Carter Lumber in Middlefield Township has been helping homeowners and contractors “get ‘er done” for 25 years, supplying materials and advice to anyone coming in the door.
Carter Lumber in Middlefield Township has been helping homeowners and contractors “get ‘er done” for 25 years, supplying materials and advice to anyone coming in the door.
Now, after six years of red tape, the no-frills operation is expanding by about one-third, and solving its traffic flow problems at the same time.
Manager Lenny Barcikoski is watching an 80-by-165-foot steel-sided building with 16-foot ceilings, a storage lean-to and two loading docks materialize to the west of the original building at 14601 Kinsman Road.
“I have to pinch myself. We’re finally getting it done,” Barcikoski said Oct. 29, as concrete trucks rumbled around on the 9.7-acre site.
As Geauga County was struggling out of the nationwide recession, Barcikoski was already trying to figure the best way to alleviate the daily challenge of getting tractor-trailers in and out of one driveway onto Kinsman Road in a timely manner and without running over pickups and workers’ vehicles.
The logical answer was to put in a second driveway to the west of the store, so trucks could pull in one driveway and out the other.
Driveways, however, require a permit from the Ohio Department of Transportation — one of Barcikoski’s first hurdles.
“People said there was no way I was going to get it,” he said.
Meanwhile, as the recession eased and business picked up, he could see the operation seriously needed a protected area where contractors’ orders for big projects could be assembled in advance of the truck arriving.
Special orders of windows, cabinets, doors, lumber and the miscellaneous items a contractor would need delivered for a building or remodeling job go out of Carter Lumber every day. Collecting those orders and keeping them dry has been a problem for the 25 employees, one he expects will be eliminated once the 13,000-square-foot structure is finished.
“The front half will be for special orders and the back will be for storage,” Barcikoski explained, adding the new structure will increase his covered area by about a third. “That’s most important,” he said. “We’ll be able to operate more efficiently.”
Barcikoski knew from the outset the area he wanted to locate the building, docks and driveway was not ideal. In short, it was swampy — a condition the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers considers a wetland.
He worked persistently with the corps and Geauga Soil and Water Conservation District Director Carmella Shale to resolve the issues. The plan included a lot of drainage and a water retention pond in the back of the property, Barcikoski said.
He also approached ODOT about the driveway, presenting them with six months worth of documentation regarding the traffic issues he faced. That included pictures of tractor-trailers lined up on Kinsman Road waiting to get into the yard.
Barcikoski was a little surprised and very happy when ODOT issued him the permit.
In March, he got final approval from corps of engineers and was able to send out bid packages to contractors for the excavation and construction.
Another problem arose that slowed the process down. The same building boom that sent contractors to Carter Lumber in droves meant they already were committed to other projects.
“My biggest issue was finding labor; everybody was swamped,” he said.
In the end, the right people stepped up and machinery started moving dirt by June.
“We had great trades involved,” said Barcikoski. They included Ray Wengerd, of Garrettsville, as the framer; Jim Shale, from Gradeline in Burton; Barcikoski’s brother, Dan Barcikoski; and MG Civil Design out of Chagrin Falls, all of whom joined forces to make it happen.
“They did a great job,” he said, adding Carter Lumber Inc. headquarters has been behind the project 100 percent.
“We want to be here a long time and continue to grow,” Barcikoski said.
He is hoping he can get the final grading done and the asphalt down before the cold weather closes in.
Barcikoski is a stayer, having signed on as a laborer with Carter Lumber when it opened the Middlefield facility in 1993 and working his way up the ladder to manager.
The last few years have proven his fortitude.
Said Barcikoski, “I didn’t know I was so patient.”
