Gardnerville company finds work on the East Coast

Lack of regional construction opportunities forced Bud Rinasz, owner of BR Construction of Gardnerville, to pursue work on the East Coast, and his company won a significant contract for electrical replacement work.

BR Construction will replace the exterior electrical systems for the Bath Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Bath, N.Y. The $2.047 million contract includes replacing conduit, switching gear and transformers while keeping the hospital online. Once the new system is up and running, BR Construction will remove the outdated electrical components.

"It will be just like brand-new," Rinasz said.

The job won't be without significant challenges, Rinasz said. Older jobs often don't follow existing blueprints, and though you can form a plan of attack beforehand, what's in the ground forces detours in the game plan.

"We'll have to go under roads and sidewalks and miss all the existing systems," Rinasz said. "Any kind of retrofit goes day-to-day. You might have a good plan in formulation, but once you try to implement it, it could change."

BR Construction expects to employ between 30 and 40 workers on the six-month job. The company landed the contract after opening a regional office in Victor, N.Y., as another avenue to generate business. Rinasz has a brother in the area.

"In Nevada there is not a lot of stuff going on, and we decided to expand and go to different markets," Rinasz said. "This keeps us going and keeps our guys going.

"We are branching out, we have good contacts and good people working with us. We see it as another step in the evolution of our business. There are a lot of VA hospitals back there, they have them in almost every county, so my opportunities are much greater."