About Alex Riley

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So far Alex Riley has created 9 blog entries.
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How much salt is used each year in the United States?

By |2019-06-07T00:15:42-04:00October 22nd, 2015|Salt, Snow Removal|

According to the Salt Institute the United States applied roughly 17,000,000 tons of road salt during the winter of 2013-2014. Other reports say that more than 20,000,000 tons of salt are applied on our roadways every winter.

To put that into perspective, that equates to:

  • 124lbs of salt per person in the United States (there are 322 million)
  • 158lbs of salt for every car or truck on the road in the US (there are 253 million)
  • ~15x more salt than is used each year by the entire US food processing industry (source)
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What are deicers?

By |2019-06-07T00:15:43-04:00October 22nd, 2015|Salt, Snow Removal|

Simply put, deicers melt ice.

In practice, there are two fundamental concepts that explain how deicers work to melt ice:

  • What is ice?
  • How does it melt?

What is Ice?Melting_curve_of_water

Ice is frozen water.  It looks like a brittle, transparent crystalline solid.  Ice molecules can exhibit up to sixteen different phases (packing geometries) that depend on temperature and pressure.  You probably didn’t know that.  Another important thing to know is that when there is ice there is water.  Even though it may not be visible, molecular water […]

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The Only 3 Interview Questions That Matter

By |2019-06-07T00:15:43-04:00September 21st, 2015|Interviews|

When interviewing candidates for a position, we only care about 3 things: ability, passion, and fit.

Can they do the job?

Think about the most successful employees in your organization.  What traits do they possess?  These are the characteristics you should be looking for in new hires.  Make sure you think about what you really need.  A job description describes what a person needs to do, while a people description says what qualifications a person needs to have. Ask yourself how often have you hired a candidate that didn’t have all of the qualifications outlined in your job listing yet was a […]

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An Idea

By |2015-07-31T20:31:33-04:00June 15th, 2010|Company History|

While performing renovation work for the Detroit Housing Commission, Patrick Beal and Alex Riley brainstorm ideas for solving their labor problems. The idea for MeritHall is born.

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