CEO Jay Jolley, left, and president Burt Odom are photographed in the offices of the EMJ Corporation in Chattanooga, Tenn.EMJ listed among top 100 contractors
The Chattanooga-based EMJ Corp. has boosted its sales and ranking to become one of the nation’s 100 largest building contractors, according to Engineering News-Record.
EMJ jumped 19 spots from its 2015 ranking of No. 101 to become the 82nd biggest building company in America.
The company said in the past year it has worked to provide earlier and more comprehensive construction services through its project delivery approach, Concept to Completion. EMJ Construction is part of the EMJ Corp. family of 16 companies. With more than 450 employees, EMJ Corp’s revenue in 2015 was more than $870 million as a result of more than 4 million square feet of construction completed.
“EMJ’s success is a tribute to our world-class client base whom allow us to collaborate with them and maximize value,” EMJ President Burt Odom said.
Since its founding in 1968, EMJ has completed more than $12.5 billion in construction projects across the nation totaling more than 260 million square feet.
Dawson Locke, left, and Tom Swafford install a Chattanooga State 50th Anniversary t-shirt on Tennessee American Water Co.’s Phillip D. Glass cutout off of Amnicola Highway on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.Tennessee American wins water quality award again
Tennessee American Water has earned the Directors Award through the Partnership for Safe Water, marking the 16th consecutive year the utility has surpassed all government water quality standards.
The Partnership for Safe Water is a voluntary utility program with the mission of improving drinking water quality by optimizing operations. In the state of Tennessee, nine utilities participate in the Partnership’s treatment plant optimization program.
“Since 1887 we have been the primary water provider for the Chattanooga area and have always been committed to the highest standards for water quality to our customers,” said Tennessee American Water President Valoria Armstrong. “In 2016, our goal is to be 18 times better than the U.S. average for water quality standards. Participating in the Partnership for Safe Water is one way we exceed standards.”
The Chattanooga water utility said it has released its annual water quality report, also known as the consumer confidence report, for users to see its performance measures of the quality of water. These measures are established by the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to tell consumers about local drinking water sources, substances detected in the water, and the levels of those substances.
TVA fuel costs rise, EPB rates up 2.7 percent
The average price of electricity in Chattanooga this month is up nearly 2.7 percent from a year ago due to across-the-board increases in base rates by TVA and EPB and an increase in fuel costs this month over last.
TVA said the fuel cost portion of its electric bills in June is up nearly 12.6 percent from May’s level, although fuel costs are still below any month in 2015.
“Fuel costs typically increase during the summer months as demand rises because of warmer weather,” TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said.
On June 1, TVA’s monthly fuel cost adjustment increased from 1.632 cents per kilowatt hour last month to 1.837 cents per kilowatt hour for residential and business customers.
Despite the monthly increase, Brooks said the overall system average fuel rate is approximately 24 percent lower than the average June monthly fuel cost for the previous three years. Lower natural gas prices remain a primary driver, Brooks said.
Combining the monthly fuel costs, which are set each month, with the base power rates, which are set each year by TVA and EPB, the average electricity bill this month for a typical Chattanooga household using 1,461 kilowatt hours will be $151.87. A year ago, the same power use would cost a residential EPB customer $147.92.
Nation magazine salutes EPB’s ‘Gig City’ web link
The Nation magazine on Friday published an online news story Friday praising Chattanooga’s municipal electric utility for pioneering the nation’s first community-wide gigabit-per-second internet service ahead of major privately owned cable and telecom companies.
Nation, the oldest continuously published weekly magazine and a leading voice of liberal thought, said EPB’s $320 million fiber optic network and smart grid has helped boost the local economy and brought better and cheaper telecom services to local residents.
“Chattanooga’s publicly owned internet service has helped boost its economy and bridge the digital divide,” Nation reporter Peter Moskowitz said. “By offering gigabit connections at $70 a month and providing discounts for low-income residents, EPB has taken tens of thousands of customers from the internet behemoth Comcast, which offers service that is about 85 percent slower at twice the price.”
Critics of municipal broadband note that EPB was boosted by $111.6 million in federal grants and claim as a city-owned utility, EPB has certain tax and taxpayer guarantee advantages that investor-owned telecom companies don’t share. Comcast also offers some cheaper alternatives than EPB for those who don’t desire as fast of an internet link or so many TV channels as what EPB offers.
But Moskowitz said EPB’s fiber optic service has grown to 82,000 customers and “it’s been such a success that dozens of other towns and cities have begun their own municipal broadband networks, providing faster and cheaper service than private companies.”