After more than a year of construction, permits and paperwork, the Lonestar Gin located at 7949 Highway 70 is just weeks away from being fully functional and operational.
“We’re probably still three weeks out,” general manager Carey McKinney said. “We might be just a hair behind but we’re pretty much on schedule. We’ll be pretty close to ready when anything comes on.”
The Lonestar Gin has 21 employees on the payroll as well as several contractors from B&G Electric and R&H Electric.
“Both of them have six to eight electricians each,” McKinney said. “There’s a lot of people in the plant right now.”
In the early stages of development, the Lonestar Gin was met with heavy opposition from residents south of Pampa who were concerned with how the plant would affect air quality.
“They were just afraid of the dust and, of course, fire control was another one of the issues,” McKinney said. “The traffic generated by the trucks moving the products.”
McKinney said the plant has done several things to address those concerns and to try and be a good neighbor.
“Permit-wise, we spent an additional $400,000 on air pollution control to go beyond the TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Control) standards,” McKinney said. “When we applied for the permit process, you have to go through two public notices to get the permits. The public is able to comment and that’s when we got those.
“When we saw that we had some people concerned, that’s when we met with the investors and decided to spend that additional money. TCEQ has a standard, and we went way beyond that standard. We could have gotten permitted without it, but we decided to be good neighbors and spend that additional money to control the dirt and air pollution.”
Lonestar Gin moves their cotton burrs with a belt system instead of through air and it controls not just the air pollution, but also fire control.
“It helps control the dirt because we’re not moving it with air, it’s with a belt, and we’re moving it out and then stacking it,” McKinney said.
“That also helps with fire control and safety. This plant has 200 points of fire suppression that we’re checking and anytime a sensor goes off we can reverse that belt and bring the product back to the basement where we are in a controlled environment without wind.”
There is also a fire hydrant on the property and Lonestar Gin has relationships with Pampa Fire Department and the area volunteer fire departments in the event a fire were to ignite.
McKinney said in the early stages of development, the investors of Lonestar Gin met with the concerned residents to help address many of the issues.
Harvest season is typically from the third week of October, and depending on the volume of the product can go into February or March. This year, however, it will be a shorter season for the Lonestar Gin.
“This year we’re looking to run into early January,” McKinney said. “It’s going to be a shorter season due to the conditions in May and planting season.”
McKinney said the first year of production was anticipated to be producing around 150,000 bales of cotton. After a wet May and cooler spring temperatures, that number has dropped to 50,000 bales.
“It’s pretty close to 30 percent of what we thought we’d gin,” McKinney said. “Breaking in a new gin, that’s probably not a bad thing to not have as much push. On the financial side, we make money by ginning cotton so it’d be nice to have more production. But that’s just how it is. In this business we’re at the mercy of the Big Man. Weather controls our size.”
McKinney added Lonestar Gin is optimistic despite the first-year output.
McKinney added the increased production of round bales versus modules has allowed for better freight costs.
“That has basically allowed us to move the product on semis instead of on module trucks,” McKinney said. “We can move twice the amount of bales at one time instead of on module trucks. Module trucks are limited to a closer range because of the cost of freight.”
Lonestar Gin will employ mostly Pampa and Gray County residents with the exception of the experienced workers in the early stages.
“Besides Carson County 20 miles away, there hasn’t been a need for workers in the cotton gin business,” McKinney said. “This is more of an oilfield and gas town. We do have some people from out of town but the majority are local people. We are hoping to have some of them trained and sticking with them. We can teach them to run a plant and when they do learn it, it’ll be a great thing to have them here. We want them to be local, it’s easier on us.”
At full operation, the plant will have around 50 employees. After harvest is finished, the plant will go into a maintenance routine, clean up and still have year-round staff. Some seasonal staff will also be retained until the plant is ready.
For more information on Lonestar Gin, call 806-665-0677.
