The Underground October 2024
Welcome Aboard!
Buffalo Layne Sherrie - Construction Inspector Daniel Leo - Construction Inspector Southborough Michael Rodia - Geologist Philadelphia Ben Milligan - Environmental Scientist Tampa Bret Moreau - Senior Project Manager Daniel Whately - Senior Project Manager Kory Leone - Construction Inspector Warren Jon Stuart - Project Manager Ryan La Rosa - Human Resources Technology Specialist
Save the Date
Whitestone's annual holiday gala will be held on Saturday, December 14, 2024. Invites and details to follow! Baby Aguilar
Jessica Aguilar (Warren) and husband Carlos welcomed Kai on Labor Day! Kai was 6 lbs 5 oz and 19.5 in! Both mom and baby are doing well. Congratulations! NFL Jersey Day
On September 5th, 2024, Whitestone staff sported their favorite football jerseys to celebrate the start of the NFL season! Friendly rivalries were ignited as we cheered for our teams. What a way to kick off the season! 🏈🏈🏈🏈 Spirit Week
As most of you know, Whitestone has a big birthday this year! The Spirit Week agenda is below. Join in on the fun!
Upcoming Events Whitestone will be sponsoring the Sam Liss Memorial 5K for the third consecutive year! This is a great cause and the perfect way to get those steps! When: October 27, 2024 @ 9:00 AM Where: Metuchen High School Contact Robin Umana to register!
Checkout The Website
ESOPtober
October is Employee Ownership Month—a time to recognize the undeniable benefits employee ownership provides to employees, companies, local communities, and the nation.
Forbes published a recent article highlighting the increased trend in Employee Ownership. View and read below!
Employee Ownership Gains Big Momentum
So much has happened recently on the employee ownership and related employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, fronts.
Read More
Have ESOP questions? Contact a member of the ESOP Education Commitee: Katie Friel (Ext. 1301) - kfriel@whitestoneassoc.com Mudar Khantamr (Ext. 3112) - mkhantamr@whitestoneassoc.com
Jay Landry (Ext. 2106) - jlandry@whitestoneassoc.com Ken Luperi (Ext. 3107) - kluperi@whitestoneassoc.com
Summary Plan Description
Blue Ridge ESOP Connection
Project Highlight
Whitestone provided construction phase testing and inspection and environmental consulting services in support of the High Energy Rail Scanning Design Entry Point project on Unity Island in Buffalo, New York.
Will Britton (Buffalo) is the technical lead for the project.
Family Days
Upstate New York September 7th
The Upstate New York employees and their families celebrated Whitestone Family Day at the Buffalo Bisons baseball game!
New England September 27th
Whitestone's New England employees and their families enjoyed an evening of stock car racing at Stafford Motor Speedway! Think Pink!
Whitestone’s Community Involvement & Volunteering focus group has organized a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness Month with net proceeds donated to Thriving Beyond Breast Cancer. Thriving Beyond Breast Cancer Shirts will be available at the Whitestone Marketplace from now through October 25th. Please share the link with friends and family to help eradicate breast cancer.
Order Your Shirts Here
WAI Swag
We’ve added many new items to the Whitestone Marketplace including those pictured below. Take a look!
Marketplace
Employee Spotlight
October 2024
Name: Morgan Mathusa Office Location: Tampa Position Title: Environmental Specialist Tenure at WAI: 7 Months
How would you describe your job to a class of kindergartners? I play in the dirt a lot! If you could switch your job with anyone else within Whitestone, whose job would you want? I would want to switch with Madison Cash! I enjoy and am interested in the ecology side of environmental science. What three words would you use to describe Whitestone? Supportive, Engaging, Solution-Driven
What advice would you give to recent new hires? Give yourself grace, and don’t be afraid to ask questions! Everyone at Whitestone is incredibly kind and more than willing to help. What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most? I enjoy the balance between office and field work that my role grants me. It is fun to get out of the office some weeks and travel to places I probably wouldn’t have gone otherwise, but then escape the sun and hangout in the office other weeks.
What is your favorite song? Springsteen- Eric Church
What is your favorite TV show or series? My favorite show is New Girl
What is something most people don’t know about you? I raced horses competitively growing up. I made the tough decision to sell my horses when I moved to college, but I still go home and ride with my friends when I have time.
What is the most important thing you have learned in the last five years? Everyone is on a different timeline in life. There’s no right or wrong answer to where you should be or what you should be doing. Where would you go on your dream vacation? I would love to go see the Great Barrier Reef.
30th Anniversary Throwback/Look Ahead
Tina Wakai Chief Financial Officer Warren, NJ Tenure: 17 Years
I wasn’t planning on working at Whitestone. Hadn’t worked in the engineering industry before. I just took the interview to dust off my interview skills. I didn’t want to drive too far, definitely didn’t want to face getting my car up Warrenville Road in the winter. Just a practice interview. One hour-long interview with Gerard. A second two-hour long interview with Gerard. He went on about work breakdown structures and lines of business and vanilla buckets. Seriously, on and on. Quizzing me about Excel and accounting software. Much shorter meeting with Tom, he asked me nothing about Excel. We talked more about the Whitestone culture, and the future possibilities.
Well, seventeen years later, here we are.
The first few years were challenging, getting Vision up and working, creating a Finance Department. Many hours were spent in the conference room with Michelle and Gerard and his
holster full of white board markers. But somehow we always found time to laugh and shake off the stress. (just ask Michelle about binder clips or chair wheels) After a particularly tough week in March 2011, we needed a good April Fool’s trick to play on Gerard, or anyone really. A sign was posted to the new copier that had been delivered that morning. (something along these lines)
CANON FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC. NEW COPIER HAVE BEEN INSTALLED Updated Feature – Voice Activation Be sure to speak loud and clear to activate.
Along comes Gerard who read the sign and came to my office to see if I had seen it. I told him yes, it actually works. But speak loud and clear! Then I immediately ran to Tom’s office so we could listen to Gerard at the top of his lungs, COPY…….COPY……COPY…..COPY It was funny, we laughed for days. I went on vacation a few days later, which gave Gerard the perfect opportunity to aluminum foil my entire office, including individually wrapping every paper on my desk, every pen, plant, picture frame. The work has been hard, the days long, but I’ve never regretted taking that practice interview. I’ve had the opportunity to grow as an accountant, meet really nice people and really contribute. Whitestone has been a source of pride for me where I have felt a sense of accomplishment every year. As always, thank you Tom, for the opportunity. Shout out to Michelle for hanging in there with me! And cheers to G-Buckets, the founder of the Whitestone Finance Department. May his whiteboard markers never run out of ink…….
-Tina Wakai
Chris Seib Vice President Warren, NJ Tenure: 24 Years
As you may or may not know, I have been at Whitestone for almost 25 years (this translates to four different office locations and 24 Christmas parties). With the exception of the first nine months, I have spent my entire career here, and it all started from a referral from my best friend’s sister (she was an intern at the time). Fast forward all these years and I am very thankful for the opportunities Tom and the rest of Whitestone provided me and my
family. Whitestone has now become part of my family, and it is amazing how many of you have become my friends. Just the other night, a woman in our industry came up to me at an event we were hosting and was commenting on how great our company culture was and how close many of the staff were to one another (sort of a proud Dad moment). As I look back, it is hard to pick one story/event to write about as there are many. There are also a few that shouldn’t be documented in writing (the old nights out in Philly). We also didn’t have cameras in our pockets to document many of the early memories. I do know, however, that I could sit with many of you and tell war stories and laugh for hours. It is amazing how many things I have had the opportunity to experience at Whitestone both professionally and personally. While Whitestone’s 30 years of business have been an undeniable success, I look forward to and am excited about Whitestone’s future. I am looking forward to continued growth and expansion of the Whitestone brand. I never thought I would be flying to get to one of the other Whitestone office locations. We certainly have come a long way from a handful of us sharing a single computer down in the original Watchung office. We spent a lot of hard hours there growing the company while surviving on coffee and M&Ms. We thought things couldn’t get any better when we switched from pagers to cell phones, Hagstrom maps on our front seats to printed-out directions from MapQuest, and stereopair to digital aerial photographs (let’s see who knows what is in the picture below).
I never thought when I graduated college that I would be spending so much time working a hole punch and report binder or creating sample plans with scratch-off decals and stickers. Although there are not many being sold these days, the one piece of advice I can give is not to buy a car with a manual transmission if you plan to be on the Belt Parkway during rush hour. Again, I would like to say congratulations to Tom and Whitestone on 30 years of success and I look forward to many more!
-Chris Seib
Keith D'Ambrosio, PE Vice President Chalfont, PA Tenure: 28 Years
It is amazing to me that it has been over 28 years since I started at Whitestone. I was 27 years old at the time and have been with Whitestone for a longer portion of my life than time prior to Whitestone – this may sound crazy to many people, but I’m proud of this fact. I was five years out of college and made a move from a very stable large
engineering firm to take a chance on a new firm with a super aggressive approach to driving business, a hyper focus on quality and customer service, and a leader in Tom who would grind and outwork everyone. Tom and I met while the firm I worked for was a client of Tom’s construction/remediation business. He and I hit it off immediately both professionally and personally. When Tom was starting Whitestone, he told me that when I was ready to leave my prior firm that I had a job with him regardless of workload, etc. A year and a half later, I called him on a Friday, sat with him in his office on Saturday, and gave my resignation notice on Monday. Two weeks later I started with Whitestone and five of us worked out of a tiny office space with a computer on a cart so that we could share. To provide perspective on how long ago this was: we all had work pagers (google it) and when making phone calls from the field, you either were lucky enough to have the one cell phone that the company owned or you had to leave the site, find a payphone (google it), make your call, then go back to the site and finish up. As time passes and I think back, the years blend, client and people come and go, and our services and geographic reach continue to expand, however, the consistent approach and unwillingness to compromise quality and customer service have never changed. We should all be proud that most people who look at Whitestone from the outside are surprised to see so many long term employees in a time when that is rare. The future of Whitestone truly has no limit, and as the staff and leadership evolve and become stronger so does the opportunity for each employee owner. -Keith D'Ambrosio October Calendar
Download the October Calendar
October Birthdays
Aiden Price – 10/3 Alexander Cole – 10/6 Alessia Burkert – 10/18
Kevin Feath – 10/22 Whitestone - 10/24 Michael Concepcion – 10/29
The Safety Zone
Message from H&S Manager Rich Carman
All offices have been busy these last few months, burning the candle at both ends. As we move into the final quarter of the year, many clients will request projects to be completed or reach certain milestones before year’s end, adding to the workload. Get appropriate rest and maintain a healthy lifestyle to avoid fatigue and keep pace with day-to-day work demands. Make healthy decisions, and know when your body needs a break. Whitestone’s most important asset is our people, so please take every measure to protect yourself. As always, reach out to me at rcarman@whitestoneassoc.com or (407) 580-2939 with any health and safety needs. Thanks, Rich Remember, we all own safety! Everyone has the right to stop an unsafe activity and create a safer working environment. What is Wrong in this Picture?
Check your Answers!
Road Safety Essentials
Whether you are a driver, passenger, bicyclist, or pedestrian, road safety is important. The Association for Safe International Road Travel reports that more than 38,000 people die each year as a result of automobile accidents, and
such incidents are the primary cause of death for people under 55. Many of these accidents are preventable by practicing safe driving measures and increasing awareness.
Consider the following road safety tips for safe driving:
1. Watch your speed – Speeding is the leading cause of traffic accidents.
2. Put your phone down - Smartphones are the most distracting piece of technology we operate. 3. Never drive impaired - Drunk driving results in the death of 29 people every day in the U.S. 4. Always wear your seatbelt - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that seat belts save 15,000 lives each year. 5. Walk on sidewalks when possible – Always use designated sidewalks, and follow pedestrian traffic laws when crossing any roadway. 6. Maintain your vehicle - Make sure all fluid levels are topped up and tires are in good condition before getting on the road. 7. Follow road signs and rules - Traffic rules and posted signs keep you safe, ignoring them can result in an accident. Take a few moments and review Attachment N - Driver Safety/Safe Vehicle Operation of Whitestone’s Corporate Health & Safety Plan . World Photography Day!
Thank you to all Whitestone staff for these World Photography submissions. Take a trip around the world in our slideshow below!
Phone List
Trying to reach staff in another office? Download the phone list here !
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