Edna Work Hall renovation superintendent knows a lot about CSC

Rolland has never matriculated at Chadron State, but perhaps no one who is not employed at the institution has ever spent more time on the spacious campus. He knows it inside and out and from top to bottom.

That’s because Sayer has been involved in about a dozen major construction and renovation projects on campus and scores of minor ones during the past 45 years. Day-after-day, particularly in recent years, he’s spent a bulk of his waking hours at CSC.

“I’ve never done any work on Kent Hall (a residence hall), but I think I’ve worked on about every other building on campus at one time or another,” he says. “Some of them were kind of small. All I did with the PAC (Nelson Physical Activity Center) was lay the cornerstone. But a lot of them have been good-sized projects.”

His most recent assignment has been foreman for the renovation of Edna Work Hall, which has been converted into one of Nebraska’s finest student housing facilities. During the past year, he’s headed the crew that is now putting the finishing touches on the modernization of the rambling three-story residence hall. It has been the first major upgrading of the three-story, brick structure since it was built in 1932.

Just prior to the latest project, Sayer was the foreman for the renovation of Edna Work Hall Wing, which reopened a year ago. And, before that, he supervised the conversion of the Miller Building from a moth-balled gymnasium to a state-of –the-art classroom facility in the late 1990s and the development of the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center and adjoining Chicoine Atrium.

Also during the past five years, he’s helped upgrade Memorial Hall, the college’s fine arts facility. Fuller Construction of Chadron was the general contractor on each of these projects. That’s the firm Sayer has worked for the past 13 or 14 years. Its owner, Dana Fuller, says Sayer is “uniquely valuable to our business.”

“He’s diligent and extremely responsible on projects. He puts his blood, sweat and tears into them. He has a wealth of trade knowledge and makes an extraordinary effort to satisfy the customer,” Fuller says. “He’s a capable person.”

Sayer’s duties include answering a barrage of questions from employees of the half dozen subcontractors on the project as well as guiding the six-man Fuller crew.

“It’s been kind of stressful,” he says. “The original plans weren’t too precise. We had a few surprises when we started tearing out the old materials, but it’ll turn out all right. I’m proud of this project. It’s going to be extra nice. I think the students will enjoy living here,” he says.

Forty-eight suite-style rooms have been developed. There’s a living room adjoining each bedroom, which includes a complete bathroom. An elegant lounge is being developed that will connect the original Edna Work Hall and Edna Work Wing. That portion of the project isn’t quite complete, but the rooms will be ready to move into this weekend just before classes begin Monday.

Honor students will live in the hall. Although the room rental is 10 percent higher than in the other dormitories, Melody Carnahan in the housing office says they were quickly spoken for when they were made available last spring.

Sayer’s participation in renovating Edna Work Wing a year ago, brought him the full circle at CSC.

His introduction to Chadron was in the spring of 1960, when he spent several months working as a brick tender for the masonry contractor. F.L. Albright of North Platte, as the walls to the Wing were rising. Forty-four years later, he led the remodeling work for Fuller Construction.

One of 14 children who grew up on a farm near Holbrook in southwest Nebraska, Sayer graduated from high school in 1953. He was working construction for a McCook firm when he was drafted into the Army and sent to Germany for most of his two-year hitch. His first job after being discharged was helping with an addition to the hospital at Pine Ridge.

In the ensuing years, he remained with Albright and worked on projects in Boulder, Colo., Wayne, Imperial and the Methodist Church in Hemingford. The crew was back in Chadron in the summer of 1961 to lay the brick for the expansion of the hospital. It was during this stay that he met Chadron native Nancy Moody. They were married that December. She taught in the Chadron Schools 32 years.

By 1961, he was a brick layer, a trade where he became a master and that he admits that he enjoyed immensely.

The Sayers became permanent Chadron residents in May 1963 when he began helping construct the Armstrong Gymnasium for Fullen Construction of Scottsbluff. Sayer also was involved when that firm built the Reta King Library, Andrews Hall, the Kline Campus Center and the Math and Science Building later in the decade

Also during the 1960s, Sayer worked for Foy Construction as it built Chadron High School and the High Rise residence hall at CSC. His brother Don was the general superintendent on both of those projects.

For most of the next two decades—the 1970s and ‘80s—Sayer had his own masonry business, but often subcontracted for projects at CSC. He remembers working on the CSC heating plant three times—the first time when it was constructed in 1966, when it was expanded to burn wood chips in 19990-91 and again two years ago when a new boiler was added so it could provide air conditioning to several campus buildings.

He also did the brick work involved in the installation of elevators in Hildreth Hall, the Administration Building and Crites Hall. One of his crowning projects was helping erect the Lindeken Clock Tower in 1991-92.

While in business for himself, Sayer circulated throughout the region, working on dozens of various projects both large and small.

“Of all the things I’ve done, I’ve probably enjoyed doing brick veneer and building fireplaces the most. I also like being a foreman, but those projects were really satisfying, too.”

Sayer says he has built “hundreds” of fireplaces, often designing them from a picture the owner had found in a magazine.

“I seldom had any plans for them,” he relates. “All it takes to build a fireplace is ingenuity. I just figured out what I was going to do and sighted it in with the help of a short level to make sure it wouldn’t fall over after I was finished. As far as I know, none of them ever did.”

He says good hand-and-eye coordination, something he thinks he developed as a high school athlete, is a necessity for a brick layer.

For the past 14 years, Sayer has primarily worked for Fuller Construction. In the mid-1990s, he ramrodded the conversion of at least 15 US West projects, many of them in central Nebraska, when the telecommuications giant installed new air-conditioning and heating, among other things, while converting from digital switching equipment to fiber optics.

He also spent a year heading small renovation projects on at least a half dozen Latter-Day Saints churches from Gordon to Gillette and Wright, Wyo., where the tornado hit last weekend. A few years ago he was the foreman when assisted living quarters were added to Parkview Lodge at Rushville.

Although he’s past the age when many folks are taking life easy, Sayer still puts in 50 to 60 hours a week and isn’t planning to retire any time soon.

“I plan to take a little time off when this job is finished. For one thing, I have promised to put new windows in our son Jeff’s house in Valentine. But after that, I’ll probably see what Dana and Eric (Fuller) have lined up and find if they’d like to me to help with it. I like to keep busy and enjoy seeing something old be given new life like we’ve done here.”