“My company bought a milling machine early in 2005 because we were constantly held up on our paving projects where we brought in an outside contractor to do the milling,” said Pommerer. “I realize that milling machines take a lot of punishment because of what they are used for, but it was not uncommon for the milling machine to break down after only a half day’s work. Then the contractor would let it sit on the project another two days before he got around to fixing it. Not all, but some of these contractors do not seem to care about giving us good service or doing quality work, but we sure do care. We want to give our customers the best service possible and we cannot if the paving process is held up because of broken down equipment such as the milling machine.”

We were constantly held up on our paving projects where we brought in an outside contractor to do the milling.

Because private jobs tend to be modest in size compared to public paving projects, president Drew Alleva and vice president Jon Bureski have steered Charlestown Paving towards taking on private work rather than public projects, a savvy business move by the small company. This strategy spreads out the risk of doing business by working on many smaller jobs, rather than concentrating on a few major projects that can demand most of the company’s manpower and financial resources.

Alleva’s and Bureski’s orientation to high-quality performance is another reason for the company’s pursuit of the private market. Producing the best product possible is a must if a company is to survive in the private sector market. “We do not advertise our work, but depend on our good reputation spreading by word-of-mouth,” said Alleva. Every year since its inception in 1988, the company has grown significantly. Today, Charlestown Paving employs 42 people, most of them making up three paving crews, two paving-preparation crews and one pavement-milling crew.