$3.9
5
O F F I C I A L P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E D U L U T H A R E A C H A M B E R O F C O M M E R C E
MARCH/APRIL 2019
GPM INC.JEFFERSON LINESMEDEXPRESS URGENT CARESINNOTT BLACKTOPPEARSON & VON ELBE ADVERTISING
ROMANO GYM GETS A MAKEOVER
When walking into the office of Sinnott Blacktop in Proctor, Min-nesota, the eye is naturally drawn to what is hanging on the walls.
Right next to the entrance is a photo of the late Bob Sinnott, who started the business in 1988, along with a photo of his two sons, Steve and Scott, holding a plaque from the Duluth Area
Chamber of Commerce for the business’s 30th anniversary. Walk a few steps further and you will see a wall of bulletin boards full of letters and emails thank-ing Sinnott Blacktop for the quality of their work and involvement in the com-munity. Walk a little further still, and you will see photos of finished blacktop and landscaping projects, each with their own unique stories and challenges.
By Kevin Ott
THE FAMILYSINNOTT BLACKTOP BUILDS A 30-YEAR TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS, GROWTH AND REPEAT CUSTOMERS
BUSINESS
MARCH.APRIL 201930
These photos and letters speak volumes about the kinds of things that Sinnott Blacktop most values: family, taking pride in one’s work and being a positive presence in the community.
Like many family-owned busi-nesses, Sinnott Blacktop had hum-ble beginnings. Bob Sinnott worked at Arrowhead Blacktop for 26 years before it closed its doors in the mid-1980s. He then decided to start his own blacktop company, running
the office in his spare bedroom, along with another partner and his two sons. The blacktop business was a little different back then, ac-cording to current Vice President Scott Sinnott.
“My brother and I used to break up blacktop driveways with a sledge-hammer and a pick, pick up the chunks and throw them into our little dump truck,” Scott said. “Over time, what we would do is save up enough money to buy whatever piece of
Like many family-owned businesses, Sinnott Blacktop had humble beginnings.
equipment we needed most for the next season.”
After a few years, Bob bought his partner out and the business contin-ued to grow steadily. Then the heart and soul of the company took a hit when Bob died of undiagnosed can-cer in 2000 at age 53, just as his sons were beginning a plan to buy him out for retirement. However, after many years under his expertise and leadership, Steve and Scott were well prepared to keep the business going.
Company founder Bob Sinnott (left) and son Steve with their first truck.
31WWW.DULUTHIANMAGAZINE.COM
“He [founder Bob Sinnott] was big on looking at the other person in the eye, shaking their hand and understanding that your word is your word.”– VICE PRESIDENT SCOTT SINNOTT
“He taught us a lot of important things that have helped give us the reputation we have today,” Scott said. “He was big on looking at the other person in the eye, shaking their hand and understanding that your word is your word.”
After being housed in several temporary locations through the years, Sinnott Blacktop and founding partner Jon Aamodt of Northland Consulting Engineers purchased the former DM&IR (Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railway) site in Proctor in 2015, which now serves as their permanent office and shop.
What began with six guys and a single dump truck has evolved into a business with a staff of about 25 year-round employees that grows to more than 50 during the peak sea-sons of summer and early fall. Sinnott Blacktop offers asphalt-related ser-vices that include excavating, asphalt paving, sealcoating, striping and any other needed maintenance. It also provides over 90 commercial cus-tomers with snow removal and ice
management services using plow, salt and sand trucks.
Many of Sinnott Blacktop’s residential and commercial clients come through simple word-of-mouth due to good recommen-dations from previous customers. Other customers, such as Facilities Manager Matt Miner of Miner’s Inc. – which owns and operates 30 Super One Foods, County Market and Woodland Marketplace Foods supermarkets in Minnesota, Wis-consin and Michigan – accepted a contracting bid from Sinnott. And Miner hasn’t looked back since.
“They’ve done many proj-ects for me over many years,” said Miner. “Anything from patching potholes and crack filling to grind-ing away and completely redoing an asphalt parking lot.”
Miner appreciated Sinnott’s work enough to have them work on his driveway at his home. “The service that I get is incredible,” he said. “That’s why I keep going back to them.”
Miner said that he especially ap-preciates the company’s responsive-ness to urgent calls. “I can say that I’ve got a high spot in front of one of my doors that’s a trip hazard, and they’ll be there within the day to either grind it down or fill it up as needed,” he ex-plained. “They’re very fast when you need an emergency fix.”
Residential and commercial cus-tomers that choose Sinnott for their paving projects frequently utilize its services for maintenance as well, in-cluding the recommended sealcoat-ing every 2-3 years depending on weather conditions. Sealcoating is a process designed to protect and beautify an asphalt driveway or park-ing lot from the natural aging pro-cess caused by sunlight, water and debris. Sinnott uses a sealer called Enviro-Kote, which is eco-friendly and is specifically designed for the Midwest’s climate.
Sinnott has four departmental vice presidents: general, sales, hu-man resources and operations. Dar-rin Maas, vice president of sales and
MARCH.APRIL 201932
marketing, has been working for the company for 24 years, as has Mike Mc-Clarey, vice president of operations.
Maas started as a laborer shov-eling for $8 an hour, and as he kept learning different aspects of the busi-ness, his role kept expanding. He is now responsible for guiding the five-person sales staff on sales and marketing strategies, as well as plan-ning budgets. And he still appreciates getting out of the office to work on a paving project.
When it comes to sales and in-teracting with potential customers,
“The service that I get is incredible. That’s why I keep going back to them.”– FACILITIES MANAGER MATT MINER, MINER’S INC. (SUPER ONE FOODS)
Maas said that being honest with the customer is huge. “Coming up through the ranks, Bob Sinnott said that if you take care of your custom-ers and be truthful to them, you’ll always have a job,” Maas said. “So I just keep it true, keep it honest and tell them exactly what we can do as far as creativity, design and keeping it within their budget.”
The business has served many commercial customers over the years; Bullyan RV, Walmart, UPS, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and National Bank of Commerce are just
a few examples. But one project that was particularly gratifying for Maas was a repaving project for a Super One grocery store in Superior. Their crew milled everything down, then cleaned, paved and striped the entire lot in two days with very minimal interruption for the store. They had to divide the parking lot into separate sections and complete them one-by-one, so customers of the grocery store could still use their parking lot.
“It was a very smooth operation that relied on a highly skilled crew,” Maas said. “I think I worked 20 hours straight that day.”
For a project at a commercial location that’s busy almost 24 hours a day, Maas said that one of the most important things for Sinnott Blacktop is making sure there’s a plan and that everyone understands and sticks to that plan. “Planning out the job be-forehand is really important, because you can go backwards on a job pretty fast,” he noted. “It’s crucial that we get our estimates right, our productions right and that we always commu-nicate with the customers on what they want.”
When describing the work at-mosphere at Sinnott Blacktop, Maas had one word to say: family. “We’re
Steve Sinnott (right) with his son, Sam, who is the third generation to work in the family business.
33WWW.DULUTHIANMAGAZINE.COM
all really tight around here, and the Sinnotts are great to work with,” Maas said.
Another frequent customer of Sinnott is Superior, Wisconsin-based Halvor Lines, a trucking, transpor-tation and logistics services com-pany that also operates terminals in Rosemount, Minnesota, and in South Bend, Indiana. The Superior head-quarters has about 15 acres under asphalt that receives maintenance annually. Sinnott also provides snow removal service on about 40 acres of the company’s property.
“Halvor Lines is a 24/7, 365-days-a-year operation, so we can’t have a blacktop crew interrupting and tak-ing more space than they have to. And they do an excellent job of get-ting in and getting out,” said Halvor Lines Vice President Ryan Fraley.
Fraley, who has also hired Sinnott
“I just keep it … honest and tell them exactly what we can do as far as creativity, design and keeping it within their budget.” – VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES AND MARKETING DARRIN MAAS
Blacktop for work at his home, appre-ciates the staff’s professionalism and the cleanliness they maintain on job-sites. “They’re very, very organized,” Fraley said. “A lot of contractors think it’s okay to make everything look like a pigpen while they’re working. Sinnott Blacktop always leaves every-thing perfectly clean.”
The company’s knowledge and expertise came in handy for Halvor Lines a couple of years ago when about two acres of parking area needed to be taken up and repaved. “Paving in Superior isn’t very easy be-cause the city is as flat as a pancake,” Fraley said. “So getting the drainage right really requires the work of an expert, and Sinnott Blacktop does an excellent job with that.”
With more than 30 years in the paving business, the staff at Sin-nott Blacktop has become experts
at understanding what goes into building and maintaining a smooth, sturdy asphalt surface. But even with all of that experience, nothing can avert adverse working conditions due to the Northland’s often unpre-dictable weather. President Steve Sin-nott said that weather is definitely the greatest challenge to doing their job successfully.
“Even in the midsummer, when it gets cold and wet, there’s not much we can do,” Steve explained. “Even if it’s nice and sunny the day after [a rainstorm], we can’t go back to work when a lot of the ground is underwater.”
In addition to rain, the rapid freeze-and-thaw conditions of-ten experienced in this climate can quickly ruin paving projects that aren’t done properly. It can cause what’s called frost heaving, which occurs when ice lenses form in the soil below the pavement. The size of the ice lens depends on the quantity of water available, and the ice will continue to grow as long as a source of water is available. The freeze and thaw of this water is what can cause heaving of the pavement surface or a softening of the base below it.
Good drainage and using proper material for the foundation below the
MARCH.APRIL 201934
pavement helps reduce the amount of water contributing to those con-ditions. In this area, a 12-inch base of Class 5 aggregate is recommended, which is a crushed and graded sand and gravel mix that has a maximum grain size of one inch.
“So if you’re doing your own paving project, don’t cut corners on your base work, and get your drain-age right,” Steve said.
Frost heaving can be compli-cated to explain, which is why Steve
sometimes compares the pavement surface to glass. “It is all based on the amount of moisture the area has ac-cepted before it froze,” he explained. “If you take a glass and stick it in the freezer, it will be just fine. But if you put water in that glass before putting it in the freezer, the glass is going to break.”
A typical paving project for Sin-nott starts with the initial contact to set up a meeting with an esti-mator at the customer’s business or
home. The estimator then evaluates the scope of work required at the work site and determines cost based on the amount of work and design specifications such as basework and paving. If the customer accepts the estimate, Sinnott schedules a time-frame to work at the site designed to minimize interruptions at the customer’s business or home. For a business customer, for example, this sometimes requires working in the middle of the night or early morning.
“They’re very, very organized … Sinnott Blacktop always leaves everything perfectly clean.” – VICE PRESIDENT RYAN FRALEY, HALVOR LINES
35WWW.DULUTHIANMAGAZINE.COM
11 E. Superior Street, Suite 510 • Duluth, MN 55802 • Direct: 218-723-4108 • Toll Free: [email protected]
• Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice is offered through Independent Advisor Alliance, a registered investment advisor. Marline & Associates Wealth Management and
Independent Advisor Alliance are separate entities from LPL Financial.
Get a fresh perspectiveStart the new year with an investment portfolio review with a fresh perspective.Marline Wealth Management can provide you with a thorough review and recommendations that help pursue your financial goals. We look forward to hearing from you and can be reached at 218-723-4108.
When the weather conditions are right, employees perform the work needed and will open the site back up to traffic as soon as it’s safe.
Over the past 30 years, Sinnott Blacktop has received many positive reviews from past customers. A com-mon theme tends to emerge from these reviews, and that is the staff’s commitment to craftsmanship and the cleanliness of their work sites as well as their equipment. According to Scott, that is something their father taught them long ago.
“When we got started, we had one little 1964 dump truck. And every morning before we got to a site, he would have a towel out and would be wiping dew off the hood, the doors and the mirrors. He was very clean,” Scott said. “He was the same way with his car at home. He just ingrained in us kids that when we go to someone’s house and we’re in their driveway or yard, we’re going to leave it better than when we got there.”
“Don’t cut corners on your base work, and get your drainage right.” – PRESIDENT STEVE SINNOTT
MARCH.APRIL 201936
800-569-4167 • superiorchoice.com Visit our website for a location nearest you.
Membership Eligibility Required. Federally Insured by NCUA. Equal Housing Opportunity.
GROWING OUR COMMUNITY. THIS IS OUR CURRENCY.
When it comes to purchasing, refinancing, or remodeling commercial properties, we offer superior rates and local decision making for those who want more.
ONYX of Superior Apartments
2101 14th Street • Cloquet, MN 55720 218-879-0800 • 1-800-657-3712 MN Relay 711 or 800-627-3529
A member of Minnesota State and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium
Continuing Education Customized Training Weekend & Online Courses
Sinnott Blacktop takes pride in maintaining that reputation for clean job sites and excellent customer ser-vice as well as its family ties. “My sis-ter, Stephanie Sinnott-Wehr – who is Steve’s twin – worked for a short time in the business,” said Scott. “And my youngest sister, Stacie Sin-nott-Ellena, works in the business as a sales/estimator and marketing
director. Stacie has brought our marketing work to a professional level that we hadn’t had previously and was instrumental in our 30-year anniversary. Steve’s youngest son, Sam Sinnott, is third generation and works as an equipment operator in the field.”
“My parents aren’t here to see this. But if they saw the number of
vehicles we put on the road and the pride that our crews take in keeping them nice and clean and keeping all of our work sites nice and clean, it tells people what kind of product they are getting from us,” Steve said. “I think they would be really pleased.”
Kevin Ott is a writer/editorial assistant at AdMax Inc.
Dan Wyman, commercial estimator.
37WWW.DULUTHIANMAGAZINE.COM
