MOORHEAD - Moorhead's new sandbag factory ran into several hitches this morning, including a broken roller on a conveyer machine that forced one of two spider sandbag machines to shut down.
Chad Martin, Moorhead's director of operations, said repairs were under way and he expected the idled sandbag machine to be up and running again later today.
Martin said there was also an issue this morning getting the tension set correctly on a new conveyer belt that was having a tendency to slide around too much.
Moorhead started its sandbag production Monday with about 18,000 bags filled. It hopes fill about 100,000 bags a day when both of its spider machines are operating at capacity.
The goal is to fill 1 million bags prior to a flood.
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Today was the first day volunteers helped put sandbags on pallets at a warehouse at 2419 12th Ave. S.
About 15 people were pitching in early this morning and the number was about right for the number of sandbags showing up, officials said.
City Manager Michael Redlinger said there is some concern that volunteer numbers would not be enough when sandbag production picks up. There's a possibility some paid workers would be shifted from the sandbag-filling facility to the sandbag storage warehouse, where volunteers are working, he said.
