Cianbro chief urges County to take control

PRESQUE ISLE – The president of Cianbro Corp. challenged Aroostook County businesspeople Wednesday to take control of their future and not to depend on the government to fix the region’s problems.

Also offering a Valentine’s Day message of sorts, Peter Vigue said his company has grown through “caring, sharing and even loving” its employees.

The president of one of the largest construction companies on the East Coast, Vigue made his comments at a business breakfast at the University of Maine at Presque Isle before an audience of more than 100 people.

“I recognize the challenges in Aroostook County are significant,” said Vigue, a Caribou native.

The speaker advised the audience, which included several well-known businessmen in The County, to work together and take advantage of one another’s experiences.

“The collective wisdom … to do anything is within the ability of people of this room,” said Vigue.

With a common vision, “you will overwhelm yourself with success,” he predicted.

Using an illustration of how a Cianbro worker was killed in a 1987 accident, Vigue said the company didn’t wait for the government to take action to regulate safety. The man, a veteran employee, was working 90 feet above the water when he fell and later died.

After the funeral, Vigue said, the man’s 9-year-old daughter asked him why he killed her father, an exchange the company executive thinks about every day.

Federal safety officials didn’t cite the company for the accident, saying it had followed the necessary requirements for safety, Vigue said. But the company pulled its safety experts together anyway to determine how to prevent another accident.

After an hour of discussion, company officials discussed the potential for a full body harness for employees working more than 10 feet above the ground.

Vigue said all Cianbro employees were equipped with the safety harness 20 days later. It was a decade before the federal government required such equipment to be used at all job sites, Vigue said.

“We’re not going to be driven by laws,” Vigue said. “The government is not going to do it for us.”

Later, Vigue said answers are not coming from geniuses, but from people with “average intelligence” working together.

“The answers are not going to fall out of the sky, and you’re not going to read about it in a book,” Vigue said.

Vigue discussed the company’s commitment to safety, which is one of the biggest challenges facing the firm.

“Can we build this project safely without hurting people? ” Vigue asked, stating the question that is voiced with every project.

In addition, implementing safety precautions is a “moral thing,” he said. Every employee is someone’s mother, father, son or daughter, Vigue said.

“How would you treat them?” said Vigue. “It’s pretty basic for us.”

He also described several major construction projects, such as the Piscataqua River Bridge, which connects Maine and New Hampshire, and constructing the National Semiconductor building in Portland, where the company was able to finish ahead of schedule and under budget.

The key to the company’s success is creating a collaborative environment for employees, which Vigue referred to as the “team.”

“No one person is smarter than all of us,” said Vigue.