Colorado Residents Can Now Collect Rainwater, Kubota Acquires Great Plains: This Week’s Industry News

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Want to keep up with the latest news in lawn care and landscaping? Check back every Thursday for a quick recap of recent happenings in the green industry.

Dave Locke Accepts New Position with PBI-Gordon
PBI-Gordon Corporation announced that Dave Loecke accepted the position of Market Development Manager, Turf and Ornamental Products. In his new role, Loecke will create and deliver solutions to industry partners, while developing and enhancing the relationships between PBI-Gordon’s distributors and customers. He has been with PBI-Gordon for 15 years.

Colorado residents now permitted to collect rainwater
In May, Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado signed into law a bill that will allow residents to use rain barrels to collect rainwater. The Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC) says that landscape professionals should be prepared to receive requests to incorporate the barrels into customer’s irrigation plans. The law defines “rain barrel” as “a storage container with a sealable lid that is located above ground outside of a residential home and use for collecting precipitation from a downspout of a rooftop.” The law prevents an association, such as an HOA, from prohibiting rain barrel use. The law goes into effect August 10, but contractors and designers can incorporate and put rain barrels in place to hook up later.

2016 Victory Garden Blitz Breaks Records
CASE Construction Equipment and CNH Industrial donated a skid steer to the 8th Annual Victory Garden Blitz, located in the Greater Milwaukee area. Held in May, this year’s event marked the record-breaking installation of 555 gardens – achieving a grand total of more than 3,000 gardens for communities throughout Milwaukee since the project started in 2009. CASE/CNH Industrial is one of many partners of the Victory Garden Blitz. In addition to financial sponsorship of the Initiative, the manufacturer donated the use of an SV300 skid steer for the event, which helped move more than 550 yards of soil. The gardens are made possible with a $160 donation or sponsorship. Each garden is 4-feet by 8-feet and includes a full installation as well as new soil from local composters.

James Thompson Named Ruppert Landscape Chief Financial Officer
Ruppert Landscape has hired James Thompson as Chief Financial Officer. Thompson brings over 20 years of finance, accounting and treasury experience to the position that ranges from the landscape and construction industries to the security and hotel industries. For the past eight years, he’s worked in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as the Vice President of Global Finance, Accounting, Treasury and Purchasing for the United States Pharmacopeia in Rockville, MD.

Altoz CEO Winner of Entrepreneur Award
Dennis Brazier, Altoz’s CEO & Founder, was named one of the winners of the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016 Upper Midwest Award. This year marks the award’s 30th anniversary since its founding in 1986. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Overall National Award winner, will be announced at the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards gala in November 19, 2016.

Redexim Turf Products Hires Tom Werner
Redexim Turf Products
, based in Valley Park, Mo., has added a new staff member: Tom Werner of Dallas, Texas. Werner is now the Territory Sales Manager for the state of Texas and Oklahoma. He joins the Redexim Turf Products team with many years of experience on the golf course side of the turf industry.

Village Nurseries Launches Video Series
Village Nurseries has launched a 10-episode series of videos that showcase low water use plants and shrubs that allow landscape professionals to design dramatic environments. Other videos that will be released bi-weekly through September include topics such as cactus and succulents, Flower Carpet roses, dry lush, vines and evergreen, shrubs for sun and Sunset Western Garden Collection.

Kristina Hindes Joins Cleary Bros. as Account Manager
Kristina Hindes recently joined Cleary Bros. Landscape’s account manager team. Hindes came to Clearhy with a background in property management and has premium customer-service expertise. She also recently graduated from UC Davis with a degree in landscape architecture.

NALP Foundation Board of Directors for 2016-2017
Here is Foundation Board of Directors for the National Association of Landscape Professionals for 2016-2017:

Officers

  • President – Mark Meister, John Deere, Cary, North Carolina
  • President-Elect – Jerry Grossi, Landscape Industry Certified, ArborLawn, Inc., Lansing, Michigan
  • Treasurer – Frank Mariani, Mariani Landscape, Lake Bluff, Illinois
  • Immediate Past President – Miles Kuperus, Landscape Industry Certified, Farmside Landscape & Design, Sussex, New Jersey

Directors-At-Large

  • Phil Allen, Ph.D., Landscape Industry Certified, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
  • Bruce Birdsong, Landscape Industry Certified, Precision Landscape Management, Dallas, Texas
  • Ed Castro, Landscape Industry Certified, Ed Castro Landscape, Inc., Roswell, Georgia
  • Jon Cundiff, Landscape Industry Certified, Weed Man-Kansas City, Lees Summit, Missouri
  • Tom Fochtman, Landscape Industry Certified, Ceibass Venture Partners, Arvada, Colorado
  • Martha Hill, Hinds Community College, Raymond, Mississippi
  • Michael Hommel, Designs By Sundown, Englewood, Colorado
  • Glenn Jacobsen, Landscape Industry Certified, Jacobsen Landscape Design & Construction, Inc., Midland Park, New Jersey
  • Jim McCutcheon, Landscape Industry Certified, HighGrove Partners, Austell, Georgia
  • Roger Phelps, Landscape Industry Certified, STIHL, Inc., Virginia Beach, Virginia
  • Lynda Wightman, Hunter Industries, Missoula, Montana
  • Bruce Wilson, Bruce Wilson & Company, Scottsdale, Arizona

JCB Growth Continues with Largest Shipment to Savannah
In early 2015, JCB received what was then the company’s largest single vessel shipment of 341 construction and agricultural machines to the Georgia Ports Authority from its manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom. That record was broken when JCB’s UK facility shipped over 400 machines worth more than $35 million to the Georgia Ports Authority. The vessel “Tugela” brought the 400-plus JCB machines directly from the United Kingdom on May 28. JCB manufactures its full line of 18 model skid steers and compact track loaders, along with the 3CX backhoe at its Savannah headquarters for export across the globe.

KIOTI Tractor Garners Gold Level Status
KIOTI Tractor, a division of Daedong-USA, Inc. recently received the Gold Level Status Award from the Equipment Dealers Association (EDA). Fifty-five manufactures in four categories were included in the 2016 Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey conducted by EDA. KIOTI exceeded the national average among tractor manufacturers in all 12 categories ranked by more than 2,300 participating dealers.

Arborjet “Taking Root” Scholarship Program Deadline June 30
The deadline for graduating high school seniors to apply for Arborjet’s annual “Taking Root” Scholarship Program is just around the corner — all applications must be postmarked by June 30, 2016. Now in its third year, the scholarship program will award 10 graduating high school seniors each with a $1,000 scholarship to pursue full-time studies in forestry, plant sciences, horticulture, entomology, environmental science or a related major at an accredited two-year or four-year college.

Toro Holds First Horizontal Directional Drill Forum
The Toro Company recently hosted horizontal directional drilling (HDD) contractors and equipment dealers from across the country at its corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota. The main purpose of the HDD forum, taking place in May, was to help identify customer challenges and discuss solutions that could potentially lead to future innovations to the HDD equipment segment. The event featured hands-on equipment demonstrations. Attendees had the opportunity to operate Toro’s family of HDD equipment, including the new TDOS1 drill operating system and the DD4050. The agenda also included sessions regarding best practices in the industry, and tours of Toro headquarters and product development facilities.

Ariens Donates Firefighting Atlas JSV to Fox Valley Tech
Ariens Company donated a Gravely Atlas JSV utility vehicle worth $20,000, outfitted for wildland firefighting, to Fox Valley Technical College’s Public Safety Training Center. The vehicle, designed for heavy-duty work, will assist students with trench training, confined space drills and prescribed burn exercises. Nearly $5,000 worth of firefighting accessories were donated by Ariens-owned brand Ben Meadows, and were mounted to the machine before delivery. The Public Safety Training Center at Fox Valley Technical College opened in January 2015, and boasts 75 acres of indoor and outdoor tactical training space for training in law enforcement, firefighting, emergency medical services, forensic science and wildland fire. On average, about 45-50 firefighters a year graduate from FVTC. In addition, the college provides customized training for existing professional firefighters.

Kubota is Acquiring Great Plains
Kubota Corporation is entering an agreement to purchase Great Plains Manufacturing Inc., based in Salina, KS. Once final, the purchase will expand the company’s long-time partnership with Land Pride and will include all five Great Plains divisions with multiple facilities in Kansas and a manufacturing plant in Sleaford, England. For the foreseeable future, all five Great Plains divisions will continue to operate as they have been. Roy Applequist, Great Plains’ founder and chairman will remain on the leadership team to help guide the operations and facilitate a seamless transition.

Protecting Wisconsin’s ash trees from EAB
On June 8, twelve ash trees at the DNR Park on the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in West Allis, Wisconsin, received environmentally-sound treatments donated by Arborjet to protect them from the invasive Emerald Ash Borer pest, which has destroyed hundreds of millions of ash trees to date. Jeff Palmer, Arborjet’s Upper Midwest Regional Technical Manager, returned to the park to continue its decade’s worth of treatment for these trees, in order to preserve and protect them.

GreenMark Consulting Launches Landscape Business Success Coaching
GreenMark Consulting Group launched its new Landscape Business Success Coaching platform designed for landscape-snow industry contractors. The platform includes business coaching and a suite of other services and products for contractors. GreenMark’s Steven Cohen, industry business owner and executive, says accountability is one of the biggest weaknesses within many organizations and it’s often due to organizational structure. Landscape Business Success Coaching is designed for companies of all sizes and can help contractors’ short term goals and strategies, as well as being a resource to call or email with a business questions or concerns.

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