On June 30th the Lake Andes Farmers Co-Op Lumber Yard closed its doors. On August 1st, it was purchased and became the Lake Andes Lumber Company LLC. There are over 29 investors in the Lake Andes Lumber Company. The investors are made up of mostly local people from Lake Andes and Wagner but even as far as Rapid City. The investors saw a need for a hardware and lumber supply store in Lake Andes and rallied together to purchase and reopen the store. They saw a need for their community and did not want to see another empty building on Main Street.

Initially a steering committee was formed. They did all the leg work in pricing and research to get the project going. Tim Whalen came to the project to help create the business as an LLC. The investors set up three committees: executive, hardware and lumber. These committees were set up to come up with tasks, supplies needed, processing how to open and processing all the other details needed in order to get the store open. Members of the executive committee are Mike Dangel, Ryan Frederich, and Tim Whalen.

The look of the Lake Andes Lumber Company will be much the same as it was when it was operated by the Co-op. Currently the store is in the process of reorganizing and giving the space a much-needed facelift. The store is affiliated with Hardware Hank. Hardware Hank will be redesigning and planning the store layout and be bringing in inventory.

The store currently has two employees, Sheri Mengenhauser and Jacob Wenzlaff. Starting this week, the hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8 am until 5:30 pm and Saturday 8 am until 12 pm. There will be a grand opening at a later date when the reorganization is complete.

Congratulations to the new business owners and much success to you all.