Jake oldenburg, VP operations
Jake.Oldenburg@NuWay-KandH.com
The weather has been challenging for you, the patron. It has also been challenging for your cooperative as we try to accomplish our summer work between rainstorms.
We’re chipping away as best we can to get our spraying and side-dressing done. On the propane side, our delivery team has been finishing up our fill program and is now focused on replacing regulators and setting and installing tanks. We’re also doing some off-season training for our propane staff, and we’ve just finished some product-specific training of our energy staff on diesel exhaust fluid and lubricants. The middle of the summer is also the time when we do some safety training with our employee group.
We have some energy projects underway. They include:
Closing our Thompson propane location. This location has been decommissioned due to lack of use, given the fact that we’ve increased propane storage at Buffalo Center. Across the cooperative, we’re looking at where we have equipment to maintain, insure and operate, and we’re letting go of underutilized assets.
Closing our Corwith propane location. We’re doing this because we’re adding a new propane storage tank at the east end of Wesley.
We’re installing that new tank at Wesley. We’ve poured the piers for that vessel, as well as concrete for the pipe trunking. We’ll need to install a new power service there. The new storage tank will arrive and be set early in July. We’re also adding a bobtail loading system at the east end of town. We’ll be ready by the time the fall drying season hits. With increased pumping capacity, we’ll be able to load our bobtails quicker and get our drivers home earlier to their families. That’s a win-win.
Maintaining the Thornton bulk plant. We’re cleaning all of the tanks at our Thornton bulk plant and inspecting each tank to make sure it is sound. This is routine maintenance to make sure the refined fuels products we deliver to you are of the highest quality. NOTE: We are doing this on a rotation with all of our refined fuel bulk plants.
Annual mailing to propane customers. We have a duty to warn, so we’re mailing all of our propane customers with information on safe handling and what to do in the event of a leak or running out of gas. This mailing will also contain our policies and procedures, including out of gas calls. To find out where you stand if you run out of gas, call our office at 800-445-4118.
On the agronomy side, it’s been two years since the two-million-gallon tank was filled at our joint venture, NW Agronomy. Part of the general use and care instructions of this tank is that the liner be inspected and cleaned every two years. That was accomplished this summer. Another part of the NW Agronomy tank farm includes six half-million-gallon tanks. As planned maintenance, we sandblasted and painted two of those tanks this summer. At the same time, we had the seed bins at Welcome sandblasted and covered with a fresh coat of paint.
Our Welcome anhydrous riser is being re-constructed similar to the design that has worked so well for us at our Ormsby NH3 plant. This design will help us save time loading tanks and get our work done quicker. It’s all part of our “Doing More With Less” initiative.
As you can see, we have many things going on. However, there’s not a lot of new construction. We’re just trying to maintain the nice equipment we’re blessed to have. See our CEO Kevin Jones’ comments on Page 2 of this issue.
