It’s that time of year again when ENR New York gathers recommendations for our annual ranking of the tristate’s largest projects by dollar amount. The “Top Starts” ranking will appear in our March 12 issue but we’ve already begun to gather data, snoop around sites, ask a lot of questions, and mark you as a great source of info on what’s going on in your area.

We’re looking for projects with contract values of at least $60 million that broke ground in 2011. Last year’s rankings spanned New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, but New York City work dominated the list. While that may make sense given the great amount of industry activity in the city compared to other municipalities, we know the rest of the state as well as its two neighbors also have some interesting projects to share. We want to hear about them, and this is where you, the A/E/C professional with deep industry knowledge and the dirty boots to prove it, come in – send us your recommendations.

Why? Well, for many reasons including that you, like the late great Smokey the Bear tuned into forest fires, are all over construction sites and, although you are not putting out literal fires (hopefully), you are tuned into who is working on what and how interesting that is. Also, you want to contribute to this magazine’s very cool coverage of industry projects – who wouldn’t, right?

So here’s your deadline: February 3^rd.

Here’s what to do: Send us an e-mail with project details – including project name and location, contract size, date of ground breaking – at ENRNY@mcgraw-hill.com. Include your name, company and the best phone number with which to reach you.

Remember, you have a February 3^rd deadline, so don’t delay. Circle that date, write it on a post-it and stick it to your monitor with this note: ENR New York, that Very Cool pub that I love to read, Needs My Input. I must not procrastinate on this one or the deadline will pass without my having contributed.

Okay, that may be too much for a post-it note but you get the idea.

To view last year’s Top Starts, refer to our March 7, 2011 print issue or see that issue online under the “Magazine Archive” link in the Current Issue box on our home page.

And although he’s no longer with us, we bet even Smokey might appreciate the fact that you just doused this, albeit small and figurative, flame.