{"id":19304,"date":"2014-02-20T11:11:55","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T16:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=19304"},"modified":"2014-03-04T16:05:08","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T21:05:08","slug":"alumnus-at-helm-of-martin-stone-quarries-recognized-as-national-leader-in-the-aggregates-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumnus-at-helm-of-martin-stone-quarries-recognized-as-national-leader-in-the-aggregates-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus at helm of Martin Stone Quarries recognized as national leader in the aggregates industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>If you\u2019re going to extract stone from a 350-acre hole adjacent to a borough of 950 residents, Rod Martin has learned that it helps to live in a house beside the quarry, where the locals can see that you and your family also care about the noise, dust and scenery.<\/p>\n

The Martin family has quarried granite in Bechtelsville, Pa., since 1953. \u201cWe\u2019re entrenched in the community \u2013 my property is at the back of one quarry,\u201d said Rodney Martin, vice president of Martin Stone Quarries in southeast Pennsylvania, near Allentown. \u201cWe live in the community where we work; it gives you a different perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Martin family runs its own sweepers to keep the town\u2019s streets clear, plus two water trucks for sprinkling water on the streets when necessary to keep the dust down. They\u2019ve created a wetland habitat and regularly host tour groups on their business premises. \u201cWe do it because we want to, but it pays off,\u201d Martin said of his company\u2019s neighborliness. \u201cWe know we have to stay active \u2013 a quarry is not the most desirable neighbor in some people\u2019s eyes, so we have to do the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from Eastern Mennonite University in 1995, Martin joined the family business and helped it to become an industry pacesetter. His work is now receiving national recognition. He was named AggMan of the Year 2013 by Aggregates Manager, the leading industry publication. He will receive the award in March 2014 at the annual industry convention to be held in Las Vegas \u2013 it\u2019s the equivalent of being named to \u201cWho\u2019s Who\u201d in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re mining a non-renewable reserve, in a sense,\u201d Martin told EMU news services. \u201cBut a lot of our product is sold to blacktop plants. And blacktop, as we tell our tours, is one of the most recycled resources. You mill up the old roadways and use them to help make the new surface. Our biggest customers are in southern New Jersey. We sell to blacktop plants there, then pick up sand to sell to concrete plants here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2005-06, when Martin wanted to move an asphalt plant to access more granite, he and his cousin Trevor went door-to-door, explaining their plans for the mine, including their intention to build a berm planted with trees to block the view of mining operations. Their efforts paid off with a short rezoning period and few community-wide meetings. \u201cRezoning went very smoothly because the community knows us, and knows we will be affected too,\u201d said Martin.<\/p>\n

The quarry produces crushed and granite, as well as Martin Infield Mix for baseball fields. In fact, the infield of the EMU baseball field is covered with this mix from Martin Stone Quarries.<\/p>\n

Rod Martin\u2019s paternal grandparents, Henry and Dorothy Martin, brought the quarry into the family in 1953, after Henry worked for several years at his brother\u2019s quarry in Lancaster, Pa. The \u201cfamily\u201d part of the business remains central. Rod and his wife Jennifer, and are raising their two boys, 13-year-old Matthew and 7-year-old Ryan, right<\/em> next to the quarry. Rod and his cousins, Travis and Trevor, take care of the day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not bad working with your family,\u201d said Rod. \u201cGoing through college I didn\u2019t have it set in my mind that\u2019s what I would do, but I always enjoyed it [during summers and holidays]. Then once I got out of school, I just kind of grew into it. We\u2019re always looking at the health of the business so that we can hand it down to our kids. We\u2019re family, we work through things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Martin family is already thinking several generations ahead, discussing possible other uses for the 350-acre site \u2013 such as a park or golf course \u2013 after extracting the final ton of granite of the 200 million tons estimated to remain in the ground.<\/p>\n

Rod majored in business administration<\/a> at EMU. During his junior and senior years he played basketball under former head coach Tom Baker. \u201cHe was a very good mentor,\u201d recalled Rod. \u201cI learned a bunch in class and just as much out of class playing sports.\u201d For his cross-cultural<\/a>, Rod went to Jamaica, led by business department faculty: \u201cWe weren\u2019t in resort towns all the time. It\u2019s nothing that you think of when you think of Jamaica. It was an eye-opening thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being named AggMan of the Year came as a surprise (\u201cI didn\u2019t even know I was nominated\u201d) and presented Rod with a new challenge: \u201cMy next month will be spent trying to put my speech together for the award ceremony in front of 1,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re going to extract stone from a 350-acre hole adjacent to a borough of 950 residents, Rod Martin has learned that it helps to live in a house beside ... read more about Alumnus at helm of Martin Stone Quarries recognized as national leader in the aggregates industry<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":19318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,5591],"tags":[],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-19304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-business-and-leadership"],"yoast_head":"\nAlumnus at helm of Martin Stone Quarries recognized as national leader in the aggregates industry - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2014\/alumnus-at-helm-of-martin-stone-quarries-recognized-as-national-leader-in-the-aggregates-industry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumnus at helm of Martin Stone Quarries recognized as national leader in the aggregates industry - 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