A little over a year ago, we had the grand opening of our new shop, and it’s been going strong ever since!

As we mentioned last week, our Facilities and Equipment Team has been very busy preparing for harvest. Manager Louis Cantafio says that while he’s been ordering more parts in order to be as prepared for harvest as possible, the equipment team is already looking ahead and starting to focus on other machinery. “We’re finishing up work on the planters and the the sand screener, because that all gets going after harvest. And now that we’re starting to get moved into the new equipment sheds, we’re getting everything organized. If something is not in use, then we’ll put it where it belongs.”

Louis has also been training two new employees who started with us this summer: Miguel “Coco” Mercado and Kevin Schuster. Coco is a recent graduate of the Burlington County Institute of Technology (Medford campus), has been with us full-time since June, and is very excited for this year’s harvest. “I worked weekends on Blondie’s crew for the past few years, and also helped fill in on the picking crew sometimes,” he says. “But I’ve never seen it from this side!” He says he’s been learning a lot, especially from supervisor Carlos Baez and fellow team member Ernie Waszkiewicz. “I majored in auto mechanics at BCIT, and I learned a lot about cars and pickups there. But there are so many different things here, new things out in the field that I never knew about. I’ve known how to drive a dump truck for a long time, but I’d never worked on one! I’ve done a lot of new brakes, the oil changes, all the maintenance. It’s really cool.” He has also been working hard on pump house maintenance, prepping the harvesters, and this week, working on finding a leak in one of the tractors. Louis has been pleased by his work. “We have a lot of specialization here, and he’s really been picking up on both how and why we do things the way we do.”

Our other new team member is welder Kevin Schuster. Kevin started with us at the beginning of July and has done whatever it takes to help our team get the harvesting equipment ready. As Louis said last week, the equipment team has been doing a lot of work on the dump trucks: both major and minor repairs as well as preventative maintenance such as reinforcing the welding on tailgates and dump bodies. “During the season we’re always running hard, and those trucks are in use all year.”

Kevin, who trained at the Mercer County Technical School district and did a welding apprenticeship, has been working hard learning every aspect of our equipment program. He’s been out working on repairs to the suction lines, working on improvements to the harvesting machines, and working on all the trucks. “I’m not just working on the underbody of the trucks, though,” Kevin says. “Ernie and I spent some time this summer designing new latches for the tailgates, and I think it’s really going to make things a lot easier for everybody.”

“I really enjoy seeing a new project come together,” Kevin says. “Once you see it work, it’s a real feeling of accomplishment.” At Pine Island Cranberry, we’re glad to provide opportunity to team members like Coco and Kevin who are genuinely willing to do whatever it takes to help make us better.