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Week of August 12, 2026 · Issue No. 17
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President's Reflections
Our Best Legacy Golf Outing Yet
The Legacy Golf Outing is one of our most popular events of the year, and this year it delivered. We sold out at 144 golfers. We welcomed more sponsors than we ever have, and those sponsors were more engaged than I have seen them. Congratulations to our two winning teams, one from Conger Construction and one from MSD. Both played the kind of round the rest of us will be hearing about for a while.
Credit for the day belongs to our staff. Vickie Palmer ran this outing for the first time, and the team she led pulled off something that looked effortless from the fairway and was anything but behind the scenes. The feedback tells the story better than I can: every golfer who responded said they would recommend the outing to a friend or colleague, and more than two thirds said so emphatically. That is a standard to beat, and I look forward to bigger and better golf events ahead.
Doug Bolton
President of ABC Ohio Valley
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August 20, 2026 · 12:30 p.m. · Great American Ballpark
NextGen at Reds Game
Next Gen Leaders take over a private party deck at Great American Ballpark as the Reds host the St. Louis Cardinals. Your ticket covers food and beverage, and the deck seats a fixed number of people. We are pushing to close this one out by Tuesday, so if you are planning to come, claim your spot now rather than the morning of the game. Tickets go out by email the week of the game, and first pitch is 12:40 p.m.
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Backlog Slipped. Now What Happens to Payroll?
ABC’s July backlog indicator fell below the 8.8-month plateau that held through spring. Keep hiring, hold, or pull back is now a live question, and the answer differs for generals, specialty trades and service contractors.
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Your Tool Batteries Need Their Own Policy
Thermal runaway, re-ignition and toxic gas release are not tool-maintenance problems. Cordless packs need standalone rules for storage, charging, inspection and incident response, written for trailers that top 90 degrees in July.
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A 3.7% Rate Is Not the Good News It Looks Like
Construction unemployment sits well under the national 4.2 percent, and Ohio carries roughly 270,700 construction jobs. Read low unemployment next to elevated openings and the picture is a labor pool nearly drained.
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Turnout Risk and the 2026 Senate Race
Cook Political Report moved Ohio from Lean Republican to Toss Up. A nonpartisan read on why the margin, not the party label, is what signals the federal labor, safety and procurement climate ahead.
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The NLRB Has Its Quorum Back
Two confirmations restored the Board to working capacity. The statutes have not changed, but enforcement posture has, and that reaches organizing conditions, employer communication rules and how you train foremen.
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What FAA Drone Rulemaking Could Cost Your Site Workflow
The FAA has proposed a process that would let critical infrastructure facilities restrict drone flights over their property, covering 16 sectors including energy, chemical, healthcare, and transportation. If your crews use aerial capture to verify earthwork, track schedule, or document safety conditions, the open questions are flight permissions, data collection timelines, and what all of it does to your vendor relationships. Nothing is final yet, which is exactly why this is the moment to read it closely.
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Turn Record Apprenticeship Enrollment Into Field Leadership
OVCEF is coming off record apprenticeship enrollment and wants that same momentum in fall professional development. The case is not sentimental. Firms running formal craft and leadership training report roughly 11 percent productivity gains, 14 percent better retention, and 26 percent fewer injuries, at about a 3 to 1 return, yet only about a third of construction firms have a formal program at all. Fall is when the schedule finally gives you room to fix that before 2027 staffing decisions land.
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Safe + Sound Week Lasts a Week. The Peer Group Lasts All Year.
Safe + Sound Week runs August 10 to 16, and the familiar pattern is a toolbox talk, a jobsite walk, a social post, then back to business as usual. Construction still accounts for about 20 percent of workplace fatalities nationwide, so one week of attention does not move the number. The Monthly Safety Peer Group meets the second Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and turns that awareness into a year of benchmarking and problem solving with non-competing firms.
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