Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 12-22-17

Features
Retired Educator, Former School Board Member Gets NCNW Legacy Recognition
Mrs. Doris Ross Reddick with the plaque she received on Saturday from the Tampa Metropolitan Section, National Council of Negro Women (NCNW).
Military Engineers Brief Federal Contractors On Hurricane Reconstruction Plans
From left to right: Fluor Government Group SBE Liaison Officer, Debbie Sampson, Cur- toom Companies, Inc. CEO, Paul Curtis and Fluor Government Group, Procurement Executive Ralph Wingate. Fluor is lead contractor for Infrastructure restoration in Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria devastated the Island nation.
Congratulations to Mrs. Doris Ross Reddick on receiving the National Coun- cil of Negro Women Tampa Metropolitan Section (NCNW) “Legacy Recogni- tion Award.”
Mrs. Reddick was hon- ored on Saturday, December 16, 2017, at the Carrollwood
Golf and Country Club. She is the first African American female to serve on the Hills- borough County School Board. She was presented the award by the President of the NCNW Tampa Metro- politan Section, Rosa Cam- bridge and member Erma Griffin.
Fluor and Curtoom Celebrate 20 years of Partnerships
Pittsburgh, PA – The So- ciety of American Military Engineers (SAME) held their 21st Annual Small Business Federal Contractor Confer- ence at David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pitts- burgh, PA.
SAME is the only non- profit professional engineer- ing education organization that actively promotes the advancement of both indi- vidual technical knowledge and the collective engineer- ing capabilities of govern- ments, uniformed services and private industry.
According to local busi- nessman Paul Curtis, who attended the conference, a hot topic at the briefings was the status of the hurricane relief and restoration from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is leading the fed-
eral reconstruction effort in Puerto Rico and U. S. Virgin Islands. They may boost the size of a contract recently awarded to lead contractor, Fluor Corporation, if the U. S. Congress approves the $94 billion requested by Puerto Rican Governor Ri- cardo Rossello.
Curtis, CEO of Curtoom Companies, Inc., first forged a strategic partnership with federal contractor Fluor Cor- poration over 20 years ago.
“Fluor has long been a proven innovator when it comes to small business re- lationships and strategic partnering. This is why we sought them out as our first business mentors decades ago,” Curtis said.
Since then, Curtoom has been named in four separate project pursuits with Fluor over two decades.
Curtis says, “Puerto Rico is an Indefinite Delivery In- definite Quantity (IDIQ) contract that will likely last many years, perhaps a
decade. Some of the scope of services is obvious. How- ever, the full value of the contracts and duration is un- known at this time.”
Curtis further stated, “Our relationship with Fluor is among our most prized as- sets. We will be happy in whatever role we will ulti- mately play, large or small. I know from my recent tour of the Island, the people of Puerto Rico are U. S. citizens and deserve to have their lives restored.”
Curtis is a member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) www.trb.org. He is a member of the Amer- ican Legion Veteran Small Business Task Force in Washington, DC. Curtis is also a former Florida Afford- able Housing Commissioner.
In conclusion Curtis said say, “We at Curtoom will be both delighted and honored to serve the dura- tion of the rebuilding process, whatever it shall be.”
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