Trap Rock Cited for Community Involvement

If the only criterion for being named the "Distinguished Corporation of the Year" for 1999 by the Greater Mercer County Chamber of Commerce was an outstanding record of community involvement, Trap Rock Industries, Inc. of Kingston would still win the award hands down.

The company, led by co-owning brothers Joseph and William Stavola, has a community service record so impressive that it would literally take all of the pages of this article to list them all and adequately explain the impact that such good works have had in communities in many parts of the state.

To illustrate, let's just take a few of the long list of beneficiaries that Trap Rock has helped through the kindness and good citizenship of the Stavola families: A new $1.5 million wing of the Monmouth Medical Center - the Mary Stavola Pediatric Wing, built in honor of Joseph and William's mother. A mile linear park and tow path along the Delaware & Raritan which runs from Rocky Hill to Kingston and includes a canoe launch, restrooms and lookout areas. Financial support for a dozen New Jersey hospitals including St. Francis and Mercer Medical in Trenton, Princeton Hospital and several cancer centers. Annual donations to some three dozen national and regional charities including Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Habitat for Humanity, Women's Health & Counseling Center, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Catholic Charities, the AntiDefamation League and the Salvation Army, to name a few.

Trap Rock is also an enthusiastic supporter of the arts and culture and donates funds to support police and fire companies, art museums, libraries, historical socities, children's centers, rescue squads, sports teams and clubs, schools, churches and parks.

It built a baseball park for Hopewell Township and recently spent $60,000 to put in lights for night games, and it donated 25 acres of land that it owned near the original site of Washington's Kingston headquarters to the Rockingham Founda. The historic

building will be relocated to that site probably within a year.

Founded circa 1860 in Kingston where its first quarry was mined probably to supply road building materials for the Union Army during the Civil War, the company has grown to own and operate four quarries (Kingston, Pennington, Lambertville and Titusville) and runs six asphalt plants, some of which are also capable of turning out the firm's principal products of crushed stone and aggragate used in paving roads and highways and in building construction. Trap Rock is also used for jetty construction at the seashore and in the manufacture of roofing shingles.

According to Trap Rock vice-president Stephen Osborne, who has been with the company for 38 years, Trap Rock (then known as Howe Traprock and later Kingston Traprock) produced the paving blocks used in building the first federally supported paved road in New Jersey, around the turn of the last century. Trap rock, Osborne explained, is a vein that is found in mountains from Tennessee to Maine.

In 1933 Linus Gilbert bought the firm and ran it until 1966 when the Stavola family of the Red Bank area purchased it. Michael Stavola, father of William and Joseph, was a farmer who also ran a construction company in North Jersey when in 1966 he acquired Trap Rock from Gilbert. Michael Stavola died on Christmas Day two years ago at the age of 82 while visiting his New Jersey family from his Florida retirement home. Joseph is president of the firm, his brother, William, carries the title of secretary-treasurer, but

they are equal owners of the enterprise, Osborne states. The brothers, who are described as "hands on-owners, commute from their separate homes along the Navesink River every day, usually arriving at six a.m. They spend long hours on the job and visit their quarry operations regularly.

Joseph is the father of six children, four of whom are active in the company. Michael Stavola supervises the quarry operations, William E. is in charge of the Troil Enterprises division of the firm and handles the purchasing division.

Jesse is a construction superintendant. Robert is superintendant of the firm's limestone quarry operation in Ocala, Florida.

Christopher Stavola, who is William's son, is chief engineer in the construction division and Jason is a member of the sales team. William Stavola is also proud of his 20-year-old daughter, Melissa, who is a cadet at West Point.

If you live in New Jersey and drive or ride in a motor vehicle, chances are that you use one of Trap Rock Industries projects every day. Among the thousands of miles of roads they either helped to build or supplied paving material for are the Turnpike, Interstate Routes 287, 95, 78, 80, 295, and 95. They were instrumental in constructing Route 29, Route 1 and the new Trenton by-pass complex. Trap Rock supplied the material for the Salem Nuclear power plant and much of the material that went into the revitalization of the Roebling Complex in Trenton. Despite its size and prestige the company does not maintain lobbyists, but instead bids in competition with others for jobs advertised by state, county and municipal governments.