Executive Director’s Blog – May
Hello CSSGA Membership. Memorial Day and summer are here. Hard to believe, but believe it, we are a month away from the longest day or the year. With the warmer weather, I know things are in full swing regarding construction, material supply, and mining. Below is a brief update regarding recent and future priorities and activities at CSSGA.
Getting 2025 off to a strong start.
- As you know, the Legislative Session has recently wrapped up earlier this month on May 7th. We took aggressive stances for and against many bills, thanks to the input and guidance of our Legislative Sub-committee and the hard work of our lobbyist, Totsy Rees and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman, Chris Oestreich, with BURNCO Colorado. As we met virtually every Tuesday morning to review the growing list of bills, we discussed important strategies on bills that impact the ready mixed concrete and mining industries. One of the bills we fought against was SB25-005. While it did pass legislation, we applaud Gov. Jared Polis’ veto of the SB25-005, as we and many other groups lobbied for this outcome. The bill would have upended Colorado’s Labor Peace Act by removing the second vote currently required to allow the union to bargain for ‘union security’ which mandates all employees in the bargaining unit pay dues out of their paychecks whether they wish to belong to the union or not. This is just a sample of the important work the dedicated group in the Governmental Affairs do, much of it behind the scenes. Thank you, group, for all you do for the industry!.
- Additionally, since the session is over, I need to again thank Tom Hesemann and Fred Charles with Tetra Tech for their involvement with our association and hosting the Monthly Legislative Luncheons at the Tetra Tech offices in downtown Denver. These luncheons were greatly attended, showing the interest on legislative laws in all our businesses.
- You will recall our Legislative Luncheon speaker at the April 23 meeting, DJ Summers with the Common Sense Institute. In an effort to learn more from this organization, I attended one of their events on May 13th in Denver. The guest speaker was the Wyoming Governor, Mark Gordon, who shared his insights on the future of mining. As mining is a major part of Wyoming, he is very interested in what we do. He has a great “big picture” view, which I enjoyed hearing. There is a recording of the session if anyone is interested. Please reach out to Emma if you haven’t seen it and would like to.
- Presentation to the MLRB. Thanks to Michael Cunninham and Russ Means from DRMS for helping us set up and present an industry overview to the Mine Land Reclamation Board (MLRB) on April 16. In the 40-minute presentation, we walked thru processes and challenges members deal with, and of course provided information on the high amount of efforts regarding reclamation. The MLRB Board would like to see a site in person, and specifically a slurry wall under construction, so this is planned for this fall. More info to come.
- These past several months we continue to make headway to revamp and modify the Mine Safety Institute (MSI) MSHA Part 46 Safety Training Program. We are in the middle of building new training modules with new video footage from some of our member’s Colorado mine sites. Once completed, 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 over the next few months and launch the training. Go to the cssga.org website for more information or reach out to our office at 303.290.0303. Thanks to Emma Dolan for driving this process.
- Regarding another great networking opportunity with producer and associate members, we held our Spring Networking Event on April 22 at ACE Eat-N-Serve in downtown Denver. The event was greatly attended in an effort to hold robust business discissions between purchaser and product suppliers. Thanks to our sponsors and to Emma for organizing another great event.
Looking Ahead
- Our Summer Conference is just around the corner. It will be July 23 and 24, with the association board meeting and strategic planning overview held on July 25. These will occur at the beautiful Grand Hyatt in Vail, Colorado. The registration link is available, so make sure to sign up for this great annual event. See you there!
Thanks to all our members for your support and participation!
Todd R. Ohlheiser
Executive Director
Colorado Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (CSSGA)
303.290.0303
todd@coloradocaa.org