These are truly challenging and scary times. Our way of working, our way of interacting with people, our education methods our way of shopping are all drastically different than they were just a few weeks ago. Many of us have friends or family who are infected and struggling against the disease. We watch the number of infections rapidly grow and anticipate the crest and hopefully rapid decline in the number of new cases. This will be the payoff for the extreme measures we have taken to contain this pandemic. Many of you have probably been working from home for a few weeks, some may even be furloughed. While I can’t say it is business as usual at Perry Contracting Inc., our work does continue. We have office staff working from home such that there is seldom more than 2 people in our office at a time. Most of our projects continue as they are in health care and virtually all of the projects are self-contained with no interaction with the public. These projects had, or we created, dedicated entrances solely for our people. We take all of the CDC prescribed precautions that are being etched into our collective memories; we have handwashing stations on each project, wipe frequently touched surfaces with disinfectant wipes, don’t share tools, don’t allow anyone on the job that feels ill and advise our employees to stay home if not well, practice social distancing to the extent possible and so on. I have a feeling some of these practices will be with us until a vaccine is developed. But America will get back to work. As stay at home orders are rescinded and people return to work, perhaps in a modified form, construction projects that were put on hold will resume and new ones will begin. When they do, we may find permit offices overwhelmed and the supply chain for construction materials somewhat disrupted. For these reasons, we are advising our clients with projects in the pipeline to complete designs, apply for permits now and even advise their contractors to check material delivery lead times and order long lead items now to minimize project delays when the economy revs back up as it surely will.
In circumstances like this it seems to me that the paramount responsibilities of any business are protecting the well-being and livelihood of its employees and being there to support in any way possible both customers and trade partners. These responsibilities are inextricably linked. Perry Contracting Inc., is focused like a laser on these and it is an honor to do so since we have such good employees, clients and trade partners. They are all worthy of every effort we can muster in their support.
We are here for all of you now and will be here when the current challenges are in the rear-view mirror. Please let us know how we can serve.
Be well,
Jim Perry
President, Perry Contracting Inc.