The loading and cleaning of grain in Bowden was supported in principle by the town's Municipal Planning Commission last week.
Larry Bevill, vice-president of operations for Parkland (Alberta) Commodities, told commissioners that while the company is currently doing the same in Penhold, it doesn't have access to the railway there.
Bevill told commissioners he would like to establish the handling business sometime this fall. He expected to hear back from the Canadian Pacific Railway this week. The site would be at 2002 and 2012 20 Street in Bowden.
“That would be located on the west side of town where the old elevators used to be,” he said.
Parkland Commodities would be looking to handle about 10 cars per week out of Bowden and as much as 13, depending on where the business was able to set up in relation to the rail line.
Bevill said some employees are in Bowden and are currently loading grain in the town through a tractor and auger set-up into the cars.
“We'd just like to expand that facility so we could utilize it better and better serve the farmer basically,” he said.
Bevill said the business was also loading cars in Olds during the winter but the CPR thought the business would be better able to operate in Bowden.
“It would be better for us and it's more central,” he said.
Parkland Commodities wants to get a more permanent agreement with the railway to deliver cars to them. Currently, the agreement is on a year-by-year basis, but Bevill said Parkland would like to see a muli-year agreement with the CPR.
In his background material supplied to councillors, Andy Weiss, the town's chief administrative officer, said in light of residential properties being in close proximity to the area, hours of operation and dust could be concerns. Bevill said the proposal includes hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days per week, with the possibility of some extended hours during fall harvest and in the spring if cars were in demand.
“We have a dust cyclone, so … the most dust you would see would probably be on the unload of the trucks,” he said adding that the cyclone takes care of most of the dust, with all but the smallest particles escaping from the operation.
Bevill said noise would be abated by keeping a generator housed in an enclosed space so that noise shouldn't pose much of a problem.
Mayor Robb Stuart said council fully supports the idea, but administration still wants to make sure noise and hours of operation won't impact nearby residents.
Stuart and Weiss checked out the Penhold facility last week and were satisfied that if the facility moved to Bowden, it wouldn't pose a problem in terms of noise or other concerns.
“He's still got to find out about grain cars. That's what he's really looking for because the place he has just east of Penhold is truck (fed) only. Council is definitely in favour of trying to cooperate,” Stuart said.
