About Us

Our Team

Crestline is defined by its people: honest, experienced, forward-thinking, professional and hard-working. Our team members – from office management and technical support, to our full-time Safety Director, to equipment operators and laborers – form collaborative relationships with owners, developers, design teams, subcontractors and others to assist in delivering the most desirable and economical solution to the construction goal. Throughout our history we have never been to litigation or arbitration, or even incurred liquidated damages on a project. Crestline Construction Company’s business philosophy is dedicated to trusting relationships, excellent service, workmanship that has enduring character and meeting or exceeding customer expectations every time.

KEY STAFF

Our office team fills the many complementary roles that take projects from initial planning stages to implementation to final wrap-up. State-of-the-art GPS technology, a friendly, personable account management staff, strict adherence to the most up-to-date safety standards, and a commitment to supporting field staff define Crestline’s office culture.

The Key Staff that manage Crestline’s pre-construction and construction services for all projects include Erik Kerr as Principal Manager, Bill Ketchum as Operations Manager, Yani Vaivoda as Chief Estimator, Kenny Kempf as Senior Project Manager, Matt Smith as Project Manager, Jeff Pettenger as Project Manager, Sam Krentz as Project Manager, Diana Austin as Project Manager, Greg Jensen as Safety Director, Meagan Polino as Survey / GPS Machine Control Manager and Bob Whitefield as Shop Manager. These leaders have a full compliment of resources to call upon in serving you, including a wide variety of pre-construction and construction support. These resources will ensure not only that the work is completed on schedule, but to the quality you expect.

ERIK KERR

General Manager

Erik is the General Manager for Crestline Construction, Co. His responsibilities include safety oversight, subcontracting, scheduling, resource management, cost tracking, value engineering, staff supervision, financial review and oversight, and construction project management. Erik’s expertise includes over 28 years in the heavy civil construction industry, including 10 years as a foreman and superintendent and over 12 years as a project manager on various types of construction projects. His experience includes public utility and roadway infrastructure construction, pipelines of all types and site developments such as retail centers and industrial and manufacturing facilities for both public and private sector clients. He specializes in highway and street construction and reconstruction, large diameter water and sewer distribution systems and other underground utilities, development of innovative construction techniques, management of complex, fast track construction projects, value engineering and client relations.

BILL KETCHUM

Operations Manager

Bill is the Operations Manager for Crestline Construction. His responsibilities include management of field operations, project construction oversight, subcontracting, estimating, safety oversight, scheduling personnel supervision, cost tracking and value engineering. Bill has a hands on approach to project implementation. He brings twenty five years of experience in heavy civil contracting to the Crestline team. He specializes in water and sewer distribution systems, resource management and management of complex, fast track construction projects, value engineering and client relations.

KENNY KEMPF

Project Manager / Estimating / Equipment Dispatch

Kenny began his career working throughout Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah in the paving industry, overseeing one of the largest portable hot plants in the region. He has been working with Crestline since 1995. He began working as Crestline’s general superintendent for several years before moving his talents indoors to the estimating arena. Kenny currently splits his time between estimating, project management and equipment dispatch, making sure the right tools, materials and equipment arrive at our projects at the right time.

MATT SMITH

Project Manager

Matt has worked in Civil Construction for 15 years beginning as a laborer building housing developments and working up to a Superintendent building multi-million dollar contracts from site development to oil and gas projects across the nation. With his experience he brings specialized training in leadership and safety to Crestline’s already outstanding safety culture.

SAM KRENTZ

Project Manager

Sam’s 30+ years of experience in building construction has allowed him to acquire skills in many trades used in both residential and commercial projects. Sam is experienced in structural concrete, and buildings of masonry, wood and steel construction.  He is a motivated worker, who applies inventive and creative problem solving skills to achieve high quality results.  Sam worked in his family’s operated general contracting company for 25 yrs before taking on a project superintendent role for commercial development projects.

JEFF PETTENGER

PROJECT MANAGER

Jeff started his professional career as a sophomore summer intern in 2015 at Crestline as he was attending the CEM Program at Oregon State University and joined the Crestline Team full time in 2018.

His experience as an intern led him to learn many aspects of the Heavy Civil Construction industry, his work ethic and dedication has allowed him to rise quickly through the ranks. Jeff’s responsibilities range from project management, value engineering, and client relations. He specializes in public & private site developments; retail centers, subdivisions, retrofits, industrial facilities, and underground infrastructure.

DIANA AUSTIN

PROJECT MANAGER

Diana is a Project Manager for Crestline Construction.  She has a combined experience history of 16 years in the Civil & Mechanical construction related industry.  Diana began her construction career in the supply scope of the industry and developed into the Civil & Mechanical estimating field covering complex wastewater treatment plants to underground civil projects.  Her career with Crestline started in 2021 as an Assistant Project Manager and recently moved into the Project Manager role.  As a Project Manager, her responsibilities include project coordination, budget tracking, value engineering, safety, and client relations.

YANI VAIVODA

Chief Estimator

Yani is the Chief Estimator for Crestline Construction. His responsibilities include subcontracting, estimating, safety oversight, scheduling, cost tracking, and value engineering. Yani has a hands on approach to project implementation. He brings eighteen years of experience in heavy civil contracting to the Crestline team, including over eight years as an equipment operator and foreman on numerous construction projects. He specializes in water and sewer distribution systems, resource management and management of complex, fast track construction projects, value engineering and client relations.

GREG JENSEN

Safety Director & Environmental Compliance Manager

Greg is the Safety Director and Environmental Compliance Manager for Crestline Construction. His responsibilities include developing training and programs to promote an effective company wide safety culture, collaborating with Supervisors and Foremen to ensure safe production that meets or exceeds Oregon OSHA standards, and reporting directly to the owners and upper management regarding safety in the field. Greg also manages Crestline’s workers compensation claims and performs various other duties such as recruiting, traffic control plans, jobsite preparation work or communications, as needed.

MEAGAN POLINO

SURVEYOR/GPS MACHINE CONTROL MANAGER

Meagan began her land survey career in Anglesey, North Wales during the late nineties. Upon return to the United States, her experience in Britain, coupled with years of white-water raft guiding landed her a job with the USGS where she worked on multiple projects throughout the 2000’s, mapping the Colorado River Corridor through Grand Canyon. In 2010, she continued surveying with a focus on stream ecology at Utah State University, where she became a key member of the Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program and began working throughout the Columbia River Basin in a collaborative effort to model geomorphic change in 26 different watersheds. Falling in love with the Columbia Gorge, she relocated to Mosier, OR. As circumstance would have it, she resumed work focus to civil construction in 2016, where she has since enjoyed a dynamic position inclusive of GPS Machine Control management, providing construction layout, UAV data collection and photogrammetry processing, volume estimates and progress analysis, and providing as-built surveys, 3D take-offs and surface models.

BOB WHITEFIELD

Shop Manager

Bob is the Shop Manager for Crestline Construction. He brings over 35 years of heavy equipment repair, truck repair and shop management to the Crestline Team. His responsibilities include scheduling of all equipment maintenance and repair, hiring and training of mechanics/shop assistants, programming of plasma cutting table, ordering of repair and stock parts and organization/maintenance of our shop and shop yard. Bob also maintains our fuel stock and fueling system including ordering and tracking of all required fuels and additives. He works closely with our field managers to ensure the equipment they need is ready and in top working condition.

About Us

field staff

Everything boils down to making things happen in a timely, safe manner in the field. That’s why we strive to retain the best field managers, operators and laborers in the Gorge. We’re proud to offer long-term, well-paid staff positions and to work with a consistent group of sub-contractors whom we know and trust.