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Rogers Group's Central Indiana SBU team is proud to introduce Tri-County Builders, a valued general contractor customer in Bedford, Indiana.

Founded in 1982 by Doug Kellams, his father Bill, and Luke Lawson, Tri-County Builders began in residential construction and has grown to become a full service general contractor employing about 50 people.

The company has completed a wide variety of projects throughout the southern part of Indiana, within a 100-mile radius of Bedford. Some of their largest jobs include the Hoosier Hills Credit Union, Great Escape movie theatre, and projects for Indiana University, Crane Naval Station, Ford and General Motors.

"We have also done some design-build work, including the Great Escape theatre and building a new structure over an existing building at Plastics Resource Development, two major projects at the same time," Doug Kellams explained.

"Rogers Group has supplied us a variety of materials for these projects, including stone, asphalt, building materials, and rip rap," he continued. "We know whenever we call Janet Crowe or Larry Crulo at Sieboldt, Ed Pruett at Lawrence County Asphalt we can expect friendly, expert service and quality materials."

Luke Lawson recalls how Tri-County first began its relationship with Rogers several years ago. "We barely had a couple of trucks and a borrowed wheelbarrow, and I went to Bloomington to look for potential work," Luke describes. "After looking around town, I came back to Bedford and said, 'we need to work with Rogers, they're doing almost everything!'"

In addition to their contracting work, Tri-County recently added construction equipment rental to their services as an opportunity to fully utilize their equipment more of the time.

Like Rogers, Tri-County places strong emphasis on safety, holding weekly safety meetings and reviewing specific risks on each project.

"We notice all the safety signs at Rogers' operations and appreciate how you recognize your accomplishments," said Doug. "We are considering adopting your practice of requiring hard hats on all the time, no matter what the job."

Doug's wife Debbie is also a key member of the Tri-County team, handling personnel and accounting duties. Both Doug and Debbie are involved in the community, supporting the Boys' and Girls' Clubs, United Way, schools, PTO's, and youth sports teams.

"Rogers is a good neighbor in our communities, and has stepped in to help us with some of our projects," Debbie explained.

Tri-County is proud to have very low turnover; they have built a team of employees who recognize that steady work, trust and opportunity can be hard to find in the contracting business.

"We've grown pretty fast in the past ten years," Dave Ikerd, Tri-County Vice President, reflected. "I can't image as much growth in the next ten years, but with enough experience and good people, things can only get better."

Rogers Group and  Tri-County's often work hand in hand. On some projects, they sub-contract under Rogers Group, on others, Rogers Group subs under them.

"Rogers' quality and pride always show -- Rogers people are the best pavers around, and always good to their word," Luke asserted. "We've built a good trust with them over the years, and that helps both of us, and our customers."

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