600 Tons Of Flour Per Year At New Whitewater Mill

Monday, April 20, 2015 at 7:28 AM

By Mike Perleberg

Rick Siemer, president of Siemer Milling, and partners at Nagel & Son are proud of their new Whitewater Mill in West Harrison. Photo by Mike Perleberg, Eagle 99.3. (West Harrison, Oh.) – The West Harrison skyline looks vastly different these days. That’s because there has not previously been any skyline to speak of outside of the trees at the crest of the hills over the Whitewater River. The $45 million Whitewater Mill is open and operational with 10 silos towering 150 feet above the ground. The state of the art flour mill’s completion was celebrated during a Friday afternoon ceremony attended by company executives, employees, and state and county officials. “It’s been a long year-and-a-half in the making, but we are really pleased that next week we expect to actually be generating some revenue at this plant,” said Rick Siemers, president of Siemer Milling. The mill is a partnership between two large flour industry companies. Nagel & Son – better known as Brighton Mills – is based in Cincinnati and was founded in 1857. Siemer Milling, established in 1882, is headquartered in Teutopolis, Illinois. Whitewater Mill, with more than 30 employees, is family and employee owned. Dearborn County Commissioner Kevin Lynch credited those who worked to lure the milling companies to Harrison-Brookville Road in West Harrison. “For all of us working on economic development, it’s never just about creating jobs. It’s about creates and distributes prosperity and quality of life in multiple forms to various segments of our resident population. This project does just that,” Lynch said.

The processing building and storage silos at Whitewater Mill in West Harrison. Photo by Mike Perleberg, Eagle 99.3. Rail and interstate access, as well as proximity to clients in need of flour, made the West Harrison location a good one for Whitewater Mill. Incentives also played a part in the decision. Lawrenceburg Mayor Dennis Carr said the city’s regional economic development grant program has doled out $100 million to 10 southeast Indiana counties in the past 15 years for creating and retaining jobs. The Whitewater Mill project received $1.4 million in grants from the city. Indiana Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann was impressed with the $45 million investment by the milling companies to establish Whitewater Mill. “We’re grateful that this plant is going to add one more tool to the great crown of Indiana of what we see as agri-businesses,” Ellspermann said. Agri-business is a $25 billion industry in Indiana, and growing, said Ellspermann. Flour milling was once a booming industry in the United States. In the 1880s, there were over 12,000 mills in the country grinding and sifting wheat into refined flour for various food baking purposes. Today, there are just 174, but at least one now resides in Dearborn County. Each day, Whitewater Mill will grind about 23,000 bushels of wheat, according to the company. In a year, about 7 million bushels of wheat will be processed into 600 tons of flour each year. The flour will go into everyday, household name foods such as Frito-Lay snacks, Hostess HoHo's and Mini Muffins, McDonald's breakfast biscuits, and Pedigree dog food - just to name a few. Siemers said the mill expects to draw wheat from farmers in southeast Indiana and west central Ohio. “We’ve got a lot of work to do with farmers to provide them a great market for wheat. They’re going to being growing a lot more wheat here in the future,” Siemers said.