A new commercial produce operation near Francesville hopes to be up and running by the end of the year.
Joel Putt is the head of Eden Valley Enterprises. He told the Pulaski County Commissioners last week that he’d like to start shipping out lettuce by the end of the year, with construction on the facility to start soon. “As soon as the weather turns, we’ll start this year, and then, Christmastime, hopefully they have it enclosed and pretty well ready to go,” Putt said. “That’s kind of the goal, anyway. It kind of depends on the weather throughout the year.”
Blueprints for a steel building, greenhouse, and concrete foundations are designed to be stamped by the state. But Brad Holman with general contractor Hydronov said, in this case, the plans will actually go to a separate company. “The State of Indiana does not stamp agricultural projects, so we’ve gone to a third party reviewing company out of Indianapolis,” he explained. “That’s what they do for the state. Anything that is a little bit outside of the traditional code that a building department wants to see, up to a commercial code, they’ll review our drawings that we have designed to that code, anyways. They’ll review them and verify that it does pass what the State of Indiana requires.”
Building Inspector Doug Hoover told the commissioners that he and Surveyor Jenny Keller have spent a lot of time reviewing the documents, and he’s happy with the plans. They’ll have a separate company provide a burner service every so often to ensure the boilers that will be needed are working properly and are well maintained. In regards to maintenance and operation, Hoover said he had asked about storm water, and Holman said Schneider Engineering has designed a retention bond to minimize the impact on neighboring properties. No action was required from the commissioners, but Commissioner Mike McClure expressed his approval, saying that the company has done more than it was required to do.
