News: Abbotsford, Wis. - Meigs (75^th Year - 2010)

Contact: Robert Lipprandt

Email: bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Drew, Lawton, Mueller, Ridderbusch, Schultz, Wielgus, Zepecki

----Source: The Tribune - Phonograph (Abbotsford, Clark Co., Wisconsin) Wednesday, June 30, 2010, page 6

Meigs marks 75 years in asphalt business

By Ben Schultz

A long-time employer in Abbotsford got going during the Great Depression and keeps doing better through the current tough times. 

Megs Paving Asphalts & emulsions recently marked 75 years in business with a celebration Thursday at its plant across the railroad tracks from city hall. 

The company employs 14 truck drives and eight plant personnel who sell hot asphalt oil. Their work in emulsion is typically used in chip sealing. 

The company has two other locations in Portage and Eau Claire. It does business throughout Wisconsin as well as in Minnesota, Iowa and the U.P. 

The company was honored with a governor’s plaque presented at its Portage location on June 3. 

In the last 10 years at the Abbotsford plant, the facility has undergone extensive updates. It added two new tanks which helped track on 4.2 million gallons of storage. The Abby plant additions include a hot oil boiler system, new loading racks and a truck scale. A new computer system and containment berm were put in. 

"There’s just been general upgrading," said Al Ridderbusch, daily dispatcher at Meigs. 

The company was started by Henry G. Meigs in the 1930s when unemployment was in the double digits. He secured a patent for reflective road signs in 1934 and aimed to improve highway markers. 

When WWII dealt Meigs a setback due to rationing, he soon found enormous opportunities after the war. As car sales were booming, Meigs bought asphalt from petroleum companies which didn’t want to handle the material. He then marketed the asphalt to road building contractors. 

With a corporate office in West Allis, Meigs first set up an asphalt plant in Waukesha but then shifted operations to Portage in 1953. With swelling business, the Abbotsford plant cam online in 1956. The two plants allowed Meigs to service the entire state. 

The business was handed off to Henry’s son, John in the early ‘60s. The company started their own trucking fleet in that decade.

The company weathered the oil embargo of the ‘70’s and then moved its corporate office to Portage in the ‘80s. 

The company kept expanding, opening a laboratory division in 2001 and purchasing an emulsion terminal in Eau Claire in 2007. Currently, there are about 80 employees in the three plants. 

Dustin Mueller, vice president of Meigs, said the company has exhibited a history of high quality an innovation. 

"We carved our niche in the marketplace," he said. "in these tight times our business is growing where others are contracting." 

It’ll be the steady improvements that keep Meigs running, he said.

"We’re continually updating and improving our processes," Mueller said. "With new developments comes new technology. Those things are always in the works." 

The employees gathering at the Abbotsford plant on Tuesday for the 75^th anniversary were Dan Zepekci, Bill Lawton, Dan Drew, Dustin Mueller and Thorn Wielgus.