A Letter from ARRA President Jason Wielinski

Dear Fellow ARRA Members and Industry Partners,

It was great to see so many ARRA members and industry friends in Litchfield Park, Arizona.  It was a great PPRA meeting, and I would be amiss to not recognize and acknowledge our partners at CM Services; Rick Church, Ali Mostardo and Tessa Poffenberger for their hard work and dedication to make this meeting successful.  Another job well done!   Our future forward theme featured timely content from our slate of speakers on topics including workforce development, information of Colorado’s implementation of Buy Clean policies and pertinent feedback on the dynamic industry landscape from the panel of industry leaders.  To all of our members who could not make the trip to Arizona, you were dearly missed, and I hope to visit with you at an upcoming ARRA meeting soon!

ARRA celebrated three very worthy award winners: Mr. Scott Leach with the Dundee Public Schools Board of Education for excellence in Full Depth Reclamation; Mr. John Riherd with Butler County, Iowa for excellence in Hot In-place Recycling and Mr. Tony Hinkle, formerly with Morgan County, Indiana for the Charles R. Valentine Award for Excellence in Cold Recycling.  ARRA also recognized the invaluable contributions and leadership of one of its own: Mr. Ryan Essex of the Miller Group.  Mr. Essex was recognized as the first recipient of the Essex Award of Excellence, an award developed in 2021 to recognize those who have provided immeasurable service through volunteerism to the promotion of pavement recycling technologies.  Congratulations Ryan and thank you for all you have done for ARRA and our industry.

The ARRA Board of Directors had a full agenda to navigate in Arizona.  We are very excited to welcome Mr. Dan Schellhammer and Mr. John Morgan to the ARRA Board. I am very excited for their insightful perspective that will help inform and position us and our industry for success.  The Board voted to establish a new committee within the ARRA ranks: the Membership Committee.  Among other initiatives, the Membership committee will help us collect feedback on member value, identify and recruit new members to our organization and engage with government agencies to become ARRA government members, which is a free benefit for agencies.  I am thankful Mr. Schellhammer has volunteered to chair this newly formed committee.  Please be on the lookout for more information on this exciting new development.

The Board approved a budget to collecting and reporting Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) information for our disciplines.  This will be the first step in the process for ARRA to move in developing environmental impact information that could be used in public purchasing and procurement policies.  Please be on the lookout for requests to participate in providing data to the study.  I cannot stress enough how critical it will be for our contracting members to provide this information, so that we can have the best quality data available when the call comes to develop EPD’s in our space.  This request from our contractors will require some effort, and I cannot thank you enough in advance for your assistance and participation.

There is energy and enthusiasm going into our re-branded Pavement Recycling Summitt meeting (formerly the Semi-Annual Meeting) that will take place in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mark your calendars for October 2-5^th this fall.  The planning committee will be convening soon and start to develop an excellent technical program for our membership and guests to this meeting.  I hope to see everyone in Indy!

I would like to thank two individuals for their service to ARRA. First is Mr. Kimbel Stokes who is retiring from Miller Group.  Kimbel served as ARRA president, served on the Board of Directors and chaired the Full Depth Reclamation Committee for many years. His contribution and service to ARRA has been invaluable for as long as I can remember.  Second is Mr. Trevor Moore with Miller Group who is stepping off the Board in 2023.  Trevor has served on the Board of Directors since 2017 and previously led the Cold Recycling Technical Committee.  I thank both gentlemen for their mentorship and friendship and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

On a personal note, I am honored and humbled for the responsibility and opportunity to serve the ARRA membership as president.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any ideas or suggestions to advance and improve our organization.  I can be reached at jwielinski@asphaltinstitute.org or feel free to call at (317) 519-3565. 

Cheers to a prosperous and safe construction season!

Jason Wielinski, P.E.

ARRA President