After growing up in Washington State and working construction for most of his life, Joel Tellez wound up in Smyrna, where he became a superintendent for Olympian Construction. One day, he was sitting in the pickup line at Thurman Francis Arts Academy in his work truck when Dow Smith—who also had kids at the school—came over and struck up a conversation. A few months later, Joel was working at DSC. Last week, he celebrated 20 years with the company.
“Joel has set the standard for client care on his job sites for the past two decades,” CEO Joey Rhyne says. “Our customers love him and his servant heart. His attention to detail and job site cleanliness has set the standard.”
Joel remembers when he first started at DSC. As Smyrna and Rutherford County have flourished over the past 20 years, so has our company.
“We did a lot of hustling back then,” Joel says. “We took on a lot of nice jobs. President Place was starting to come alive. We did Bella Place out there in front of Home Depot (off of Sam Ridley Parkway) and that Buffalo Wild Wings and that store out in front of Lowe’s. We did a couple of other jobs out there at that time. We did a few out on Rock Springs Road. Back then, we probably had 8 or 10 people. There were a few times when people came and went for a while. I remember for a while, it was just Bardo and Steve and I out in the field.”
Dow says Joel has brought a level of stability to DSC as the company has now grown to 35 employees.
“Consistency is a word that comes to my mind,” Dow says. “Clients love that he’s so consistent. He just delivers a high-quality project every time. There was a time when sometimes we’d crush it and sometimes we wouldn’t. The consistency we have today has happened during his time here.”
COO Trey King agrees. “Joel has a lot of knowledge that he passes along to those on his sites,” Trey says. “He takes great care of our clients, especially when working in occupied spaces. He makes sure it is perfect before he leaves.”
Since those early days, some of Joel’s favorite jobs have been StoneCrest, MMC and New Vision. Joel has even worked on Dow’s house. They live across the street from each other.
“Every time I drive by his house, which is several times a day,” Dow says. “I’m very grateful I get to work with him. There’s so many little things in my house that he’s touched that make me smile. He’s a great neighbor.”
After 20 years, Joel says he still likes coming to work every day. “I like the satisfaction of seeing the end product and getting it done,” Joel says. “I like seeing the smiles on owners’ faces and seeing them enjoy their building that wasn’t there a year ago.”
