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Show Page 2b The National Enterprise, March 23 , 1977 Special Coverage: 1977 NCAA BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT Morton Chief Bids Farewell Frank Collaey is about as well known around the Morton Salt Company as the little girl pictured with the umbrella dropping sodium chloride granules on the front of the package. The 31 year company employee has seen many changes and much progress, but after 18 years in the Salt Lake area, the plant manager is planning an April retirement to Hutchinson, Kansas. The Ohio based firm is the oldest of solar process salt companies on the Great Salt Lake and, according to Collaey, the process is be-- coming economically more popular as the cost of energy for other processes continue to spiral. Becuase of the always high demand and the competitive nature of our business, the energy situation has allowed us to ship the saltair solar dried salt to places weve otherwisely not been able to economically Collaey says ship before. for demand salt will increase in the future because of the thousands of uses to which salt is put. Salt is a basic chemical used as a preserving or curing agent, as a stablizing agent in soils and dust control, as an extender for other ingredients used in textile dyes, ink pigments and cleansers as well as flavoring ingredients. The demand for salt will always be good, Collaey stated. One of the drawbacks of the popular commodity, though, is its inexpensive retail price. We have to sell a lot of salt to pay wages, conduct research and build plants, Collaey said. In his 18 years at the Saltair plant, Callaey believes the addition of automation has been the biggest change. All rotating and irrigation, box and sack making, and filling and packing were once done by hand, Now, Collaey reminisced. only a few aspects of the total process are not automated. In 1948 the original Saltair plant was destroyed by fire and Colleay watched and managed the rebuilding of the existing plant in 1954. The Morton Salt company has a sales volume of $600-70- 0 million per year and although the Saltair plant is the smallest producer of the ten nationwide facilities, Collaey predicts a continued increase of production. The demand for salt is on the incline and the need for the most economical method of productivity, that of solar evaporation, will play a big part of Morton Salt and the Salt Lake salt producer. |