
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991                   TAG: 9104050643
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CRITICISM OF TOWER CONTRACTOR IS WRONG

THE DOMINION Tower, once completed, will be Roanoke's tallest and most prestigious complement to the downtown skyline. The architecture lends itself to a landmark building for which Roanoke can be truly proud.

Future ties between the tower and the new Hotel Roanoke and Convention Center should provide a shot in the arm for downtown. Even the tower cranes silhouetted against the horizon are a sign of prosperity in some very troubled economic times. With all this in mind, why all the negative articles about the tower?

It has been implied that the general contractor, F.N. Thompson, does not provide a safe work site for employees and subcontractors. Other articles implied that local labor was not being used. Still others labeled the tower "a symbol of futility" simply because union labor was not exclusively used.

G.J. Hopkins has been very fortunate through the years to work with many large general contractors both in the United States and abroad. Having never worked with F.N. Thompson before, we tried to find out all we could about the company. Our research showed it to have an impeccable reputation.

The focal point of all weekly job-site construction meetings is safety, not only for ourselves but also for our fellow workers. Even though high-rise buildings are inherently dangerous, F.N. Thompson has made every effort to provide a safe working environment. A look around the table at one of the meetings would show that more local workers are being utilized than these articles would lead you to believe.

G.J. Hopkins, as a non-union employee-owned company, takes personal exception to the implication from one article that if a company is local and non-union, its employees receive substandard wages, are poorly trained and lack health-care and retirement plans. Anyone familiar with our company knows that these implications are totally unfounded.

Our working relationship with FN Thompson continues to be one of cooperation, consideration and dedication to the common goal of constructing a quality building of which we can all be proud. ELWYN M. CLIFTON Vice President, G.J. Hopkins Inc. ROANOKE

by CNB