By GARY DEMUTH

Salina Journal

A hundred years ago, the Salina Planing Mill was little more than a ramshackle lumberyard.

In fact, it wasn't even in Salina.

Today, its owner and employees believe it's one of the premier manufacturers of custom-made architectural woodworking and cabinetry for offices, schools, banks, hotels, medical facilities and other commercial buildings.

As the company celebrates its centennial birthday April 1, owner and president Steve Dunning credits the company's longevity to a combination of quality craftsmanship and timely production and delivery of finished products.

"Being there on time with the materials when the contractor expects you is important, and the skill and efficiency of our workers have given us a good reputation," he said.

The company manufactures molding, baseboards, trimming, door casings, framing, countertops and custom cabinetry in new and renovated facilities throughout Salina and the surrounding region, including Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

Each one of the company's 28 employees are skilled craftsmen, Dunning said, and many have worked for the company for decades.

"We can give them a set of drawings, say, 'Make this,' and they'll be able to do it from the ground up," he said.

Craig Olsen is one of those skilled craftsmen, and he's passionate about woodworking. So much so that he eagerly looks forward to driving to work daily from his home in Falun.

Olsen, who has worked 18 years at Salina Planing Mill, believes the company has lasted a century by not only producing quality materials but being unafraid to encourage advice from its employees.

"An architect brings us something, and we're qualified and have the experience to give suggestions to make it work," Olsen said. "It's a dialogue we have back and forth, and that makes everything we produce better."

Started in Assaria

A hundred years ago, this multimillion dollar woodworking company was nothing but a small building sitting on a tiny patch of land -- not in Salina but Assaria.

The company was founded by a Salina man, John August Ryberg, who wished to provide a convenient facility for locals to buy needed lumber, sand and nails, according to his grandson, Salinan John Ryberg.

In the next decade, the business expanded to include custom-made cabinetry and woodworking. As this special-order business grew, space in the Assaria facility grew tighter.

In the early 1930s, Salina Planing Mill moved from Assaria to a building on East Elm in Salina. When a fire in 1937 destroyed that facility, a new plant was built at 1100 W. Crawford, where it still is located.

Another huge fire gutted much of the Crawford facility in the late 1940s, John Ryberg said.

"It started in the sawdust containment area," he said. "That stuff's pretty lethal, like gunpowder."

The facility was rebuilt in the same location with a new company president -- John Ryberg's father, John Virgil Ryberg.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the company began manufacturing custom windows and doors, and that evolved into the present business of architectural woodworking, Dunning said.

Several additions were built onto the facility during the next three decades, the latest being a warehouse in 1991.

Ryberg family sells in 1977

After 70 years in the business, in 1977 the Ryberg family sold Salina Planing Mill to Elmer Pierce, an engineer at Wilson Company.

Pierce sold the company seven years later, in 1984, to Salinans Stan and Donna Robuck. Dunning, their son, bought the business from his parents in 2001.

Since Dunning became owner and president, the company has done major interior projects in Salina for Comcare, Kennedy and Coe, Courtyard by Marriott and Sunflower Bank.

Since 2001, Dunning has commuted to Salina daily from his home in Hutchinson. His father, Stan, commuted to Salina from his Halstead home for 19 years.

"My dad thought the people here were better than anyone he'd ever worked with," Dunning said. "I'm here because of the people here. There have been people working here 25 years or more, and they've set the gold standard for this type of work."

One of those longtime employees is Wayne Keeler, chief estimator for the company.

"I've been here 25 years, and there are people that have been here longer than I have," Keeler said. "Before I came here, I knew Salina Planing Mill was the yardstick for this type of product in this area. It's because of the quality of the people who work here."

Personal craftsmanship

Salina Planing Mill is a company that always has relied more on personal craftsmanship than cookie-cutter automation, said Charlie Zizumbo, Salina Planing Mill production manager.

"But we're capable of competing with the automated market," he said. "From a competitive standpoint, we don't give anything up in cost or quality."

In the future, as orders increase and the business expands, Dunning said he might have to explore purchasing some automated equipment to speed production. But one thing he doesn't plan to change is the size of his company.

"We're comfortable with our size overall, and we can continue to grow at a modest and controlled rate," he said. "As it is, we're still the second largest architectural woodworking manufacturers in the state."

According to Keeler, "We can take care of anyone, but not everyone. You just have to find the niche you fit into."

nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.

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