Gibraltar’s tour takes visitors to top of local world
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Using a luxury limo mini-bus, Gibraltar Quarry bused invited neighbors and guests to the top of the local world June 4.
The bus wound up the Sourland Mountain, past stepped rock hillsides around a 250-foot-deep pit, where the company blasts the extremely hard diabase stone used as the base of roads and parking lots, about once a week to 10 days.
The tour was to celebrate the Silvi Companies joining the local community, said the owners. Little was offered about a controversial 14-acre solar array sought to be built on the site, although company officials answered all questions and had a display on the project at the welcoming reception.
KDC Solar of Bedminster wishes to install 14 acres of solar panels that would require 20 acres of trees to be cut down.
KDC had one hearing before the Planning Board in May. One scheduled for tonight was postponed yesterday, Wednesday.
Officials in the township planning office said the applicant asked for the postponement to July 12. KDC had submitted engineering and drainage information the Planning Board asked for in May.
But the Sourland Planning Council has hired an attorney, Michele Donato, to organize the non-profit’s opposition to the solar project, said Peg Van Patton, an opponent of the project.
There’s rarely going to be time when Gibraltar isn’t going to be before Montgomery or Hillsborough township for some kind of approval, said Uday Patankar, vice president for environmental affairs.
The tour gave visitors a peek into a process normally closed to the public.
Working down from the top of the hill, the rock is broken down in bench-like steps and moved down the mountain, crushed to smaller pieces along the way.
The process initially renders 3- to 4-foot tall, multi-ton rock “goonies.”
Haul trucks about two and one-half the size of a normal dump truck carry stones down the hill in nine-minute circuit trips to two crushers, which reduce the material to 4- to 5-inch rock or down to three-eighths-inch diameter stone, depending on consumer demand.
At the top of the ridge, there was a clear profile of the New York City skyline. The top of Montgomery High School could be seen to the south, and Matchbox-toy sized trucks turned at the East Mountain Road entrance to the site.
At the reception in a Quonset hut shaped building used to house salt and grit in the winter, the company gave away mugs and red caps with the firm’s diamond-shaped logo.
Guests noshed on red snapper crabmeat, teriyaki, wood-smoked salmon, and bacon wrapped around beef and cheese.
A slide show showcased good works in the community and photos of before and after Gibraltar bought the site from 3M in 2009.
The Hillsborough official family was only represented by Business Advocate Gene Strupinsky, and rescue squad and fire chiefs.
About 300 were invited, including suppliers, consultants, neighbors, family members and local leaders.
John Silvi said the company wanted to have this open house so the public could “see what we do” since it took over the 1,438-acre site begun to be exploited by the 3M Company in 1956.
Over the years, Somerset County has bought about 750 of the acres to protect the steep slopes, wildlife habitat and recreational potential.
One of 3M’s main products was crushing stone to fine granules to adhere to roofing shingles. The residue from the process has resulted in a 50-acre, seven-million-ton waste pile, now grassed over, at a high point.
Going to the edge of the hillside and looking east gave a fine view of the New York City skyline.
But it’s off limits as a potential site for the solar array. Besides engineering uncertainty whether solar panels could be anchored here, the Silvis are looking for a saleable use of the material.
Gibraltar supplies construction grade material. About three-fourths of the stone is trucked from the site by as many as 240 different haulers. The rest goes by rail to CSX railroad, which has a contract for track ballast.
Gibraltar is one of 14 Silvi companies. It’s a business with a $1.3 million dollar local payroll, 23 employees and $250,000 a year in real estate tax bill.
. “We wanted to have this the last three years,” said Mr. Patankar. “We’re the new kid on the block. Nobody knows us.”
When the Silvis bought the site in 2009 they inherited 3M’s reputation, too. Much of the bad taste in the community was from the effects of the waste pile of powdery granules, which often formed clouds of dust sweeping through the valley or washing into creeks.

