Building Havasu: McGoverns: Laying the foundation

Cal McGovern remembers the exact date that he moved to Lake Havas City. June 10, 1971. He was a computer programmer in Flagstaff. Now, he’s the patriarch of a one of the longest-running, family-owned concrete companies in Lake Havasu City.

“My boy took it over,” Cal McGovern said from his Nevada home. “It’s great. It’s good that my son is still down there and they are going.”

Locally owned and operated, McGovern Concrete workers estimate that they have been involved in about 30 percent of the residential, commercial, and curb and sidewalk construction that exists today in Lake Havasu City. The company first started as Ace Concrete in 1973 and then broke off into McGovern Concrete in 1984.

Pat McGovern, one of Cal’s sons, still labors at construction sites around town.

“I was like 7 or 8 (years old) when I first started going to work with (my dad),” he said. “I would wash tools for the guys, pick up boards and stakes.”

Pat McGovern and his co-worker and brother, Mike McGovern, both said they are proud to be part of the construction crews that literally helped to build Lake Havasu City.

“We get a little bit of pride when we drive by and say, ‘I did this and we did that,” Mike McGovern said.

And although Pat McGovern may work hard during the weekdays, today will be a different story:

“I’m going to go to the beach and the bar,” he said.