LONE SUPERSTAR: Eduardo Magallanes!

Eduardo came to work in February 2019 as an installer. In his time at Lone Star, he has matured to a technician level. Eduardo is proven to be trustworthy, honest, and capable. Eduardo’s skills have developed by asking questions of his peers and supervisors. He stays focused on the tasks at hand.

Eduardo supports his coworkers. He is always willing to learn the next thing. Here are some of the projects he has worked. Bush Renner Methodist and Denton Select.

Eduardo’s supervisors all complimented his leadership and trust. They all can count on him to keep his crew motivated and busy.

Eduardo was assigned to work Our Lady of Victory project and it’s timeline was tight, He said “his team stepped up to help the project finish on time.”

Eduardo works primarily in the healthcare installs. He has contributed on the educations projects as well.

Eduardo is very proud to be a father. He finds it rewarding and one of his greatest accomplishments.

Before Lone Star he worked for a glass company. Also, with Spectrum installing internet, cable TV and phones in homes.

For fun Eduardo like attending car shows. He also like riding bike trails with his son.

The most memorable vacation was to Mobile Alabama where they attended a car show without the kids. There they toured the ships stationed is the Battleship Memorial Park on the western shore of Mobile Bay in Mobile, Alabama.

-By Dan Hiett, Chief Operating Officer, Grand Prairie

LONE SUPERSTAR: Marissa Cerna!

For this month, I chose to highlight Marissa Cerna of the Houston office by spinning the wheel of names of employees of the month for 2021.

Adapted by an article written by Jamie Selman for the July employee of the month.

Marissa has been with Lone Star Communications since November of ’06 (Halco 2006 – 2015). This year will mark her 15-year anniversary.

Marissa was born in Allende, Nuevo León Mexico and moved to Houston when she was two-years old. Marissa enjoys spending time with her grandchildren any chance she gets. She likes watching scary movies and dislikes being home alone. She also likes to go visit family in Mexico and travel to places where she can enjoy mountains and rivers.

Marissa considers her biggest accomplishment paying off her first house and just about paying off the second one. She enjoys volleyball, but as far as other sports go, she is not a fan of any team in particular.

Comments from Marissa’s coworkers for July 2021 Employee of the Month

· Marissa Cerna is the kind of person who’s always available to help us regarding HR so she definitely is my employee of the month this time.

· Marissa is always willing to help regardless of how busy she is.

· Always gets the work done on time.

· Marissa is a hard-working lady that gets the job done.

· Team player, hard worker and dedicated.

· Great Supervisor ;)

· Always available to help.

Q & A from Amy Weisinger

Q: Where is your hometown?

A: Allende, Mexico

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: I completed High School here in Houston

Q: How many children do you have?

A: I have two children. Juan Daniel Perez is 26 years old. My Daughter is 23 and her name is Julissa. She is single and in school working on her bachelor's in business management. I also have a stepson, Mark Cerna. He is 22 and father of a two-year-old baby girl.

Q: How many grandchildren do you have?

A: Three total. My son is the father of two boys ages 4 and 1. My stepson, Mark has a 2- year-old girl.

Q: How would you describe what you do in your current position at Lone Star?

A: Accounting. I enjoying billing and processing new jobs. I look over contracts, do administrative tasks and lots of other things. I’ve been here a long time.

Q: What is something most people don’t know about you?

A: I got married when I was 18 and had my first child at 19 years old.

Q: What is the weirdest job you’ve ever had?

A: I worked as a waitress at a taqueria when I was 14. I also had a job in a bakery, worked at the post office warehouse, a department store. I was even a loan officer at a mortgage company before joining Lone Star.

Q: Do you have any pets?

A: Two dogs. Rocky and Duke

Q: Are you a dog person or a cat person?

A: Neither. If I HAD to choose? Dog.

Q: What are your hobbies?

A: I'd like to make more time for my hobbies. I enjoy working out, riding bikes, and spending time with grandbabies.

Q: What is your favorite Houston sports team?

A: No thanks. Not really a sports fan.

Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Houston, and why would you recommend it to people?

A: Lupe tortilla, because they have the best fajitas.

Q: What are you currently reading?

A: After reading emails and contracts, I don’t enjoy reading for fun.

Q: What are you currently listening to or watching on TV?

A: I like to catch up on a soap opera here and there. 911 just started and Phillip and I are going to watch that.

Q: What is something you’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t done yet?

A: I’ve always wanted to go to Niagara Falls or take the Alaskan cruise.

Q: Any dirt you can share on Phillip?

A: A lot. Not that she's willing to dish any necessarily, but she has put up with him for all 14 years they’ve shared together. 😊

-By Ronald F. Kruse, Chief Operating Officer, Houston &

Amy Wiesinger, Receptionist / AR Assistant, Houston

LONE SUPERSTAR: Jeff Banks!

Lone Star Communications' Central Texas (LSCT) has chosen Jeff Banks for the employee highlight.

Jeff has been with us for 15 years. He is our Engineering Guru for Healthcare & Education. If it has anything to do with CAD he is the go to guy! We chose Jeff because of his work ethic. He is always willing to go above and beyond to meet deadlines. Which shows how he exemplifies our core values of “One Team, One Purpose, One Family.” Jeff doesn’t just count beans and make drawings. He learns limitations of systems he is designing so he understands how they work in order to properly design them per code.

Here are a few examples of what his coworkers think of him.

“Jeff Banks is unreal. The sheer amount of work he gets done is amazing, not to mention the time pressure he is often under. This guy is the best of us. There’s seemingly nothing he can’t do. On top of all that, the quality of his work & the attention to detail is the best I’ve seen. We wouldn’t be who we are without Jeff Banks.”- Chris Andrus

“Jeff is an easy going, even keeled guy who is always willing to put in the extra effort to get things done. Whether it’s getting in early, staying late or working over the weekend, Jeff is always ready to raise his hand to help out. In our fast-paced work environment where we are often at the mercy of the general contractors in terms of timely information received, Jeff takes the extremely detailed projects (on very tight timelines) in stride. Too many times I’ve tasked him with the “man I hate to do this to you, but we just got this and they needed it yesterday” project. Time after time, he knocks it out of park.”- Prentiss Brown

Jeff was kind enough to share a few of his hobbies, plus some of his future goals.

Bowling – I have been bowling since I was 5 years old; it was a family thing for us. I have bowled all over the country, from Florida to New York to Alaska and Las Vegas. I also help run bowling tournaments on the weekends here in Georgetown. I am a member of the local boards bowling association.

Golfing – This used to be my second passion, don’t have the time to play as much as I would like too. Although I do get out with friends for a beer or two and chasing the little white ball around (If it isn’t too hot that is, Lol). I do have one hole-in-one to my credit, and several other near misses.

Texas Hold’em Poker – I love to play poker when I can, we have a local league in town that I play about once a week. Before the COVID-19 issues, I was actually a tournament director for the club and would run some of the games for them at local bars/pubs. I have played in Vegas at some of the smaller tournaments, but nothing like the World Series of Poker (maybe one day??).

BBQing – This has taken over as my second passion in my life right now. My favorite things to cook are ribs, pork or beef, yum!! Although I do enjoy cooking all sorts of food, I’ve had to cut back a little due to being in trouble with my fiancé. Think her quote was, “Your cooking is too good, and I am gaining weight!!” Oops, so we are on a little bit of a health-kick right now.

Singing Karaoke - I’m not very good at the singing, but it is a great stress reliever. Although I do have a couple songs I do well…

Future goals:

• Getting married, was going to be this year on Halloween night at the bowling alley. We have decided to postpone it until 2022 (on the same day, of course, and location). This is due to the uncertainty of the COVID situation.

• RCDD certification, looking into to getting certified at some point next year. But there is a lot of information to learn and read about.

• Continuing to learn more about Revit and other CAD based programs to stay on top of the new technologies.

• Food Truck ????

Thank you, Jeff, for what you do and will continue to do. You are an awesome coworker, and we are honored to have you here.

*Jeff and his fiancée

-By Victor Gonzalez, Chief Operating Officer, Central Texas