Back to In the News pageDon Drury believes society has a problem.
“We’ve watched too many football games, everything is win or lose,” said the Bainbridge Island contractor. “We must move to alternate forms of dispute resolution.”
This philosophy led Don to become a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Dispute Resolution Center (DRC) of Kitsap County, a non-profit corporation providing the community with volunteer mediators.
“The DRC is a communication device to help parties understand each other and arrive at consensus. We don’t judge,” Drury said.
The DRC is less than a year old and handles a variety of cases including landlord/tenant, debtor/creditor and child custody. The professionally trained volunteer mediators meet with clients to assist them in reaching mutually agreeable solutions.
Drury believes we must instill an alternative to an “I win, you lose” philosophy in the educating and raising of our children.
Drury’s collaborative approach has served him well. Drury Construction Co., Inc. won a 1991 AGC Excellence in Construction award for the building of a new stadium at Bainbridge High School. Many in the community had an emotional attachment to the old stadium because it was built by high school wood shop students after World War II, and resented its replacement.
Now, Islanders are proud of the stadium and the work done by many of the high school graduates, like project manager Marty Sievertson. “The stadium project was different and fun for the guys working on it,” Marty said.
The concrete grandstand and 98 major structural components were cast on-site to eliminate the need for potentially dangerous deliveries by trucks on the congested school grounds. The best part, according to Marty, was “the precision of it all, with tolerances of plus or minus an eighth of an inch. It’s not too often you build cabinets out of concrete.” For Drury, the AGC runs in the family. His uncles, Don and Gordon Mowat, served as presidents of the AGC. His cousin is Dave Mowat, of AGC-member David A. Mowat Co.
“The AGC allows small contractors to have a voice in politics,” noted Drury. “Contractors have an obligation to participate in reaching industry goals, and they can do that through the AGC. Also, it’s great mixing with your peers --- swapping notes and checking your judgement.”
The former Bremerton Area Council Chairman would like to see more AGC services and programs brought to Kitsap County.
He was a civil structural engineer in Seattle until 1972, when he decided he hated wearing ties and moved to Bainbridge Island start his construction business. Historically, the firm has done primarily public works jobs with the Navy, park and school districts. Drury is doing an increasingly greater amount of private work, like the Sterling Plaza, office buildings and tenant improvements for the Kitsap Mall and Quadrant Corp. His favorite project? Building a pickle ball court in his yard!
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