So when do you think your boss will take you on an all-expenses-paid trip to a tropical resort in Mexico?

When hell freezes over, perhaps?

The employees of Power Home Remodeling Group dont have to wait for a polar vortex to sweep through Hades. Each December for the past five years, Power has invited all its 1,350 employees and a guest to spend four days at a resort in Cancun, Mexico.

Power earned first place for medium-sized businesses this year in Philly.coms annual Top Workplaces awards, based on employee surveys conducted by Workplace Dynamics, of Exton. Medical Solutions Supplier was named the top small-sized business.

The two companies are in completely different industries. Chester-based Power is an exterior home remodeler selling windows, siding, roofing and doors. Glen Mills-based Medical Solutions Supplier provides pneumatic compression pump therapy to treat chronic wounds, lymphedema, venous disease and arterial disease.

What they have in common is that they view their employees as an extended family. Its a word a lot of organizations like to toss around. But when it comes up over and over in conversations with everyone from top managers to rank-and-file employees, youve got to think there is something to it.

Hiring the right people is the key to creating the culture the companies want: supportive, collaborative, with innovative ideas often originating with front-line employees.

No one knows better how to do a job than the people doing it, said Joe Carberry, executive team leader of Medical Solutions Supplier.

Steve Kantor, who founded Medical Solutions Supplier in 1994, said he was always told to avoid hiring family and friends. Kantor has an opinion on that: The sanitized version is, Bull.

Ten years ago, Kantor was golfing with his friend Carberry, 28 years his junior, when on the 15th hole he hired him to build an outside sales force for Medical Solutions Supplier.

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LINCOLN, Neb.-- A Lincoln remodeling company has agreed to replace windows in homes it renovated after a federal agency said the business failed to comply with a safety rule.

The Midwest branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that a 2012 inspection at RDF Inc., doing business as Lincoln-based Paul Davis Restoration, violated a rule requiring specific training for contractors working on pre-1978 residences.

The company agreed to pay more than $3,000 in a penalty and spend more than $27,300 to replace windows at former job sites.

The EPA said RDF failed to employ lead-safe work practices. The agency says certification and training ensures that common renovation and repair activities minimize the creation and dispersal of lead dust.

RDF offers emergency repairs for fire and water-damaged homes.

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By Emily Shockley Thursday, March 19, 2015

A $5 million remodeling project in one of Colorado Mesa Universitys oldest residence halls will add new suites and apartments to the building, as well as an innovation learning center for students to brainstorm ideas, collaborate across majors and work on making their ideas profitable.

The center, set to be completed with the rest of the remodeled Pinon Hall before school begins in August, may feature moveable white boards and entire walls covered in white board paint for drawing up concepts, advanced technology, conference rooms and open space for students to talk about ideas, equipment for turning concepts into prototypes, and cubicles for students to work on pushing an idea forward. CMU Facilities Director Kent Marsh said faculty members have envisioned students using the center to create applications, build businesses and work on robotics and manufacturing concepts.

Maybe the business student has an idea for a widget that will change the world, but they have no idea how to create the widget. Maybe they get together with an engineering student who draws it in 3-D, prints it on a virtual plotter and says, Is this what you were thinking about? Thats the kind of collaboration were hoping to achieve, Marsh said.

Colorado Mesa President Tim Foster said the university has been considering opening a business incubator-type center for a while. Pinon Hall needed an update for entry-level housing as well as more student gathering space, Foster said.

Theres a huge demand and excitement for this from students, Foster said.

The open-concept center will be on the first floor of Pinons east wing, which faces 12th Street south of Mesa Avenue. The rest of the building will remain designated for student housing. The west wing of the building will have double-occupancy suites while the second floor of Pinons east wing will have apartments. Marsh said it hasnt yet been decided if the third floor of the east wing will have suites or apartments.

CMU Vice President for Student Services John Marshall said the suites will more closely resemble other freshman dormitory rooms on campus rather than Pinons current double-person rooms. Marshall said he hopes the apartments help attract more students above the freshman level to live in Pinon.

The construction end of the project alone accounts for $3.78 million of the total project cost. Marsh said remodeling Pinon is preferable to constructing a new building because it has great bones. But Pinons 48-year-old plumbing, wiring and air conditioning need an upgrade.

Theres all kinds of reasons to get into this building and update it, he said.

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EPHRATA The Ephrata School District is spending $41,200 to improve the high schools softball complex.

The school board approved spending the money at its Monday night meeting.

The project includes new dugouts, batting cages and warm-up areas for pitchers as well as expanding the bleachers and installing a sound system.

Athletic Director Michelle Webb said the project is expected to be finished before the next softball season begins.

The upgrades are part of the districts need to provide equal facilities to boys and girls teams because of federal law, she said.

The community has spent the last few years improving the baseball complex, in part, because weve been hosting the World Series, but we knew the softball complex would be getting the same, Webb said. By the time they take the field next year, theyll have a much better facility to play in.

Webb had money budgeted to complete the project in 2015.

Michelle is very good at preparing for situations like this and allocating her budget responsibly so we dont have to use other funds, Superintendent Jerry Simon said.

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