Palouse Grain Growers eye more storage bins, larger scale

Palouse Grain Growers is seeking to enlarge its elevator facility to keep up with the times.

Co-op directors want to add a 100-foot-long new scale to the elevator, possibly build three more storage bins and change the surrounding roads to better direct traffic in and out.

Today’s heavier, longer grain trucks make the existing 24-foot grain scale on the elevator obsolete.

Also, farmers using semi-trucks can’t use the scale because the trucks are too long to make the sharper turn to get onto the scale.

“It’s confining,” said co-op manager Bruce Baldwin of the current scale.

The project is not yet out to bid and co-op staff stressed they are still only considering the construction.

In order to make a final decision, the co-op staff will wait to see how bids come back on the project.

Preliminary engineering on the elevator has already been completed by Taylor Engineering of Pullman, said assistant manager Rick Wekenman.

If the co-op continues with its plan to expand, construction on the first phase will start in March 2011.

The present concrete elevator can store 269,000 bushels of grain and can process up to 10,000 bushels an hour.

“The original construction on the place was the early 1900s- like 1915,” said Wekenman.

The existing scale at the concrete elevator can only weigh up to 50,000 pounds, forcing co-op staff to split-weigh some of the larger trucks for accuracy.

“They literally won’t fit,” Baldwin said.

The Palouse project proposal has been qualified by the county planner for finding of mitigated non-significance under the State Environmental Policy Act. The elevator requires a conditional use permit because it involves land outside the Palouse City limits. Comment period for the finding extends to Nov. 11 at 4 p.m. Written comments must be submitted.

Palouse Grain Growers celebrated its 80th anniversary this year. The company is owned by 56 stockholders and serves about 30 farmers in the region.

The annual stockholders meeting will be Monday, Nov. 8, at 2 p.m. at the Palouse Grain Grower’s office on Main Street.