Construction workers flooded the corner of Oakland Avenue and East Kenmore Place in a familiar way Tuesday morning. Moving in, out and around the soon to be finished site of The Mandel Group’s LightHorse 4041 apartments, many of the workers have now been on the Shorewood site for a year.  

“They are all really nice here,” said Chenery Brothers, Toby Hess, of the site’s neighbors and businesses. “We just have to be careful of where we park.” 

Hess, 30, and Justin Jones, 28, are employed by the Chenery Brothers contracting company, based out of Grafton. Both were hired to work on the Mandel property. Hess, who has been in construction for 10 years, has been on the site since the project broke ground.  

Hess and Jones say their biggest annoyance on any construction site is the fear of having things stolen. 

“One of the guys parked his van to drop off nails, he was parked five minutes,” said Hess, recalling an incident from another job site. “Then his van was stolen.”

The van was later recovered a few blocks away, crashed into a snow bank. 

“When they found it the stereo system, the electronics had all been stolen,” said Hess. “But in Shorewood, you don’t have to usually worry about that as much.”