Fran-Bar makes earth move for his customers

John Barbee, owner and operator of Fran-Bar General Engineering Contractors, has considerable knowledge in the specialized field of earth moving. Whether Barbee is involved in a residential, commercial, grove or city project, Fran-Bar is highly respected in the industry because of his qualifications.

Before owning Fran-Bar, Barbee gained an enormous amount of experience while working in his father’s business. “My father owned a construction rental business and I worked there while I was going to high school.” His extensive experience spans well over 20 years, with Barbee earning a general engineering license as well as a C10 Electrical Contractor license in the interim.

Barbee’s business branches out into many areas. Fran-Bar specializes in land development, earth moving and demolition. “We also do underground utilities, streets, septic jobs, grading pads and roads, water easements and culverts,” he explained. “We’ve also done work for the CDF [California Department of Forestry] and the government.” According to Barbee, Fran-Bar has been hired to perform fire prevention jobs by creating fire breaks.

The fire prevention effort fans out to residential properties where Barbee can create fire breaks around homes and groves. “You want to do fire control and prevention before summer, because whatever grows before this time starts to dry out in the hot weather and can easily burn during fire season,” said Barbee. “You really need to keep up on fire prevention.”

Fran-Bar’s sterling reputation has been recognized by the government and has received an “A-Rating” for their work. “The government evaluates you on your work,” Barbee said, “and you get evaluated on honesty, job performance, task at hand, performance under stress and workability with others.”

Another important part of the evaluation is the quality of their equipment. “It needs to be fire ready and in perfect working performance; our equipment has received an A-Rating.” This type of trustworthiness in a business is akin to discovering a gold mine.

Barbee explains that his company is quite versatile, because they also do grove work. Barbee feels comfortable in this sphere because he owns 70 acres of avocado groves.

“We have made grove roads, fire breaks and have even done tree clearing,” said Barbee. Not only is this company highly versatile, but it owns all of its own equipment.

An inventory of their equipment includes tractors, dozers, excavators with thumbs, a wheel loader, forklifts and chippers. “Although we do a lot of demolition and grading, we do all kinds of jobs,” Barbee explained.

Barbee is quick to point out that his business only schedules one job at a time. They are never working on more than one assigned job per day. “We come in, finish a job and then move on to the next one.”

Likewise, Barbee is personally present and accounted for at each job. “I’m on the job all the time and I even run the equipment.” Being on each job from start to finish every step of the way gives Barbee a great deal of satisfaction because he enjoys seeing the completion of the project.

Working outdoors and helping people is very satisfying for Barbee. He loves what he does but confesses he is a workaholic. “I just can’t sit still,” he said with a smile.

John Barbee of Fran-Bar General Engineering Contractors can be reached at either his office at (760) 451-1788 or on his cell at (909) 560-0392.