TOLM Group of Morrilton, Arkansas is a construction firm with a difference—and not just due to its impressive achievements, comprehensive client support, and safety-first approach.
“Our work centers around human flourishing and just meeting basic human needs,” explains President and Owner Brian Rohlman.
The human need in question is water. Originally a paving company, TOLM is currently focused on construction work at water/wastewater treatment plants.
Although its full range of services includes general construction, design/build, engineering, and construction management for water and wastewater projects, the company is “primarily a general contractor,” says Rohlman. Heavy civil construction and earthworks duties are self-performed by TOLM, as are equipment installations, while tasks such as electrical, HVAC, drywall, and roofing are subcontracted to trusted partners.
Although TOLM Group has several licensed engineers on staff with professional certification in multiple states, almost all the company’s work is performed within Arkansas. When the team does take on an out-of-state assignment, it is usually with a client in the industrial poultry sector.
Arkansas is a small state with a tight-knit water/wastewater community. In such an environment, “your reputation is everything, and we’ve made it a point to do the right thing and always deliver, regardless of what that means to us and our bottom line,” says Rohlman.
Fortunately, in 10 ten years TOLM has been in business, it has established a reputation for excellence. “We have never been fired,” Rohlman laughs. “We have never been kicked off a job. We have never left a project in an unsatisfactory manner that wasn’t the quality that the customer paid for,” he says proudly.
This customer-centric approach requires “active participation” from clients and everyone else involved in a project, he continues. “We leverage teams—our own teams and the sub-contractor teams, but we also leverage the skills and abilities of the owner and customer too,” he says.
For example, the company routinely conducts constructability reviews of projects on which it works. This entails an inspection of the design plans and input from the project owner. The latter offers their vision, then TOLM determines “the most efficient way, the most engineering-sound way to execute that plan.” Constructability reviews enable the team to identify potential problems and find fixes, and, as a collaborative effort, these reviews are intended to minimize delays, waste, and unnecessary costs while maximizing value.
Many of TOLM’s employees have worked previously in water/wastewater plants, and such firsthand experience gives TOLM an insider’s perspective on important aspects that might be overlooked by other general contractors. Water/wastewater facilities are intended to operate long-term, and staff members who work in them handle pumps, components, and technical equipment. To augment operator comfort, convenience, and safety, such gear needs to be arrayed in a user-friendly manner.
“We’ve been in a myriad of facilities before, so we know [what] things work and don’t work. This helps the end user,” Rohlman explains, pointing out that when the company designs a facility, “the switches are where they need them to be; the panels are where they need them to be. They’re ergonomic in addition to being functional.”
TOLM does not engage in splashy marketing campaigns to attract new customers, instead preferring to promote its services through word-of-mouth and by simply doing consistently good work—“building on the success of our past projects,” as Rohlman puts it.
And the firm has completed quite the portfolio of projects, including work at the Jack H. Wilson Water Treatment Plant in central Arkansas. This assignment involved replacing five pumping units, along with electrical control gear and motors, improvements to the facility’s ventilation, and rehabilitating various structural elements. This project earned the company the 2020 Associated Builders and Contractors Arkansas Excellence in Construction Award for Public Works/Environment in the $1M to $5M category.
In a rare out-of-state assignment, the company provided construction management services to clients building a wastewater pre-treatment facility at a poultry processing plant in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Project elements included a sludge filter press, chemical feed system, pump stations, and more.
Currently, TOLM Group is involved in a massive project at the Lake Ouachita Water Treatment Plant. Once completed, this greenfield water treatment facility will provide 15 million gallons of water on a daily basis for citizens of Hot Springs, Arkansas.
“It’s our largest project to date. Its contract value is approximately $40 million, and it’s going very, very well. It’s a project we’re really proud of—kind of a once-in-a-lifetime project in how unique it is. It’s a water treatment plant but it’s all built inside a barn. When it’s complete it’s going to look like a barn on a farm somewhere. That project means a lot to us,” says Rohlman, stressing that TOLM is proud of all the work it has done.
TOLM Group is involved with several industry associations including the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), and the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA). Membership in such groups raises its profile while providing the company with networking opportunities and the ability to stay abreast of current industry issues.
As noted, TOLM got into water/wastewater work in a roundabout manner. Back in 2014, Mike and Suzan Miller acquired a company called Crow Paving. Rohlman joined the firm a few months later. The new management “set out to grow the company and expand what was a local, in-state, small contractor with 20 employees and small revenues… to be a company that [could] leave a greater impact in the communities that we work in,” recalls Rohlman.
The company’s name was changed to the Crow Group in 2020, then to its current moniker two years later. Along the way, it diversified its services and eventually “settled into our niche—waste/wastewater construction,” adds Rohlman.
TOLM currently has “just under 100 employees; we fluctuate between 85 and 100. We’re in a significant growth period right now with new work and a backlog that is in pre-construction and planning phases right now. It is anticipated that we will surge to up to 150 employees within the next eight months—or even beyond that,” he continues.
When considering a new hire, “The first thing we’re looking for is a quality person, who has something to work for, to live for. They have values that are consistent with ours… They have to have an attitude that is reflective of doing the right thing. [They have to have] integrity, take ownership in their actions, some leadership capability… We’re a company of Christian faith, and we prioritize that heavily in everything we do.”
A good work ethic and competitive mentality are also helpful assets for anyone applying for a job. “We set out to be the best; we’re not looking to be third, fourth, fifth, in our market. We’re always striving for that excellence. An individual who wants to work for us needs to accept that,” says Rohlman.
The quest for excellence is not limited to construction projects and customer service either. TOLM is committed to maintaining the health and safety of its employees and has Safety Training and Evaluation Process (STEP) Diamond certification. The STEP system “provides contractors and suppliers with a robust, no-cost framework for measuring safety data and benchmarking with peers in the industry,” says the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), which runs the program.
Based in Washington, D.C., ABC is a 23,000-member-strong trade association for the construction industry. In addition to STEP Diamond status, TOLM earned Accredited Quality Contractor (AQC) recognition by ABC, a rare distinction.
“We design our work environments and processes to support our employees in the tasks that they perform so they can do them safely and effectively,” states TOLM Group Director of Health, Safety & Environmental Ethan Lowe. “When these guys are met with hazards out there on the job, they’re able to identify them and have the tools to adequately address that hazard.”
In addition to establishing processes and protocols, “we foster a culture of trust and open communication and encourage workers to speak up about safety concerns and actively participate in developing solutions,” he continues.
Rohlman adds that a shortage of new skilled trades workers is the biggest challenge facing the company, saying that the challenge is “being able to acquire talented trades, engineering staff, project management, safety professionals, carpenters, electricians—all those different things.” To meet this challenge, TOLM Group spreads the word about water/wastewater career opportunities within the community and in schools.
“We are getting out in front of these high school students and communicating to them that they can have a great career in a construction trade in a project management role [or another position]. They’re starting to recognize it’s a very rewarding career and can be profitable,” he notes.
TOLM’s plans for the future are to continue doing what it does well. “If nothing else, we’re basically doubling down on our core services and what we’re good at,” says Rohlman. “We want to broaden our customer base. Eventually, I think we will [establish branches] outside the state of Arkansas as our capability and our reach grows.”
