The Dallas Business Journal interviews Gold Metal founders on their growth and success in past years.

At least 25,000 people are expected to attend Monday’s fourth annual Fair Park Fourth celebration, presented by the nonprofit Friends of Fair Park.

Fireworks designers and technicians have spent months preparing to light up the skies with a $75,000 fireworks show, which sponsors promise will be even greater than last year’s presentation.

The city is encouraging people to watch the fireworks show from inside the Cotton Bowl and enjoy other activities throughout Fair Park.

Last year, just days before the city of Dallas’ Independence Day celebration, budget concerns forced the city to pull the plug on its fireworks show, but that’s when Dallas-based Gold Metal Recyclers stepped in and covered the cost. The company has done so again this year.

“It was a no-brainer,” said Lindsay Goldberg Freedman of Gold Metal Recyclers. “We take special pride in giving back to the city.”

The show, which lasts just under 20 minutes, will consist of 389 firings that are intricately choreographed and timed to fire to the music provided by KLUV-FM (98.7) radio. Each firing consists of one to 10 shells filled with black powder. Metal cannons containing the shells are encased in wooden boxes and wired to a main control where techs will carefully follow a script to set off each firing.

“It’s an extremely technical process,” Dan Farnsworth, licensed technologist for Pyrotecnico, the company that is producing the fireworks show at Fair Park for the second year in a row.

Each shell is 5 to 8 inches in size and explodes at a height of approximately 100 feet per inch of shell. A crew of five will perform tonight’s show and has spent the past three days setting up the explosives in the parking lot of the Gexa Energy Pavilion at Fair Park.

“I don’t think people realize how much hard work goes into a show,” Farnsworth said.

Fair Park gates will open at 4:30 p.m., and admission is free. The celebration includes free or reduced admission to the eight museums at Fair Park, live music performed by seven-time Grammy-nominated Stefani Little Band and the Dallas Wind Symphony in front of the Hall of State and “dancing water” shows in the Esplanade Fountain. The Texas Skyway gondola ride will be operating, and the Swan Boats will be open for some water fun.

KLUV radio personality Jody Dean will host a short presentation at the Hall of State. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano will also be on hand.

For more information, visit fairpark.org.

EVENT DETAILS:

Time: 4:30 to 10 p.m. today at Fair Park. Cotton Bowl Gate D will open at 7:30 p.m. for fireworks show, which begins at 9:30 p.m.

Admission: Free.

Parking : $10 within Fair Park, at Gates 2, 5, 6, 10 and 11. Or ride the DART Green Line.

Handicap parking is available at Gate 5.

Music: Fireworks will be timed to fire with music on KLUV-FM (98.7).

IMPORTANT: Alcoholic beverages, glass bottles, fireworks or firearms will not be permitted on Fair Park grounds. Strollers, coolers and pets are not permitted inside the Cotton Bowl.

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DALLAS (updated April 25, 2011) — Crediting them for saving last year’s traditional July 4^th fireworks celebration, Friends of Fair Park will present its 2011 Spirit of the Centennial Award to Gold Metal Recyclers and the Goldberg family for their longstanding commitment to Fair Park and the surrounding South Dallas neighborhood.  The 18^th-annual celebration will be held Thursday, April 28, at a noon luncheon in the Crystal Terrace at Dallas Music Hall.  Gold Metal has been an active member of the community for 35 years, and the Goldberg family has lived and worked in the area for over 80 years.

Last year Friends of Fair Park was poised to cancel Fair Park Fourth, Dallas’ official July 4^th celebration, complete with fireworks, the Dallas Wind Symphony, and free museum admission.  The City of Dallas had partnered with Friends of Fair Park for years, and due to tight budget issues resulting from the economic downturn, the nonprofit Friends organization did not feel it was appropriate to ask them to participate.  After months of trying to find a new sponsor, Friends realized that it wasn’t possible to present the fireworks show people expected and canceled the event.

“With less than two weeks to go, Gold Metal Recyclers stepped forward and joined our other partner Dr Pepper Snapple Group to make sure the event took place,” said David Luther, chair of Friends of Fair Park.  “Fair Park Fourth-on-the-Fifth was a huge success, attracting tens of thousands of Dallasites to gather together and celebrate our nation’s birthday.  It would not have happened without Gold Metal Recyclers.”

Friends president Craig Holcomb adds that the Award is not just about one event.

“This is about three generations of the Goldberg family, going to work every day in South Dallas and doing their part to create a more vibrant and sustainable community,” said Holcomb.  “The Goldbergs have proven to be good citizens contributing to the welfare of the South Dallas area by providing hundreds of jobs, giving back to charities and organizations in need, preserving natural resources, and putting millions of dollars back into the economy.”

In November 2010, The Dallas Morning News named Gold Metal Recyclers as one of Dallas’ Top 100 Places To Work, and Gold Metal was recently listed by the Dallas Business Journal as the 20^th largest privately owned company in Dallas.

Through the years, Gold Metal has made contributions to hundreds of charities and organizations, including CityArts Festival at Fair Park, the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, Dallas ISD, Dallas Children’s Book Fair, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, The Jewish Community Center, Dallas Black Firefighters Association and many more.  Most recently, Gold Metal cosponsored the Dallas: Hope For Haiti relief event.  Gold Metal employees also work as “earth-friendly activists” to teach the community about the importance of recycling.

“The entire Goldberg family is very honored to receive this wonderful recognition from Friends of Fair Park,” said Kenny Goldberg, president of Gold Metal Recyclers.  “Nothing feels better than being recognized as a good neighbor by your neighbors.  We are committed to South Dallas and look forward to continued strong involvement in coming years.”

The presenting sponsor of the luncheon is K&L Gates LLP, and the major sponsor is Glazer’s Distributors. Other sponsors are AT&T; Atmos Energy; Bank of America; Ben E. Keith; Scott Burford; Burdin Mediations; Mike and Lori Cohen; Dallas Summer Musicals; HKS; Hunt Consolidated, Inc./Hunt Oil Company; JP Transmission Salvage, Inc.; Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP; Mary Kay; Miranda Realty;  Museum of Nature & Science; Parking Company of America; Platinum Event Services, Inc.; State Fair of Texas; Texas Instruments (TI); and The Reeds Public Relations.

The Spirit of the Centennial Award began in 1994 when Judge David Fox was the inaugural honoree.  About Friends of Fair Park.  Other recipients include Hugh and Matilda Robinson; Walt Humann; Lt. Governor Bob Bullock; the Texas State Legislature; Mary Ceverha, Rita Cox and Carol Reed; State Fair Association; Michael A. Jenkins; Cathy Bonner, Matrice Ellis Kirk and Dealey Herndon; Candace O’Keefe; Rep. Steven D. Wolens; Paul Dyer; Texas Instruments; Rep. Terri Hodge; The Field Scovell Family; Craig Holcomb; The Meadows Foundation; Dallas Area Rapid Transit; and George A. Shafer.

The purpose of Friends of Fair Park is to promote the year-round use of Fair Park; to support the Fair Park Museums; to encourage thoughtful planning for Fair Park’s future; to preserve the buildings, art, sculpture, and related artifacts of the 1936 Texas Centennial.

Friends of Fair Park was formed in 1987 when the Magnolia Lounge in Fair Park was to be demolished. This had been the Magnolia Oil Company’s hospitality suite during the Centennial and later had been home to the Margo Jones Theater where “Summer and Smoke” and “Inherit the Wind” had their world premieres. Alarmed, a group of business leaders, historic preservationists, and Fair Park advocates founded Friends of Fair Park with the express purpose of restoring the Magnolia. They raised $750,000 and then decided to restore the entire park. Friends of Fair Park is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation.

Individual tickets are $150 each and sponsor tickets are $250 each.  Sponsorships are still available for tables of ten from $1,500 to $10,000.  For more information, call 214-426-3400.

Gold Metal Recyclers pledges to partner with City of Dallas and collaborate with neighborhood leaders, churches and civic groups on improvement plan

DALLAS (November 7, 2010) – Dallas-based and family-owned Gold Metal Recyclers, the largest privately owned metal recycling organization in this area of the country, unveiled conceptual plans today to rejuvenate a seven-block area along South Lamar Street, working in partnership with the City of Dallas and in collaboration with area businesses, neighborhood citizens, homeowners organizations and churches. Joined by Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, Councilmember Carolyn Davis and Economic Development Chair/Councilmember Ron Natinsky and neighborhood leaders, the announcement came during an afternoon barbecue hosted by Gold Metal Recyclers for neighbors, nearby churchgoers, customers and employees.

“South Lamar has been our home for 35 years, and Gold Metal Recyclers wants to give back by suggesting a new plan to rejuvenate the neighborhood into a beautiful, vibrant place to live and work,” said Kenny Goldberg, co-founder of Gold Metal Recyclers. “We want to work together with our neighbors and the City to create a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use neighborhood, with amenities for everyone to enjoy.”

Dallas architectural firm VAI Architects has created conceptual designs that propose an organic, mixed-use, walk-able development along South Lamar, complete with street amenities such as park benches, pedestrian lighting, generous sidewalks, bike racks and bus stops, along with street-level shops, art galleries, restaurants. It will also offer new residential concepts while maintaining the integrity of a single-family home neighborhood. Conceptual plans also include beautifying the exterior of Gold Metal Recyclers by transforming it into a park-like setting through the use of meandering sidewalks, landscaping, metal sculptures and the addition of an attractive limestone wall along the front of its premises.

In addition to being named this week by The Dallas Morning News as one of Dallas’ Top 100 Places To Work, Gold Metal was recently listed by the Dallas Business Journal as the 20th largest privately owned company in Dallas.

Born and raised in Dallas, brothers Kenny and Neil Goldberg founded the company in 1976 with just three employees who bought and sold scrap metal on a quarter-acre lot on South Lamar. Thirty-five years later, the family-owned business has expanded to more than 350 employees at seven different facilities. At its South Lamar location, the company operates on 40 acres and employs 200 people, with nearly half – almost 100 – living in South Dallas and Oak Cliff. Seven members of the Goldberg family currently work for the company, including Kenny and Neil’s father, Robert, who grew up in South Dallas and attended Forest Avenue High School (now known as James A. Madison High School).

Gold Metal Recyclers’ clients range from thousands of individual sellers and small businesses, to The Dallas Morning News and national and international companies, such as Raytheon, Vought Aircraft and Alcoa Aluminum. Most recently, Gold Metal recycled materials from Texas Stadium, Reunion Arena and the 75,000 aluminum bleachers from the Cotton Bowl stadium.

The family-owned business processes more than 500 million pounds total of ferrous and nonferrous metals per year, including 500 million recycled aluminum cans per year. Gold Metal Recyclers keeps these materials out of landfills, saves energy costs by reusing these materials in manufacturing, and significantly helps prevent global climate change. Recycling reduces a range of pollutants from entering the air and water. The U.S.’s scrap recycling industry transforms 150 million tons of scrap metal. Approximately two-thirds of all metal used in manufacturing has been recycled. Gold Metal continues to be integral to the U.S. economy, global trade, and resource sustainability.

Through the years, Gold Metal has made contributions to hundreds of charities and organizations, including the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, Dallas ISD, Dallas Children’s Book Fair, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, The Jewish Community Center, Dallas Black Firefighters Association and many more. Most recently, Gold Metal cosponsored the Dallas: Hope For Haiti relief event and resurrected and underwrote the City of Dallas’ Fair Park Fourth fireworks event. Gold Metal employees also work as “earth-friendly activists” to teach the community about the importance of recycling.

Gold Metal employees even volunteered their own time to clean up South Lamar Street and hauled away more than 500 pounds of trash from the neighborhood.

“My mother and father attended elementary and high school within minutes of Gold Metal Recyclers. We’re a family business based on family values, and we care about the South Lamar neighborhood,” said Neil Goldberg. “We treat our employees and neighbors like our family. When we take care of one another, we all succeed.”

Gold Metal Recyclers is located at 4305 S. Lamar St., Dallas, Texas (75215). For more information, go to goldmetal.com or call 214-421-0247

November 17, 2010

Washington, D.C. — The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, (ISRI) applauds the President’s proclamation of November 15, 2010 recognizing the important contributions of recycling; including conserving our natural resources, protecting the environment and creating green jobs.

ISRI further applauds the President’s call for increased conservation and sustainability, improved recycling efforts, and preparing a national strategy for recycling materials in a manner that both safeguards human health and the environment.

Accordingly, ISRI fully supports the President’s efforts towards establishing an interagency task force charged with preparing a national strategy for responsible recycling of electronics.  The national framework set out by the President for the Task Force mirrors ISRI’s own policies and initiatives focusing on ensuring environmentally sustainable and responsible recycling practices through downstream due diligence for electronics and other similar practices in compliance with domestic and international laws, as well as encouraging manufacturers to consider end-of-life issues of their products at the design stage.

ISRI particularly applauds the President’s directive to the task force that it “include a strategy to build capacity within and share best practices with developing countries, so they can improve their ability to safely handle used electronics, while promoting economic development.”

ISRI has long held that simple bans on export are counterproductive and that the best opportunity to have a significant impact on boosting global environmental sustainability is for stakeholders – including recyclers – to teach entities in developing countries how to improve safety and environmental conditions through the sharing of best management practices and industry know-how, something ISRI has already begun in China.  Positive intervention has the added benefit of boosting economic development and job creation while effectively turning the tide on irresponsible recycling.

ISRI, along with stakeholders from the OEM community, the states, other recyclers, and the environmental community, worked together in conjunction with the EPA to develop a set of recycling standards for electronics – R2 to help ensure that end-of-life electronics are properly recycled in environmentally protective methods.

R2 specifically prohibits exports except where legal and only under specified conditions designed to protect the environment and workers.  For more information about R2, visit www.r2solutions.org.

In addition, ISRI has urged manufacturers for more than twenty years to eliminate or reduce the use of hazardous or toxic materials, in their products, as well as to discourage them from the use of materials that are not recyclable.  Visit ISRI’s Design for Recycling® initiatives for more.

ISRI stands ready to work with the President and his Administration to further develop best recycling practices that both support a stronger economy and are environmentally sustainable here in the U.S. and globally.

Visit America Recycles Day Presidential Proclamation for more.

For more infomation regarding the creation of the interagency task force, read the letter from Nancy H. Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

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The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI) is the “Voice of the Recycling Industry.”  ISRI represents more than 1,550 companies in 21 chapters nationwide that process, broker, and consume scrap commodities, including metals, paper, plastics, glass, rubber, electronics, and textiles. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., ISRI provides education, advocacy, and compliance training, and promotes public awareness of the vital role recycling plays in the U.S. economy, global trade and environment. For more information about ISRI, please visit www.isri.org

From left to right: John McKeon, President & GM of The Dallas Morning News, Kenny and Neil Goldberg, and Jim Moroney, CEO of AH Belo and Publisher of The Dallas Morning News.

On Wednesday, November 3rd, The Dallas Morning News honored Gold Metal Recyclers as one of the Top 100 Places to Work in Dallas. Over 1,000 companies in the Dallas area applied to be considered in the top one hundred ranking. The one hundred companies were selected by employees completing anonymous surveys based on qualities such as leadership, compensation, training, flexibility, and diversity. Gold Metal was named one of the top companies with the best work environments. Attributes such as strong leadership, direction, and opportunity for growth were stated by Gold Metal employees as reasons for their company loyalty.

Gold Metal currently employs over 360 employees at seven different locations. In the Dallas/Fort Worth area alone, Gold Metal employs 295 employees, some of which have been with the company for over twenty-five years. “I believe there is a reason that our employees stay loyal to the company,” says Kenny Goldberg, “and that reason is based on fair and honest treatment by management and a mutual understanding that hard work equals personal and professional success.”

Both Kenny and Neil Goldberg state how humbling this experience was for them. “To see how our employees truly feel and to know that what we have built affects so many people is very gratifying,” says Neil Goldberg. “We are so proud to be honored by the Morning News as we showcase a great example of entrepreneurial success.”

For 34-year-old Gold Metal Recyclers, the decision to stay the course two years ago despite a slowdown in sales paid off. The company, which buys and recycles thousands of tons of scrap metal every year, has a customer base that ranges from individuals to large manufacturing and recycling companies.

“We decided to stay in this market for our customers,” said President Kenny Goldberg. “Some of our competition chose another road. When we came out the other side, we were a lot stronger for it and our market share increased.”

The Dallas-based company posted $509 million in revenue for the 12-month period ended July 31, a 99.6 percent gain from $255 million in fiscal year 2008, the comparable prior-year period. Goldberg attributes the surge to gaining market share through three acquisitions and rising commodity prices. Gold Metal now has large recycling yards in Houston and in Dallas with smaller operations in Gainesville, Albuquerque, N.M., and Fort Worth.

The company has come through each recession stronger than it went in, but this was the toughest one yet, said Neil Goldberg, vice president, who co-founded the company with his brother. For the first time ever, Gold Metal Recyclers had to cut from its 200-plus employee staff.

“It was very gut-wrenching and sickening,” he said. “We spend more time with the people we work with than we do with our families.”

Today, Gold Metal has 289 local employees and 365 company-wide.