News

Construction is Underway on the GHP Fish Food Bank

WA Patriot has begun construction on a new 10,000 sf facility for the Gig Harbor Peninsula Fish Food Bank. The new, larger home will help GHP FISH serve clients, volunteers and the community well into the future and allow more efficient processing and storage of donated food and other items. It offers expanded shopping areas and has room for an expanded clothing and household goods area, a conference room for groups, and private offices to provide a place for confidential client meetings. WA Patriot’s Mac Stanton, Zerah Florance, Alex Powell, Rory Godinez and Phil Kvamme have worked together with the design team, Ratcliffe Gagliano Architects and Owner’s Representative Wade Perrow to get this project off to a great start. We look forward to a successful finish in spring/early summer of 2022.

Click here to watch a video of the first foundation pour, marking an exciting milestone for the project!

WA Patriot’s Bonnie Melchior Retires

It is with mixed emotions that WA Patriot announces the retirement of Bonnie Melchior. Bonnie has been a great coworker and committed employee, and she will be greatly missed. We are indebted to her commitment and contributions to furthering our company’s EEO policy and Safety program in addition to countless accounting functions she served. Her retirement is our loss, but a well-deserved respite for her. We know she is eager to catch up on her travels and love of photography, and we wish her nothing but the best in her future endeavors.

On June 18, 2021 our team got together to celebrate Bonnie and others who have retired in the past couple of years, including Carpenters Mark Peele, Dave Seals, Billy Snape and Ken Tepley, as well as Project Manager Mark Zygmontowicz. We want to give all retirees a huge THANK YOU for your service to both Wade Perrow Construction and WA Patriot.

WA Patriot Joins Gig Harbor’s Adopt-A-Road Program

Earlier this month, WA Patriot took part in the City of Gig Harbor’s Adopt-A-Road program as part of our commitment to SERVE our community. The goal of the program is to make Gig Harbor the best and cleanest community in our area by reducing roadside litter, and to build civic pride in a litter-free city road system. Many thanks to our volunteers who took a few hours of their afternoon to remove litter on Peacock Hill, from Vernhardson Street to 112th Street. WA Patriot will continue to serve the Gig Harbor community with volunteer teams scheduled four times per year to help maintain clean roads throughout the city.

Click here to learn how you and your organization can participate in this citywide litter control program.

WA Patriot Promotions

WA Patriot promoted Mikhail Balasyuk to Project Manager, Bogdan Tishchenko to Assistant Project Manager, and Zerah Florance and Neil Shaw to Senior Project Managers.

Mikhail interned with WA Patriot in the summer of 2015 until he permanently joined our team in 2016. He started as a project engineer and transitioned to Project Manager soon thereafter. He holds degrees in architecture and construction management from UW, and primarily leads design-build projects for our private clients.

Bogdan Tishchenko was promoted to Assistant Project Manager after serving as Project Engineer with WA Patriot since he was hired in 2017. Bogdan graduated from UW with a degree in Urban Planning & Design, and a Minor in Architecture. He supports our project teams with careful planning, estimating, and in the development of collaboration tools that visually show not tell what we intend to accomplish. Bogdan is also an accomplished photographer capturing the very best of the projects WA Patriot builds.

Zerah joined the WA Patriot team as Project Manager in 2009 and has led some of our most diverse design-build projects. She holds a degree in construction management from UW and a degree in architecture from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Zerah fosters the development of our project managers and provides guidance on design-build projects.

Neil joined WA Patriot in 2013, and primarily leads our public projects with State and Federal agencies. He holds a construction management degree from UW and serves as a mentor to our Project Engineer/Quality Control team. Neil’s an accomplished PM, Estimator, and trusted team leader.

Celebrating Safety Excellence

WA Patriot is proud to announce that we received another Safety Excellence award from the AGC of WA for our outstanding safety program in 2020. Many thanks to our project teams and to our Safety Engineer, Brandon Swaab, for their tireless efforts in making safety a priority at WA Patriot!

Expanding our Team

WA Patriot is pleased to announce the addition of several new team members this past year.

Dumitru Robu, graduate of UW’s Construction Management program, joined us full time as a Project Engineer to primarily support our private projects.

Lauren Lusk joined WA Patriot as Project Administrator / Administrative Assistant. She has a BA in Interior Design with a Minor in Construction Management. She provides administrative support to our estimating department, marketing, and project teams performing a variety of project-related tasks in addition to general office administrative tasks.

Keegan Bennett joined WA Patriot as a Quality Control Manager, where he has been supporting several projects with NAVFAC Northwest at multiple Naval Base Kitsap locations. He has a BS in Construction Management with a Minor in Business Admin from WSU.

Dayna Schicker joined our team as Assistant Controller responsible for month-end closing of financials, daily processing of cash receipts, posting of cash transactions, and review/administration of contracts. She has a Finance Degree from Portland State University, MBA from University of Portland, and is a CPA.

Ernesto Valdes joined our team as Payroll Administrator. He holds a BBA in Accounting with a Minor in Finance from Interamerican University of Puerto Rico.

Rob Floberg joined WA Patriot as Assistant Project Manager, where he supports our private clients by offering preconstruction and construction management assistance.

Phil Thornton, Project Manager, brings over 10 of industry experience, with the last 7 years in the management role. His primary focus is leading WA Patriot’s projects for The Boeing Company at their Auburn, Frederickson, Kent, and Tukwila campuses.

WA Patriot Celebrates Bronco Electric as our Subcontractor of the Year for 2020

WA Patriot officially celebrated Bronco Electric of Silverdale, WA as our Subcontractor of the Year for their unwavering support of our projects in 2020. They were a pleasure to work with, and their communication and quality of craftsmanship was outstanding. They were quick to respond, were always willing to go above and beyond to help our project teams, and performed their work with a great attitude and work ethic. We are grateful for their partnership and look forward to a long, mutually rewarding relationship with their team.

WA Patriot Employees SERVE at Tacoma Rescue Mission

On Friday, March 12, WA Patriot employees participated in Tacoma Rescue Mission’s lunch service. They helped prepare and serve lunch for Friday’s service, and also prepped breakfast for Saturday. Our team is passionate about supporting Tacoma Rescue Mission (TRM) and we always enjoy serving together. To learn more about TRM and their mission to bring help to those who need it most, visit their website at www.trm.org.

 

WA Patriot Hosts Blood Drive

On Friday October 16, WA Patriot hosted a blood drive for Cascade Regional Blood Services. Our drive did exceptionally well, with 13 participants and 13 units collected – 100% of our goal! We are happy to say that those 13 units of blood, once processed, produced 39 blood products for local hospitals. I want to thank all who participated from the WA Patriot team, and also to thank the Cascade Regional Blood Services group for their commitment to helping our community. For information on how you can donate, you can go to www.crbs.net to find a mobile close to you. NOTE: They are also at Albertsons Gig Harbor North every Monday from 12-6:30 pm.

Way to go TEAM WA PATRIOT!

WA Patriot Safety Stand-Down 2020

WA Patriot held our annual 2020 Stand-Down in September in conjunction with the annual OSHA Safety Stand-Down. This yearly event encourages taking a break to focus on fall hazards and emphasizes fall protection. During WA Patriot’s safety week, our corporate Safety Engineer, Brandon Swaab, visited each project site to discuss the importance of safety and, specifically, fall protection. Each jobsite participated in a discussion regarding site-specific fall hazards and fall protection. The importance of a stand-down is to put an emphasis on the specific hazards that require more attention than others. Having stand-downs shines a light on the hazard at hand and reminds the crew that we must remain diligent at working safely.

WA Patriot’s number one priority and commitment is making sure that everyone goes home safe. #StandDown4Safety