Clark County Paving in Brush Prairie makes sure its customers have a smooth driving or parking space, no matter how big or small the job is.
Project manager Patience Owenby said her parents, Paul and Michael, started the company in 1996.
“They started as a tow truck company, and then my father worked for another asphalt paving company that no longer exists, and that’s how he got his primary education in asphalt,” Owenby said. “And then he decided to go out on his own, did small jobs out of the back of a pickup truck, and his philosophy was always he’d go door to door until he found a job for the next day.”
Since Clark County Paving came to fruition, the business has included a grade crew, a paving crew with a foreman, office staff and project managers.
“We have greatly expanded since then, and it’s still in the family. My parents run it, I am the project manager here, and my brother runs the grade crew,” Owenby said.
Owenby said her duties entail getting people quotes for their projects, meeting with customers in the field to look at job sites, and working on basic project management, as well as planning and scheduling.
“I like the fact that it’s different every day,” Owenby said about her job. “I’m always doing something that’s challenging. I like the people I work with, even family and all that. I love the people I work with. They’re all very hardworking and passionate about the company as I am.”
The company recently took on a job along the Lewis River which stretched for 27,000 square feet.
“That job had a couple different technical aspects to it. We had three different types of paving work on it, (which) we call grading and paving, and then we had removing, where we did repairs on the road, and then we paved over an existing old road on the way in,” Owenby said.
She said the customer was trying to sell their house, so they worked to spruce up the property for them. The job included a steep slope along the way that created an added challenge, but the company was able to overcome it through their teamwork, Owenby said. The project took three days to complete.
Clark County Paving is heavily focused on commercial jobs at this time, which Owenby said is a new phase for them.
“I have a background in engineering, and so I have been able to start bringing blueprint reading and take off into the office, which has allowed us to delve into big commercial work (like) new developments and that kind of thing, which has been an exciting new step for us,” she said.
Owenby said there can be challenges to complete the jobs during the allotted time, as well as competition between businesses who vie to get their projects done first. Scheduling bigger jobs with smaller jobs and making sure all are finished is an extra challenge, but “other than that, it’s been pretty great and we’re just adjusting to the growth,” she said.
Owenby said she considers all of the employees of the business part of her family. She highlighted how committed they are to making the company successful.
Clark County Paving is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. They can be reached at 360-772-5515 or by email at paving@clarkcountypaving.com.
