Monday, October 29, 2007

Springtime at the Comstock

As I said, the Comstock was the first of many hotel casinos to be built that spring and Solari had the fireproofing, lath and plaster, drywall and painting contracts for 99% of these projects. And this meant that I wasn’t going to be able to hide any more. Art now knew that I read plans and he knew that I had been a foreman and a superintendent before. Like it or not, I was going to be given a project to run.

But first I was going to be given a short lesson on panel building. Solari had secured the contract for the exterior panels on the new 24 story Circus Circus hotel and casino. These were similar to the panels that were being installed on the MGM hotel, except for the fact that these were made with a new synthetic and lightweight plaster/Styrofoam combination called Dryvit.

The foreman (Phil) for the Circus Circus project was already busy building these panels at the Solari panel factory; an old and very large aircraft hanger from Stead Air Force Base. It had been dismantled and moved into Reno, where it had been rebuilt as a cabinet shop and then, later, purchased at foreclosure by Mr. Solari. (Did I mention that Al Solari was the chairman of the board of the bank?)

My assignment was to work at the panel plant and then take Phil’s place when the time came for him to leave and install the many panels he had built for the project.

Then, once the Money Tree Casino structure came ‘out of the ground’ I was to begin the building of panels for that project; my project. Fun times ahead!

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