Edward Ehrbar Company

Taking Out The Trash

New York City waste management company gains efficiency with Komatsu Purpose Built Waste Handler

New York City is one of the most heavily populated areas in the world. And all of its residents produce garbage, the disposal of which most people take for granted after they toss it into the garbage can. That’s where Tully Environmental, Inc., comes into the picture. Since the 1980’s Tully Environmental has operated a large Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) transfer station in Queens, New York, and its biggest customer is the New York City Department of Sanitation. A waste transfer station receives garbage that has been picked up by the city, holds it in the station, and then loads it onto haul trucks to be delivered to the landfill. It’s the “middleman” between the curb and the landfill. Read More >>

Ehrbar Provides Trouble-Free Iron for NY Sand & Stone

As one of the largest distributors of construction aggregates in the New York City and Long Island market, New York Sand & Stone delivers its products to various locations throughout the metropolitan area. Read More >>

Athletic Field Services and Ehrbar Tear Up Some Turf

Years ago, Jon Sweeney, president of Athletic Field Services, turned his love for sports into a career when he constructed his first ballpark for St. Luke’s High School in New Canaan, CT. By the completion of that first job, he knew that he had found his niche. Read More >>

Norsic & Son Still Going Strong After 73 Years in Business

In the early 1930s, while the nation was in the throes of the Great Depression, Emil “Pop” Norsic worried about his financial future like so many others of his time.

In 1932, however, an opportunity came along for Norsic when he was offered a chance to buy the assets of a failing company. He did not see this as a risk; rather he saw it as his big chance to take control of his own destiny and make a better life for his family. Read More >>

Trocom Takes Komatsu Iron for Dip in Brooklyn Lake

Deciding what equipment is ideally suited for a particular application often can be the difference between sinking or swimming on a project. Trocom Construction Corporation, of Maspeth, NY, recently made one of these equipment decisions and, as a result, one of its jobs in Brooklyn went swimmingly. Read More >>

Ehrbar & AKR Dig Deep for Rare Cars, Multimillion Dollar Homes

Where else but in exclusive Fairfield County, CT, should a home be built for rare cars and other vestiges of automotive excellence.

AKR Excavating Inc., of Valhalla, NY, has been doing site prep for a $15-million car gallery, which, when completed, will be a 20,000-sq.-ft. showroom that will house several hundred cars valued at more than $200 million. The facility will boast heated floors, laminated beams and an elevator system to transport cars to various floors.

AKR’s part of the project, valued at $1.5 million, involves carving out a basement 50 ft. deep into solid rock. In all, 24,000 yds. of rock will be excavated and removed from the site, which is expected to take six months. To do this AKR has employed three Komatsu excavators — a PC300LC-6, PC220LC-6 and a PC228USLC, all equipped with Rammer hammers and all purchased from Edward Ehrbar Inc., of Pelham Manor, NY. Read More >>

Construction Skills 2000 Introduces NYC High Schoolers to Industry Trades at Jacob Javits Convention

Approximately 700 high school students got a close-up look at opportunities in the urban construction field recently at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.

The occasion was the Construction Skills 2000 career day sponsored by the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and the Building Trades Employers’ Association, and supported by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York City School Construction Authority, the New York City Department of Education, the New York Building Congress and the Consortium for Worker Education. In all, 17 trade union locals introduced students to the various crafts of construction.

Construction Skills 2000 is a preparatory training course for high school seniors that, if they receive their diploma and successfully complete the course, provides preferred access to union apprenticeship programs in the building and construction trade industry.

The purpose of the career day at the Javits Center was to introduce high school students to careers in the construction industry, particularly through this Construction Skills 2000 program. Read More >>

Distributors Rate as Rogers Brothers Top 10 Winners for 2002

Rogers Brothers Corporation, a manufacturer of fixed and detachable gooseneck and drawbar trailers for the construction industry since 1905, has announced the recipients of its “Top 10 Award” for 2002.

Receiving the award for the Northeast region are:

• Edward Ehrbar Inc., New York City and surrounding counties;
• Highway Equipment Co., western Pennsylvania;
• C.C. & F.F. Keesler Inc., eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland;
• Nortrax Inc., Maine and Vermont;
• E.W. Sleeper Co., New Hampshire;
• L.B. Smith Inc., New York State, excluding the New York City area; and
• Tyler Equipment Corp., Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Each distributor receives a plaque in recognition of their outstanding achievement and service to their many satisfied Rogers customers.

Every Rogers dealer receives specialized training from the factory in the sales and service of the company’s products. They are qualified to assist customers in specifying the appropriate trailer for the application at hand.

For more information, call 800/441-9880 or visit www.rogerstrailers.com/.

Komatsu Fleet Turns Compost Into Gold for NY Firm
By Mike Goche

Long Island Compost, a recycler of yard waste, puts wheel loaders to heavy use in a large-scale operation.

We all have “compost piles” in our backyards but it’s a safe bet that Ed Warner’s is slightly bigger than yours.

Warner is operations manager of Long Island Compost Corp., of Yaphank, NY, a Vigliotti family company. He oversees an operation that supplies compost to Home Depots, Frank’s Garden Centers, countless privately-owned wholesale landscape companies and golf courses throughout New York and the northeast.

The popularity of compost — the broken-down remnants of leaves, grass clippings and other ecological waste — over chemical fertilizers, has increased due to concerns about water safety and the lasting effects of chemicals on the environment.

Organic compost improves soil structure by enabling greater water and air filtration in hard turf while providing an exceptional source of nutrients required for healthy plant growth.

Just as Warner’s compost pile is bigger than yours, so too is his material handling equipment. Most green thumbs rely on plastic barrels or pull-behind lawn mower trailers. Warner relies on windrow turners, skid steers, tractor-trailers and wheel loaders — probably the most common piece of machinery found at any one of the more than 30 sites operated by Long Island Compost. Read More >>

Jerry Ahern Reflects on Ehrbar Inc.’s First Century

“It’s no accident” when a company celebrates its 100th birthday.

This year Edward Ehrbar Inc. achieved the unique distinction of successfully having been in business for more than 100 years. The company will see its name placed beside other centenary companies such as Ford, Cadillac, Harley Davidson, GE, E. D. Etnyre Co. and Turner Construction, to name just a few. The span of these companies has extended from man’s first powered flight in 1903, by the Wright brothers, to the near completion of a new research station in space. Literally, thousands of companies started during this time were unable to survive. What made the difference?

To reach this milestone, a business must demonstrate an unrelenting work ethic, unparalleled quality in the products and services it offers, a “customer is always right” philosophy, an uncanny ability by the company’s leadership to make “the right decisions at the right time,” a consistently dedicated staff and a bit of good fortune as well. Read More >>

Sept 11: Looking Back and Ahead
By Pete Sigmund

The “911” terrorist attacks that took 2,823 lives at the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City one year ago touched us all in some way and changed our lives as well. Remembering it is painful, bringing back, for everyone, many desolate moments, but necessary if the personal growth and lessons learned are to be permanent.

Construction Equipment Guide (CEG) was uniquely challenged as the nation responded, because as an equipment publication, it needed to tell the story of how contractors, dealers, and the rest of its industry acted with confidence, self-sacrifice and compassion throughout those long days and nights.

Covering the story was a unique challenge for me personally because I lost a niece, Johanna, 25, on 911. This retrospective includes some personal remembrances because her loss typifies the pain and anguish of many thousands during the year. Read More >>

After Nine Months, WTC Site Cleanup Concludes
By Pete Sigmund

The heartbreaking round-the-clock unprecedented project to remove 1.7-million tons (1.5 million t) of twisted wreckage from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, where the World Trade Center once stood, is completed.

At first, there was a hushed silence as thousands of people, including relatives of victims, attended ceremonies at the site on May 30, Memorial Day, to observe the closure. Then, at 10:29 a.m., the minute when the second 110-story tower fell to earth almost nine months before on Sept. 11, the clang of firebells — five rings repeated four times — broke the solemn quiet.

This was the 5-5-5-5 code used in New York City firehouses to signal the death of a fellow firefighter. Read More >>

Crews Assist Rescuers in Massive WTC Search
By Pete Sigmund

When I first saw the towers of the World Trade Center collapse in smoke and flame, I was somehow emotionally detached, as if I were covering a story rather than feeling the tragedy of people dying.

Then the phone rang. My brother John. “Johanna worked on the 93rd floor of the first tower which was hit. She usually got to work early. I’m afraid we’ve lost her.”

Johanna was my beautiful, always smiling and happy, auburn-haired niece, 25. The tragedy was suddenly real. I now feel the pain for Johanna and the more than 5,650 other victims.

I’ve interviewed dealers, contractors, and trade associations about how the construction industry is responding to the trade center search, rescue, and, ultimately, recovery and rebuild effort. I’ve realized that their hearts (and wallets) are right at Ground Zero, the disaster site. Emotionally detached? Not this or most Americans. Read More >>

WTC Brings Nation Together

Within hours of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Edward Ehrbar, Inc. was mobilized, dispatching crucial equipment to the scene to aid in the rescue and recovery.

"The day of the attack, we were contacted by Gateway Demolition. They needed equipment, as well as transport for it," said Pat Ahern, Edward Ehrbar, Inc. president. "That afternoon, both of our low-bed tractor trailers were on the road moving equipment to the site."

Gateway Demolition Corp., of Flushing, NY, had to halt the ongoing demolition of the Schaeffer Brewing Co. plant in Brooklyn and transfer the equipment, including a 138,000-pound Komatsu PC600LC-6 hydraulic excavator with grapple to Manhattan.

"It only took one phone call to get Ehrbar to our site. Ehrbar brought its trailers right to our location in Brooklyn. The excavator ended up getting a police escort to help clear the way." recalled Mike Richman, Gateway VP. "The city needed the big machine. We went in a convoy through the streets of Brooklyn and over the Manhattan Bridge to Ground Zero." Read More >>

Ehrbar Makes Mark at Fresh Kills

Ehrbar prides itself on serving customers, both large and small, but it is the large ones that seem to stick in most peoples' minds.

Take for example, the Fresh Kills Landfill. At 3,000 acres, the world's largest landfill was designed to serve the needs of New York City. Located on Staten Island, the mammoth site was so large that the piles of refuse could be seen from outer space -- with the naked eye.

Ehrbar, of course, was not involved in the design or implementation of the site. Rather, the company sold and serviced a fleet of Payhauler off highway trucks that transported the refuse from the Staten Island docks to the landfill.

"Back when we were bidding on an initial contract in the 1980's, we were the dark horse," recalled Larry McCrann, Ehrbar Field Sales Manager. "The people from the New York Department of Sanitation didn't know the product, but we and Payhauler eventually won out."

“The concept,” said Matt Ahern, Ehrbar Executive Vice President, “was to streamline the transport of refuse by using off highway trucks. Payhauler 350C Rear Dumps, with their 50-ton payload capacity, capable of hauling over 90 cubic yards of refuse proved to be the best for the requirements.” Read More >>