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By JOE SMEKENS
Provided business stays as it has been for the past 100 years, one of Wells County’s longest continuous business firms is good to go for another 150 YEARS!
But when the year 2158 rolls around, it could be curtains for the IMI Stone Quarry on the north side of Bluffton.
And when the last pebble is hauled out of the quarry’s 60-acre hole, it will just be a matter of a few more years before the site becomes a beautiful, blue lake, complete with beaches, marinas, and waterfront housing!
Of course, none of Wells County’s citizens will be around to see this occur, but that’s the long-term prognosis of the quarry, as told by Bluffton IMI manager Joe Langel.
If the quarry was to cease operations today, Langel predicts that beautiful blue lake would be here in three years . . . that’s why quarry officials have a reclamation plan in effect for when the quarry does finally become tapped out.
Currently, IMI pumps anywhere from a half-million to 800,000 gallons of water out of the quarry every day.
“The water is as clear as what comes out of a well,” Langel said, noting that in addition to the daily ground intake of water, the quarry also absorbs 14 million gallons of water with every 1-inch rainfall.
Thus, three pumping stations at the quarry are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with much of the water being recycled in the production process and the rest pumped away.
The quarry dates back to 1905 when the first official excavation of stone began to take place.
At that time, the quarry was 20 feet deep.
Fast forward 103 years to the present and Langel will tell you the deepest spot in the quarry now is 190 feet below the rim.
Since its’ inception, Langel estimates that 20 MILLION tons of stone has been hauled out of the quarry, thus leaving another 30 million tons available over the next 150 years.
“No one is sure when this really started, but the earliest recorded history is 1905 and the paper work goes back to 1913,” Langel said.
“We have 150 years left here, if we continue at the same pace,” he added.
Dolomite limestone is the primary product from the quarry and it is a extremely good product which is somewhat unique to this area.
While limestone is the common mineral for most quarries in the state south of Bluffton, the quality of stone north of the Fort Wayne area is not good as what is available here.
“We are very lucky to have this quality of stone this close to the community,” Langel said.
Langel, who has been with the quarry since March of 1975, is proud to note that Bluffton IMI is regarded as one of the superior quarries in the state and its materials have always passed state specifications with high marks, as well as its safety records.
“We are a good barometer for the economic good of the community,” Langel noted.
“If our business is down, then there’s usually not much being built around here,” he noted.
“We can tell that new home production is down right now,” Langel said, but he pointed to strong industrial progress on Bluffton’s west side which has kept the IMI Quarry especially busy.
In particular, the ethanol plant has been a boon for IMI.
“IBE (Indiana Bio-Energy) is really churning lots of dollars into the community, and we were one of the first benefactors from them,” Langel said.
“IBE created a real welcome change of business for us,” Langel noted, while also pointing to other developments in the county such as the Wal-Mart and Lowe’s buildings in which IMI has played an active role in supplying materials.
IMI currently offers products ranging anywhere in size from 30 inches in diameter down to dust.
The company produces up to 26 different sizes of stone and with just eight full-time employees, is able to crank out up to 400 tons of stone per hour.
Powerful equipment at the quarry can crush up to seven tons of huge rock in a single minute and on an average day more than 5,000 tons of stone is processed.
IMI is a good company to work for, and we have loyal employees and not a big turnover of help,” Langel noted, saying the current staff includes people who have been with the company in a range from three years to more than 25 years.
The crew works year round with the main production schedule beginning in March and running through December.
Of course, the stone cannot be removed from the quarry with some blasting first.
“We have a good safety record and we are always trying to be good neighbors,” Langel stressed, noting that blasting usually occurs about every three weeks and is performed by an outside contractor.
Unlike years past, no explosives are stored at the site.
“It depends on what we are producing and it also depends on the weather,” Langel said of the dynamiting that takes place at the quarry.
“We like to blast on clear sunny days, with no cloud cover. It really makes a difference if the sky is clear,” he said of the effects of blasting.
“We have a call list. Some people get a little frustrated if they feel something but all of our blasting is monitored by seismic equipment,” he said.
Langel firmly believes that very little actual damage has ever occurred by blasting at the quarry. The effects from the blasting are in the air more so than in the ground.
For over a half century, IMI has provided concrete, aggregates and related products to the construction and building industries.
Roads, parking lots, drives, building, landscaping, erosion controls, decorative bedding, all kids of concrete and asphalt work use products that IMI produces and sells both locally and at other sites throughout the state.
In addition to the Bluffton site, IMI has plants at 14 other locations in Indiana, including Anderson, Cambridge City, Connersville, Greenwood, Huntington, Kewanna, Luray, Marion, McCordsville, Montpelier, Muncie, Noblesville, Pendleton and Swayzee, plus four operations in Kentucky and one in Illinois.
The company was founded in 1946 by C.C. Irving. IMI has over 2,400 employees throughout the midwest and south.
Its corporate values include three areas, including:
—Put the customer first.
—Treat employees like family.
—Give back to the communities where we operate.
The Bluffton operation recently “gave back to the community” when it acquired ownership earlier this year of the former Hickory Hills Golf Club, located east of the quarry.
Purchase of the golf course tract had a two-fold purpose for IMI, including the securing of a buffer zone for the quarry operation as well as a desire to keep the golf course going for the benefit of the community.
The 9-hole layout has been leased out to new management and now goes under the name of Green Valley Golf Club.
“We were really glad to be able to continue to offer the golf course to the community,” Langel said.
In addition to the quarry and the golf course, IMI owns more than 500 acres of land in the immediate area.
Wells County’s landmark stone quarry has been a popular attraction over the years for field trips by schools, clubs and organizations.
IMI personnel enjoy the field trips as much as the visitors do, Langel said, noting especially that when young children get to visit the bottom of the big hole to search for fossils, it becomes a memorable experience for all.
Over the next 150 years, that big hole will get even deeper, and it will also spread out a little at the top as it continues to be a standard-bearer of progress in Wells County.
joe@news-banner.com