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Award Recipients Shine as Stewards for the Industry at the 2024 Winter Workshops

IMAA Staff | 11/01/24

While IMAA hands out a number of well-deserved awards to miners who work hard to further our industry, three awards at the Winter Workshops stand out as particularly high honors.

IMAA Miner of the Year

The IMAA Miner of the Year Award annually spotlights an aggregates professional who exemplifies the very best in our industry — exhibiting an unparalleled commitment not only to the business of aggregates production, but also to workplace safety, community involvement, and environmental sustainability. During the 2024 Winter Workshops, IMAA honored Randy Jones, Plant Manager for Heidelberg Materials’ Harding Street Quarry, with its 2023 Miner of the Year award, for having contributed significantly to the aggregates industry in all of these areas.

Randy began his mining career in 1989 in Cloverdale, Indiana as a “plant guy.” He soon went into quality control, and then from there he became a foreman, assistant plant manager, and eventually a plant manager. Randy has been plant manager of Heidelberg Material’s Harding Street Quarry since 2012. With 35 years in the industry, he is a dedicated, knowledgeable manager who always strives to improve his operation. Randy encourages teamwork to find ways to make operations safer and more efficient. He is also passionate about bringing new people into the industry and mentoring them for success. Randy is currently, the chairman of IMAA’s Plant Operator’s Committee. He works diligently to minimize the environmental impacts of mining at his site, and he ensures that his plant personnel are active in the community.

IMAA Hall of Fame Award

Sometimes the outstanding contributions individuals make to our industry can seem to go unnoticed. Special recognition from our peers for such contributions is the highest honor we can bestow upon our members. The IMAA periodically honors special individuals for their notable contributions, service, and dedication to IMAA and the aggregate industry, nominating and electing them to the IMAA Hall of Fame. This select honor is afforded to only a few individuals. The criteria is such that the award is not given annually. It is given only when an individual or individuals who meet the criteria are nominated and elected by the Board of Directors. For the 2024 Winter Workshops, the Hall of Fame award was given to Bob Lingerfelt, QA/QC Manager for Mulzer Crushed Stone.

Bob started his QA/QC career 38 years ago with Mulzer, and was instrumental in implementing the CAPP program throughout the company. In fact, it is fair to say that no one in the State of Indiana knows the CAPP Program better than Bob does. Throughout his career, Bob has been a leader in developing new QA/QC professionals to prepare them for CAPP certification. This is evident in the numerous Producer-of-the-Year awards for which Bob has been instrumental in Mulzer receiving. Bob has always been willing to assist other companies, as well. Many of his peers in the industry have taken advantage of his years of experience and expertise in the program — asking him for help as they develop their own QA/QC programs. As evidence of his passion for helping others traverse the CAPP program, Bob still has some of the earliest CAPP notes from when CAPP held pilot programs in 1992 and 1993.

Some of the things that Bob has been most proud of throughout his career included respectfully challenging INDOT on the #53 specification, working to get that specification changed, and collaborating with a large team to approve the PRA material at Charlestown.

Perhaps because he is a man of detail, Bob retired on March 19 this year — exactly 38 years after starting his career in the industry he loves so much.

IMAA Keystone Award

By popular definition, a keystone is the topmost stone of an arch — holding the other stones in place. The IMAA Keystone award, first offered in the late 1990s, recognizes an individual who has shown exceptional leadership and outstanding dedication to advance the goals, growth, and well-being of the Indiana aggregates industry. This year, at the 2024 Winter Workshops, John Schmidt, President of US Aggregates, received the prestigious Keystone award.

In 2011, John came to Indiana to lead US Aggregates, and he hit the ground running. While keeping safety his number-one priority, John has focused on continuous improvement to the benefit of the Indiana aggregate industry. With strong determination, skill, and leadership, he has helped propel our industry forward. Since 2016, John has served in different roles with the IMAA. He has served on the IMAA Board of Directors, the Executive Board, and he was President of the association in 2020. John has made a great impact on a significant number of people throughout the construction industry.

President’s Award

The 2023 President’s Distinguished Service Award was presented two recipients: Meghan Meyer formerly of Rogers Group and Kelly Cook of Levy Company.

Meghan began volunteering with IMAA in 2018, first with the Technical Committee and then with the WLMA committee as it was getting started. Over the years, Meghan’s leadership skills have grown as she took on project after project and challenge after challenge with IMAA.

Meghan became the first WLMA Committee Chair in 2019 and helped to develop the WLMA Workshops, which was the direct predecessor to the extremely successful Excellence in Leadership program. Most recently, Meghan was Chair of the Technical Committee, and she spearheaded the material handling training project with the help of the Plant Operators committee.

Kelly has been an active member of the Technical Committee since 2013, and she preceded Meghan as the Technical Committee Chair from 2020 to 2022. Kelly continues to lead small group discussions with INDOT, she presents during CAPP School, she always steps up when asked to present for IMAA, and she represents our Association on national committees. Kelly is crucial to our continued partnership efforts with INDOT, holding all parties accountable to our commitments in advancing the industry together.

Excellence in Mining

In addition to above-outlined top awards, the Excellence in Mining award, sponsored by the Public Information & Education Committee, was presented to six different companies. Out of 61 entries, 40 entrants received gold, 18 silver, and three bronze.

Safety Awards

In 2024, 116 individual plants, representing 32 companies, were awarded for their safety efforts. Sixty-four of the awards were for one year to four years of safe work, and 52 represented five years to 31 years of safe work. The total injury-free time recognized through these awards is the equivalent of 803 years! Our criteria for safe work is, “NOTHING REPORTABLE.” Because IMAA calculates safety awards using the data for one full year in arrears. the awards presented this year were based on the full calendar year of 2022.

IMAA Awards at the 2024 Winter Workshops