Sjostrom & Sons, Inc. recently had two long term employees retire. Amber Dill & Rob Sautter both worked for Sjostrom over 20 years. Their team work and dedication to our company will be greatly missed.
Rob Sautter - worked for Sjostrom from June 1985-2001 and from 2006-2022. He was a leader in Senior Management and integral to many notable projects in Northern Illinois for the past 30 years. He plans on spending time with his family and enjoying outdoor activities.
Amber Dill - worked for Sjostrom from 2000-2021
What Her Job Entailed:
- In the beginning, it was Estimating/Project Coordinator which meant putting together all the bid lists, and/or typing up proposals, delivering the bids, creating all the subcontracts and purchase orders when we got the job, getting plans to all subs who needed them, creating and managing all the paperwork that goes into the job, (Submittals, PCO’s, Change Orders, RFI’s, Meeting Minutes, etc.) Attending job meetings to take the minutes, type them up and distribute to all, and then compile 3 hard copies of all the close-outs (O&M Manuals, Warranties, As-Built Drawings) in a timely manner to finish out the jobs. As we grew and acquired more work, they added an Estimating Coordinator to take that part of the load from the Project Coordinator.
Experiences:
- One experience that sticks out in my mind is a bid for Old River Road School, now Stephen Mack Middle School. I was (unhappily) made to wait until the last possible minute for the Estimators to give me a number, delivered it at 15 SECONDS to bid due time and finding out they have changed the location of the opening to the school library because the office was too small, then RUNNING down the hall in my high heels and white capris with the school secretary hot on my tail, Sjostrom’s time stamped bid in her hand and bursting into the library with everyone staring at us and finding out they had already opened the first bid! Our bid WAS allowed because we had it in the listed place before the listed time and we ended up being LOW! A few of our competitors weren’t too happy about that, but I was ecstatic!!! (I soon learned that ANYWHERE I delivered a bid, it was always one or two minutes later than it was back at the office!)
Favorite Projects:
- The Karl Jacobs Center for Science and Math was awesome as there were so many unique things incorporated into that building. It also got a LEED Gold Award (LEED has long since died).
- The Prairie Street Brewhouse was captivating in a ‘historical renovation’ sort of way, with lots of challenges faced during the construction.
- The Kennay Distillery was one of my very favorites, as it transformed an old Movie Theater into a Distillery, and the Owners were such a joy to work with!
Funny Memories:
- All the Halloweens we girls dressed up were fun, especially when an outsider would come into the office for something and be mighty surprised that such a professional office allowed us to dress up; it always gave them a good laugh!
- One April Fool’s Day we girls dressed up as our Project Managers. When the guys first saw us, none of them knew what to think at first, and some didn’t even recognize us, but then we had a good laugh about it for most of the day.
How Times Have Changed:
- Back in the day having to hand pick every Sub or Supplier you wanted to send a bid invitation to and then faxing out thousands of them overnight.
- Having only 1, 2, or 3 full size sets of plans to loan out overnight to Subs to bid from.
- Having a full plan set of every one of our on-going projects AND all bid projects in the plan room for access to any Subs or Suppliers.
- Having to review, stamp, log and send 5 to 8 sets of submittals to Architects for approval.
- Typing up hand-written proposals that were several pages long on a daily basis for PM/Estimators.
- Packing up boxes upon boxes of paper files after jobs were complete and filling up the basement storage room with them! Oh how the electronic age has done away with all of that! 😊
How Sjostrom Was To Work For:
- Sjostrom & Sons, Inc. is the BEST company I’ve ever worked for! They are truly a family operation and made us employees all feel like family too! The support and understanding they provided to me when my son died will never be forgotten and I am forever grateful TO them and FOR them!