
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 23, 1994                   TAG: 9408230076
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE MILLS HAS NEW DOCK IN THE PIPELINE

Roanoke City Mills said Monday it has negotiated approval for air rights over Jefferson Street and plans to begin construction of a truck-loading dock across the street from its plant.

Flour produced by the mill on the east side of Jefferson Street will be piped to new storage bins on the west side of the street. The structure carrying the pipe will incorporate a pedestrian bridge to allow mill employees to cross the street.

A new loading dock will enable the mill to load 48-foot trucks in 10 minutes, compared with the hour and a half that it now takes. "It will increase our efficiency," said John Gibson, general manager of the mill, which is owned by Mennel Milling Co. of Fostoria, Ohio.

The new loading dock should also reduce congestion on Jefferson Street, where long trucks have problems getting to the loading dock now in use.

Gibson said the new dock should be completed by this time next year. The company declined to report the value of the plant additions.

The mill has been running 61/2-day weeks and should be up to 7-day-a-week production by September, Gibson said. The mill has been picking up new customers and employs 50 people, an increase of 15 in the past two years.

The mill grinds Western hard wheat that is used in baking breads and Eastern soft wheat that goes into cookies, crackers and cakes. The company sells to bakeries and has no flour brand of its own.

The mill has been in operation since 1918.

by CNB