Tag Archives: Junior Colon

Installing gates

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This entry was originally posted on January 16, 2015.

Renovation on some of the bogs in the Black Rock system is going well! Last week we spoke briefly again about Pine Island’s #1 question: “where is the water coming from, and where do we want it to go?” This week, our team addressed that question by starting the removal of wooden floodgates and replacing them with our newer PVC gate design.

Longtime team member Wilfredo Pagan (35 years!) is in charge of this operation, which is going very smoothly considering the unexpected weather. “Pipe gates are better,” he says. “They’re easier to install, and they last longer, too.” First, though, he has to set up the laser level in order to make sure the gate is set up correctly. The team will be able to put the new gate in at the same depth as the old one. This is where they have to be careful; if it’s not even the two parts of the new gate can shift over time since they’re not one solid piece of pipe. “Once you put them together, the only thing holding them is dirt and pressure,” Wilfredo says. “If you have a situation where the canal is deeper than the ditch, you have to measure at the top of the dam and set it so the uprights are level with it. If the canal is lower than bog and you don’t adjust for it, it can wash out underneath.”

In the meantime, Junior Colon has been on the excavator making sure the water’s been blocked off in both the canal and the ditches. “Once that’s blocked off, we can start digging,” he says.

After the water is stopped, it’s time to start digging up the dam. “We go right down to the top of the boards on the old gate,” says Junior, “and then we have to continue to dig behind it to get the turf out and make sure the water’s all gone.”

Once the excavator clears out the dirt around the old gate, it’s time to lift each side one at a time to put the chains on for easier lifting.

The old gate then gets lifted onto a waiting tractor and hauled away.

Once the new gate is installed, the team will fill the dirt back and then haul in turf to patch the sides before crowning the dam and moving on to the next gate!

Gate construction

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While this week’s snowstorm was mild in comparison to last year’s, it still means our team had to suspend our sanding operation and move to other tasks, because our team never stops! Today, some team members shifted to building gates for our latest renovation project. Each year our planned renovations includes the removal of wooden floodgates and replacing them with the newer PVC gate design.

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“Changing to this type of gate was the best thing we’ve ever done,” says one team member. “They’re easier to manage and we get a lot more flexibility of use.”

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Longtime team member Wilfredo Pagan is in charge of this operation. “Pipe gates are better,” he says. “They’re easier to install, and they last longer, too.” First, though, he has to set up the laser level in order to make sure the gate is set up correctly. The team will be able to put the new gate in at the same depth as the old one. This is where they have to be careful; if it’s not even the two parts of the new gate can shift over time since they’re not one solid piece of pipe. “Once you put them together, the only thing holding them is dirt and pressure,” Wilfredo says. “If you have a situation where the canal is deeper than the ditch, you have to measure at the top of the dam and set it so the uprights are level with it. If the canal is lower than bog and you don’t adjust for it, it can wash out underneath.”

In the meantime, Junior Colon has been on the excavator making sure the water’s been blocked off in both the canal and the ditches. “Once that’s blocked off, we can start digging,” he says.

After the water is stopped, it’s time to start digging up the dam. “We go right down to the top of the boards on the old gate,” says Junior, “and then we have to continue to dig behind it to get the turf out and make sure the water’s all gone.”

Once the excavator clears out the dirt around the old gate, it’s time to lift each side one at a time to put the chains on for easier lifting.

The old gate then gets lifted onto a waiting tractor and hauled away.

Once the new gate is installed, the team will fill the dirt back and then haul in turf to patch the sides before crowning the dam and moving on to the next gate!

Gate installation

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Renovation on some of the bogs in the Black Rock system is going well! Last week we spoke briefly again about Pine Island’s #1 question: “where is the water coming from, and where do we want it to go?” This week, our team addressed that question by starting the removal of wooden floodgates and replacing them with our newer PVC gate design.

Longtime team member Wilfredo Pagan (35 years!) is in charge of this operation, which is going very smoothly considering the unexpected weather. “Pipe gates are better,” he says. “They’re easier to install, and they last longer, too.” First, though, he has to set up the laser level in order to make sure the gate is set up correctly. The team will be able to put the new gate in at the same depth as the old one. This is where they have to be careful; if it’s not even the two parts of the new gate can shift over time since they’re not one solid piece of pipe. “Once you put them together, the only thing holding them is dirt and pressure,” Wilfredo says. “If you have a situation where the canal is deeper than the ditch, you have to measure at the top of the dam and set it so the uprights are level with it. If the canal is lower than bog and you don’t adjust for it, it can wash out underneath.”

In the meantime, Junior Colon has been on the excavator making sure the water’s been blocked off in both the canal and the ditches. “Once that’s blocked off, we can start digging,” he says.

After the water is stopped, it’s time to start digging up the dam. “We go right down to the top of the boards on the old gate,” says Junior, “and then we have to continue to dig behind it to get the turf out and make sure the water’s all gone.”

Once the excavator clears out the dirt around the old gate, it’s time to lift each side one at a time to put the chains on for easier lifting.

The old gate then gets lifted onto a waiting tractor and hauled away.

Once the new gate is installed, the team will fill the dirt back and then haul in turf to patch the sides before crowning the dam and moving on to the next gate!

Pine Island Team Profile: Junior Colon

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While the majority of our team is working hard on all the different processes during our harvest, it’s not the entire story. Pine Island Cranberry has some long time team members who truly embody our core values, who believe in who we are and what we do, and work hard to make it happen.

One such employee is Domiciano Colon, better known as Junior. Junior is a second generation employee who has been with Pine Island since he was just out of high school. “I started out picking cranberries,” he says. “Picking, gathering…I did all that stuff.” Bill Sr. started him working with heavy equipment back in ’82 or ’83, and he just went on from there. “I did a lot of maintenance, then I started with the mowers. Then the excavators…little by little. I worked on them all. Now whatever there is to do, I do!” He also started working on the bog renovation team back in 1985 with Howard Sprague and Joe Colon, and then in 1988, he says, he worked his first one on his own. “Osborne Spung was my first bog by myself,” he recalls. “It was the first one we did with the laser, too. Grading, stripping, leveling; I did all that.”

Junior’s versatility is what makes him an especially valuable team member during the busy harvest season. (Bill agrees: “Everyone wants Junior when they need an extra hand.”) When the Green Team was harvesting Sim Place, Junior ran the forklift at the transfer station, loading flatbeds that other utility team members Wilfredo Pagan and Ivan Torres would haul to the packing house. “I’m all over the place at this time of year!” Junior says. “We got the flat beds and used them to haul; it’s easier than bringing all those smaller trucks back and forth. That distance will put a lot of wear and tear on a truck.” If we’ve covered it in a blog entry, he’s done it. He’ll be on frost watch in the fall, he’ll watch for heat damage on weekends. Yesterday he hauled for Jorge Morales’ gathering crew (“…and helped pull out someone who got stuck!” he says, laughing).

Today, he’s scraping (smoothing) the dams. Scraping the dams is something that Junior tries to stay ahead of during the harvest. He’ll take the scraper out and make sure the dams are level before one of our harvest teams starts picking, and then he comes along after they are done with a bog and makes sure that they are smoothed out again. As you have read in our storm entries, proper dam maintenance is important for our water management as well as safety and equipment.

“It actually needs to be very precise,” Junior says. “I need to drive slowly; if I go too fast the road doesn’t level the way it should.” He doesn’t only keep up; he needs to stay ahead. “I smooth them ahead of time and when they’re done, I smooth them again.” It’s slow going, but necessary.

Junior was also a key team member during the post-Isaac cleanup. He did a lot of our dam repairs and helped install the lift pumps. Once the harvest is over he will be back on bog renovations, assisting with the planting, and pitching in anywhere else he is needed. It’s people like Junior who make Pine Island Cranberry nothing but the best!