York Hill Traprock Is Embedded And Invested In Supporting Its Local Community.
By Therese Dunphy
With third and fourth generations leading the family business, York Hill Traprock, part of Meriden, Conn.-based Suzio York Hill, has fostered deep roots within the community. “We’re an integral part of the community,” said Len Suzio, president of York Hill Traprock.
As the Rust Belt community saw other industries leave the area, its parent company and local hospital emerged as the town’s largest employers. “There’s definitely a need for community involvement,” Suzio explained, “and, we’re happy to be part of the community and help fulfill it.”
Supporting Local Initiatives
Suzio said that community outreach and sponsorship activities often flow from employee and customer requests, as well as organizations that family members are actively involved with. Those groups range from the Meriden Boys & Girls Club to The Nerden Camp, a day camp for those with disabilities. Fourth generation family members Matthew and Lucas Munson serve on the boards of these two organizations.
One of the company’s long-lasting relationships is with the Special Olympics. The company not only provides financial support, but also encourages employees to volunteer during the non-profit’s quarterly events. York Hill Traprock’s sister company painted a ready-mix truck with the Connecticut Special Olympics logo, serving as a visual reminder of the program as the trucks deliver loads throughout the region. Another truck is painted with the logos of the five branches of the U.S. military in support of veterans.
Another long-term partnership, and one of Suzio’s personal favorites, is with Yale architecture students. “They’ve built a homeless shelter. They’ve worked with Habitat for Humanity. They’ve built a stage at Light House Park in New Haven,” he said of the decades-long partnership, which provides construction materials for the projects.
One of its most recent projects was to build housing for early childhood teachers at the Friends Center for Children. “They were having trouble attracting educators,” Suzio said, noting that housing costs in the area were sometimes prohibitively high for teachers. Through the program, one-bedroom, one-bath duplexes are being built on narrow lots contiguous to the school and provide affordable housing.
Garnering Community Recognition
Given the company’s impact on the local community, the Meriden Historical Society chose to create a two-month display of its history last year when the parent company marked its 125th anniversary. “They spent a lot of the summer doing research,” Suzio said. “Researchers learned things I didn’t know about the company and about my grandfather and his emigration from Italy.”
The exhibit contained quite a bit of the company’s memorabilia including a portrait of Leonardo Suzio, the company founder, as well as photos, an engraved blasting box, model trucks, and a rate schedule of the costs that were assessed in the company’s early days, when materials were delivered via trolley car. Suzio also shared a letter from a neighbor of its original quarry, complaining about the operation to the foreman at the time. He had the letter framed.
Seeing the Impact
“As you know, people don’t love always having a quarry in the middle of their community,” Suzio said. “Luckily, we’re on the outskirts, and the neighbors we have are generally pretty good and pretty accepting.”
The company did, however, have its relationship with neighbors tested a few years ago when it had to renew a stormwater permit. To advertise for the permit, its environmental consultants published a map of all its property in the local newspaper. Residents of Meriden and the surrounding towns saw the map and became concerned about maintaining access to a trail that runs through the quarry property (the company grants access to it through a program with Connecticut Forest and Parks). It generated some opposition to the quarry, but that opposition did not gain momentum.
“Some people realize the economic impact of an operation like ours,” Suzio said, “but a lot of people just appreciate what we’ve done for Meriden as well as surrounding communities. We had more supporters than opposition because of all the good works we have done for the community. Even though we didn’t do these projects for that reason, in the end, it proved beneficial.”
The business has been recognized for its good works with a Concrete Cares Award from the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and a Community Service Award from the Connecticut Construction Industries Association.
Therese Dunphy has covered the aggregates industry for nearly 30 years, while also serving multiple roles as a public official. As the owner of Stone Age Communications, she provides communications consulting services to help aggregate producers build stronger relationships within the communities they serve. She can be reached at [email protected].