Steady Pace
LAWS Construction Corp. takes the time to do the groundwork right
Take any piece of property and imagine how it will be used, how it will serve a purpose, how it undergirds any number of other activities and necessary functions, and you start to think like LAWS Construction Corp. (LAWS).
LAWS specializes in the construction of underground utilities, roadway reconstruction, sidewalks, earthmoving, public parks and sewer systems. With a focus on work in New York City and Westchester County to the north, the company develops or repairs a property’s infrastructure—mostly through public projects—that gives communities more functional and more aesthetic lives. This work can’t be rushed.
That’s why the Pleasantville, New York, company maintains a pace that both gets the job done and gets it done right. Company leadership plans for achieving that balance. Earthmoving equipment can be in place to do the work once all the foundational details are ready.
“We move at a deliberate pace. Our focus it to always do the right job without cutting any corners,” says Chief Financial Officer Steve Vescio. “Sometimes preparation takes longer than the actual work itself. We get intrigued by answering the question ‘What goes in the hole next?’ or answering the mystery of what’s beneath the ground. We don’t want anyone to be injured or to damage utilities. We just really like to work in the street and the parks. We have to put all of ourselves out there in every job we do.”
It’s a philosophy that the company’s clients seem to appreciate—they keep LAWS busy with transforming undeveloped land, and they know that quality infrastructure work shouldn’t be rushed. For one thing, most undeveloped land comes with a set of issues, zoning restrictions, utility obstacles and geological difficulties. When a developer wants a big job done right, one where all the other crews build on the infrastructure, he doesn’t rush the first part of the project.
Work and Family
Timing has always been an important consideration for the company. President and Founder William (Bill) Vescio once dreamed of running an infrastructure company that prioritized quality over a rushed completion. His dream became reality 17 years later.
Bill was an Executive Vice President for a similar company that performed infrastructure utility work, highway development and parks development. In the process, he decided that his future was in related work—but for a company that he owned. That was in 1983. In 2000, all of his planning, waiting and hoping came to pass: LAWS officially opened for business.
In the years leading to the company’s launch, Bill and his wife had been raising their four children. The fourth child, Steve, was entering adulthood around 2000. The company name LAWS, in fact, represents those four children: Lynda, Amy, Wendi and Steve.
The first years were challenging, and Bill rose to that challenge, as most do, to balance the demands of work and family life. Steve looks back with pride at how his father persevered, providing for the family and building his own company.
In the meantime, the trajectory of Steve’s future seemed likely to intersect with Bill’s. Steve was studying civil engineering in college, an obvious benefit for a construction company like LAWS. By then, the new company also needed financial professionalism, so Steve switched his academic focus to finance. After graduation, he was a welcome addition to LAWS. Today, he serves as the company’s CFO. His story, too, was a dream come true.
“I’ve been in it my entire life and so it was natural to work there,” he says. “Going back even to when I was a kid, age 10, I can remember riding in a dump truck, visiting the job sites and seeing how it all got constructed. It was very cool.”
Nonstop Leadership
As an adult, that spirit continues as Steve carries the LAWS Construction name and expertise into volunteer work to help his community and worthy organizations. He currently serves as Mayor of the Village of Briarcliff Manor, New York.
“I’ve married my professional construction experience to the municipal side,” he says. “I like to stay busy and like to make a positive change. It’s a unique advantage for the Village when we sit down to talk about developments, capital projects, etc.”
Steve has also served in administration of the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department as Captain of Scarborough Engine Company as well as the nominating committee. He continues a legacy—his father served as Mayor of the Village for five terms. In 2016, the William J. Vescio Community Center was dedicated in Bill’s honor.
They keep their company focused on community as well. LAWS has supported the Ron Jankowski Memorial Fund through sponsorship of its 5K Father’s Day run and annual golf outing. The fundraising effort, which completed a predetermined timetable in 2019, generated scholarships for students at Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District, Ossining Union Free School District, Mahopac Central School District, and for volunteers at Briarcliff Manor Fire Department.
The company also donated money when they heard that the Pleasantville High School track team needed funds to be able to compete one season. “We desire to have a local impact,” Steve says. “Plus, in that case, my dad was big into track in high school, so we made the call.”
The company is equally committed to its projects and its typical customers, such as the New York City Department of Design and Construction and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
“I give the credit to my father for starting the company with this value. We have to put all of ourselves out there. Once we’re involved, we’re hands-on 150%.”
This combination of involvement, dedication and a connectedness makes LAWS the company that it is, Steve adds. LAWS purposefully hires employees based not only on experience and education but also on values and work ethics.
“We can teach them all the rest,” Steve says.
LAWS also encourages employees to seek out educational opportunities, whether it’s negotiation skills for the bidding process or personal growth such as a course on dealing with negative people.
“We value our employees who are a part of our work family,” Steve says. “Everyone is treated with respect and is expected to maintain a positive and productive attitude. This environment creates a place where there are few distractions and everyone can focus on progressing the projects.”
Transforming Terrain
LAWS has plenty of projects to illustrate its capabilities.
The company is installing new high-level storm sewers for the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn. When there are heavy rains, the old combined system causes the water treatment plant to overload, flooding city streets and discharging sewage into the local canal. The upgrades will separate rainwater discharge from sewage discharge.
Two recent projects of note involve remediating environmental concerns. In the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, the goal was to reopen baseball and soccer fields that had been closed by the Environmental Protection Agency for having terrain contaminated with lead four times the recommended level. The Columbia Smelting and Refining Works facility had operated there in the 1920s and ’30s. LAWS did the project in two phases—first remediation and then rehabilitation. The reconstruction added new drainage conduits, dugouts, sports fields, walls, fencing, pathways and synthetic turf fields.
Turning a former Bronx landfill into a public park and golf course required LAWS to remove 180,000 tons of municipal solid waste, line the bodies of water, and add utilities, irrigation and paths. LAWS had been awarded the New York City contract for the 9.5-acre Ferry Point Community Park, then was low bidder on the contract for the adjacent 200 acres that would become the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, which was designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus.
“There were many environmental challenges that had to be overcome to build a golf course on top of an uncapped landfill,” Steve says. “Our team pulled together and tackled each issue that arose on the project in a creative and positive way. The finished product is a complete transformation from a blight to a top-notch links-style golf amenity.”
Time matters. Doing the job right matters. It’s been that way from the start.
It’s been 37 years since the start of the Vescio dream to become a heavy construction company that sets its own pace to achieve quality results. With Steve’s growing leadership role, the company is on solid ground for the future.