TUESDAY, May 26, 2015 MONTROSE, CO 81401 wwww.montrosepress.com AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRY 2015 XNLV210889 1980 N. Townsend Ave. • Montrose, CO (Next to Airport) (970) 252-3300 • (800) HAMPTON Reserve your next meeting or conference at the Hampton Inn of Montrose. Call for more details. Montrose.Hamptonlnn.com F e e l t h e H a m p t o n a l it y ... 100% Hampton ® Guaranteed Proudly Supporting the Agriculture Community! SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT Continued on next page B y the time most people approach 60 years old, they’re thinking about retirement — having enough money saved, how they’re going to spend their free time, where they can move or travel to so life is a little sweeter. The average age of the American farmer is 58 years old, and for them, approaching 60 is less daydreaming about retirement and more worrying about who will carry on their life’s work when they no longer can. “There is a huge concern,” said Ryan Homewood, a fourth-generation farmer in Montrose. “I can probably list six people my age from here to Delta who are in farming, and I can probably list 50 people my dad’s age. There are going to be some huge changes in the valley in my lifetime, and I’m not sure what people are going to do to help that out.” Homewood and his family farm 1,600 acres through the Coal Creek Valley, extending from Montrose to Pea Green. Their crops are primarily beans, onions, sweet corn and grain corn. Homewood, who is 30, currently does not have a younger family member who could inherit the business after him. “If you don’t have somebody in the business, it’s really difficult to start,” he said. “You can’t afford the land, you can’t afford the equipment. I’m 30 and I’m still learning, I’m not sure if I could take over now if I needed to. It’s not something you just go do. It takes a lot of experience and to have someone (teaching) a lot to you. Even if you have the interest for it, it’s not that accessible.” George Eckhart farms and runs a ranch on 585 acres on Spring Creek Mesa and in Shavano Valley. Eckhart and his brother raise hay, corn and wheat for their 4,000 sheep and 5,400 lambs, selling the excess. They inherited the ranch from their father, who moved to the United States in 1947 as a Basque sheep herder. “He came over here for the American dream. We were lucky enough to grow up and acquire (the ranch), and we’ve just been adding to it as we can,” he said. Eckhart employs six Peruvian sheepherders who are contracted to work at the ranch for three years. “We can’t find anybody who wants to herd sheep in the United States. It’s not the desired job,” Eckhart said. “A lot of the older guys just got old, and the younger generation didn’t see much opportunity there. I have two sons, and they enjoy it, and that’s what they seem like they want to continue doing.” Eckhart also thinks the price of getting into the agriculture business is too high for someone who doesn’t have previous experience or ties to it. “In this day and age it seems like you have to inherit it, because to buy into it — that would be pretty tough,” Eckhart said. “Everything’s too high. Land’s too high, equipment’s too high, and I think it would be a hard road to go down.” Montrose rancher Kathi Creamer also sees the cost of doing business as a deterrent to joining the industry. “The price local producers receive for their livestock is far below the national average, due in large part to our location,” she said. “The distance to feedlots, access to large meat processors and high cost of feedstuffs creates huge financial costs to livestock producers.” Colorado Agriculture Commissioner Don Brown is a third-generation farmer from Yuma County. While Brown said there are Aging in agriculture Some local farmers lack successors By Katie Langford • Daily Press Staff Writer Katie Langford/Daily Press George Eckhart shows off one of his 5,400 lambs that he raises with his brother on Spring Creek Mesa.
Transcript
TUESDAY, May 26, 2015 MONTROSE, CO 81401 wwww.montrosepress.com
AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRY 2015
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Continued on next page
By the time most people approach 60 years old, they’re thinking about retirement — having enough money saved, how they’re going to spend
their free time, where they can move or travel to so life is a little sweeter.
The average age of the American farmer is 58 years old, and for them, approaching 60 is less daydreaming about retirement and more worrying about who will carry on their life’s work when they no longer can.
“There is a huge concern,” said Ryan Homewood, a fourth-generation farmer in Montrose. “I can probably list six people my age from here to Delta who are in farming, and I can probably list 50 people my dad’s age. There are going to be some huge changes in the valley in my lifetime, and I’m not sure what people are going to do to help that out.”
Homewood and his family farm 1,600 acres through the Coal Creek Valley, extending from Montrose to Pea Green. Their crops are primarily beans, onions, sweet corn and grain corn.
Homewood, who is 30, currently does not have a younger family member who could inherit the business after him.
“If you don’t have somebody in the business, it’s really diffi cult to start,” he said. “You can’t afford the land, you can’t afford the equipment. I’m 30 and I’m still learning, I’m not sure if I could take over now if I needed to. It’s not something you just go do. It takes a lot of experience and to have someone (teaching) a lot to you. Even if you have the interest for it, it’s not that accessible.”
George Eckhart farms and runs a ranch on 585 acres on Spring Creek Mesa and in Shavano Valley. Eckhart and his brother raise hay, corn and
wheat for their 4,000 sheep and 5,400 lambs, selling the excess. They inherited the ranch from their father, who moved to the United States in 1947 as a Basque sheep herder.
“He came over here for the American dream. We were lucky enough to grow up and acquire (the ranch), and we’ve just been adding to it as we can,” he said.
Eckhart employs six Peruvian sheepherders who are contracted to work at the ranch for three years.
“We can’t fi nd anybody who wants to herd sheep in the United States. It’s not the desired job,” Eckhart said. “A lot of the older guys just got old, and the younger generation didn’t see much opportunity there. I have two sons, and they enjoy it, and that’s what they seem like they want to continue doing.”
Eckhart also thinks the price of getting into the agriculture business is too high for someone who doesn’t
have previous experience or ties to it. “In this day and age it seems like
you have to inherit it, because to buy into it — that would be pretty tough,” Eckhart said. “Everything’s too high. Land’s too high, equipment’s too high, and I think it would be a hard road to go down.”
Montrose rancher Kathi Creamer also sees the cost of doing business as a deterrent to joining the industry.
“The price local producers receive for their livestock is far below the national average, due in large part to our location,” she said. “The distance to feedlots, access to large meat processors and high cost of feedstuffs creates huge fi nancial costs to livestock producers.”
Colorado Agriculture Commissioner Don Brown is a third-generation farmer from Yuma County. While Brown said there are
Aging in agricultureSome local farmers lack successors
By Katie Langford • Daily Press Staff Writer
Katie Langford/Daily PressGeorge Eckhart shows o� one of his 5,400 lambs that he raises with his brother on Spring Creek Mesa.
AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRYTUESDAY, MAY 26, 20152
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Aging in agriculture ..............1Some local farmers lack successors
Harvesting hard work ............4Sawmill presses forward under Neiman Enterprises
A sweet dream .......................8Russell Stover changing with the times
Steady march of progress ...10Community corrections facility � ourishes in Montrose
Power in the water ...............12Local groups develop alternative energy
Making old new again .........14Straw Hat Farm Market pushes forward
other factors in the rising age of farmers — like longer life expectancy and a more mechanized business — it’s still “very, very diffi cult to get into agriculture.”
“I’m very aware of that problem and very aware that we need to bring young people back into our agricultural communities,” Brown said. “We educate them, provide a sense of community and caring for others, and then we can’t make room for them in small communities. They have to go to other areas, and we end up losing the best and the brightest.”
Brown said while the Department of Agriculture isn’t directly involved in reviving the younger generation’s interest in agriculture, his staff does work to reduce the rules and regulations hindering participation in the business.
“I think they add a cost to doing business all the time, and that’s a hidden cost, so it’s more diffi cult to get in,” Brown said. “We try to make it easier for people to operate so it makes it easier for young people to come back.”
For example, “Estate tax has tendency to disproportionately affect people in agriculture,” Brown said. While on paper, it may seem like the farmer has considerable fi nancial holdings in land and equipment, the cost of doing business can reduce that amount considerably.
Eckhart said part of the problem was, as a country, the US has a careless attitude toward local agriculture.
“This country feels like they can import whatever they need, rather than sustain and take care of what we produce here, which is a shame,” he said. “I don’t like to see that. It seems like in other countries, in Europe and New Zealand, they protect their agriculture and hold it up on a pedestal as something to take care of. I think we should protect and use what we have here.”
There’s no concrete answer for how to encourage the next generation to get involved in the agriculture industry. Brown said local infrastructure — good schools and hospitals, attractive communities — would help, but they’re not the be all, end all.
“If it was easy, it’d already be fi xed,” Brown said. “And it’s not easy.”
“I’m very aware of that problem and very aware that we need to bring young people back into our agricultural communities. We educate them, provide a sense of community and caring for others, and then we can’t make room for them in small communities. They have to go to other areas, and we end up losing the best and the brightest.”
Colorado Agriculture Commissioner Don Brown
Continued from page 1
Nate Wick/Daily PressCorn stands ready to be picked during last year’s growing season.
Photo by Nate Wick/Daily PressTons of onions sit before being bagged last year.
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Montrose Forest Products LLC doesn’t quite spin straw into gold — but about 90 employees do turn dead
timber into building-grade studs, absorbent products, chips, sawdust and bark for other businesses, which in turn employ still more people. The company even supplies the biomass power plant up the road in Gypsum.
“There are seven to eight loads per day of chips; two of sawdust; two of shavings and two of bark. Most of the year, we would receive approximately 40 loads a day of logs,” Montrose Forest Products manager Mike Kusar said.
Kusar spoke while logging itself was idle for “spring breakup,” a hiatus taken to allow logging roads to dry out. “We try to be good stewards of those forests we get logs from,” Kusar explained.
But at the Montrose mill itself, activity boomed, with crews operating everything from a sorting machine to an auto-stacker — machinery into which MFP’s parent company, Neiman Enterprises, has poured millions.
That investment is what has kept the company, formerly Intermountain Resources, from going the way of the Western Slope’s other sawmills. The L-P Mill near Olathe shuttered some time ago, while Delta’s timber mill was sold last year to a liquidator.
Neiman Enterprises took the Montrose mill out of receivership in 2012 and has since added at least two years’ worth of log supply, along with plant improvements and equipment.
“In dollars, I think we’ve been saying $10 million-plus (investment) since they purchased,” Kusar said, referring to Neiman Enterprises.
The company installed a fi re suppression system, as well as a 400,000-gallon water tank to support the system. The company has retooled the back half of the mill, adding new trimmer optimization, as well as the automated sorter and automatic stacker.
“That was kind of the big, $6 million project,” Kusar said.
Montrose Forest Products retrofi tted its dry kilns and converted the boiler to natural gas power. The company also insulated and heated the mill.
“Those guys have been working in heavy coats for years in the winter. Now they’re working in T-shirts,” Kusar said.
Also new to the mill: an automatic truck-tarping station that allows log truck drivers to remain on the ground while tarping their loads — an enhancement to convenience and safety. A new forklift and log loader were purchased in May; Montrose Forest Products has also issued a purchase order for a dust-suction system, to the tune of $300,000.
“The Neimans are fully committed here, as far as investment,” Kusar said.
CONNECTING A COMMUNITY “They’ve just been a huge push for
the community. I don’t think people understand their value,” Sandy Head, executive director of Montrose Economic Development Corp., said of Montrose Forest Products.
The MEDC engaged in talks with the mill’s receiver back in 2010 and worked with other parties, including the Montrose Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service.
“We knew we needed, as a community, to move forward and get the mill out of receivership and save the jobs,” Head said.
The stakeholders drew on the abilities of Nancy Fishering, a longtime mill employee and timber industry expert. Fishering worked as a contract employee with MEDC during the receivership period.
“We knew the incentives, we knew the different players we could bring to the table, and Nancy knew the players to bring in the timber. (Neiman Enterprise owner) Jim Neiman was one of them,” Head said.
Neiman Enterprises turned the corner with the mill: in addition to its 90 direct employees, the company has nine contract logging crews, each
Harvesting hard workSawmill presses forward under Neiman Enterprises
By Katharhynn Heidelberg • Daily Press Staff Writer
Photo by Justin Joiner/Daily PressAlthough much of the timber process is automated, many workers lend a hand in the factory.
“We take a lot of their waste products. They are our primary supplier, and we have a great working relationship with them. We handle their wood waste as well as their bark waste,”
Chip Scroggs,
manager at Southwest Soils in Olathe
Continued on page 6
AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRY TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015 5
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with fi ve or six members. Montrose Forest Products further works with 13 to 15 trucking contractors who bring in the logs.
“Of course, there’s a lot of indirect (spending),” Kusar said. “We buy our fuel here in town. We spend a lot of money every week on maintenance, just running the mill.”
Other local companies depend in part on Montrose Forest Products being located here.
“We take a lot of their waste products. They are our primary supplier, and we have a great working relationship with them. We handle their wood waste as well as their bark waste,” said Chip Scroggs, manager at Southwest Soils in Olathe.
Southwest Soils uses the materials to help develop and satisfy its soil amendments, compost and landscaping markets.
“The reason this company is located where it is, is because when we started there were three mills in the area,” Scroggs said. “Strategically, it was located here because of the mills. The only mill left is Montrose Forest Products.”
Montrose Forest Products is “pretty key” to the entire area’s economy, he said.
“You’ve got Russell Stover’s (Candies) and Montrose Forest Products and us who have products leaving this area. You’re not just recycling your own money within the economy, but you’re bringing outside money in,” Scroggs said.
“The agriculture market is the same thing. Those are the types of business we need in the area. … Hopefully, we are helping each other out, to succeed. That’s the goal.”
Head estimates Montrose Forest Product’s annual economic impact to be $16 million and $17 million from the multiplier effect.
“Right now, when we’re struggling for economic development, jobs and investments in Montrose County, Montrose Forest Products is the company that’s really coming forth and getting the job done,” Montrose County Manager Ken Norris said.
“They have a very large payroll that turns over many times in the community.”
The county this year authorized a refund credit for business personal property tax Montrose Forest Products owed on qualifying equipment purchases in 2014.
Gov. John Hickenlooper, on a May 11 stop in Montrose, recalled the mill’s grimmer days. He said he is heartened to see the turnaround under Neiman Enterprises. “It’s always the result of fi nding the right entrepreneur,” Hickenlooper said.
SUPPLY — AND ACCESS
Montrose Forest Products pulls in beetle-killed logs from almost every national forest on the western half of the state — the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison; Rio Grande; Routt; White River; Pike-San Isabel and the San Juan forests. The supply chain ranges from as far north as the Wyoming border and as far south as New Mexico, roughly 300 miles in any direction, per Kusar.
“The GMUG would be our No. 1 forest. It’s offering the most and it’s nearest the mill,” he said.
“We’ll also purchase lumber from private tracts, but the majority does come off the national forests.”
Tracts from north of Interstate 70 bring mainly lodgepole pine. From the south, much of the wood is Engelmann spruce. Montrose Forest Products also utilizes subalpine fi r, white fi r and Douglas fi r.
The company produces 2-by-4 and 2-by-6 studs, primarily for residential framing. What doesn’t pass stud grade is marketed as economy and is used for industrial purposes, such as making pallets.
And businesses such as Southwest Soils and Smith Company locally enjoy the byproducts.
“We use the entire log,” Kusar said.“The vast majority of what we
cut is dead already, due to the beetle epidemic,” he said.
The invasive insects have demolished Colorado’s forests. Montrose Forest Product contends with both the spruce beetle and the mountain pine beetle, though Kusar said the latter has almost run its course: “It’s about killed every lodgepole pine it can fi nd.”
Montrose Forest Products uses stewardship contracts to access timber stands on public lands. In signing the agreements, the company becomes responsible for ensuring all policies are complied with, and it
“With all the automation, we don’t have a lot of labor-intensive jobs, as far as back-breaking work. We try to cross-train our employees, were they don’t have to do the same job all day, every day,”
Mike Kusar, Montrose Forest Products manager
Continued from page 4
Continued on next page
Photo by Justin Joiner/Daily PressLogs near the beginning of the process are cut by this giant buzzsaw at Montrose Forest Products.
AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRY TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015 7
works directly with the contractors.“We would like to go to a two-shift
operation going forward,” Kusar said. “We would love to go to two, eight-hour shifts, fi ve days a week. We’re close, but there’s not quite enough timber offered.”
All the same, the mill does have enough to sustain operations for at least two years. It would help to be rid of the scourge that is the beetle, Kusar indicated.
“Recovery improves with green timber, trees that were recently alive. I feel like the Forest Service is more willing to offer the sale of dead trees, so we have a good supply, but there is a limited life to where those trees are merchantable,” he said.
That delicate timeline depends on the tree, too. When working with lodgepole, contractors can cut a tree that’s been dead for up to fi ve years, and it will still be suitable for lumber.
The turnaround time is less generous for Engelmann fi r, which is usable for perhaps three years after death.
“This wood is not good forever. It’s only merchantable for a few years. We have to access it as rapidly as possible to salvage what we can,” said Jon Waschbusch, Montrose County director of governmental affairs.
The county is working to ensure that a commercial treatment component remains an option in an ongoing spruce beetle epidemic aspen decline management response project.
This project would allow for both commercial and non-commercial treatments in the GMUG during a 10-
year period. A draft environmental impact statement was forthcoming the week of May 11.
“We have that (commercial) option because of Montrose Forest Products,” Waschbusch said.
“They’re not the entire timber industry, but they are the ones locally that could consume some of the beetle kill.”
Treatments would be expensive, if not for businesses such as Montrose Forest Products, which can take the logs and turn them into something useful — along with paying for the timber, Norris said.
“There’s a huge environmental plus, as well,” he said.
EYE ON THE FUTURE
In the meantime, the company keeps pace with the supply it has, turning out approximately 300,000 board feet per day. It needs to be able to procure more logs in order to double production, as company principals want, Kusar said.
Montrose Forest Products is also exploring additional operations at the mill site, though Kusar said that’s “not a sure thing.”
The changes to the mill site and its technology have led to a change in job duties, he added.
“With all the automation, we don’t have a lot of labor-intensive jobs, as far as back-breaking work. We try to cross-train our employees, were they don’t have to do the same job all day, every day,” Kusar said.
“I think we have a great group of folks here. It’s a strong culture, as far as work ethic and safety.
“It’s not glorious work, but it’s an honest day’s work, and we don’t have a lot of turnover.”
State honor for sawmill company
Neiman Enterprises was named Company of the Year by the Economic Development Council of Colorado.
The council makes awards to companies, communities and legislators on behalf of the State of Colorado Economic Development Corp.
Montrose Economic Development Corp. executive director Sandy Head nominated Neiman Enterprises for its work in making Montrose Forest Products, LLC a force to be reckoned with, as well as its community involvement.
“To even be in contention for the award is an honor,” Neiman Enterprises Vice President Jim Neiman said.
Winners of the Company of the Year award are those that demonstrate support for economic development, the community and which have made signifi cant expansion or investment during the year.
Continued from page 6
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Little Kennadie Minerich loves what her father, Paul Minerich, does for a living — so much, in fact, she’d wrap herself in his changed work clothes to savor the
smell of his offi ce. Then, it wasn’t so much that
Kennadie, 4 at the time, was a complete daddy’s girl who preferred her father’s shirt, although she was. It had more to do that her father’s occupation as plant manager of the Russell Stover Candies factory in Montrose. Kennadie, loved to surround herself with the aromatic smell of chocolate that daily permeated his clothing.
“I’d come home, and she’d ask me to change my shirt, so she could wear it like a shawl,” said Minerich, the longtime plant manager at the Montrose Russell Stover factory. “She loves the smell of chocolate, and she loved to wrap herself in it. I’ve gotten to the point here where I hardly notice it any more.”
For Minerich, that may be the case. But for factory visitors, oh, but the aroma of dark, rich chocolate is prevalent.
It’s everywhere. Abundantly saturating.
Kennadie, now 14, no longer asks her father for his work shirt and neither do his other three daughters, Kyra, 23; Madisyn, 15; and Baeli Mattea, 8, the loving daughters he shares with wife, Kathie.
For Minerich, who enjoys coaching softball and basketball, having four daughters has been a lesson in listening and perseverance.
“Been married a long time. It’s been great,” Minerich said. “It’s
interesting. A lot of the emotion that comes at the house … I kid people because the majority of our work force is female. Everyone tells me how blessed I am, and I really am, but I can tell you, there’s a little added drama in my life. You know my home life and working here, one helps the other. I think it goes hand in glove.”
That fatherly patience has carried Minerich to success at home and at Russell Stover Candies since the day he started 22 years ago as a trainee on April 1, 1993.
“I spent a year in the kitchen, making all of the (candy) centers
that we produce,” Minerich said. “Then, I kind of moved around from the different departments, learning the different facets of it and moved into the assistant manager’s role shortly after that. Now, I’ve been a plant manager for 14 years.”
Along the way, Minerich has led the Montrose plant to huge successes.
“Last year, were produced 15 million pounds of candy just here at this plant,” Minerich said. “It was a busy year. I’d say, typically, it ranges about 12 million pounds. Yes, we had a good year last year, and we’re defi nitely the oldest of all the Russell
Stover plants.”The plant started producing candy
in November 1973. “It’s my understanding, in those
days, they would knock out a couple-hundred pounds (a day) when they fi rst got going,” Minerich said. “Now, when we have a Gold Star day, as I call it, we’ll do over a hundred-thousand pounds.”
Asked whether he was expecting the same kind of success for 2015, Minerich offered no predictions.
“I’m not going out on that limb,” Minerich mused. “We’re plenty busy, but I’m not going out on that limb.”
Currently, there are about 450 employees at the local plant and soon productivity will be increasing.
“During the seasonal push, when we have a higher demand for our candies, we’ll bring in another 75 to 125 people,” Minerich said. “It gets really ramped up by the end of August, early September when the demand is high. Currently, our business module is three holidays, Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter. These (holidays) are probably three-fourths of our business during this fi ve-month span.”
The Montrose plant is the smallest of four such factories in the Russell Stover family. Since its start 42 years ago, other factories have been built, making the Montrose plant the oldest of four in the Russell Stover family, the others being located in Abilene, Kan., Iola, Kan., and Corsicana, Texas.
“We are the smallest by volume, but we produce the largest variety,” Minerich said. “We do smaller runs, but we produce more variety. It’s
‘Sweetest job in town’Russell Stover plant manager describes changes
By Alan Lewis Gerstenecker • Daily Press Staff Writer
Continued on next page
Photo by Alan Lewis Gerstenecker/Daily PressRussell Stover Candies Plant Manager Paul Minerich stands in his o� ce with a 10-pound brick of chocolate that serves as the base for the multitude of candy recipes at the Montrose plant.
Photo by Alan Lewis Gerstenecker/Daily PressRussell Stover Candies Plant Manager Paul Minerich stands with operator Mario Lopez as they monitor candy that exits a conveyor at the plant. Last year, the Montrose plant produced 15 million pounds of candy, the most ever during Minerich’s 14 years as plant manager.
AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRY TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015 9
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more of a hemispherical, eastern-western split. Because we are farther west, we get more western orders. Now, (we get) smaller runs. Certainly, it’s not going to be advantageous for one of our more automated plants to change over for a small run. So, they may go to us. More of the reason we do such a variety is because of the western hemisphere split. It’s regionally driven.”
Minerich said the Montrose plant specializes in specifi c customer orders.
“We have many different SKUs, as I call them,” Minerich said. “It’s the code on the back of the wrapper, the bag, the box. We have thousands, more than 1,900 SKUs. You take a red, foil 207 (Valentine’s Day) heart, and you might process it 16 different ways. A lot of what we do is customer-specifi c. It’s what we do as far as our staffi ng, our capabilities, and it makes for a very challenging, dynamic all the time. To that regard, you take the same red seven-ounce heart and one account might want a sticker in the upper right-hand corner, one might want a different-sized sticker in the middle. So, yes, we have a lot of variety in the same packed heart.”
Along the way, Minerich has seen changes, but the most important things have remained.
“The volume’s changed, the way we package has changed,” Minerich said. “Some of the technology and methodology of how we produce has changed. But I can tell you what hasn’t changed is the smaller-batch formulations in the kitchens. That’s not changed. It’s very quality-driven, the formulas — as we call them — hasn’t changed. It’s still the same. We never compromise the quality of our product. There’s no Oompa-Loompas,” Minerich said, referencing the dwarf-like candy-makers in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
“It comes down to quality, value and service,” Minerich said. “It’s the pride of the people. We have a lot of senior people here for a lot of years. We have a good product at a fair price. You don’t compromise quality. You just don’t. That’s it. That’s the secret. And, people like their chocolate.”
Of all the varieties, Minerich was asked whether he has a personal favorite.
“Personal tastes and preferences are individualistic as to what everyone chooses to enjoy and are their favorites,” he said. “Personally, I am an equal-opportunity eater when it comes to our products and consider myself quality control, as I sample daily.”
However, if he had to pick one: “Probably the delights, most people know them as the turtles. It’s a pretty popular choice,” Minerich said. “We do a sugar-free variety at this location, and it’s becoming more popular all the time. We have a dedicated line to the sugar-free.”
Minerich is careful to not reveal company secrets, but he confessed about chocolate-covered cherries.
“I get asked all the time about chocolate-covered cherries, and how we get the liquid inside,” Minerich said. “It’s actually a naturally occurring protein that bonds with the shell we put the cherry in that will reduce that hardened case into a liquifi ed state, so that it’s liquid around the cherry. It’s not injected like a lot of people think.”
Minerich also quoted a line from the movie “Forrest Gump,” where Gump, played by Tom Hanks, says, “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.”
“The old thing where you’d have to bite off a piece to see what’s inside is no more,” Minerich said. “We have indexes inside the lid that is like a road map of what you have. The true connoisseur of our product can tell by the color of the ribbon on the box or the shape of the piece.”
As plant manager for 14 years, Minerich, 48, says he likes his position, but he has contemplated life beyond Russell Stover.
“For now, this is what I know, and this is what I enjoy,” Minerich said. “I often tell people when I have been asked that question over the years: ‘I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.’ I have had other opportunities, which is always fl attering, and I think we owe it to ourselves to at least listen. But my current interests and involvements, and being surrounded by a lot of great people at work and socially, while living in an area as picturesque and user-friendly as Montrose has kept me and my family here.”
Then Minerich, paused and refl ected on his 22 years at Russell Stover.
“You know, I’ve had opportunities over the years to take on other roles, but it’s not what I want. What I have right now, what I do right now, suits me well because I’m actively involved in the community. I tell people I have the sweetest job in town.”
“The volume’s changed, the way we package has changed. Some of the technology and methodology of how we produce has changed. But I can tell you what hasn’t changed is the smaller-batch formulations in the kitchens. That’s not changed. It’s a very quality-driven, the formulas — as we call them — hasn’t changed. It’s still the same. We never compromise the quality of our product. There’s no Oompa-Loompas.”
Paul Minerich, Russell Stover Candies plant manager
Continued from page 8
Photo by Alan Lewis Gerstenecker/Daily PressThis industrial-scale mixer just � nished mixing ingredients for the production line. There are several of these mixers in the one area of candy preparation.
Photo by Alan Lewis Gerstenecker/Daily PressWorkers at the Russell Stover Candies plant in Montrose hand insert chocolates into speci� c candy slots in trays as they pass on a conveyor belt.
AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRYTUESDAY, MAY 26, 201510
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Community corrections in the 7th Judicial District is in some ways the story of what almost wasn’t.
Push after push to have a commcorr facility in the Montrose met with resistance, as affected neighbors rejected locations on
North Third Street and Cascade Avenue, as well as in Olathe, and cost barriers stood in the way of building a new one outright.
But, fi nally, toward the end of 2012, proponents secured the perfect spot, courtesy of Montrose County: the former work release facility, located right next to the Montrose County Jail.
Since its 2013 opening, Intervention Community Corrections Services’ facility, West Central Community Corrections, has grown its programming and carved an important niche in the legal community.
CONNECTIONS CUT RECIDIVISM
“We know that, with respect to corrections and rehabilitation, it is very important for offenders to have community involvement, connections and support,” District Attorney Dan Hotsenpiller said.
Community corrections facilities house transition and diversion clients — think of it as “one foot out of prison” and “one foot in prison,” ICCS’ executive director Gregg Kildow said.
Diversion clients are offenders who have been sentenced by the court, which has approved commcorr as an option. Commcorr’s board decides whether to accept or reject an applicant.
Transition clients are offenders who are leaving prison and need means of reintegration before going onto parole. These are referred by the Department of Corrections and commcorr decides whether such clients can be served in a way that ensures community safety. If there’s no confi dence that the transition client can follow the rules, he or she is denied.
Clients can be either residential or non-residential.
As the past resistance to commcorr tends to demonstrate, some members of the public are
concerned at the prospect of offenders living among them — but offenders will eventually be coming home, anyway. The difference is that with commcorr, the offenders help pay their own way while remaining connected with their hometowns and families, and accessing substance-abuse, mental health, and sex offender-specifi c treatments.
An offender with a job is more likely to succeed at a community-based sentence than an unemployed one, Hotsenpiller said. One who has healthy connections tends to be more successful than one whose only connections are part of what keep him or her involved in crimes or drug-use.
“When you don’t have a local community corrections facility, by defi nition, you’re disconnecting an offender from his or her community and crossing your fi ngers, and hoping that when they return to our community, they’re able to get reconnected in a healthy way,” Hotsenpiller said.
Prior to West Center Community Corrections opening, 7th Judicial District offenders who were eligible for commcorr were placed out of the area, costing taxpayers more. And it’s cheaper to place an eligible offender in commcorr than in prison, where the tab hovers around $77 per day.
“(Commcorr) is less cost to the state and in addition to that, these people are working in the community; they’re paying taxes, child support, and they’re paying restitution,” Kildow said.
“They’re able to take care of any obligations a citizen would do, as well as make good progress. As far as value to the community, it continues to be very good.”
COMMUNITY, OFFENDER BENEFIT
There’s value for the offenders, too. In only two years of operation, ICCS has added a “return to custody” program; a sex-offender management program and the Short Term Alternative Residential Treatment program for probationers who are failing to meet the terms and conditions of their probationary sentence due to health issues, substance abuse or homelessness. Seven of the facility’s beds are available for that purpose.
The START program is run under a separate contract with probation and those approved can be placed at commcorr for up to 90 days, during which they receive the services they need to get back into the community safely on probation.
Steady march of progressCommunity corrections facility � ourishes in Montrose
By Katharhynn Heidelberg • Daily Press Staff Writer
“It (commcorr) is a tool we can use both as an incentive and a mechanism to help the individual with treatment needs and be a better functioning member of society, with community safety being a top priority.”
Rob Omer, chief probationer for the 7th Judicial District
Continued on next page
Photo courtesy of Metro Creative ConnectionCommunity corrections allows some o� enders to avoid time in prison.
AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRY TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015 11
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“The goal is not to bring them further into the system, but to address what is driving their (involvement). That saves court time; that saves jail time and that saves prison time,” Kildow said.
For now, only a few probation clients are in the START program, said Rob Omer, chief probationer for the 7th Judicial District.
“We were defi nitely lobbying ICCS to help create the program. It is kind of a short-term program. It can help people refocus while they’re on probation and get themselves back on the right track,” Omer said.
The probation department also conducts pre-sentence investigation reports, which the judicial system uses in making recommendations for sentences and in imposing them.
“The probation department wouldn’t recommend someone to the commcorr program unless we felt that they have a high probability of being successful and more importantly, that the program would actually benefi t them and the community,” Omer said.
“It (commcorr) is a tool we can use both as an incentive and a mechanism to help the individual with treatment needs and be a better functioning member of society, with community safety being a top priority.”
Sex-offender treatment began being offered in 2014. The program is headed by a trained provider who makes weekly visits to Montrose to provide specifi c treatment that adheres to the protocols of the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board; there were two sex offenders at commcorr the week of May 11, Kildow reported.
The 7th Judicial District Community Corrections board subjects sex offenders to rigorous assessments before accepting them into the facility.
West Central Commcorr also has a place for those convicted of nonviolent, lower-level felonies whose parole is revoked for technical reasons. This is the return to custody program, and functions similarly to the START program, though it is run under contract with the Department of Corrections and offenders can remain in it for up to 180 days.
One-on-one treatment for substance abuse is available in-house at West Central, which is now licensed by the state offi ce of behavioral health for that purpose.
Clients can access the treatment at the onset, while being kept more secure, as opposed to being taken into a community setting for the treatment, Kildow explained.
ICCS has no immediate plans to add more programs.
“We want to grow along with the community, but want to do it in a fashion that responds to the needs of the community,” Kildow said.
Finding suffi cient treatment resources in the community remains a challenge.
“The ideal would for us to be a one-stop shop to provide all the needs so they’ve got everything addressed, but it’s not available out there. We have the same problem in Pueblo (the location of another ICCS
facility). Resources there are really sparse,” Kildow said.
But the will is evident, he indicated, praising ICCS staffers, as well as support from the sheriff and other agencies. Kildow also said he understood that private treatment providers need a solid patient base.
GETTING THEM OUT
Client numbers fl uctuate; Kidlow said he’s seen only slight growth at commcorr over the past year.
“That’s not a bad thing, if you look at it in terms of ‘Are we doing the right thing for the offenders?’ I think they are vetted in the manner that we are going to be able to provide them with resources,” he said.
“ICCS commcorr is a great resource for our community. It provides a higher level of accountability, while providing treatment for those people who are in most need in our community,” Omer said.
“Before the program came to Montrose, these services were pretty much nonexistent within our region.”
If ICCS and West Central’s goals can be distilled into one, it may be what Kildow said:
“We want the clients using the community resources for support rather than falling back on the criminal justice system. That’s the ultimate goal, to get them the heck out of the criminal justice system.”
Commcorr clientsWest Central Community Corrections usually houses between 30 and 40 clients at a time. These numbers � uctuate.At last report, the breakdown was:Female transition clients: 2Female diversion clients: 4
Male diversion clients: 16Male transition clients: 2Male condition of parole clients: 3Male START program clients: 1Male return to custody program clients: 6
Continued from page 10
Photo by Justin Joiner/Daily PressCommunity corrections features a day room and learning areas.
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Fifteen minutes east of Montrose, just off of Highway 50, there are inconspicuous beige buildings and a chain link fence surrounding a portion of the south canal irrigation system. They are wholly unremarkable — in fact, they’re
only in use six months out of the year. But the machinery contained in these
buildings produces enough electricity to power more than 3,000 homes for a full year.
Every second, 900 cubic feet of water rush through the turbines, producing 25 million kilowatts of power during irrigation season, and six days a week it sits empty — because the plant is 100 percent automated.
“We currently operate three hydro plants on the Uncompahgre project,” said Jim Heneghan, a renewable energy engineer for the Delta-Montrose Electric Association.
Power in the waterLocal groups develop alternative energy
By Katie Langford • Daily Press Staff Writer
“The deal that we have made with the DMEA is working out really well. As of about a month ago, we brought the Shavano Falls hydro plant online, and that’s producing 2.2 megawatts. That power is being transported through DMEA and ending up in Delta.” UVWUA assistant manager
Edward Suppes
Continued on next page
Photo by Katie Langford/Daily PressThe South Canal hydro plants are almost completely automated.
Photo by Katie Langford/Daily PressJim Heneghan, right, talks about the intake system at one of DMEA’s hydro plants on the south canal.
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The hydro plant has been running since 2012, and Heneghan said the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association is still exploring more ways to harness the full power of the south canal.
“For the fi rst two plants, the DMEA and Water Users partnered together,” Heneghan said. “Now we have a contract restriction with our wholesale power supplier. The maximum amount of electricity we can provide from resources we own is restricted to 5 percent.”
DMEA hit that maximum after two plants went online, but the company continues to facilitate the production of hydropower, which the UVWUA is selling to other electric companies in the area.
“The deal that we have made with the DMEA is working out really well,” said UVWUA assistant manager Edward Suppes. “As of about a month ago, we brought the Shavano Falls hydro plant online, and that’s producing 2.2 megawatts. That power
is being transported through DMEA and ending up in Delta.”
DMEA’s current contract with Tri-State Generation and Transmission lasts through 2040, Heneghan said, but DMEA staff is hopeful it can negotiate the contract over time to allow more local, renewable energy.
Suppes said the UVWUA is working with a private contractor
to bring a fourth plant online by the middle of June, also located on the south canal. There’s another location on the canal that could be utilized, but it’s still in the early planning stages, he said.
“It’s going to help the water users quite a bit,” Suppes said. “It’s going to take a few years to get these loans paid down, but it will really benefi t
us in future years. That’s when we’ll start seeing the majority of the advantage of these plants.”
The power harnessed through water has to do with the pressure created by drops in elevation. Every plant is located at one of those drops, and the larger the drop, the more power can be produced. All of the drops on the south canal are considered “low head,” because the drops are 200 feet or less.
DMEA serves 26,000 homes and 6,000 commercial or industrial locations, Heneghan said. While the power produced by the hydro plants seems to only make a small dent in those numbers, the south canal project “could eliminate more than 275,000 tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere over a 30-year period,” according to the DMEA website.
Despite the complications of contract obligations and power purchase agreements, the sites are doing exactly what they were designed to do: producing clean, renewable energy for the foreseeable future.
Continued from page 12
Photo by Katie Langford/Daily PressHydro power is created by the pressure of drop in elevation.
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The faded stencil of the old dry cleaning store can still be seen on the front of the building just below the current banner for the Straw Hat Farm Market and Kitchen Store at 514 S. First St.
The dry cleaner was in operation more than 70 years ago, but it is that old-fashioned premise that Straw Hat was founded on and is trying to sell.
Started as a small, family-owned farm by Chet and Karen Byler, just south of Montrose on Solar Rd., east of the highway, the aim was to be fully organic.
After inspections by the Colorado Department of Agriculture, Straw Hat Farm was Certifi ed Organic in 1997.
“That’s still something we have to go through every so often,” Ryan Byler explained while manning the register. “We do get a lot of paperwork from the state, with inspections, to keep it certifi ed as organic, which is important to us.”
For years the farm supplied its organic vegetables to the Montrose Farmer’s Market and saw the demand rise, predominantly for the organic, gourmet garlic.
“We started out with a full acre of garlic, but it is a hard product to grow, especially organic,” Byler said. “We’re down to half an acre, and the demand has been more than we can supply.”
As word of its vegetables, as well as its farm-fresh eggs from the 300 laying chickens on the farm spread, the Bylers looked to expand.
“We always wanted to make the farm our main thing, but for a while it was whatever we could do,” Byler said. “My dad still did and does construction, framing houses. So we started selling at the Farmer’s Market and just looked for what we could do next.”
The farm’s business moved ahead when, in 2013, the Bylers bought Urban Homemaker, a 21-year-old mail-order Internet store, in order to help promote traditional homemaking skills as well as useful products — kitchen mixers, home grain mills, juicers, dehydrators, essential kitchen small wares, bread-making tips — along with grains and beans sold in bulk.
“For a while we kept all that merchandise in our basement and shipping it out,” Byler said. “We really want to bring our customers the products, merchandise and skills to be able to cook and bake healthy, natural food for themselves.”
And while the Urban Homemaker took, and is, the centerpiece of the business, the Bylers wanted to have a more direct connection with their customers.
That led to the opening of the shop downtown in 2014, coincidentally, right next to the Montrose Farmer’s Market, where the business technically got started in the fi rst place.
There, they can bring their products right to the local consumer.“We wanted the storefront so we would be able to have our kitchen products,
appliances and foods right here for our customers,” Byler said. “Fresh produce right from the farm, baked goods from our kitchen.”
The store features local organic produce, farm-fresh eggs, local meat, milk, cheese, coffee and honey, along with wholesome baked goods every Saturday.
Also available are bulk grains and a variety of baking and cooking equipment to put those traditional homemaking and baking skills to good use.
“And it has been a steady increase of customers,” he continued. “We had our customer base from selling at the Farmer’s Market, which was key in us even getting started, and it is increasing by word of mouth, but it takes time.”
The inevitable question then is, what is next for Straw Hat?While the store has grown, this latest step of
opening the store was what was next, and for the Bylers, it is about giving it time.
“This is still pretty new, having this only open for maybe a year and a half at this point,” Byler said. “We just want to get this established, let it grow and see where that takes us.”
Straw Hat Farm Market has come a long way and is taking that same approach with it products – letting them grow and seeing where it takes them.
Making old new again
Straw Hat Farm Market pushes forward
By Dan Hoehne • Daily Press Staff Writer
Photo by Dan Hoehne/Daily PressThe Straw Hat Farm store has grown steadily in the last year and a half.
