One of our strategic drivers at Pine Island Cranberry Company is our equipment and facilities management. Instrumental to the daily efficiency and success of our operation is well-maintained, consistently available equipment and facilities that are fully operational. We have long maintained our own shop on the property, and early in 2011, began making plans to upgrade our facility. The weather had other plans for our projected timeline: an afternoon storm on July 24 destroyed the maintenance shop and several equipment sheds at the farm and also damaged eleven vehicles. In the end, strange as it sounds, the storm actually helped: despite the difficulties with the aftermath, we were able to put the new building in the original location.

Facilities supervisor Mike Guest acted as general contractor for the project, coordinating all aspects during the long process, and did an amazing job. Bill’s daughter Becca Fenstermaker also helped kickstart the project, visiting several area locations to get ideas for what we would need.

Friday’s grand opening was also a chance for many of our neighbors and vendors to meet our new equipment and facilities manager, Louis Cantafio. Louis, a former land manager with the Franklin Parker Preserve, has been here since early July and is greatly enjoying his time here so far. He says, “Every day it’s always something new and something different.” Mechanic Ernie Waskiewicz agrees: “It’s fun because it’s not the same thing every day, and you’re doing something that needs to be done.” With three advanced degrees, Louis enjoys learning for learning’s sake and is having a good time picking up all the ins and outs of the cranberry business. He was initially attracted to the scale of things at Pine Island, and from his time in the area (he and his wife live in Chatsworth in a house they designed and he built himself) he knows many of our team members and how they both work hard and have a good time.

Louis also believes in continuous improvement; in many ways, starting from scratch here has been a help to him in his work. He doesn’t believe in doing things in a particular way just because they’ve always been done that way; he likes finding out why things are done and then finding ways to improve them if need be, whether it’s ordering parts, purchasing equipment, or analyzing standard practices. And he’ll do whatever it takes to help achieve our company goals, pitching in wherever he’s needed.

Addressing the crowd gathered at the official opening, Bill said, “It’s a great day for Pine Island Cranberry; this makes us that much more efficient and that much better. It makes our team that much better. I’m proud of this place and I’m proud of our team: they do a great job every day to make us what we are.” Mike Guest agrees: “It’s great to see our guys able to work more safely and more efficiently.” He’s also proud of the place; he says that in addition to the surface things (layout, equipment, space), there are many things that we don’t see which contribute to making it a fantastic place to work.