January Executive Director’s Blog
Hello CSSGA Members and Construction Industry Partners. With 2024 recently completing, this information is a 2024-year end wrap up, and a kickoff of projects and events for 2025 within the construction aggregate mining industry. I hope 2024 was a successful year, and 2025 is even better.
Year End Wrap-up.
- I need to thank all the CSSGA members, speakers, sponsors, and staff for the great Annual Conference at the Broadmoor in November. With a record turnout, the variety and knowledgeable and entertaining speakers, and the opportunity to network with industry professionals, it may have been the best one yet. We are blessed for the industry support of our members.
- These past several months we also had made great headway to revamp and modify the Mine Safety Institute (MSI) MSHA Part 46 Safety Training Program. Since this CSSGA and the Colorado DRMS developed this nationwide program, it has been serving industry needs for many years. We have now shot new footage at Colorado mine sites, and reworking subject matter and text with up-to-date safety related content. It will move to an online platform for the New Miner and Part 46 Annual Refresher Training and be available in both English and Spanish. We are planning to complete this transition in the first few months of 2025. Go to the minesafetyinstitute.org website for more information or reach out to our office at 303.290.0303.
The Road Ahead.
- As we look forward to 2025, we have several things to look forward to. First off, is the Legislative Session, which began with Convening Day on January 8. We have started our virtual Legislative meetings that take place every Tuesday morning, as these will continue through the 120-day session. All CSSGA members are welcome to participate as we discuss details of bills working through the system with our lobbyist, Totsy Rees and Governmental Affairs Committee chair, Chris Oestreich. With a lot of work to do, I look forward to their leadership. Bills can change fast, and it is important to be on top of all those affecting our industry.
- Additionally, our Board meetings and Legislative Luncheons will again occur on the 3rd or 4th Wed of the month throughout the legislative session. The first meeting of the year is on Jan 29 in downtown Denver. Registration is free at cssga.org. In addition to the lunch, we are again inviting legislators that keep us up to speed on bills we are involved with. This month our Legislative Speaker will be Representative Shannon Bird, District 29, and Vice Chair of the Joint Budget Committee. We will also invite general speakers on subjects outside of the Capitol. This month we are fortunate to have Michael Cunningham, Division Director for DRMS. We look forward to both of these presentations and discussions.
- Lastly, our Industry Ski Day is in Breckenridge on Feb 3 and 4. These types of events are great for networking interaction, allowing producers, along with associate members and suppliers to interact to discuss changes and advancements in the industry. Again, these are available to members. If you are interested in in events or info, call our office, or go the website for more info.
Thanks again to the entire construction industry for your support of aggregate mining. I especially want to thank Emma Dolan for all her efforts that make CSSGA the strong association it is today.
Thank you.
Todd Ohlheiser
Executive Director
CSSGA/CRMCA
todd@coloradocaa.org