Mr. David Sonon was reared in Windsor Township, Berks County. As a youth, he worked on the neighbor’s farm helping to milk and harvest crops. He attended Hamburg High School and was hired by Boscov’s to work in their warehouse for three dollars an hour.
He recalled, “After later working in construction, I was hired by Ogden-Allied as a laborer to work for them at Allentown Cement in Evansville, now Lehigh Heidelberg. I was given a full time job at the cement company in 1990.”
Mr. Sonon has worked as a lab sampler, miller, material handler, truck driver and shift repairman. He said, “I attended Berks Technical School for two nights each week for four years to become a certified journeymen electrician.”
Today, Dave is an industrial electrician working and maintaining the plant’s electrical components, including 3500 HP motors. The hardworking eight-member electrical gang is supervised by David Young, and they’re all fine men.
He said, “I have great camaraderie with my coworkers, each day on the job is different; there is always a challenge to be solved, and there is satisfaction when the job is completed.”
On a number of occasions, Dave and fellow employees remained at the plant for over 30 hours during winter blizzards; the entrance was closed for days.
Safety is a priority at the plant. Each morning supervisor Young updates the men on all safety issues. The objective is to operate the plant in a safe and efficient manner.
Mr. Sonon has a strong work ethic following his father Lester, who was employed at the old Fogelsville Lehigh Plant. He and his brother Benjamin work on restoring old farm equipment; a prize piece being a 1917 Geiser Peerless steam engine, in their spare time. They are active at the Kutztown Folk Festival with the old plow bags, the Virginville Grange and numerous tractor and gun clubs.
Mr. Sonon is proud of his daughter Jaclyn and he resides in Centerport. David embodies the work values, which have always been an integral part of our local cement heritage. It was a pleasure to interview Mr. Sonon and we wish him good health and success in the future. We all hope for a safe and prosperous 2018 for all the employees at the landmark plant.
