Endicott officials eye ways to keep fuel site

With the closure of the fuel pumps at Endicott looming, Endicott officials have been working to come up with a solution for the town of nearly 300 residents.

CHS Primeland announced last month they plan to close the lone fuel site in Endicott early this summer. The company cited needed upgrades and enhancements at the site that are too costly to repair.

“CHS Primeland must be proactive when it comes to protecting the environment and have no exposure to potential environmental issues at any of our fueling locations. The underground tanks at this site are more than 50 years old, well past their useful life expectancy. The cost to replace and upgrade this location would exceed $300,000. This does not include mandatory upgrades to enhance the system to meet Federal Consumer Credit card protection. Unfortunately, the volume at this site, would not support this investment,” a letter to CHS customers in Endicott read.

Superintendent Suzanne Schmick told the Gazette Tuesday that she has had conversations with four fuel suppliers.

“We’re just entertaining conversations with about four different fuel suppliers,” she said. “We’ve put out what our situation is.”

Schmick said that one of the suppliers came to town and gave a presentation for “a small group of people.” She added that though there is not much going on with the situation right now, the desire is to find a solution that works for everyone.

“When we talk with anyone we’re talking about our community and our school,” she said.

Jeff Hagemann, energy manager at the CHS Primeland office in Lewiston, told the Gazette Tuesday that CHS might be open to selling the land and the fuel site to another distributor if one was interested.

“If somebody would like to do something, we would be open for discussion, but nobody has called me or talked to me. We’ve had no contact from anybody,” he reported.