Center, CO — Staff changes and major office renovations have taken place at the Aspen Produce facility in Center.

Longtime sales agent Michele Peterson has departed, and Mike Bonemeyer, who worked in Aspen’s warehouse from 2002 to 2005 and was warehouse foreman from 2002 to 2011, has returned to the company as part of the sales team.

Bonemeyer, whose first full day behind the sales desk was April 13, said he was glad to be back and working both in sales and assisting with phytosanitary protocol at the facility.

“I left in 2011 to pursue a career in law enforcement,” he said, noting he served as both a sheriff’s deputy and patrol corporal during his four years with the sheriff’s department.

“Now I’m a volunteer with the department and back in the potato industry,” Bonemeyer continued. “A lot has changed in the four years I’ve been gone — the industry itself is constantly changing — but the basics are still the same.”

As the salesman settled into his day-to-day operations, work on the office building itself was continuing. The main entrance had been moved and new offices created where none had been previously.

Jed Ellithorpe, who has been farm operations manager for several years, said the renovation of the offices will be top to bottom.

“We started in February by gutting the whole building and rebuilding. It’s the same square footage, but we have more usable space now.”

Ellithorpe said the renovation would be finished by early May.

“It’s more energy-efficient now as well,” he said. “We have all LED lighting, and the entire office runs on 3.5 amps. We have a much more open floor plan, and we’ll be able to have our impromptu meetings a lot more easily now. We’re all constantly borrowing things from each other, and this floor plan makes it more convenient.”

Ellithorpe said the 2014 stocks are moving well, although boxes are in short supply.

“I don’t see that changing for the rest of the season,” he said. He went on to say that Colorado was down some in production, and he said acreage in the San Luis Valley could be down this year.

“We continue to see water pressures,” he noted of the ongoing shortage.

Aspen’s farming operation will have planting wrapped up by mid-May, and Ellithorpe said the bulk of production will be in russet Norkotahs.

“We tried some ‘designer’ varieties, and this year we’re going back to Norkotahs. They just seem to work better, and that will be most of what we grow,” he said. “We’ll have the same amount of reds and yellows in the new crop. They did well this year, and we had reds through mid-March and yellows through late April.”

Jake Burris, who works with Ellithorpe in managing the farming operation, said Aspen continues its conservation practices, growing green manure as part of its rotation.

In the shed new equipment gives the company “more options to save specific sizes, and we have more flexibility,” Ellithorpe said. “It will all be ready for the new season.”

And in addressing sales to Mexico, Ellithorpe said, “It continues to go well. They have excellent demand and could really take advantage of that demand with U.S. product, making money for everyone.”