by Denise Massie
LOGANSPORT —
North Central Co-Op took the opportunity to thank local businesses for their support of its unmanned fueling station Tuesday.
The company’s open house at 1101 N. Third St. offered lunch, the opportunity to take a tour of the unmanned fueling station and door prizes.
North Central Co-Op opened the commercial fueling site at the end of February. It offers three grades of fuel, auto and road diesel and is the only station in Cass County to offer E85.
“It’s primarily directed toward commercial use, but the pumps accept credit cards,” said Ron Hill, North Central Co-Op petroleum consultant.
Commercial businesses can also use a credit card offered through North Central Co-Op. Hill said the biggest advantage of the card is that it allows companies to receive a monthly report for inventory tracking.
Businesses can also contract the price of fuel for an entire year.
“If they think it’s at a good price, they can lock that price for the year,” Hill said.
That has allowed several companies to remain within their planned fuel budgets, he added.
The station also has a backup generator in case of a power outage, which is important to emergency personal, Hill said.
Another popular item at the station has been the E85 pump.
“We’ve used a lot of E85,” Hill said. “We were surprised at the amount we’ve gone through.”
Brian Clayton, North Central Co-Op’s energy division manager, said he hoped the open house not only brought out existing customers, but also appealed to potential customers.
He pointed out the fuel was made entirely in America by Country Mark, a company that is owned and operated in Mount Vernon, Ill.
“It’s home-grown, Indiana refinery crude oil,” Clayton said. “They have a pipeline, which runs from Mount Vernon to Peru.”
Clayton said most of the E85 comes from Cass County as well.
The biggest misconception about the fueling site, Clayton said, is that it’s not open to the public.
“Anyone can fill up here,” he said. “We do have a lot of commercial fleets, though.”
• Denise Massie is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5151 or denise.massie@pharostribune.com
