logocompress
Seals/Biehle Newsletter
Vol. 9 March 2010 
In This Issue
Construction Begins on St. Charles
A Review of "The Leadership Challenge"
Quick Links
Join Our Mailing List
Seals/Biehle
Welcomes Chuck Downs
 
Seals/Biehle is proud to announce the recent addition of Chuck Downs to the S/B team. 
With over 21 years of experience in the commercial construction industry, Downs brings unique and valuable expertise to our firm. His strong leadership skills and forward-thinking approach, coupled with his extensive knowledge in the Design-Build sector of construction are tremendous assets to our company and we are proud to have him on board.

Greetings!
 
There's a buzz in California about healthcare but this time it isn't about reform for the consumers - it's about the bricks and mortar of our hospitals and whether executives are taking the appropriate steps to meet the new California safety standards enabling them to endure a natural disaster. In the months following the Northridge earthquake in 1994, California Legislature passed Senate Bill 1953 (SB 1953), which requires hospitals with buildings that are considered hazardous and at risk of collapse or significant loss of life in the event of an earthquake (or other natural disaster) to be replaced or retrofitted to higher seismic safety standards by 2013. Now that we are only a few years away from the deadline set-forth, the bill is very top-of-mind for both the healthcare and construction industries.
 
The law is an unfunded mandate, meaning no state or federal funds will be allocated to help hospitals pay for the necessary improvements. Financially, this is a huge burden on California hospitals; and for those who cannot afford to comply with SB 1953 by the prescribed deadlines or those who do not seek an extension? They will simply be forced to close or reduce patient care services. The probability of closing the doors on hospitals throughout the state though is unlikely, which means major construction and retrofitting on these outdated hospitals are inevitable.
 
It is evident this bill will have a tremendous impact on not only the many facets of the healthcare industry, but it will also give the construction industry a much needed boost at a time when things are just now slowly starting to turn around. And as California grows and overcrowding becomes somewhat inevitable, maintaining the highest standards is imperative for safety.

Sincerely,
 
Matt Seals
northridge quake
 
Construction Underway for St. Charles Borromeo 
 
If you've been driving around Visalia you may have noticed the corner of Caldwell and Akers recently undertook a street improvement facelift.  The street improvements, which included the widening of both Caldwell and Akers, a new median on the south end of Akers, a new traffic signal, water, storm drain, and sewer connections, have been made to accommodate the construction of Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church.  In addition, new landscaping was added to the street frontage and street lighting was installed. The site improvement permit was recently submitted to the City and is in for review and approval.  In the interim, a new 13,000 square foot parish hall will be constructed to serve as the church site until the design and fundraising is complete to build the new church.
 
Rendering of St. Charles
St Charles
 
Rendering of St. Charles
St Charles
The Leadership Challenge - An Inspiration for all Business Owners & Managers  
 
In The Leadership Challenge 4th Edition, co-authors and colleagues James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, Ph.D. detail the importance of being an effective leader and the commonalities amongst successful leaders around the world. They emphasize the power of forward-thinking, engaging employees in the process of the growth plan, leading by example so others will follow suit and the correlation all of these things have to the long-term success and existence of a company. They go on to illustrate that leaders learn from their experiences, taking into account the best leaders take failure and set-backs in stride and morph them into success. In this economically challenging time, true leaders will emerge because they are forced to face the uncertainty and find a way to overcome the economic obstacles. Posner is Dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University where Kouzes is the Dean's Executive Professor of Leadership.
 
Click here for a short review & summary of The Leadership Challenge
"Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy." 
--General Norman Schwarzkopf