About Us

In 1954 Carl H. Acome purchased 54 acres of land on East Avenue in Youngstown which was where the local garbage dump for the area was at the time. He relocated his family there from the Village of Youngstown, cleaned up the property, and raised farm animals. Around that time, he started a business delivering water to the military bases in Erie and Niagara Counties and doing garbage pickup in Youngstown. Then in the 1960s, the focus turned to construction, and the “Carl H. Acome Construction Company” was formed and later incorporated in 1971. As time went on, the business, then located in Ransomville, expanded to include all aspects of general construction including concrete, blacktop, foundations, demolition, shore repair work, and septic systems, just to name a few. At its highest point, the company had 10 employees with Carl at the lead, his son James second in command and for a few years his grandchildren, Jim and Jennifer, were also employed.

Then, in 1987, the company changed hands being passed on to James and in 2003 was renamed “Acome Construction, Inc.” Besides still doing general construction work, they were the main contractor performing plant maintenance at a local chemical factory being responsible for repair and replacement of the underground sewer and water lines, building new structures, installing concrete foundations for machinery, and any other maintenance needed. This lasted from the early 1980s through 2002 when the plant operations moved out of the area. Some employees have come and gone, but James has had the same faithful crew of Phil and Dan since the early 2000s. The company relocated back to its original location on East Avenue in Youngstown in 1995 and that is where it is currently located today.

The company is still going strong but has welcomed back a member of the family. As of December 2017, Jennifer (Acome) McNeely, James’s daughter, was added as a co-owner and the company is now classified as a Woman-Owned Small Business. Jennifer has returned to the family business as President and plans to pick up where she left off, with the addition of being more involved in the business side of things and James has assumed the role of Vice President. The core aspects of the company remain the same but are more streamlined to focus on septic and sand filter systems, site work, shore protection and restoration, and other general construction projects. We are on the DEC’s list of approved contractors to perform shore protection work on Lake Ontario, are on the Niagara County Health Departments list of approved contractors for the installation of sewage disposal systems, and have worked with Indian Health Services since 2007 installing septic and sand filter systems on various Indian Reservations in Western New York.

As of October 2020, the future of the company has officially been passed on to the capable hands of Jennifer (President) and Phil (Vice President), with James stepping down from the position of Vice President. James remains on the board as Treasurer and Secretary.

We have a wide variety of equipment to serve the purpose of our operations. They include: 2 excavators; 1 mini excavator; 2 skid steers; 4 dump trucks; 1 payloader; 1 hydroseeder; 1 topsoil shredder; 3 pickup trucks and other various support equipment.

Jennifer (Acome) McNeely: Jennifer was employed as a laborer and truck driver with a Class B CDL from 1993 until 2003. In the years following, she raised a family, earned an Associate Degree in Computer and Electronics Technology, and worked in the field of Electronics. She then returned at the end of 2017 to become a co-owner and the President of the company and is currently running the day-to-day office operations including writing proposals and invoices, performing site visits, and managing communication with suppliers and customers, and once again drives truck with a Class B CDL.

Phil Fleckenstein: Phil has been with the company since 1999, starting as a laborer he has advanced to lead machine operator and mechanic, drives truck with a class A CDL and can run all aspects of the job site. In late 2020, Phil became co-owner with Jennifer, and the Vice President of the company as James handed over the future of the company.

James D. Acome: James has been with the company since its original inception in the 1960s and is currently on the Board as Treasurer and Secretary. He still runs machinery and drives truck with a class A CDL, fields customer calls, performs site visits and quotes potential jobs, manages the work schedule and general operations at site locations.

Dan Wilson: Dan has worked with the company off and on since 2005, returning in the spring of 2014 as a full-time permanent employee. He is a laborer, machine operator, and mechanic and has recently acquired his class A CDL.