Marcinak Construction began business in South Carolina in the early 1970s with David B. Marcinak, who is the company president.
“He served three years in the military and did a tour in Vietnam,” explained his wife Donna, who continues to do bookwork for the company. “After leaving the service, he needed work, so he bid on a TD-9 dozer that the USFS had up for auction. He started clearing lots and bidding on USFS contracts.”
For more than 25 years, David and Donna worked with one to two employees, mostly in the small town of McClellanville, S.C., which is bordered by the Francis Marion National Forest. The couple’s son Chad joined the business in 1999.
“Our son wanted to expand the business,” Marcinak explained. “He is the public relations man among many other duties he performs. We grew quite a bit and had 15 to 18 employees during the boom. Now we are down to 10.”
Marcinak noted that the company does any type of site work, including small commercial and residential.
“We do anything that is not the building itself. There is not much we don’t do if it is on the dirt,”Marcinak said.
The company fleet currently includes backhoes, dozers, rollers, motor graders, track hoes, farm tractors and four dump trucks.
“Marcinak is a family business, and most of our work is done by word of mouth,” Marcinak said. “Our reputations are very important and we like to believe our word is as good as a contract. We believe in treating people right.”
Over the years, Marcinak has worked with Hills Machinery, renting equipment, buying equipment and having them do repairs.
According to Adam Hills, “We’ve made repairs and supplied parts to Marcinak Construction on Case machines as well as on other brands they have. At the moment, they are renting a 327B Case articulated truck from us and we have been their source for buying new and used equipment for a number of years. We always like working with them. They treat our rental equipment like it is their own.”
“We don’t ever question the fact that Adam Hills is a fair man and one we hope to do business with for many years,” Marcinak said. “This is a fading quality, and we are grateful for the few we can still do business with.”
According to Marcinak, the company has made it through the recession by being very careful.
“We had to cut back some and we haven’t been able to purchase equipment we might have needed because of the economy,” she explained. “We never liked to have large debt, so I think that helped us also. We were able to consolidate notes and we have done pretty well.”
Marcinak noted that at the moment, they are a bit more comfortable and intend to make some changes which include buying and selling some equipment this coming quarter.
“We are trying to operate very carefully,” she said. “We don’t see much growth for 2011, but are grateful to still be in business. Our country and our economy always rebound, and we have confidence it will again. It was crazy here on the coast a few years ago and unrealistic. We won’t go back there, but I have faith in America and its people. If there is a way, we will figure out how to survive as long as the government stays out of our way.” CEG
Brenda Ruggiero
Brenda Ruggiero has written for CEG for over 20 years. She lives near the town of Accident in far western Maryland. Her favorite assignments so far involved interviews with Survivor’s Boston Rob and hot dog eating champion Joey Chestnut. Both were involved in construction at one time.
Brenda holds a BA in Mass Communication with a writing focus from Frostburg State University and minors in Public Relations and Political Science. She works full time as a staff writer for a weekly newspaper, the Garrett County Republican. She enjoys feature writing the most, which gives her the opportunity to talk to people and share their stories.
Brenda and her middle school sweetheart, Reuben, have been married for over 34 years and have three grown children and four cats.
Read more from Brenda Ruggiero here.
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