Central Illinois Ag celebrates a fresh beginning in Atlanta

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[August 03, 2015]  ATLANTA - This past Saturday, Central Illinois Ag owner/manager Michael Schmidt was all smiles as he and his team of employees welcomed the community to a grand opening of the new Case-IH dealership in Atlanta.

On June 30th, 2013, the main building of the business was severely damaged by fire. Over the last two years, the Schmidt family and their employees have worked out of temporary buildings while creating a new dealership facility that is in a word…breathtaking.

It’s hard to imagine that a business that sells farm equipment can be classified as beautiful, but that is the first word that came to mind for a lot of folks as they stepped inside the entry to the store's showroom floor on Saturday afternoon.

The building has an expansive showroom filled with retail merchandise. Even though there is a great deal of merchandise on the floor, the area is large and airy and offers plenty of room for shoppers to browse without feeling crowded.

Also featured predominately in the display room is a vintage International tractor sitting alongside an equally impressive vintage Case. At one time, years ago, the two tractors were manufactured by two separate companies. Even though the two are now one large manufacturer, it seemed very fitting that the dealership would pay homage to the past, as the Schmidt family in general is very mindful of its own roots, and the small blacksmith shop opened in 1898 that today has grown into a large, family owned organization employing more than 90 people.

Inside the front door there are separate offices for each of the sales staff, a really neat coffee bar area with a counter and seats, and a very large service desk area for the parts and customer service department.

The shop area of the new building is equally impressive. On Saturday all the equipment needing repair, and the various tool boxes and tools had been cleared out and replaced with a couple hundred tables with white cloths and chairs in preparation for a dinner that would be held for the community in the evening.

Schmidt talked about the new building briefly saying that it was indeed almost three times as large as the old building. Though the fire had not entirely destroyed the old building, Schmidt pointed out only one smaller area at the far end of the new structure as a portion that was kept, everything else is brand new.

With everything else cleared out of the building, one permanently attached piece of mechanics equipment stood out as predominant in the room, or rather on the ceiling.

With today’s extremely large farm equipment, it sometimes takes some pretty big tools to get the job done. One such tool is the 10-ton winch system mounted to the ceiling. Schmidt said that when they decided to go with that tool, they thought it was something that would be very useful and important….on occasion. However, he noted that now that it is in and working, the crew uses it almost daily. As an example, he said they had a large combine that was going to have the engine pulled completely out. Before the big winch, he said it would have taken a number of technicians working hard to accomplish such a task. However, on the day the engine came out with the new winch, he said the work was done entirely by one technician and the heavy duty tool.

Along the perimeter of the shop, there were various displays set up by local vendors and businesses that work closely with Central Illinois Ag. CIA’s Marketing Coordinator, Abby Coers, pointed out that several of the vendors the company is associated with had been very supportive during the rebuild and had been in planning the grand opening celebration. Therefore, the vendors had been invited to join in the fun on Saturday, and also bring their own promotional displays for visitors to see.


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She also pointed out a special display that CIA is promoting that will benefit local FFA chapters. Last year CIA took in two antique tractors on a trade-in deal. One was a 1953 Farmall Super M and the other a 1948 Farmall Cub. Coers said CIA sent the tractors to Parkland College to be rebuilt mechanically. She explained they wanted to give the Parkland students the experience of working with antiques. She noted they chose Parkland because a high percentage of their new hires are graduates of the Parkland Diesel Mechanics and Technicians program, and the school turns out some great young talent. The tractors were also professionally painted in their original colors and markings, and have now been donated to the Illinois FFA.

At the table with the tractors was Bryce Hoffman, Ag instructor and FFA leader at Olympia High School. Hoffman talked about the raffle of the tractors that will benefit the FFA chapter of the winner’s choice.

Any FFA chapter that wants to be involved in the raffle may do so by selling raffle tickets. On the ticket, when it is purchased, the buyer has an opportunity to name the specific FFA group he or she would want to give the money to. When the drawing is held, the proceeds of the raffle will go to that specified chapter. The drawing for the two tractors will be held in June of 2016 at the Illinois FFA Convention held in Springfield.

Hoffman, who is an Olympia Alumni, is teaching Ag in the classroom at his alma mater for the first time this school year. He noted that being involved with this raffle for his school was a great way to kick off his new career at Olympia.

In the center of the shop, floor tables were set up for a dinner that would be held at 5 p.m. Saturday night. Schmidt said that it would be the second dinner of the celebration, the first had been held on Friday night. He explained that on Friday, more than 400 guests had been present by invitation only. That dinner had been to honor the employees at Central Illinois Ag and some other select individuals.

On Saturday evening, the entire community was invited to a second dinner. Schmidt said there would be 1,000 meals served on a first-come-first-served basis. After dinner, the band Brushville was going to put on a free concert.
 


Schmidt said that the Grand Opening celebration was not so much about celebrating the new building as it was about celebrating and thanking the community and CIA staff who had been so supportive after the fire and during the re-build.

He explained that the fire occurred on a Sunday morning. On Monday, he was at the scene working on the clean-up alongside his staff, but at the end of the day, he had to leave the state to attend the funeral of a close family member. He said that the CIA staff took over and continued working diligently on the clean-up while he was gone.

In addition, he said, members of the community came out to lend a hand and others still made trips out to the dealership with food and cold drinks. He said with certainty that the staff at CIA and the community were the driving force, keeping things moving forward while his family was dealing with two separate bad situations, and he was thankful for each and every one of them.

So, now that the worst is behind for the business and the family, and the future ahead, there is only one thing left to say, congratulations on your success CIA! You went through a bad situation and came out on the other side all the better for it.

[Nila Smith]

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