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Rodney P. Frelinghuysen visited Tilcon's Mt. Hope facility in Wharton, NJ on September 8. The Congressman is serving his tenth term as the Representative for New Jersey's 11th Congressional District. In the 113th Congress, Frelinghuysen serves as New Jersey's senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and on three key appropriations subcommittees: Energy and Water Development, Homeland Security and Defense, where he serves as Chairman.
Frelinghuysen represents 54 municipalities in the 11th Congressional District, including communities in Morris, Sussex, Passaic, and Essex Counties. Tilcon has 5 locations in the 11th District: Byram, Mt. Hope, Pompton Lakes, Riverdale and Totowa and a total of 369 employees are employed at these locations.
The tour began with a presentation and overview of the company by Tilcon's Executive Management team: Seán O'Sullivan, President Tilcon New Jersey; Vince Gallo, Executive Vice President; Josh Benson, General Manager Sales; Frank Hung, Director of Safety; Brad Carroll, General Manager of Aggregates; Scott Laudone, General Manager of Asphalt; Arnold Connolly, Mt. Hope Plant Manager and Karen Edgar, Public Relations Manager.
After the presentation, the Congressman went on a windshield tour of the quarry, asphalt, recycling and quality control lab, led by Arnold, Brad and Scott. The Congressman was able to see firsthand how the quarry operates and how rocks are mined and processed. He then went to the asphalt plant and Scott explained to him the importance of using recycled products in the production of hot mix asphalt and talked to him about the efficient state-of-the-art Gencor asphalt plant on site and how it was constructed with safety, the environment and ease of access in mind.
Safety is always number one priority at Tilcon, and the new asphalt plant project included improvements to the property's roadways that facilitate the ease of traffic flow into and out of the facility for the local community, customers, visitors and employees. The new plant runs more efficiently and quietly and provides additional dust control measure improving the plants overall environment and further minimizing any intrusion to the surrounding neighbors and community.
At the conclusion of the visit, the Congressman took a tour of the Quality Control lab and was greeted by several Tilcon employees who wanted to meet the Congressman and also asked questions about federal Transportation Funding and its relationship to the construction industry. A question was poised, on what actions the House of Representatives may take in the near future to help aid in the funding?
The Congressman left with a better understanding of our industry and a genuine interest in helping to support it and was very appreciative of the opportunity to hear about the concerns of his constituents.