McCarey’s Landscaping, Inc. introduced its new construction waste disposal service earlier this year.

President Donna McCarey has obtained certifications that enable McCarey’s Landscaping, Inc. to compete for city and state governmental jobs.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. So when McCarey’s Landscaping, Inc. in Middletown, New York, decided to purchase a roll-off truck to handle its own construction waste disposal for its landscaping work, owners Donna and Tim McCarey saw an opportunity to offer a new service for customers in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

McCarey’s Landscaping has added roll-off garbage and recycling collection to its already vast landscape construction services. The firm does soil and erosion control, clearing and grubbing, excavation, final grading, drainage systems, retaining wall systems and landscape management. The company also has regular snow removal and emergency snow services contracts with New York City, as well as a contract with New York Stewart International Airport for the removal of snow and ice from ramps.

“For this newest service, we can recycle glass or haul off garbage, tree debris or chippings. We can collect anything but contaminated hazards,” Donna says. “We typically load, haul and truck materials for the type of work we do in landscape construction, so why not make it a service to others, too?” she asks.

Steady Growth

Meeting customers’ needs has been a focus of the company since it was founded in 1996 by the husband-and-wife team. Donna, President, with comprehensive knowledge and understanding of all aspects of the company business, focuses mainly on the administration, finance and credentialing, while Tim, Vice President, handles operations in the field.

“We were newly married and wanted to become business owners,” Donna recalls. Tim quit his job with the Orange County Public Works department and “with a pickup truck and a shovel” started doing residential landscaping jobs. Donna, a registered nurse, did job proposals and accounting for the business in the evenings, while keeping her job as an operating room nurse to support the family as the business grew.

“Years went by, and we started making a living from the business,” Donna says. “Then, we had our daughter, Rosemary, and I found it hard to keep my job as a nurse and run the office, so I left nursing to dedicate my time to the business,” she says.

What started as a small residential landscaping firm has grown into one of the area’s largest providers of landscape maintenance, soil and erosion control, masonry, and construction services to municipal and commercial customers across the state of New York. McCarey’s Landscaping has an office staff of six people, and the firm works with union labor for fieldwork and installations. “We do a lot of seasonal work, so our field crews vary in size from as small as five people to our largest to date of 88 people,” Donna says.

“We are diversified in many different types of construction,” Donna says. “We’re not just limited to planting trees or putting down grass seed. We do hydroseeding and a whole list of specialty walls, high-end retaining walls, clearing, grubbing and drainage. We’re a one-stop shop for prime contractors. We can fulfill many line items on their contracts.”

And now in the midst of another downturn due to the pandemic, what better time to expand its services to the construction industry by offering roll-off waste collection and disposal?

A New Direction

This isn’t the first time a poor economy has driven the firm in a new direction. It was during the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009 that McCarey’s Landscaping transformed from being a provider of landscaping services to many local homeowners and businesses to becoming a major provider of landscaping construction to governmental agencies and major companies across the Hudson Valley.

As customers began to cut back, Donna began filling out applications to become a certified minority vendor, which enabled McCarey’s Landscaping to compete for city and state governmental jobs.

Today, prime contractors in the Northeast turn to McCarey’s Landscaping not only because of its quality work, but also because of the prestigious and difficult-to-obtain certifications it holds. Besides being certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) in the state of New York, McCarey’s Landscaping is a certified WBE and SBE with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is a System for Award Management (SAM)-certified WBE and Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB), and is a New York City WBE.

The company is also listed in the Vendor Exchange System (VENDEX), a computerized data system for qualified vendors in New York City. The company has worked for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York City Department of Sanitation and the New York State Office of General Services.

“It was a tremendous opportunity to get more work with cities and local port authorities, and I had always wanted to be a woman-owned business in the construction industry,” Donna says. Federal, state and local government departments and agencies look for women- and minority-owned and disadvantaged businesses to meet their minority utilization quotas as some laws require that a certain portion of their purchasing contracts go to these types of businesses. Donna recognized the potential, and business took off.

Opening Doors

The company’s plethora of certifications sets it apart from the competition and makes the company eligible for bidding and contracting benefit programs for federal, state and municipal customers, which has opened the doors to key projects.

Today, McCarey’s Landscaping can be found on major landscaping jobs ranging from $100,000 to $10 million within a 150-mile radius of Middletown, including Orange, Ulster, Dutchess and Sullivan counties in New York; Pike County, Pennsylvania; Sussex County, New Jersey; and in the five boroughs of New York City.

Some of its recent higher-profile jobs include soil erosion control and all landscaping for the LEGOLAND New York Resort, which has delayed its opening until 2021 due to the pandemic. It will feature more than 50 rides, attractions and live shows at a theme park in Goshen in Orange County, just 60 miles northwest of New York City.

The company is also constructing and remediating retaining walls at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Past projects include soil stabilization for John F. Kennedy International Airport and specialty walls, soil and erosion control and plantings for Resorts World Catskills casino and resort in Monticello, New York. The firm is also working on the Catskill Aqueduct Repair and Rehabilitation Project, a $158 million effort by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to rehabilitate the aqueduct that has delivered drinking water from the Catskills to New York City for more than a century. For the multiyear project, McCarey’s Landscaping is completing soil and erosion control and landscape construction for a 74-mile stretch of the aqueduct.

And now, it can add roll-off waste disposal to its many services. The firm offers a variety of container sizes—from 10 yards up to 30 yards—depending on customer needs. The company will deliver an open-top rectangular container to a customer’s site for trash, debris and other nonhazardous waste collection and provide weekly pickup services, hauling the debris to recycling or waste disposal centers. “Anyone in residential and commercial construction, from builders to roofers, or someone who does demolition can benefit from this service,” Donna says.

“We used to bring a dump truck to our landscaping jobs to haul off soil and debris. Our roll-off service will not only meet our particular construction needs, but can help other construction contractors in the area with their own cleanups and waste disposal,” she says. “We’re ready to roll.”