Firm's History
NorthStar Engineering is a company with a long history in Northern California. The founders, Mike McEnespy and Myles Pustejovsky, were originally employed by another area firm, McCain and Associates, throughout the late seventies and early eighties. Much of their business came from contract work to the Pacific Bell Telephone Company. In June of 1983, Pacific Bell closed its doors to outside contractors and McCain and Associates closed its doors as well. Mike and Myles formed NorthStar in late June of 1983 and brought on Mark Adams, another McCain employee, who is now President of the company. In July of 1983, Jim Stevens came aboard along with two other of McCain’s employees, Dorothy Bedford and Tony Flores, and began business with a total staff of six people. The owners of the newly-formed company had purchased Everd McCain’s business client list to hit the ground running.
NorthStar Engineering was originally located in leased offices on Conners Court in Chico, CA. By 1986, the business had done well and they had outgrown that space. The employee count was up to ten by then. The owners constructed a new building, and moved the company to 20 Declaration Drive in north Chico, occupying only the second floor and leasing the first floor to US Congressman Wally Herger.
The Land Development Department was created at this time to concentrate on Subdivisions and Parcel Maps, which at the time constituted a majority of NorthStar’s business. In 1988, the Building Design Department began offering structural calculations for local building projects (both residential and commercial) and the employee count continued to increase. The next year brought us together with Gahagan and Bryant Associates, a firm out of Tampa, Florida, to form G.B. Star. G.B. Star performs hydrographic surveys, primarily in the Bay Area, for clients such as The Army Corp of Engineers (dredge monitoring of deep water channels), the Navy, at both ports in San Francisco and Oakland, and Chevron Oil doing pre and post dredge surveys for shipping berths.
In the early 1990’s another economic downturn inspired the company to further diversify its services. In order to ensure a secure workload, the company created the onsite Wastewater Department. They began providing design for new and existing on-site wastewater systems. This primarily occurred in Paradise, 15 minutes to the east, a community of approximately 40,000-50,000 without a public sewer system.
By the year 2000, the company had grown to 20 employees and was occupying the entire building at Declaration Drive. By the beginning of 2005 that building no longer met our needs and it was time to move on. Construction proceeded at our current location (111 Mission Ranch Blvd. in Chico, CA) in the spring of 2005. We currently have 28 employees and have been occupying the new building since mid-January 2006.
In 2009, NorthStar Engineering acquired Gallaway Consulting, Inc., evolving into NorthStar Environmental in 2011. Gallaway Consulting was founded in 1998 and was a full service environmental consulting company. The staff at NorthStar Environmental includes environmental and regulatory specialists, planners, biologists, botanists, arborists, and geographic information system and mapping specialists. NorthStar Environmental is highly respected and has developed a large client base by providing exceptional service and forward thinking solutions to environmental issues. The merger of these two great companies allows both companies to provide a wider range of services. NorthStar Engineering is now able to better serve our clients and provide in-house service from feasibility, project concept, design, to regulatory permitting and entitlement.
On January 1, 2011, GDA Engineering, Surveying and Planning of Oroville, California joined NorthStar Engineering of Chico, California. GDA Engineering, Surveying and Planning has been providing quality engineering, surveying and land planning services thoughout California since 1974. The merger of these highly reputable firms established a great depth of knowledge and experience that will greatly assist NorthStar-GDA clients by providing a wide range of turn-key solutions.