Taking advantage of last week’s cooperative weather, footings were poured for an addition at Hill’s Family Foods. Owner Dirk Hill said the project has a targeted completion date the end of February. This view is from the southwest. (Johnson Publications photo)
Addition adding display space, storage at Hill’s Family Foods
More display space and needed storage will result after an addition at Hill’s Family Foods is completed.
Owner Dirk Hill said work began earlier this month, and pouring for footings started last week at the store site at 131 East 5th Street.
An entire new shell will be built around the current building, and the store is expanding east into the parking lot, as well, Hill said.
The added space to the east will allow a larger entryway or foyer, and more display space will be added there.
Windows on the north will be replaced, which will greatly improve efficiency of utilities, Hill added.
This isn’t the first addition to the store. Hill said it’s been added onto several times in the building’s history, which originally had an entrance on the north.
Since Hill and wife Rhonda joined in the ownership with his parents, Ansel and Joyce Hill, a lot of interior improvements have been completed.
Those updates have included new coolers, shelving, flooring, check stands and checkout equipment, he said.
“We’ve done a lot on the interior; now it’s time for the outside to be updated,” he said.
Dirk and Rhonda Hill assumed sole ownership in 2017.
His dad Ansel had been affiliated with the store nearly 60 years when he started working there in 1959. Ansel and Joyce became a co-owners in 1979.
Targeted completion date is the end of February. Amendt Custom Buildings out of Sedgwick, Colorado is general contractor for the project.
Hill said the accident in early October that damaged the east side of the building happened after plans for the addition had already begun.
While the accident took out the painting of his dad done last year by Chelsea Zuege that he’d planned to keep there, Hill said he is exploring options to get his dad’s likeness back in the store, including a repainting of it.
As work moves to the east side of the building, Hill said they will keep their customers and the public notified of any temporary entryway changes.