A.J. Johns is president of A.J. Johns, Inc., a family-owned company that specializes in horizontal construction. He was recently appointed to the board of directors for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority.
WHAT IS HORIZONTAL CONSTRUCTION?
“Clearing, paving, grading, water, sewage and drainage. We do turnkey subdivision work for developments and some commercial. We don’t do any vertical construction like building houses.”
WHY WAS HE CHOSEN FOR THE JTA BOARD?
“I think they wanted someone familiar with the contracting business and who knows the road-building business. I’ve been in the contracting business going on 34 years. Most contractors can’t serve because they work for JTA but we don’t. We don’t do any municipal or state work. Virtually 100 percent is in the private sector.”
HOW OLD IS
THE COMPANY?
Johns started the business in 1970 with a handful of workers. Today, he has 160 on staff. Adding the personnel of his wife’s company, Concrete Profiles, which operates out of the same facility, he has 200 employees.
WHAT DOES HE ENJOY ABOUT THE BUSINESS?
“Sometimes, I don’t like the day-to-day pressure, but management handles most of the operations. I do a lot of detail work still. I do like seeing young people develop in the business and really take hold. My philosophy is, ‘If they’re not smarter than I am, I don’t need them.’ It sounds harsh but that’s the way you’ve got to be with management.”
WHAT IS HIS BIGGEST CHALLENGE?
“I’ve got two kids in the business. They don’t want the responsibilities I’ve had of being tied down. That’s understandable. It’s not for everybody. It is very demanding.”
ON THE HOME FRONT?
Mandarin is home to Johns and his wife Carole. They have two children, Mark and Teresa, and four grandchildren.
HIS ROOTS?
“I grew up on a farm in South Georgia.”
WHAT BROUGHT HIM
TO JACKSONVILLE?
“I came down after high school. A couple of my brothers live here. There’s nine of us in the family. What really brought me down here was there was no gainful employment there.”
HAS HE WORKED IN ANOTHER FIELD?
“On a contract basis, I worked for the Towers family operating water and sewage treatment plants. The Towers family [Charlie Towers is a partner at Rogers, Towers law firm] had a construction division. With my job, I had to do a lot of inspections so I was very familiar with what was going on. You learn a lot of the engineering and technology of this business.”
WHAT ARE HIS
CURRENT PROJECTS?
Oak Leaf on the Westside, White Oak on the Northside, Johns Creek in St. Johns County, renovations to Baptist Hospital downtown and ancillary work on the new Baptist Hospital off St. Augustine Road.
HIS ROLE WITH JTA?
“I will work in an advisory capacity with the director. It is a seven-member board. I believe there is a member from the FDOT [Florida Department of Transportation] on the board because they [the City and the FDOT] work so much together. There will be a lot of decisions to be made regrading where we need to do road improvements. Of course, the bus system and the Skyway come under the JTA. The JTA handles part of the Better Jacksonville Plan. I’m sure issues like the overpass at University and Atlantic [boulevards] will be on the agenda. We probably need it but the local residents don’t want it because it interferes with traffic. I’m a little green on it right now. I don’t know totally what I’ll be doing. What I will do is evaluate the information we have and try to make the best decisions for the taxpayers.”
HOW WOULD HE IMPROVE TRAFFIC FLOW?
“That whole Argyle area is a real bottleneck. If we ever get that Chaffee Road interchange built at I-10, it will help that problem but I’m not sure there’s a way to ever totally solve the traffic problem. What we need to do as a community is to encourage people to use the rapid transit system. Yes, it doesn’t go very far right now but eventually it will have to. The City keeps growing; we can’t build enough roads. Parking downtown is only being used at 20-25 percent capacity. The only way that’s going change is to change our attitudes about being totally independent [of personal vehicles].”
OTHER MEMBERSHIPS?
Johns is a member of the Utility Contractors Organization, the Home Builders Organization and on the board of the City Rescue Mission.
WHAT DOES HE DO FOR FUN?
Enjoying the great outdoors from his South Carolina farm tops his list of favorite activities. He also enjoys hunting, offshore fishing and snowskiing in Colorado.
— by Monica Tsai