Searcy Operators and Riggers: Prepare for Crane Certification Online

Plants that keep growing

Bryce Corporation, a flexible-packaging maker, opened its first Searcy plant in 1976 with 29 employees and had about 465 workers here by December 2021. In April 2022 the company announced an $80 million investment and 140 more jobs. Land O'Frost runs a food-processing plant in town with roughly 580 employees, and American Marksman announced a 100-job ammunition expansion in Searcy in 2017.

Plant expansions are where riggers earn their pay. New printing presses, laminators, extruders and food-processing lines arrive in crates and sections that have to be offloaded, skated, lifted and set to tight tolerances. Rooftop air handlers and process piping go up by mobile crane. A 2024 economic development consultant suggested Searcy pursue firearms and ammunition, aerospace and data center projects, all of which, if they come, bring heavy equipment installs of their own.

Hospital, campus and warehouse work

An Arkansas Business profile listed Unity Health as Searcy's largest employer at about 2,376 people, followed by Walmart's distribution operation at about 1,085 and Harding University at about 1,018. Medical campuses mean lifts over occupied buildings, coordination with helicopter traffic and strict infection-control and noise windows. Harding brings residence halls, athletic facilities and campus utility upgrades. The distribution center brings conveyor, racking and roof equipment work across a huge footprint.

Each of those clients tends to ask contractors for proof of operator certification and qualified riggers and signal persons before a crane arrives.

Greenway, solar and the next round of building

In 2024 Searcy won a $4,222,900 federal RAISE planning grant, the largest in city history, to plan and design the Little Red Greenway. The plan would grow the 5.5-mile Searcy Bike Trail into about 21 miles linking Harding, downtown, schools, parks and medical centers, with a connection to Kensett. Riverside trails mean pedestrian bridges, boardwalks and box culverts, many set by crane from soft creek banks.

Industry adds projects of its own. Bryce broke ground on its new Searcy manufacturing facility in August 2022 under a five-year plan that also included a distribution center. In January 2023 Cal-Maine Foods announced a 4.15-megawatt solar array on 28 acres at its Searcy egg processing plant, to be built by Entegrity and sized to offset about 91 percent of the plant's power use. Panels need only light equipment, but transformers and switchgear come off the truck by crane or boom truck.

Ground and weather around White County

Searcy sits at the edge of the foothills, with the Little Red River just south and east of town. Bottomland near the river can stay saturated after spring rains, while upland sites are firmer clay with rock in places. White County has a long record of spring tornadoes, so stop-work criteria belong in every lift plan, and summer humidity makes heat stress a real factor on roofs and inside plants without air conditioning.

Rules in a no-license state

Arkansas has no crane operator license and no OSHA State Plan. Searcy's private employers are covered by federal OSHA through the Little Rock Area Office. For construction lifting, 29 CFR 1926.1427 requires accredited operator certification plus an employer evaluation; riggers and signal persons must meet their own qualification rules. Read the requirements guide for specifics, including how general-industry plant work differs.

• Equipment installers and millwrights: rigger level 1, then rigger level 2.
• Crane operators on expansion jobs: mobile crane operator.
• Plant and warehouse employees who direct lifts: signal person.
• Operators with a card nearing five years: mobile crane recertification.