Construction Junction - Building Material Reuse

Staff

About our staff

Here's the inside scoop on the staff of Construction Junction.  We're asking the same eight questions across the board and will post staff answers as they're gathered. 

1. What was your very first job?

2. Where did you work right before CJ?

3. How long have you been at CJ?

4. What do you want to be when you grow up?

5. Why do you like working at CJ?

6. What's your function at the Junction?

7. Have you always been concerned about the environment?

8. What do you envision for CJ in five years?

9. If you were one of the characters in the Wizrd of Oz... which would it be?

Bruce Brinker

1. Gourley Meat Packing in Clarion County.

2. Apprenticeship program at Whitefish Pottery in Whitefish Montana.

3. Two years.

4. An astronaut.  This is the same answer I've had to this question since second grade.

5. Because I can grow a beard.

6. Warehouse operations.

7. No, I haven't always been concerned about the environment.

8. We're off the energy grid.

9. I'd be Dorothy... after all she's the one having the experience.

Brian Swearingen

1. Worked on a golf course when I was fifteen. 

2. Been in construction for the last twenty-five years.

3. Five years.

4. I just want to die with my boots on.

5. Everybody is so nice... except for me of course.

6. Workhorse.

7. Sure.

8. I will have a personal helipad.

9.  I'd be the horse of another color.

Joe Lamar

1. Selling newspapers...  maybe working in a fish market.  Can't remember...  I was young...  eleven in fact.

2. Supervisor for Lifeswork.

3. Since it started in July 1999.  I'm one of the anchor guys.

4. Me...  wouldn't change a thing.

5. Meeting the people and seeing the different types of things people find uses for in their homes.  Seeing how things go together.  CJ was a new enterprise and I like seeing it progress.  I learn something new almost every day.

6. Sales Manager/Customer Relations

7. Can't say I have...  no.

8. Hope I'm here for one thing.  I see a lot of doors opening up, a more modern store, drawing more people in, and increased competition in the marketplace.

9.  

derek stoltz

1. Shoe salesman (15 years old).

2. Best Buy (boo hoo!).

3. Since September 2007.

4. Photographer, videographer, sculptor, set designer.

5. Creative place, constantly changing environment, supports our environment, great customers and people to work with.

6. Warehouse/Truck operations.

7. Not as much as now, but I've always been environmentally conscious because my father and I recycled when I was a kid.

8. Will get bigger, more well known, play an even larger roll in the community, be a permanent drop off for hazardous wastes so they can get recycled and disposed of properly.

9. The Wizard.

Mike Gable

1. Warehouse worker in a paint company purchased by my great grandfather in 1922 -- it's all about who you know. 

2. Organic farmer for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

3. Since the beginning.

4. Taller.

5. I like that our mission resonates so strongly with so many people.

6. The guy that tries to hold it all together.

7. I would say yes.  In the fifth grade I started the pollution club -- no we didn't make pollution, we picked up litter until there was an internal power struggle and...

8. It will be taller...  No seriously, in five years CJ will be the most dynamic, innovative, and green reuse facility in the country.  We will also have our own beer label :)

9. From an environmental perspective, I'm torn between the scarecrow (compostable) or the tin man (recycled for scrap) -- also there is the whole head/heart conflict thing in my choice, but that's another interview. 

Shannon Clover

1. Delivering the Washington Observer newspaper at 4:30 am when I was 10 or 11 years old.

2. Social Innovation Accelerator.

3. I start in July 2008.

4. A travel writer.

5. I imagine I'm going to like working at CJ because it's simply the coolest place in town.

6. Operations Director.

7. Yeah, every person has to do what they can if we are all going to survive. I thought as a young child that everyone had a compost pile, until I got yelled at for "helping the neighbors start one" by throwing the remnants of a picnic plate in their yard.

8. As the expert and example in all practical applications of green things.

9. Toto, because with elegant simplicity he reveals the elephant in the room...and he gets carted around in a pretty fine basket.

Cozmo

1. Being cute.

2. Gardenalia.

3. Seven dog years.

4. Mr. Bowie Rose (Bowie is my girlfirend and Ms. Rose is her mother).

5. For the world recognition.

6. Info desk manager and CEO (canine executive officer).

7. Yes.  Particularly about trees and all vertical natural elements.

8. An expansive pet department with all sorts of reused items such as half chewed raw hides, eviscerated plush toys and squeakless sqeakers.

9. The Wizard... of course.