The Ohio Aggregates & Industrial Minerals Association (OAIMA), the Ohio trade association representing the state’s mining operations except coal, held its 13th Legislative Reception on March 29 in the Museum Gallery at the Ohio Statehouse.

The popular event provides OAIMA members an opportunity to meet with Ohio’s elected lawmakers in an informal setting and share thoughts regarding a variety of issues impacting the industry.

The key issues discussed at the event included the economic recovery’s dependence on locally supplied aggregate materials and the regulations on the transportation of aggregate materials. The association noted that 90 percent of aggregates are used within 50 mi. of where they were mined and each Ohio resident requires about 11 tons of aggregates each year.

Other issues discussed included a common sense approach toward reducing duplicative regulations, as well as highway and infrastructure funding.

As an acknowledgement of the role aggregates and aggregate producers play in the Ohio economy and infrastructure, State Representatives John Carey, Ohio House District 87, and State Representative Sean O’Brien, Ohio House District 65, introduced legislation to name the third week in July, “Ohio Aggregates and Industrial Minerals Awareness Week.”

Representatives Carey and O’Brien cited the fact that Ohio is the seventh largest aggregate producing state in the country and that the materials produced are not only used in building roads and bridges but in building schools, homes, churches, hospitals and nearly all types of construction activity.

This year’s legislative reception was sponsored by Barrett Paving Materials, Brady, Coyle & Schmidt, East Fairfield Coal Co., Lime Stone Division, Hanson Aggregates, Hilltop Energy, Lafarge – N. America, Mar-Zane Materials, Inc., The Melvinn Stone Co., National Lime & Stone, Phillips Companies, The Olen Corporation, The Shelly Company, Sidwell Materials and Watson Gravel Inc.

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