Ronald F. Kruse | Chief Operating Officer
Lone Star Communications, Houston
(o) 713-667-9424
(d) 281-846-7352
December 29, 2021 Weekly
MAKING OUR NEIGHBORHOOD SAFER
We have a lot of our neighbors cutting corners. They cut the street corner so much near our building that it created a huge pothole. Someone thought it would be a good idea to fill this pothole with pallets. Once some drivers cut the corners on the pallets, it was a mess of shattered wood. Not good. On December 22, Hector Ruiz spearheaded an effort to fill-in a pothole the size of a smart car at the corner of South & West drives.
Sometimes you can't wait for the city to help out. First, Hector cleared a truckload of pallet wood from the hole. A lot of nails were sticking out of the wood. I'm sure the truck drivers were glad to see this mess go.
Next, Hector ordered a delivery of three yards of crushed concrete. Then Ron & Hector filled-in the large hole. It took an hour to get the hole filled and mostly drained. There was still some more work to do.
John Deterling of Deterling Company at 4223 South Drive came over to the site and added more large rock on top of the crushed concrete and used his tractor to smooth the surface over on Monday December 27. Thanks John.
Here is a video of the crushed concrete filling the hole on 12/22.
The filled hole as of 12/28
NEW WORK
Greg Propps - New Project 4077 – Houston Methodist West Hospital – MOB 3 Orthopedic Build-Out [Vaughn]
Greg Propps - New Project 4078 HCA Healthcare -West 5th Floor Ortho [BFJ Construction]
FREE STUFF
Made available through the generosity of our sponsorship, coupons redeemable for 1 ticket (a $20.00 value) can be found at my desk for the Annual Shrine Circus Three-Ring Show presented by Arabia Shriners.
Performances held at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds April 20-24, 2022.
Please call Amy Weisinger if you would like to claim some tickets.
December 22, 2021 Weekly - Second Day of Winter
NEW WORK
Cliff Switzer / Rey Chapa - MAC Project 4076 - UTMB Angleton 2nd floor Light Controls [UTMB] This was going to be a change order for Project 2565 UTMB Angleton but UTMB never issued the change order. Rey Chapa closed the project. It has now resurfaced after all these months.
LOOKING FORWARD
In September of 2021 the COO’s (Victor, Kevin, Dan & Ron) discussed the need to analyze education and healthcare estimates to look at our costs across all of the regions. My memory of the meeting focused on Master numbers and what might also be loaded in the various labor master numbers. We were making sure that we were not “double dipping” by covering costs in two places.
One byproduct of our analysis showed some regional estimating differences. On January 21, 2022 the healthcare estimators from all regions will meet in Grand Prairie for our first Estimator's Summit. We shall analyze an RFP (Request For Price) executed by all estimators in the fall of 2021. This will be a first visit to peel back the onion and view differences as well as get ideas for best practices.
SHOUT-OUT
Shout out to Amy Weisinger and Marissa Cerna for putting together the 12/17 Christmas Lunch. Lupe Tortilla was a little behind their delivery schedule, so we had some deep dish pizza appetizers cooked on the Houston Astros grill. Grill transferred to Houston from GP in May of 2018.
Also thanks to Hector Ruiz for setting up and taking down chairs.
Amy also presided over the white elephant gift exchange where Erik Rosas set the record for the most stolen from one person. Amy walked away with a bottle of Crown Royal that she stole from Marquis Woodard who stole it from Alex Sanchez.
Shout out to our new (again) Grandpa Greg Propps.
ROAD TROUBLE
Ron Kruse had a road accident Wednesday 12/15 when the Lone Star black trailer hitch failed and the single-axle trailer detached from the moving vehicle heading east on FM 2234. The projectile trailer came to rest in the westbound lane of 2234 on the bridge. No property was damaged and nobody was hurt. Jeremy Herron of Clockwork Auto came to to the crash site and helped get the trailer back on to the vehicle. Jeremy identified that the hitch was no good and said that he had seen that one before. We took it back to Clockwork Auto and Jeremy had a new Bulldog hitch welded on the trailer on 12/20. It was brought back on 12/21 a little scraped-up, but safer with a shiny new hitch.
Merry Christmas to all!
December 20 Supplement
Yessenia Zamora (November EOM) will be passing the baton over to Rene Sandoval.
The Employees of Lone Star Communications Houston have voted Rene Sandoval our December 2021 Employee of the Month.
Rene came to us in February of 2017. He is a Lead Technician for the Operations Department. If you look at the way Rene moves around, it will remind you of a football free safety. Covering the gaps for the defense.
The first project Rene ever installed for was at Texas Children’s Hospital at The Woodlands campus.
Some of the projects Rene has worked are Ben Taub, Woodlands Springs, TCH Woodlands and Houston Methodist Sugarland.
Lately Rene has been at P2643 Harris Health Ben Taub ED, P3482 Houston Physicians Hospital Expansion, P3725 BSLMC O’Quinn, P3597 CHI St. Luke’ Health.
When Rene is not working, he enjoys a good beach day or a long walk with the pups. Rene’s a dogs may not know any tricks, but they sure like to sleep.
Comments from Rene’s coworkers
Rene has been very flexible and accommodates to work at different hours of the day to work with the customer’s schedule. He jumps around different projects and is always willing to help-out where needed.
Rene is reliable and cares about the projects.
Rene has demonstrated that he’s a good employee and he can go up and above.
Knows what it means to be a Lone Star team member.
Rene is a responsible technician.
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One Team, One Purpose, One Family.
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THE FUN STUFF
Rene will receive a gift set from behind door #1 in Ron’s office and we will add his name to the plaque in the front lobby alongside the other 2021 Employees of the Month.
Finally, Rene will receive a limited-edition Employee of the Month commemorative custom coins designed by our own Cliff Switzer.
From: Amy Weisinger Sent: Monday, December 20, 2021 To: Everybodyhouston Subject: Which Wich® WINNER!
Good Morning Team,
I’m pleased to announce the winner of the Which Wich® Gift Card Drawing below:
Congratulations!
The names entered in the drawing went into a randomizer program and the winner of the gift card was determined by a computer.
Special thanks to everyone who participated in the drawing by nominating a colleague!
December 16 Supplement
SHOUT-OUT
From: Gregory Propps Subject: A Shout-Out to Monique Dow
Monique has been doing a fantastic job of working with our HCA Customers as they tweak their R5 processes and issue CRF’s, and measure and issue new CRF’s and measure and ….
I liken it to trying to keep ants in a circle. She has a hard job.
During this process, she’s uncovered the need for more buttons, and more process refinements at two of our HCA locations.
This has given Julie Fischer and myself very good reasons to talk to them about the Four -Button devices.
Julie currently has given pricing for installing about 65 units and I’m requesting pricing for 280 of the Four-Button devices.
Thank you, Monique!
AROUND TOWN
Pentatonix Evergreen Christmas Tour
Three-time Grammy Award-winning vocal artists Pentatonix from Arlington Texas will be in Sugar Land at the Smart Financial Center on December 21st, and they will be in Grand Prairie on December 22nd at Texas Trust CU Theatre. Scott Hoying, Matt Sallee, Kirstin Maldonado, Kevin Olusola, and Mitch Grassi.
Three of the members attended Arlington Martin High School. Two members graduated in 2010 and one in 2011. Fun fact: Our CFO Jim Hendrix has two boys that attended the same high school and they graduated in 2012. Future members of Arlington Martin HS from the Trey Meador family are currently in the minor leagues.
December 15, 2021 Weekly
GOOD NEWS
We have enough parts to do our work for multiple units on January 3 at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital.
Also, HCA West Houston plans to start back up January 10.
SHOUT OUT
From Julie Fischer
Matagorda Regional Medical Center - Go LSCH Team!
Last week I got a call from Cheri Cox at Matagorda Regional Medical Center asking if we could help with finding a solution for a paraplegic patient that they had just admitted to their hospital. They needed a way for this person to operate the pillow speaker. I told Cheri I would get busy to locate either shoulder pads or Sip/Puff equipment that we could connect to the nurse call system to help them out. I reached out to Cliff Switzer to see if he knew of any place where I could get my hands on the equipment fast. Come to find out, we had the Sip/Puff equipment in stock that could be used, thank you Cliff & Hector Ruiz. I immediately called Cheri back and told her we had the equipment, and we would get our Service Team to help as soon as possible. We had this turned around in about 15 minutes to get our hands on the equipment, the Service Team brought up to speed on what needed to happen. It was simply amazing!
This is a huge shout out to Jaime Chapa and Erik Canizales for getting the equipment installed at Matagorda Regional Medical Center for their R5 Nurse Call System. Erik took the call and had this patient taken care of quickly. This not only was great customer service at its best, but a superb example of how Lone Star Communications remains focused on the humanitarian aspect of our jobs. In addition, I also want to thank Violeta Soria for her part in making this happen with the call dispatch, Q360 work as always, she is such an asset to our Service Team and Lone Star Communications office. Violeta is always willing to help when called upon, a great quality that does not go unnoticed.
I called the following morning to check with Cheri to see how the patient did through the night, Cheri couldn’t say enough how pleased they were, the joy in her voice was refreshing. The patient was so happy, and not only that but the hospital’s Administration was elated. Life can throw some punches, thank you Jaime & Erik for helping me, our customer and especially this patient, we all will be forever grateful for your help.
Thank you everyone….such a great team!
NEW WORK
Cliff Switzer - New Project 3690 Kindred NW ARU Renovation [Endurance Builders]
Cliff Switzer - New Project 3693 UTMB League City Server Migration [University of Texas Medical Branch]
Julie Fischer - Contract received for project 3973 HMH Jones 8 & 9 [DPR]
Cliff Switzer - New Project 4013 - HMH Clear Lake MRI Replacement Project [The Trevino Group]
FREE STUFF
Made available through the generosity of our sponsorship, coupons redeemable for 1 ticket (a $20.00 value) can be found at my desk for the Annual Shrine Circus Three-Ring Show presented by Arabia Shriners.
Performances held at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds April 20-24, 2022.
Please call Amy Weisinger if you would like to claim some tickets.
December 17 – Christmas Lunch & white elephant gift exchange ($25 Limit)
13:00 – 15:00
RSVP to Amy’s Email
Catered Lunch – please bring a dessert if you’d like to add to the festivities (thanks Amy).
Ron will be cooking some deep dish pizzas on the grill.
December 9, 2021 Weekly
NEW WORK
Aaron Reyna - New Project 4008 Advance Body Scan - Bellaire ASC
[Jacob White Construction]
Greg Propps - New Project 3994 HCA Willis Ambulatory Surgery Center
[Structure Tone SW]
Cliff Switzer - New Project 4006 HCA Texas Orthopedic Hospital Surgery Renovation [Rauland-Borg]
DECEMBER
December 10 - LSC Audio 0 - I/O Class
Gus Torres found an issue Wednesday 12/8 with the class preview study videos on the Paycom system. Gus coordinated with Trey Meador and got the links fixed.
We are going to have an internal class of eight taught by Justin Bailey on December 10. Class from 8:00 - 12:00.
Overview of audio system to equip technicians with the foundation of audio principles. Input and output, relays and switching, measuring and testing fundamentals. How to view, break down, and digest complex system drawings. Familiarize technicians with datasheets and relevant terminology for audio components to prevent accidental improper use. Discussion of signal levels, balanced vs unbalanced, decibel, input sensitivity, output levels, relays and switching.
Gus Torres
Erik Canizales
Roberto Lopez
Cris Ortega
Andre Hernandez
Alex Sanchez
Rene Sandoval (added)
Marco Huertas (added)
December 17 – Christmas Lunch & white elephant gift exchange ($25 Limit)
13:00 – 15:00
RSVP to Amy’s Email
Catered Lunch – please bring a dessert if you’d like to add to the festivities (thanks Amy).
Ron will be cooking some deep dish pizzas on the grill.
MISC.
No entries from employees were offered for our Employee of the Month Coin Design Contest.
Cliff Switzer made a new coin design for 2022 and it is off to the printer.
December 1, 2021
SHOUT OUT
Joel Orellana – Joel’s first thanksgiving 5K run
NEW WORK
Aaron Reyna – New Project 3990 TAMUC Prairie Crossing Laundry Door – [Transact Campus Inc.]
Cliff Switzer – Existing P3229 HMH Woodlands South Tower Expansion - Change Order #006 (BP6 Backfill Renovation) [Vaughn Construction Company]
DECEMBER
December 10 - LSC Audio 0 - I/O Class
We are going to have an internal class of six taught by Justin Bailey on December 10. Class from 8:00 - 12:00
Overview of audio system to equip technicians with the foundation of audio principles. Input and output, relays and switching, measuring and testing fundamentals. How to view, break down, and digest complex system drawings. Familiarize technicians with datasheets and relevant terminology for audio components to prevent accidental improper use. Discussion of signal levels, balanced vs unbalanced, decibel, input sensitivity, output levels, relays and switching.
Gus Torres
Erik Canizales
Roberto Lopez
Cris Ortega
Andre Hernandez
Alex Sanchez
December 17 – Christmas Lunch & white elephant gift exchange ($25 Limit) 13:00 – 15:00
RSVP to Amy’s Email
Catered Lunch – please bring a dessert if you’d like to add to the festivities (thanks Amy)
NOVEMBER
Design Contest for 2022 LSCH Employee of the Month Coin - No entries were offered.
Cliff is refreshing the 2021 design for a 2022 new design.
SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES
We continue to work with our vendors on accurate lead times for materials. Dates are slipping by with only rough projections.
It does not look promising that this will get much better until the second quarter of 2022.
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