• Coastal Mechanical Services has been awarded a new contract totaling more than $3.7 million. C.R. Klewin Southeast awarded Coastal Mechanical the HVAC and plumbing contract for the new Florida Atlantic University 600-bed residence hall in Boca Raton, Fla. The project consists of a sevenstory, 130-room dormitory cooled by two 170-ton chillers. There will be 12,000 ft. of chilled water piping, 625 fixtures and 21,000 ft. of copper domestic water pipe installed upon completion of the project.
• Several Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors members volunteered July 23-29 to rehabilitate hurricane-damaged homes for low-income Gulf Coast homeowners. The program was part of Rebuilding Together's Rebuild 1000 campaign to restore 1,000 affected homes in the region. PHCC representatives renovated the plumbing systems in three homes in New Orleans.
• "The jobs report for July tells a tale of two construction industries," Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, said in comments on the Aug. 4 employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that show little change in overall construction employment for the fifth straight month. "Seasonally adjusted construction employment edged up by 6,000 jobs in July to 7.503 million," Simonson said. "But nonresidential building and specialty trades employment added nearly 16,000 employees. That was about one of seven net new hires in the economy, even though these sectors are just 2% of total non-farm employment."
• The Mechanical Contractors Association of America is a supporter of Women in HVACR, which has set a goal of 100 attendees for its conference this year. The event will be held Sept. 12-13 in Baltimore. A flier and registration form is available at www.womeninhvacr.org
• The American Red Cross and Grainger, a distributor of facilities maintenance supplies, have teamed up to recruit and train corporate employees as disaster volunteers to help support the 70,000 disasters that the Red Cross responds to each year. Grainger is the national founding sponsor of the program, Ready When the Time Comes, which will roll out in 16 Red Cross chapters over the next two years. The initial eight metropolitan communities are: Baltimore; Houston; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles; New York; Orange County, Cal.; San Francisco; and St. Louis.