GREAT BEND, KS, October 2, 2026 (EZ Newswire) — Great Bend contractor pushing for small-business influence and better damage prevention as the association met in Washington D.C. a few weeks ago.
Craig Amerine is halfway through his year as chairman of the Power & Communication Contractors Association, and he wants the same thing he wanted in March: for small contractors to have a real say in a national trade group.
Amerine took the chairmanship in March 2026 after working up through PCCA’s board, where officers advance a step at a time toward the top seat. His term ends in March 2027.
Small contractors have been the focus from the start. Most PCCA members are nowhere near the size of the national firms that dominate underground construction, and Amerine’s argument is that the difference shouldn’t cost them influence.
“It’s an honor to represent small business on a large scale like PCCA,” Craig Amerine said. “I want to continue promoting the benefits PCCA provides for small businesses and leave the association stronger than when I started.”
Damage prevention and workforce training
PCCA runs leadership training, lobbies on behalf of contractors, and puts member companies in the same room as suppliers and manufacturers. It also works with the Common Ground Alliance on damage prevention and backs apprenticeship programs across the trade.
Damage prevention is the piece Amerine returns to most. There is more underground infrastructure than there used to be, and crews are working around more of it than they were a decade ago. He wants better electronic mapping of what’s already buried, and more accountability from the companies that own it. Contractors and infrastructure owners also need to be working the problem together rather than separately.
The rest of the term
The association work runs alongside the day job. Amerine Construction has been putting utilities in the ground out of Great Bend since 1977, and is currently working on fiber-to-the-home projects in Garden City, Kansas and eastern Colorado.
For the back half of his term, Amerine is focused on two things: growing membership and putting the association on firmer financial footing.
PCCA’s mid-year conference was held September 16-18 at the Willard InterContinental in Washington, D.C. The association’s next annual conference is scheduled for March 5-10, 2027, at the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar in Puerto Rico.
About Amerine Construction
Amerine Construction is a third-generation, family-owned underground utility contractor based in Great Bend, Kansas. Founded in 1977, the company provides directional drilling, cable plowing and installation, trenching and backhoe work, manhole and underground structures, and energy and utility infrastructure services across Kansas, Colorado and the Central United States. More information is available at amerineconstruction.com.
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SOURCE: Amerine Construction
