By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Barren County has a hypothetical operator for its grain-infrastructure project.
The CPC Commodities bid to be the operator of record for a future feasibility study was unanimously approved by the Barren County Fiscal Court magistrates during their Dec. 16 meeting. Magistrate and Chair Marty Kinslow said the Administration and Budget Committee recommended the Fountain Run business during its meeting on Dec. 15.
As Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd explained during the fiscal court meeting this does not mean CPC Commodities will be the operator for certain, but allows the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development to use them when conducting the feasibility study.
“We sent out an RFQ, which is a Request For Qualifications, to see if they’re even qualified to be the operator; if you have an experience in this industry; can you do this if we do [the project]?” Byrd said. “They will be our operator in the instance of this study.”
The center’s contract, which has yet to be signed by Byrd, is for $30,096, which Byrd will ask for from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. It will likely be in January when the county requests the funds, Byrd said.
Both Kinslow and Byrd said the goal is to have a private entity other than the fiscal court to operate the storage facility.
“The end game…is that [the project] would not be operated by the government,” Byrd said.
“We are not looking to be in the grain elevator business,” Kinslow added. “The Barren County Fiscal Court does not want to operate this business. All we’re doing is trying to facilitate getting it off the ground. It’s really no different than building a [speculative] building.”
No definite location for the storage project has been determined, according to Byrd.
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