readily available.
• Regional cement shortage has manufactures under allocation but this has not impacted availability to commercial contractors.
• Custom color CMU has a 8-12 lead time.
• Cast Crete Lintels are approximately 12-20 weeks from order date.
  

Mortar and Grout:

• Type N and Type S mortar readily available
• Custom Color and Portland Lime mortar has a 4-8 week lead time.
• Bagged Cement Products are under allocation but this hasn’t impacted availability to commercial contractors.
  
  

Manufactured Stone and Architectural Precast:

• Manufactured Stone has a 4-8 week lead time.
• Precast has a 8-16 week lead time.

Masonry Accessories:

• Copper based masonry accessories are under allocation and being substituted with stainless steel when possible.
• Custom orders have a 8-16 week lead time.
  

Bar joists:
Bar joists continue to be between 45-50 week delivery ARO.

Decking:
10 -12 week delivery if no bar joists are required, but longer lead times if delivered with bar joists.

Steel Primer:
Basic grey and red primer are in short supply due to a recent fire at a paint pigment plant.  It has affected some deliveries by 1-3 weeks according to the product.  We are sometimes using a premium product passed along to the GC/owner. 

The following have seen 50% + the past 2 years:

1. Bar joists
2. Paint
3. Decking
4. Structural steel
5. Structural Shapes
6. Hot rolled plate
7. Stainless and aluminum

Overall carbon steel products have been stable for the past few months, but slight increases are expected this summer.

Position: President, Pointe General Contractors
Education: Graduated from Auburn University in 1998 with a major in Building Construction and a minor in Business          
Personal: Married to Elizabeth Medeiros, 4 kids, lives on Signal Mountain and proudly coaches Little League Baseball & Youth Soccer

What made you decide to pursue construction as a career?
I got into the construction industry because it was the best opportunity for me to learn about  diverse and ​different types of businesses. For example:  how to build aircraft, how to ship food across the world, how to launch rockets, AND I get to eat at new and great restaurants all over the place.

What was your first job in construction?
I started with a large design-build firm called the Haskell Company. I worked in their Florida and eventually California office right out of school.  I learned ​a lot, especially technical details and leading staffs at a young age.  Through that experience, I crossed paths with the Allen family who created Pointe, which is in part how I eventually ended up in Chattanooga.  I've been at Pointe since 2006.

You are involved in several businesses in different industries - construction, development, healthcare, retail, and education. Who has helped you along the way in leading successful businesses?
I've had several mentors along the way.  My dad, Louis Medeiros, led a large ​pharmaceutical company and provides constant advice on better business practices.  At my first job at Haskell, Jason Heuler helped me better understand engineering concepts. Ken Colgate at WS Development was a mentor on managing people and leadership skills and taught me to look at the 10,000-foot view when providing direction. Rex Allen at Pointe keeps me focused on facts in professional and personal relationships and reminds me to block out all the noise.  And, of course, I couldn’t do any of this without the friendship and support of my bride, Elizabeth. 

Tell us about your experience in teaching college students pursing careers in construction.
I've been an adjunct professor at several institutions for many years, including Florida Community College, Chattanooga State Community College, and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.  I also serve as an Advisory Board member at Chatt State and UTC.

​As the incoming Chair of AGC East Tennessee, what are your top priorities?
First, we've got a school to open soon.  We will continue the work for a successful launch of the Construction Career Center to see that through start-up and beyond.  Once it's open, we still have a lot of work to do ensure its success.

Advocacy is one of AGC's most important and valuable initiatives for our industry and I want to make sure that we continue to be the voice of construction at the local and state level.  

I'm also interested in expanding our membership's footprint beyond Hamilton and Bradley County.  The more voices we have advocate for our industry, the stronger we are.


Professional Associations:
Alpha-1 Foundation (2017 – Present)
SGL (2018 – Present)
AGC of East Tennessee (2006 – Present)
Chattanooga Regional Manufacturing Association (2020 – Present)
Quality in Construction Task Force, Office of the State Architect -TN (2019 – Present)
Industry Advisory Board, University of Chattanooga (2011 – Present)
Industry Advisory Board, Chattanooga State Community College (2009 – Present) 

License & Certifications:

• State of North Carolina Licensed General Contractor (2011 – Present)
• State of Alabama Licensed General Contractor (2011 – Present)
• Blue Card – E&S, State of Georgia (2011 – Present)
• State of Georgia Licensed General Contractor (2008 – Present)
• State of Tennessee Licensed General Contractor (2007 – Present)
• Level 1 & Level 2 – E&S, State of Tennessee (2004 – Present)
• OHSA 10 Hour – Recertifications (2004 – Present)

 
Civic & Volunteer:

• Chattanooga Community Kitchen Volunteer (2017 – Present)
• First Lutheran Church (2010 – Present)

                        Board Member (2012 – 2016)
                        Social Ministry (2016 – Present)

• Signal Mountain Youth Sports – Youth Baseball (2019 - Present)
• Southeast Tennessee Alzheimer’s Association Volunteer (2012 – 2017) 
• Town of Signal Mountain Design Review Board (2005 – 2008)
• Delta Chi Fraternity (1994 – 1997) 

​Your immediate action is needed to say NO to the PRO Act!  The proposed Protect the Right to Organize Act includes the most sweeping changes to labor laws since the Great Depression, and it is decidedly anti-union contractor, anti-open shop, and anti-construction.  The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the PRO Act next week.
 
It’s easy to contact members of Congress … >>CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION!
 
Some highlights:
 

• Repeals Tennessee’s Right-to-Work law, which protects employees by preventing them from being fired for not providing monetary support to a union with which they do not wish to affiliate.
• Eliminates all unlawful picketing, allowing unions to picket other employers to encourage them to cease doing business with the employer engaged in a dispute with the union. This puts union construction firms at a competitive disadvantage, as owners seek firms less likely to be impacted by unrelated labor disputes.
• Empowers unions to strike for any reason and would remove prohibitions on partial strikes, slowdown strikes, and intermittent strikes.
• Threatens secret ballot voting in union organizing by imposing "backdoor" card check, a voting process whereby employees sign their name on a union authorization card and submit it directly to union organizers. There are no secret ballots or private votes.
• Imposes what is known as "quickie" or "ambush" election rules that limit employers' ability to inform their employees before a unionization vote about the impacts of forming a union on the business.
• Expands joint employer liability, allowing contractors to be punished for another firms' unfair labor practices.
• Adds civil penalties for employers and creates personal liability for directors and officers of up to $100,000 for unfair labor practices.
• Allows private right of action for employees to sue employers in federal court even after their allegations have been dismissed by the Labor Relations Board.
• Forces employers to turn over employees' personal, identifiable information so they can be solicited by union organizers
• Threatens workers' absolute right to a free, fair, and secret union ballot. There is something fundamentally un-American about potentially subjecting workers to intimidation and coercion when it comes to deciding whether and how to organize and seek representation at the workplace.

For more information:

• Click here for AGC of America’s White Paper
• Click here for one-page summary
• Click here for summary union impact summary

Please don’t hesitate to call with questions.

After 20 years, it was time to give the office a little freshener!  With new paint, lighting, flooring and duct cleaning, our facility looks and feels like a modern office.  Thanks to our members Lawson Electric, Inline Electric, Terry Keith Company, ServPro and Randy Wilson Painters for doing a great job!  Also, special thanks to interior designed Brooke King for donating her services.

​As a reminder, members are invited to use our training rooms, board room and office for training, events, meetings and co-working space.  Convenient parking and after hour access available.  To book your space, contact Hannah Barnett at (423) 265-1111 or hannah@agcetn.org.

Make sure you don't miss out on any project updates by getting registered on AGC East Tennessee's new planroom website. Anyone who wants to have access to our listed projects will need to follow these steps:

1. Go to www.agcetnplanroom.com and click "Register for an account"

2. Enter your information.
3. Enter details for your company.
4. Check your inbox for a confirmation email to confirm your account.
5. Log in and browse our planroom!

​Once you register, your device should remember your username and password but we recommend that you keep a record for reference.  AGC staff can also help you retrieve your username and password.

For more information or if you need assistance, please contact Hannah Barnett at hannah@agcetn.org or (423) 265-1111.

Although COVID-19 has been making headlines in the construction industry, as well as every other industry due to the Federal Governments Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) stimulus and other initiatives, there are a few continuing tax programs that contractors should not be ignoring.

One tax benefit specifically structured for the construction industry is found in the Internal Revenue Code Section 179D.  This code section was enacted to incentivize companies to make their buildings more energy efficient.  Overall, the incentive was a method to accelerate depreciation deductions faster for any company that undertook an energy efficient retrofit or initiated new construction incorporating the energy efficient standards.  Back in the mid 2000s when this was enacted, most companies were still required to depreciate projects over a lengthy depreciation schedule (i.e. 15 or 39 years).  Thus, to be able to write off a portion of this more quickly was a novel concept.  However, the incentive really never took off because soon afterwards, the country entered the Great Recession and lawmakers quickly enacted even more generous rules to allow companies to begin writing off capital expenditures more rapidly in effort to stimulate the economy.  Thus, this deduction was somewhat shelved.  Here is the construction specific subpart that is often overlooked as well, but shouldn’t be.  

In 2008, the IRS issued notice 2008-40 which clarified IRC 179D(d)(4) that states:
In the case of energy efficient commercial building property installed on or in property owned by a federal, state, or local government or a political subdivision thereof, the Secretary shall promulgate a regulation to allow the allocation of the deduction to the person primarily responsible for designing the property in lieu of the owner of such property.

The 2008 notice provided the procedures necessary for a designer of energy efficient system to receive the benefit of the tax deduction for any government facility since the government is not able to benefit from the deduction.  The notice also provides a definition of “designer” as follows:
A designer is a person that creates the technical specifications for installation of energy efficient commercial building property (or partially qualifying commercial building property for which a deduction is allowed under §179D). A designer may include, for example, an architect, engineer, contractor, environmental consultant or energy services provider who creates the technical specifications for a new building or an addition to an existing building that incorporates energy efficient commercial building property (or partially qualifying commercial building property for which a deduction is allowed under §179D). A person that merely installs, repairs, or maintains the property is not a designer.

Therefore, if a contractor, engineer, or architect is involved in this process and it meets the certification requirements for energy efficiency, the “designer” of the system can receive an “allocated” deduction  (i.e. a “FREE” tax deduction) from the government-owned facility.  There are several rules about which buildings qualify, who is deemed the designer, and the energy efficient mandates, but all members of the construction community should ensure they have not overlooked this deduction.   The deduction can be as much as $1.80 per square foot, so the benefit can be significant to the qualifying designated designer.  The Code Section 179D is set to expire at the end of December 31, 2020, but if a contractor failed to take advantage of this, there may be a way to revisit prior year projects for the last couple of years. 

​If your company is involved in government-owned projects, you should ensure that this topic is reviewed during their year-end tax planning session with their professional tax advisor.

Question: Are we obligated to pay employees who are waiting on test results?

​Answer:  The paid sick leave required by the FFCRA applies to an employee under #3 above who is 1) experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and 2) seeking a medical diagnosis. But depending on why they are out, if due to numbers 1 or 2, they still may be eligible.

For instance, a local health law where the jobsite is located requires all employees to be tested where a positive case has occurred and you have to test your employees at the jobsite, even though they have no symptoms, a conservative approach is to pay them.

If the employee sought testing but has not experienced COVID-19 symptoms, are not under an isolation order, or are not self-quarantining on advice of a health care provider, they are not eligible for FFCRA paid sick leave benefits under that provision. The employee would, however, still be entitled to use any other accrued leave pay in accordance with applicable laws and policies.

Question: Are we obligated to pay employees who missed work because they were sick and awaiting test results which then came back negative for COVID?

Answer: Generally, yes. The provisions for paid sick leave do not require that an employee be
diagnosed with COVID-19 to be eligible for paid sick leave while seeking a medical diagnosis,
as long as their symptoms were consistent with those of COVID-19.

Question:  It is our understanding that essential workers should and can work as long as he or she has no symptoms, even with a possible exposure in the same household. If the employee still chooses to stay home, do we have any obligation to pay?

​Answer:
The FFCRA does not distinguish between essential and non-essential employees. Even if an employee is not experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, they may have a basis to stay home under the FFCRA. If an employee does not come to work because they are covered by a legal stay-at-home order, or are self-quarantining on the advice of a health care provider, the employee is entitled to up to 80 hours of sick pay (pro-rated for part-time employees) as described above.

In those cases, the employee is entitled to sick leave paid at their regular rate up to $511 per day and $5,110 in aggregate. However, if they can telework, they can work from home and you would pay them regularly and not under the FFCRA.

Even if the employee is not ill, quarantined, or awaiting test results, they may choose not to report to work because they are caring for someone else subject to a stay-at-home order, are caring for a child if the child’s school or child care is closed due to COVID-19, or is experiencing other conditions specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services as describe above. In those cases, the employee is entitled to sick leave paid at two-thirds of their
regular rate, capped at $200 per day and $2,000 total.

In addition to paid sick leave, the FFCRA provides for additional family leave benefits under the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA). Under the EFMLEA and the Family Medical Leave Act, a covered employee is entitled to a combined total of 12 weeks of leave. An employee may take leave under the EFMLEA only to care for a child under 18 whose school is closed or whose child care provider is unavailable due to COVID-19.

The first 10 days of EFMLEA leave are unpaid, unless the employee opts to use accrued vacation, personal, or sick leave time. An employer cannot require the employee to use accrued paid leave time during this 10-day period. All EFMLEA days in excess of 10 are to be paid at two-thirds of the employee’s normal rate, with a maximum of $200 per day and $10,000 total.

Question: Is an employer liable for more than 80 hours of paid sick leave per employee? Is a single employee eligible for this multiple times?

Answer: The FFCRA limits an employer’s obligation to 80 hours of paid sick leave through December 31, 2020. An employee may use those hours in increments, such as for multiple absences for covered reasons, but only up to 80 hours through the end of 2020.

Question: We received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. Are we entitled to a tax credit for FFCRA payments?

​Answer:  An employer that received a PPP loan and has paid employees for absences covered by the FFCRA using PPP funds may choose to include those payments in a PPP forgiveness application, or take a tax credit for FFCRA payments, but not both.
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