By Sue Roesler, Farm & Ranch Guide
Friday, November 24, 2006 11:30am CST
Anthony Kavoda, a new employee at Red Trail, at home in Richardton.
RICHARDTON, N.D. - It’s not all bad news these days about North Dakota youth graduating from colleges and universities in the state and having to move elsewhere to find good-paying jobs.
Anthony Kalvoda, 20, is one shining example of how ethanol plants are playing a major role in retaining our youth.
He is one of several in his class at Bismarck State College (BSC) to be hired at Red Trail Energy, LLC, in Richardton, N.D., and has been in training at the plant since Oct. 2.
BSC offers a two-year process power plant technology course to train graduates for refineries, and, according to plant president Mick Miller, it is one of the best programs around.
“We’ve hired a lot of grads from there. They have an excellent program, and are highly skilled,” Miller said.
Kalvoda heard about the course from friends, and found out there were good jobs out there for graduates. He took it, and found out he “really likes it.”
Some 18-20 people under 30 are working with Kalvoda at Red Trail, he said.
“Many of them are out of BSC, either the class ahead of me and or the class that graduated with me,” he said. “We’re also working with a lot of guys with good experience, and they are good about helping you out.”
Training has been ongoing since October. Employees spent many hours at Red Trail in the classroom and around the plant, then went to an ethanol plant in Iowa that started up operations last spring.
“We worked with operators, and saw how it was done,” said Kalvoda. “You don’t understand it all in the classroom, but on the job, it all comes together and makes sense.
“Like all the people I’m working with, I’m learning something new everyday,” he added. “It’s going to be a lot of fun working at the ethanol plant. It’s exciting and everybody is really geared up for it.”
Kalvoda is from Mandan, where his family lives and farms. He is glad that he didn’t have to move away to find a job, so he is able to drive home and visit as many weekends as he wants to.
“There’s a lot of us working here from around this area. The fartherest away is a guy who lives in Bottineau,” he said.
At the plant, Kalvoda is a cook operator.
“When the corn comes in, before it is distilled, it is cooked and fermented with yeast and enzymes for 55 hours,” he explained in as simple of terms as he can. “The three distillers take more and more water out of the corn, leaving ethanol, carbon dioxide and other byproducts. The corn naturally falls out.
“The alcohol is 190 proof, then it goes through another process that takes more water out, leaving it pure alcohol,” he continued.
“We’ve been busy at the plant getting everything ready to go. It’s kinda hectic right now.”
When Kalvoda was hired, he and his fiance, Amanda, found a nice home to buy in Richardton. On weekends, the couple spends time renovating the house, with help from relatives. So far they have put in a new front porch, painted walls, put in flooring and have revamped the bathroom. Amanda is a CNA at St. Benedict’s Health Center in Dickinson so she commutes 20 miles to work.
Other young couples have moved into Richardton and surrounding cities. Of course, during the construction phase, apartments, motels and hotels in the region were constantly filled with some 300 to 400 workers.
Jody Hoff, co-owner of Amber Waves and a member of the Red Trail Energy board, said Richardton has definitely benefitted as a community from the ethanol plant. “It has been good for economic development,” he said.
Hoff’s own business has been hopping since it opened because of the new cone-shaped bins they make where farmers can access their grain or fertilizer conveniently from outside the bin.
“It’s a better bin all the way around. You don’t have to shovel out the grain, it just runs out,” Jody said, adding they get a lot of repeat customers.
Amber Waves’ latest product that Hoff designed is a crude oil storage tank.
A young engineer, Hoff was one of the first in his age group to return to his home state and town to start a business.
Now, more young people are moving into Richardton and all the surrounding communities because of the ethanol plant. Hoff has also spotted some new houses going up in the area.
“The cafe is always busy at lunchtime, and so is the convenience store,” he said.
At the Cenex C-Store, employee Carol Sigl said she is constantly busy waiting on customers and restocking food supplies at the station. Many tourists and hunters had always stopped there, and now, workers from the ethanol plant are in all the time buying breakfast foods, sandwiches for lunch and snacks for between times.
Richardton, as well as all these agricultural-based communites, have an opportunity to benefit from ethanol plants that are on the rise across the state and entire midwestern region of the country.
Value-added agriculture is on the move in rural America.
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