Co-owner Tamra Gannon of Fencing Specialists, Inc. takes great pride in the diversity of her workplace.
Founded by Gannon’s stepfather in 1983, Fencing Specialists remains a family-run company servicing Southern Nevada with commercial and industrial fencing and gates. Taking over for her family in 2016, Gannon’s legal experience as a trial paralegal for construction defects offered a background to transition to the company. She understood the intricacies of insurance qualifications, contract law, general construction and every aspect of companies’ infrastructure. She now works with several clients from her former career in the capacity of a specialty subcontractor.
Gannon was instrumental in obtaining certification as a diverse business, including exclusively woman-owned and disadvantaged business enterprise recognized by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT). Fencing Specialists is now a DBE, MBE, WBE, WOSB and RISE certified business. She is a longtime member of the NCA’s Diversity and Inclusion Council and takes great pride in her involvement with the organization over the last six years.
Building and reconstructing freeways, bridges and parks help the community, and Fencing Specialists is a vendor in Clark County jurisdictions. Clark County focuses on offering opportunities to smaller businesses in the construction industry with the influx of national companies opening branches in Las Vegas.
“We also are awarded prevailing wage jobs as part of our diverse business status. We are helping our general contractors who need to reach certain diverse percentage goals,” Gannon said.
“This has generated a new stream of revenue and customers for us,” Gannon said.
Fencing Specialists have been awarded big and exciting contracts as part of the infrastructure bill.
“We are at the beginning stages of building through the infrastructure bill,” she said. “We are thrilled to see the funds invested in improving the greater Clark County area and being a part of that improvement. This includes Mesquite and Laughlin as well as Pahrump [Nye county].”
When the pandemic occurred, Fencing Specialists was geared up to complete its government contracts since there were no pedestrians walking and very few drivers. The industry requires closures of areas when work is being performed, and much of the work is usually done at night with less foot traffic. With the pandemic, Fencing Specialists were able to complete the work during the day and completed those projects in record time.
One of its biggest jobs was to install the Las Vegas Boulevard Pedestrian Protection fencing along the Strip. According to the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority, over 32 million people visited Las Vegas. The fences provided safety for drivers and drove pedestrians to use sidewalks (without stepping into the street), designated crosswalks and pedestrian bridges.
“It really has not slowed down since the pandemic,” Gannon said. “More recently, the Clark County School District is stepping up security. Fencing Specialists have worked on many projects covering multiple schools to provide high-security fencing around middle and high schools in Clark County.”
The chain-link fencing is now 8 feet tall, with panic exits and high-security gates enclosed around the schools. Work has been completed on six different high schools with Fencing Specialists to work on more schools.
Solar and renewable energy plants have been commissioned throughout Nevada and are commonly located on tribal lands. For all work on tribal lands awarded to Fencing Specialists, the company employs Tribal members and all their crew members complete and implement sensitivity and WEAP training throughout the build.
The company’s scope of work includes the protection of the endangered desert tortoise and the preservation of archeological sites during construction. Tortoise fences and tortoise guards ensure that endangered desert tortoises are safe from ongoing construction and security fencing is installed around areas that a team of archeologists has investigated.
“We take great pride in working together with various tribes throughout the state. Respecting and learning from their culture while protecting endangered animals and architectural sites has been an added bonus to our growing company. The work that will be provided from the infrastructure build along with our new relationships with national and local builders is a great comfort to our company,” she said.
Fencing Specialists, Inc. designs, fabricates, installs and repairs fencing, gates, gate operators, access controls, ornamental metal, bollards, turnstiles and railing systems. For more information, visit fsilv.com.
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