A new grain elevator is scheduled to open soon in west-central Kansas, just in time for the unusually early start of the wheat harvest.

The elevator near the Ness County ghost-town site of Riverside will hold 400,000 bushels in its twin towers.

Gary Gantz’s company D.E. Bondurant Grain is building the elevator. He had hoped to stage a grand opening. But with the wheat harvest expected to begin within days in southern Kansas, his contractors are scrambling to get the elevator operational, perhaps by Friday.

Gantz says the elevator will serve farmers in a major growing area. He says the closest elevators are located 11 miles north in Ness City and 15 miles south in Jetmore.