COEUR d'ALENE - Stimulus dollars are working their magic for at least one North Idaho company, but that doesn't mean it's time to kick back and relax.

With a fleet of trucks, heavy equipment and other expensive rigs in her inventory, Carrie Edwards decided to find more ways to use it all. The owner of TraffiCorp, which provides flaggers and traffic control materials for road construction projects, decided to diversify.

"We just opened the landscaping division," she said.

Excavators, curbing equipment, skid steers and "a ton of attachments" already used by the company to furnish services to the highway construction industry can be used in lots of other ways, so along with landscaping, decking, fencing pergolas and other construction services are now available from TraffiCorp.

"We brought in the pros to help with that division," Edwards said. With husband Dan as the general manager of the new division, she added Dave Ferguson as operations manager and John Moore as project superintendent, adding a total of about 10 new employees to the summer crew of more than 100 who work for the company.

Ferguson has about 25 years of experience working in construction, custom homes and site development, and Moore 20 years of similar expertise.

TraffiCorp's extensive 10-year history throughout the Pacific Northwest brought Edwards into contact with the others, and they will provide training and oversight of the workers in the new division.

Most were new hires, since the highway division has plenty going on.

"The stimulus has been absolutely huge," Carrie Edwards said. "It is all Davis-Bacon work. I hire flaggers off the street and they make $30.56 an hour to start."

Davis-Bacon wages are wage determinations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor under the Davis-Bacon and related acts for prevailing wage rates to be paid on federally funded or assisted construction projects.

For TraffiCorp, the season is just getting started.

"It's bidding season," Edwards said. "We are still pretty busy. Those guys stay busy."

While the landscaping and construction workers will make less money, the managers have picked those with solid qualifications to work for the company.

The focus is on landscaping construction.

"We will build their yard, and if they want us to we will install their curbs and shrubs," Edwards said. "We have a lot of options with our vendors."

Free on-site estimates are available. Among the products and services offered are sprinkler installation, waterfalls, retaining walls, cedar and composite decks, shade pergolas, fencing in cedar, vinyl, pasture rails or ornamental aluminum.

"We can do decks from ground level to 100 feet in the air," Ferguson said.

As a federal contractor licensed in Idaho and Washington, TraffiCorp is bonded and insured, Edwards said, and can provide services throughout the Pacific Northwest.

And because many projects they work on cause landscaping disruptions, TraffiCorp has the first shot at some potential customers.

"We need the equipment anyway," Edwards said. "We found people with experience, and let them go play."

TraffiCorp is open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Information: 665-4683