Note From The Editor
Greetings Discerning Readers,

In my neck of the woods, the grass is greening-up and the leaves on the oaks are about the size of a squirrel's ear signaling time to plant the sweet corn. It is also "raining petals" as apricot, peach and pear trees drop their blooms as they set on fruit. The change in the season reminds me that it is indeed time to pray for rain and nowhere are they praying harder than in the drought-parched West where supply problems continue to be a major challenge.

Recent calamities and court battles over the Middle Rio Grande, Klamath and Colorado River Basins are proving that crisis management is not an effective way of dealing with water shortage. The failure to strategically plan ahead in the West, where water supply is dwindling while the competition for it is growing, - is a quandary the Interior Department is attempting to address.

They are seeking proposals that reduce future water related conflict through water conservation and efficiency. The President's fiscal year 2005 budget calls for $21 million in Water 2025 funds to help western communities. The idea is to develop projects that will help avoid future water supply crises by increasing efficiency. Part of the fund includes $4 million in challenge grants for projects that meet the criteria of Water 2025. A Challenge Grant is when nonfederal funds are leveraged with federal funds for desired projects. In a nutshell, "desired projects" fall into the category of any proposal that reduces future water related conflict through conservation.

Polyethylene meets the conservation and efficiency criteria that the Government is looking for. It is our job to educate decision makers about the leak-free benefits of polyethylene and demonstrate how it is one of the strongest water-conservation tools in existence.

Productivity Tip
This month's productivity tip comes from Dr. Gene Palermo of Palermo Plastics Pipe (P 3 ) Consulting. Dr. Palermo has recently developed four technical presentations for the plastic piping industry to educate and inform. The topics include:

If you would like to schedule Dr. Palermo for a complimentary visit to your company, group or association meeting so that you can learn more about these new plastic piping products, call him at 703-787-0805 or e-mail him at gpalermo@plasticspipe.com .

Don't Forget To Register Your Machine - On Friday night Feb 13, 2004 , McElroy received a call from a gentleman named Peter, advising that he picked up "some kind of a machine in the middle of the road that had some identification indicating it was made by McElroy". He gave us the part number and serial number from the tag. It was a chain clamp SidewinderT complete with heater, adapters, and heater box.

We explained that our distributors maintained serial number logs, and we also had a warranty registration program and felt confident we could identify the owner.

Early Monday morning Susan Lee, our CSR, quickly identified and contacted the owner. UPSCO picked up the machine and returned it to the owner. How's that for full service? (Note: the information was in our warranty registration database.)

State Of The Infrastructure
Federal investment in infrastructure has decreased 75 percent since 1980 and the federal grants program ended in 1982. As this federal funding dried up, utilities did not raise their rates in accordance with depreciation, which has created the infrastructure dilemma today. Read Article

McElroy In The News
When the construction company W.L. Hailey bid the Dalton , GA water infrastructure job at $19.8 million, ($5 million under the next closest bidder) everyone thought they were crazy. When they said they could do it in one year instead of four, everyone knew they were nuts. Now that they have completed the job two months early, everyone is asking, "What's their secret?"
Read Article

Case Studies
It will take 12 years and $225 million to complete a regional water system project in northeast Montana - a proposal that many thought was nothing more than an unobtainable pipedream. Today, the project, over a decade in the tabletop planning process, is making headway during Phase 1 construction.
Read Article

PPI M&I Division to Hold HDPE Seminar this Spring. An upcoming seminar for the PPI M&I Division will be held in Charlotte , NC on May 11, 2004 . Registration information is available at the PPI website Click here

For more information, contact Camille Rubeiz at 202-462-9607 ext. 12, or crubeiz@plasticpipe.org or Michael Ball at mball@plasticpipe.org .

For Sale
Thank you for your response! McElroy Connections is gathering information to find out whether our readers are interested in advertising their used equipment through our newsletter and so far, several readers have expressed a desire to have this service. We feel that our niche publication is the perfect place for professionals in the fusion industry to communicate with each other about used equipment for sale. If we have enough respondents, we will start listing the equipment on our newsletter. It is simple to do so drop me a note today to let me know if this service would be useful to you. A small fee may be required to cover the cost of data entry. If you are interested in taking advantage of our nationwide subscriber base to sell or buy used equipment, contact me,

contact: Drew L. Wilson at 918-831-9286 or

FOR NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS: To subscribe, visit http://www.mcelroy.com/subscribe

McElroy Connections is published by McElroy Manufacturing Inc. The information contained within each issue is meant as a service to our customers, distributors, and those involved with Polyethylene Pipe applications.

Drew L. Wilson Editor