Amidst C90 changes, Fizzano Brothers VP steps into NCMA chairman role

Source: CP staff

At one of the most interesting times in the history of the National Concrete Masonry Association, Fizzano Brothers Concrete Products Vice President Rocky Fizzano assumed the role of 2012-13 chairman of the organization at the NCMA annual convention in Orlando, February 28-March 1.

Also of significance is NCMA’s attempt to launch a CMU Check-Off Program, “We’ve been working on this for about three years,” says Fizzano. “It involves producers across the country paying a levee for an increment of product they sell. For us, it would be pennies for each block we sell to end users. We take that money and send it to the Check-Off Program, an entity overseen by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and it allows us to take the money and promote, educate and research our product. We’re going to take about 50 percent of the available funds and use them for national campaigns, and take the other half of the funds and use them for local programs, such as college design competitions, regional advertising or a research project on CMU.”

An independently owned, family-operated company, Fizzano Brothers has been in business since 1935—when the it acquired its first block machine from Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $400—Fizzano Brothers currently has three manufacturing plants in the Philadelphia area that service the Mid-Atlantic states by producing a comprehensive line of quality, commercial-grade concrete products. The company just completed block work on the Pennsylvania Convention Center (750,000 CMUs) and Comcast Tower in Philadelphia (the tallest building in the state, using 100,000 CMUs with 20 percent pre-consumer recycled material).