It doesn’t take long to drive around Cañon City, Colorado, to find evidence of work by Ray Lippis Excavating.
Along with hundreds of houses for which the company did site work and installed water and sewer, the company also rebuilt the Main Street area’s sidewalks and performed other downtown revitalization projects. The company built most of the county’s river walk beside the Arkansas River, and it is the contractor for four of the area’s water districts. It's ties to the community, reputation for quality work and ability to grow during tough times makes Ray Lippis Excavating one of our 2020 Contractor of the Year finalists.
The company continued to grow and so did Ray’s family. His son Anthony would bring his pillow and blanket and curl up in the backhoe while Ray worked. Now 42, Anthony has been coming to work with his father ever since. At age 18, Anthony led the Main Street revitalization project. Ray and his wife, Vicky, also opened a greenhouse business that sells flowers and vegetables, where their daughter and grandchildren work.
Through the 1990s and much of the 2000s, Lippis was busy with residential projects, providing site work and utilities for as many as 150 homes a year. The housing market crashed in 2010 in Cañon City. During that time, the company landed its largest customer, the U.S. Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot.
Anthony also ventured into stream stabilization work to replace the lost housing business. He found his first project online and won the bid to create habitat for greenback cutthroat trout. After the recession, the housing market bounced back. Along with environmental projects, Anthony is in charge of residential and commercial excavation.
Jeremy "Woody" Woodward, who has been with Lippis for 18 years, is in charge of water and sewer projects. The company handles about 100 emergency jobs a year, from failed septic tanks to municipal waterline breaks.
