MarMac officers
continue to focus on community policing

By Trudy Balcom

MarMac Police recently submitted their 2009 Activity Report to the city councils of Marquette and McGregor.
The report shows that MarMac Police continue to focus their efforts on nuts-and-bolts community policing.

The report is a compilation of statistics on the 4,430 calls for service and arrest data  for 2009.

A majority of the calls represent the routine activities that are a part of community policing—activities such as checking businesses
to make sure that they are locked and secure (522 calls), or checking residences (329 calls).

“It’s just the little things, escorts at the casino, locking the rest rooms in the city parks and the Chamber of Commerce office,”
explained police chief Randy Grady. These types of activities added up to 782 calls.Officers also keep an eye on area parks such
as Bloody Run County Park and Pikes Peak State Park.

Chief Grady and other officers also visit the schools to teach the D.A.R.E. program, and look in on school dances and other events,
or just visit with the kids. The report also cites 118 foot patrols in the two towns.

As expected, MarMac Police also  respond to traffic hazards and accidents. There were 92 calls for traffic hazards such as rocks on
the road, 39 reportable accidents, 96 calls for assistance from fire or EMS and 102 calls for assistance from other law enforcement agencies.

More calls occurred on certain days, and late at night. Oddly, Monday was the day with the highest number of calls, with 693; Friday
was the second busiest day with 676 calls, Saturday close behind with 658.

Thankfully, Marquette and McGregor have little incidence of arrests for serious crimes.
There were two arrests for assault, one for burglary ,three for possession of a controlled substance and three for theft. There were four
arrests for domestic abuse assault. Citations were issued for going armed with intent (1), possession of drug paraphenalia (7), and
harrassment (4). A surprising number of wanted persons  make their way through the two communities. A total of 34 were arrested.
    Grady said that some of these people are felons, but many are wanted for failure to appear in court or probation violation.

Alcohol-related crimes generated some of the biggest numbers in the arrest data. There were 29 OWI arrests; 14 in McGregor and
    15 in Marquette.
There were four public intoxication arrests in McGregor and two in Marquette, although there were 14 service calls related to public intoxication,
    eight citations for public intoxication,11 for open container.
    While OWI and public drunkeness are directly alcohol related infractions, alcohol is a factor in many other types of arrests, Grady
    said. Many arrests for domestic abuse or family violence are alcohol related, as are many drug arrests.
The police activity between the two towns seems fairly balanced. McGregor had more activities related to the bars and businesses, but
Marquette, with Hwy. 18 traffic, sees more traffic-related activities.

MarMac Police issues the report each January.

Gencor-Bituma has a history of innovation

By Lucy Rodenberg

The past year or so, the country’s economic circumstances have affected many companies and Gencor Industries, Inc., of Marquette,
has been no exception. Several  layoffs in 2009 reduced the number of workers greatly. It was just recently that employees  have been
called back to jobs that some were laid-off from for nearly a year.

The company is an important local employer, and has roots in the community dating back 40 years.

Originally, the Iowa  corporation, known as the Dillman Brothers Asphalt Company, with its principal office in Oelwein, engaged in producing
bituminous concrete for private and state work in Northeast Iowa starting in about 1960.

Bruce Dillman and his brother, Blair, were working together in the sand, gravel and cement business out of Lancaster, Wis., when they
decided that Bruce Dillman would take over the sand, gravel and cement  business and Blair Dillman would work out of the family’s Prairie
Sand and Gravel Company in Prairie du Chien.

Bruce later moved this business to Marquette in about 1971 where the present Gencor asphalt equipment plant is located. The company
was then called Fabricated Products.

During the 1960s the company was working to develop a type of silo for mixing asphalt at the Lancaster, and possibly the Oelwein
    locations.
After looking through various sorts of surplus equipment, they developed a design for an elevating device to get the asphalt mix into a concrete
    silo so the concrete mix could be put into a truck. 

A surplus cement bucket elevator had been installed in the spring of 1966, along with the cement silo, adjacent to one of the Dillman’s
batch plants near Oelwein. A surplus cement augur transported the mix from the pug mill to the bucket elevator, but when the first attempt
was made to start up the system, everything went wrong.
To correct the problem, a type of slat conveyor at a local lumber company they had observed gave them the idea to build a slat conveyor in 1967.
It was about this time that a large competitor expressed desire to purchase the asphalt companies being operated by the Dillman Brothers.
The Dillmans sold the asphalt production companies, but continued in the concrete, aggregate and crushing business. Rein, Schultz and Dahl, Inc., of Madison, Wis., a very large paving contractor, purchased the asphalt company.

After more improvements to the conveyor in 1968, the following year the first silos with which the Dillmans had experimented with were sold.  In 1970, when
this particular silo system was operating in central Illinois, it was seen by engineers and sales personnel of the Barber-Greene Company.
Shortly afterwards, an agreement was reached  by where the newly named Fabricated Products Company, would build exclusively for
Barber-Greene. A contract was granted to the company for a minimum of 12 systems, but it was indicated as many as 20 could be sold.

To meet the needs of the contract, a new building was started in Marquette with Dillman moving into it in March, 1971, before it was
completely finished.

Solving developmental problems came next. The company was solely instrumental in introducing the single chain
(rather than double) concept in slat conveyors and the development of heavy floor systems which reduced the maintenance cost associated
with slat conveyors. The same batcher that had been perfected was still being used then and modifications and product improvements
continued, resulting  in many firsts, such as the 200-300 ton modular silos. An 80 year-old part time  retired salesman employed by the
company, suggested a new name for the company in Marquette that related more closely to bituminous products, thus the name
Bituma-Stor evolved that later became the trademark of the company.

In 1982, the Dillmans became interested in the manufacture of a drum mix plant and struck an agreement with Boeing Construction
Equipment Corp.
It was decided to bring the production of the Boeing asphalt plants to Marquette and the first drum mix unit  was done under the Boeing design.

Shortly after the installation and trial of the Boeing design, and  because of various problems, it was determined this plant design
was inadequate and obsolete.
Later that same year, an extensive re-design of the drum mix unit was underway, which resulting in increased sales.

At that time, the agreement with subcontractors who furnished Dillman with bag houses, (an air filtration system for the asphalt
plants) was no longer adequate and the company entered into the bag house business in 1984.
In 1986, Bituma-Gencor (was it Bituma-Stor then, not Bituma Gencor?) was purchased by E. J. Elliott Company of Mechtron International Corp.
Within six years, the company, known by most either by Bituma or Gencor, was producing a complete line of portable and stationary bag
houses proven to be extremely efficient. A fully computerized control system offered the best controls in the marketplace. By 1991, the
company was one of the four or five major manufacturers of asphalt equipment plants in the country.

In July,1992, a union election was held to agree to have the International Association of Machinist and Aeorspace Workers (IAM) represent
employees at Bituma-Gencor. The vote was defeated by a close margin, but a short time later, it was approved by the majority of the employees.

Gencor is withstanding these hard times, and the company is continuing to add another chapter in its own history and the history of the area.