Star of the West Begins Slip Construction
Published: Friday, November 17, 2023
"Out with the old, in with the new," Ryan Johnson, the Star of the West plant superintendent in Ligonier said as he watched a local construction crew pour concrete for the new facility.
The milling company, established in Ligonier in 1886, was due for some updates. According to plant manager Kate Knowlton, some of the equipment being used dated back to the 1950s. With the new facility will come state-of-the-art technology that will increase grain-milling capacity from 5 million to 14 million bushels of wheat.
"We hope that our growers will introduce even more wheat into their crop rotations," she said. "Research has shown it has a positive impact on soil health."
She is excited by the prospect of farmers having the ability to see their crops go from their fields "to their backyard" in Ligonier. Raising wheat and selling it locally is one way to impact the farmer's community, she said.
"I'm really excited to just see the new technology," Johnson said. He has been with Star of the West in Ligonier for nearly 30 years, but this is the biggest building project he has seen them undergo.
The project broke ground in April and last week 50-60 truckloads of concrete were being poured each day at the Star of the West site. Good weather is putting workers on track to finishing the project earlier than the estimated September 2025 opening date, but this depends on future weather and other such factors. Approximately 450 crewmen are working on-site to get the concrete poured. The 10-day project began last Monday.
The new facility will be a seven-story slip-form building. This is comparable to the current facility, which is five stories tall. Slip-form construction is a technique that allows for speedy, economical building and is done by pouring concrete into the top of a constantly moving framework that allows the concrete to dry before the framework is removed from the bottom. As a non-stop process, workers take 12-hour shifts up on the slip and don't come down until the next shift is ready to take their place.
Karina Spencer, vice president of the Flour Milling Division, explained that with the new, updated building will come a new milling method to create pasteurized flour.
"A lot of people don't think of flour as being raw," she said. However, warnings have been made for years concerning uncooked cake batter, cookie dough, brownie batter and other such things.
The new facility will contain three milling units, adding 14 new jobs to the current 24 positions and will increase production from the current 800,000 pounds of flour to .5 million pounds.
"Flour is a margin product. The more efficiently you can make it, the more profitable it will be," Spencer said.
Local companies and businesses involved in the project include: Irving Materials Inc., MartinRiley, C&P Oil Co., Big C Lumber, Eshelman Excavating, J.O. Mory, Service One Industrial, Schambaugh and Son, Kennyland Tree Works, Hoosier Concrete Pumping, Elkhart Steel Service, Leatherman Construction, Honeyville Metal Inc., John's Excavating, Cripe's Septic and Stickley's Ace Hardware.
"Every part of it is exciting," Knowlton said. "I'm looking forward to bringing more team members on board and being fully automated. It changes the work life all for the better."
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