Content about Georgia

Roswell, Ga.-based Boral has named Steve Schulz as territory sales manager for the Upper Midwest region of the United States for the Boral TruExterior Trim product line.

Natchez, Miss.-based Central Network Retail Group (CNRG) has acquired W.T. Harvey Lumber of Columbus, Ga.

Harvey currently operates two stores -- one in Columbus and one in Phenix City, Ala.

The company was established in 1863 and is one of the oldest lumberyards in the country. W.T. Harvey will continue to be managed by the founder’s great-great grandson, Bailey Gross, who has been hired by CNRG.

W.T. Harvey, once one of Ace Hardware’s largest LBM dealers, has filed Chapter 11, according to an article in the Columbus Ledger Enquirer. The Columbus, Ga.-based chain, which once operated seven locations in Georgia and Alabama, never recovered from the 2008 housing market collapse, according to president and CEO Bailey Gross.

E-Verify has found a champion in presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who would make the federal electronic employee verification system mandatory nationwide so that U.S. employment would become less of a magnet for illegal immigration.

But while E-Verify has become less error-ridden and more popular among employers than it used to be, it remains easy to fool, costly and widely ignored in states where it is required, according to a Sept. 25, 2012, report.

Hodgepodge of state laws

Chuck Bankston, the fourth-generation owner of Bankston Lumber and the incoming chairman of the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) stands beneath a sign in the yard’s main warehouse in Barnesville, Ga.

The sign reads: “If you’re not having fun, you’re fired.”

Georgia Structural Components (GSC), the newly formed wholesale division of Short & Paulk Supply in Tifton, Ga., has recently become a stocking distributor for Georgia Pacific engineered lumber products.

The distribution partnership expands Roswell, Ga.-based Boral’s poly-ash category exterior trim product to the West Coast.

Boral TruExterior Trim, a building product in the poly-ash category of trim, has announced a new distribution agreement with Capital Lumber, a distributor of specialty building materials serving the western United States.

A new Georgia law effective July 1 provides that people who are parties to franchise agreements are not to be considered employees for purposes of workers’ compensation benefits. The legislation essentially protects franchisors from comp claims by franchisees.

The new law covers individuals “who are parties to a franchise agreement as set out by the Federal Trade Commission franchise disclosure rule, and deems that the relationship between franchisors and franchisees is governed by the rules of contract law, not those of employment law.

Last year, the original 50 Home Channel News Hardware Store All-Star honorees established a high bar and a hard act to follow. But the 2012 crop rises to the challenge. This year’s Hardware Store All-Stars, one from each of the 50 U.S. states, have at least one thing in common: Ask them what makes them special and you can bet they’ll include “excellent customer service” in the answer. From there, every path to stardom is unique.

While looking to open a 1 million-sq.-ft. distribution facility somewhere in Georgia, the company is preparing to close a Rapid Deployment Center (RDC) in Braselton.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported the Braselton center -- the first of the company’s nationwide network of 19 distribution centers -- will close by the end of the year. The Braselton center was not mechanized. 

Nucor Corp. will close its Nuconsteel division and no longer fabricate light gauge steel framing used in residential and commercial structures, the company has announced. Nuconsteel has operations in Denton, Texas, and Dallas, Ga.

Nucor entered the light gauge steel framing business in November 2001 with the acquisition of Itec Steel, which became Nuconsteel shortly thereafter. Nucor expects to close Nuconsteel's facilities in the spring of 2012, after meeting current customer contractual obligations.

The city of Glendale, Calif., has began enforcing a prohibition on synthetic turf for front lawns, according to an article in the Glendale News Press. 

The Glendale ban has been in place for three months, according to the article, but code enforcement officers have recently issued six violation notices to property owners who refused to remove the artificial turf from their front yards. Faux grass in the backyard is permitted, however.