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Show II THIS OLD WATEIt WHEEL (with Water Commissioner Modesto Montoya Inside) which served the town of Pagosa Springs, Colo., for decades, was replaced last year by a $130,000 modern filtration plant and pumping system, which promises to take the' sludge out of the town residents' drinking water. The water supply, the San Juan River, Is silted so heavily that engineers fear it will affect Boulder Dam generators, hundreds of miles downstream on the Colorado River In Nevada. Steel Plant 'Duz' Everything Grand Junction Steel Fabricating Company's main claim to fame (In the steel line, of course) Is that it resembles that famout kitchchen product It "duz" almost everything. Seriously, the firm boasts of, with complete justification, some ef the largest steel fabricating Jobs done on the Colorado Plateau, while at the same time officials of the firm will take on a machinery repair Job for a farmer that may cost no more than $5. Many of their recent projects have been along the lines of a 400-ton, 20-foot diameter, 47-foot high ore bin, recently completed, hauled to and installed for the mill expansion program currently being carried on by Climax Uranium Co. at Grand Junction. Other monstrous jobs in the recent past Include the building of four 200-ton capacity ore bins for the AEC buying station at Moab, Utah. Fabricated out of half-inch plate, the bins were too big to be erected inside the shop, go all work was done outside the plant. So huge were the bins that it was necessary for the AEC to truck them to Moab while the tanks were lying on their sides. Three .years go, the firm completed several coal bins for the Public Serivce Company, all of them of 150-ton capacity. As If to prove they deal In big things, office manager B. E. "Bud" BronsoH (also a Junior partner in the firm) stands 6 feet 4 Inches, one of the biggest men behind a desk In Grand Junction. Grand Junction Steel's plant covers a full two city blocks at the east end of the community, giving them. In the words of president and I general manager M. A. "Al" Cor-nellson, "plenty of room to expand and that's just what we are doing, along with Grand Junction. We are very Interested in the future of the community, as our firm Is tied closely to the development of Grand Junction. We are planning, in 1955, to enlarge our shops and our engineering department, the latter In order to provide full enpl-neering consultant service. Now, we provide a certain amount of that service, but we want to build it up." Cornellson traced the growth of the firm since its inception in 1946 with two men (he and his brother C. It.) to its present stature as a quarter-million dollar corporation hiring 38 people. Among area projects In .which the firm had a hand are the new dining hall at the state home, Club Caravan. Mark's Macongan, the new Safeway and North Avenue City Markets, schools In Meeker, Glenwood Springs, Fruitvale, Car-bondale and Aspen. Keating Ha'J and the Women's dorm at Gunnison Collebe and the USV warehouse. In addition to fabricating work, the company furnishes mine head frames, water hauling and storage tanks, buildings, conveyors, ore bins and structural steel for buildings to the mining industry. To all other comers. Grand Junction Steel offers its complete services on a "no job too small" basis. |
