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Four awards to be presented as part
of EEO workshop in Post Falls

The transportation department will honor four individuals next week for their outstanding achievement while participating in the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program. Awards will be presented Wednesday during a biannual workshop organized by ITD’s Equal Employment Office and Human Resource Services.

The two-day workshop will be Tuesday and Wednesday at the Templin’s Red Lion Hotel in Post Falls. The first day of the workshop is designed primarily for ITD employees. It features presentations by Sam Byrd of Diversity Works!, J. Dallas Gudgell of SpeakEasy and Kelli Kinkela, Idaho Human Rights Education Center.

Contractors on ITD projects will benefit from the second day of the conference. The agenda includes presentations by Larry D. Keown of LDK Associates, Lisa Wormington of the Arizona Department of Transportation and Fran Hood, an associate construction engineer for ITD.

Awards will be presented Wednesday. Recipients will receive engraved plaques acknowledging their contributions to making the DBE program successful. They are:

Larry Beitlich, a residency office manager in District 2. As a project inspector, Beitlich completes required forms to assure EEO compliance on his projects. He continues to make compliance with the contract Civil Rights Provisions a high priority and constantly communicates to contractors the requirements of EEO program.

“His determined efforts to work with other staff members and contractors to create complete and accurate records reflecting EEO Special Provision compliance provides a great benefit to our department,” said John Ward who nominated Beitlich for the honor.

Richard Holmes, an office manager for Residency A in District 5. Holmes has been office manager for approximately 20 years and has been committed to a thorough understanding of every provision of the External EEO program. In 2005 he assumed the task of becoming the first-line contact person in establishing quarterly meetings with the Native American TERO (Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance) office.

“I think Richard’s knowledge of and commitment to the External EEO Program is second to none,” said District 5’s Wayne Curtis in his nomination of Holmes. “I appreciate his commitment to the goals of the program, his commitment to fairness and his tireless efforts to make compliance with this program a win-win situation for everyone involved.”

Norm Rudolph, selected as EEO officer of the year, is a project engineer for Idaho Sand and Gravel of Nampa. Selection was based on his proactive efforts to foster EEO compliance. He promotes the EEO and title VI program, created a pre-apprenticeship program and is involved with the Construction Education Foundation of Idaho.

Cheri Hall, owner of Pocatello-based Amerigo. She began as a flagger and then expanded contracting services into a traffic control business. She also added seeding, fencing, irrigation systems, signage and environmental restoration services for federally funded highway construction projects.

The DBE program was established to ensure that firms owned by minorities, women and other socially and economically disadvantaged persons have an equal opportunity to participate in U.S. Department of Transportation-assisted projects.

The goal is to level the playing field on which DBEs may compete for contracts and subcontracts in the transportation industry.

To qualify as a DBE, small for-profit businesses must be at least 51 percent owned and controlled by one or more U.S. citizens or permanent residents and who are both socially and economically disadvantaged.