Fourth of July 2023 Issue

Father-Son Duo Keeps Digging Away
20
Story by MICHAEL DAIGLE
Photos by Karen Fucito
The beginning of the Jefferson-based
business Al Hutchins Excavating was no
more complicated than this: “Got a machine,
started digging.”
That was in 1979, Al Hutchins Sr. said. He
had been working for another contractor and
decided to put his experience to work for
himself.
“I had been doing septics since I was 17,” he
said, “so I got some equipment and went out
on my own.”
In 1981, he was joined in the business by his
son, Al Hutchins Jr., who runs the company
today.
For the younger Hutchins, it was an easy
choice to join the business right after
graduating from Jefferson High School.
“I graduated and went right to work,” the
64-year-old said. “I just got to it.”
Their plain-spoken approach allowed the
business to succeed during a time when
Jefferson, like the rest of the Lake Hopatcong
region, was growing as part of a population
shift in North Jersey that filled up towns along
Route 80.
In 1980, Jefferson’s population was 16,413,
according to the U.S. Census. In 2022, the
township had 20,517 residents and a median
Top to bottom: Al Hutchins Jr. and Al Hutchins Sr. with some
of the company equipment. The younger Hutchins at a job
site on Raccoon Island.
LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Fourth of July 2023
home value of $358,400.
What the township also had was septic
systems.
What their business had, the son said, was
the machine: a backhoe tractor and front-end
loader. Perfect for digging septic systems.
Thanks to a steep-sloping terrain and
a state law banning the installation of
sewer systems across Jefferson’s extensive
preserved landscape—the township alone has
preserved 12,000 acres—Jefferson’s solid waste
management system relies on individual septic
systems.
The younger Hutchins estimates the
company has installed 50 septic systems a
year since the beginning—more than 2,000
systems—nearly all within a 5-mile radius of the
company’s headquarters on Northwood Road
in the Lake Hopatcong section of Jefferson.
The limited range of the company’s territory
is both a reflection on the type of work needed
in Jefferson to keep up with demand and the
source of sarcastic humor.
“We had a job in Dover, and a worker joked,
‘Oh, we’re traveling today,’” said the younger
Hutchins. Dover is about 12 miles from
Jefferson.
His father had the same comment about a
job in Hackettstown, some 15 miles away in the
other direction from Jefferson.
“That was a big travel day,” he said.
Still, he admitted, sometimes the range
from Jefferson stretches to 10 miles.
Today, the younger Hutchins said, travel
to a job could entail using a barge to ferry
workers and equipment to an island three
times a day, as they recently did for a
homeowner on Raccoon Island.
The lake region and Jefferson are home,
the men said.
The elder Hutchins, 84, and his ex-wife,
Ann, raised two children: their son and a
daughter, Donna, who lives in Florida. The
younger Hutchins and his wife, Rebecca,
are Jefferson natives. They have no
children and Rebecca manages the
paperwork for the business.
One of the reasons the company
has such a narrow service area is that
it does not have to look far for work.
“It’s all word of mouth. Our
customers are local people,” the
younger Hutchins said.
The company does little
advertising (Lake Hopatcong News is
the exception) and word-of-mouth
goes a long way in a close-knit
community like Lake Hopatcong.
“We always try to execute
sensible solutions,” he said.
He takes nothing for granted.
“There is no shortage of work,” he said, but
success depends on the company’s ability to
complete a quality project. “We want to work
well with the customer.”
There is a reflective quality in his voice as
he makes that statement: It is a measure of a
man who knows his business with the ability
to deliver a job and an appreciation that the
reputation of the company his father started—
and he now leads—is seen in the near-constant
number of calls they get.
“We rarely turn down a job,” he said.
While both men said septic systems are
a large part of the company’s work, the
company also builds driveways, rock walls and
foundations, and does site work, among other
services.
During the recent pandemic, which brought
a burst of home sales and subsequent septic
inspections and other business activity, the
younger Hutchins said the company performed
numerous demolitions.
Notable projects undertaken by the
company, the elder Hutchins said, are site
work at Nolan’s Point, including the Windlass
restaurant, the Lake Hopatcong Golf Club and
an adjoining parking lot, which are all owned by
Bela Szigethy.
Hutchins said that work followed site work
done for Szigethy when he built his lakefront
house more than 20 years ago. (Szigethy also
owns Lake Hopatcong News.)
And the work rarely slows. In the middle of
May, the younger Hutchins said, the company
was performing five jobs at once, including an
installation on Raccoon Island.
A constant in all the jobs the company
performs, father and son said, is rock—granite,
gneiss, marble and other hard stuff.
“Rock is always part of the problem,” the
younger Hutchins said with appreciation. “But
we work with it.”
Digging foundations in hard, rocky soil is as
challenging as it sounds, he said.
Rocky land, steep slopes and smaller spaces
upon which to work, thanks to continued
housing development, are all part of the
challenges of working the lake region, he
said. Each project requires more detailed
engineering and careful planning.
The presence of the rock influences the
design of septic systems, Hutchins said.
Septic systems are not just holes in the
ground; they are engineered systems designed
to capture and filter wastewater.
What has changed over time, Hutchins said,
is the engineering required to meet modern
septic regulations. The standards have changed
since the company was founded. The goal today
is to produce more efficient septic systems and
cleaner outflows that reduce pollutants that
could enter the lake and aquifers.
“The regulations are always changing,” the
younger Hutchins said. “I understand it. It’s