Members of the Clinton County Soil and Water Conservation District working with the local schools, are tasked with educating the 8^th Grade students in the areas of: history and geological concepts of Iowa, major landform regions of Iowa and how water movement is related to geological landscapes. As a part of the curriculum, the Clinton County Conservation District contacted Wendling to arrange a tour of the Behr Quarry in DeWitt.

Wendling Employees John Tuthill, Marc Whitman and Dan Darland spent a day with three tours of 8^th graders numbering around 60 students. While the students were talked to about the relationships between geology and surface and ground waters, more importantly they got to see these relationships. The tours started at the overburden cut, where they saw the plant roots penetrating the topsoil, the contacts of the topsoil with the clay and then glacial deposits beneath. The students having the opportunity to see a portion of the earth’s crust in cross section got to see how different layers had different characteristics concentrating on water permeability and filtering. Next, the students got to look over hundreds of feet of rock core samples where again the porosity and permeability of the rock was discussed.

The final product was that the students learned how the plant life and the geological formations act as filters and funnels for the surface and ground waters. By coming out to the quarry, the students had the opportunity to see first hand what the textbooks would have great difficulty describing as well.

Wendling Quarries, Inc. believes that helping to educate our youth is an honor and a responsibility to which we devote many resources. We are proud to receive our second consecutive Outreach Award.

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2001 was a record year with the least fatalities in the MSHA (Mine Safety Health Administration) industry. There were 30 fatalities in the Metal and Non Metal Surface Mining, compared to 47 in the year 2001, a total of 55 in the year 1999, 51 in 1998. In 2002 there have already been 6 fatalities. This is not a very good start for the year, although the only good year would be a total of 0.

Crews at Wendling Quarries who had no lost time injuries in 2001 are as follows:

Moscow Stationary Crushing Crew
McPherson Portable Crushing Crew
CR South Stationary Crushing Crew
Heinsius Portable Crushing Crew
Kageman Portable Crushing Crew
Trenkamp Portable Crushing Crew
CR South Wash Plant
Colehour Wash Plant
Shaffton Wash Plant
Adler Wash Plant
Dry Sand Wash Plant
DeWitt Shop
Moscow Shop
Robins Shop
Taylor Wash Plant
Feller Stripping Crew
Trenkamp Equipment Hauling

Mining is the number one most hazardous industry, safety is the #1 factor in preventing injuries and accidents. Safety will allow you to go home to your loved ones in one piece every night. Everyone have a very safe and productive year.

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• Alice Carber on her recent retirement from G.E. Alice is the wife of Dick Carber, Loader Operator at Shaffton quarry. Way to go Alice!
  
• Ron Paulsen on bowling a 300 game back on November 11th. Ron runs our Parts department based in the DeWitt Shop.

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Dr. Huss is an emergency room surgeon at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City when he isn’t training or mountain climbing. The second of the group is the Director of Outdoor Recreation Department at UNI, Don Briggs. Some of you may be more familiar with him as UNI’s long time and very successful head wrestling coach. The last of the trio is Ben Caskey who is on the sales staff at Fin and Feather in Iowa City.

These three climbed on vertical ice flows at one of our sites to train and practice using new equipment and techniques. This is not the kind of activity that just anyone would get to do! Ice climbing employs unique footgear called crampons, ice axes, ropes and harnesses. These three guys know what they are doing and it was very interesting watching them scale up the ice flows as easily as a cat climbs a tree. Dr. Huss and Ben Caskey are currently in South America climbing a peak in the Chilean Andes that is well over 22,000 feet high. It will be interesting to hear their stories upon their return.

Wendling Quarries Annual Christmas party was held this year at the Maquoketa Country Club. Several people put lots of time and effort into making it a great success.

Presentations were made throughout the evening including Years of Service awards, Safety and Hey Guy awards and of course the 2^nd Annual bed pan award.

Door prizes were also given out, and the big winner of the color TV this year was Phil “Skeeter” Beckley.

A special presentation was also made by Jackie Behounek (Garrison quarry), on behalf of the Garrison Volunteer Fire Department. A plaque was given as a thank you for our company’s participation in their concrete project.

Congratulations to all the winners. We hope that everyone had a great time. See you next year!