An urban grain elevator and fertilizer operation will reopen next week in Lawrence, a welcome sight for farmers hampered since last summer with extended travel from their fields to the storage bins.

Ottawa Cooperative Assn. is working to reopen the south Lawrence elevator complex at 1941 Moodie Road, where the co-op has secured a lease for the towering concrete elevators, a scale building and a fertilizer-storage shed.

The co-op signed a lease this month  five years with a five-year option  to operate the complex for farmers, who were stung last year when Farmers Cooperative Assn. went bankrupt and auctioned off the property to help pay off debts.

The site has been closed ever since, forcing farmers south of town to traverse city streets to get to elevators in North Lawrence or Midland.

“The picture looks a little different now,” said Margaret Hodges, who has farmed with her husband near Clinton for more than 40 years and has missed the south elevator’s convenience. “It looks better.”

Mark Domann, the co-op’s manager for all three Lawrence-area locations, said he’s already sensed the excitement among farmers for the site’s reopening.

“This has always been a busy location,” he said. “The facilities are needed. The farmers need a place to get their fertilizer and take their grain. This just makes sense.”

The work force operating the Lawrence-area locations will remain at three, Domann said. The south elevator will operate all year, while Midland will be converted to seasonal status; North Lawrence will remain a seasonal operation.

The south elevator complex soon will have an 8-ton blender to mix dry fertilizer for corn, wheat, soybeans, grass and other crops, Domann said. The storage building has enough room for 875 tons of product, filling seven bins.

“That’s our bread and butter,” Domann said.

With room for 420,000 bushels of grain, the site’s elevator also will boost the co-op’s total capacity by 6 percent, to 7.5 million bushels.

The co-op’s growth has fed off the demise of Farmers Cooperative Assn., which dissolved after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2000. Earlier this month FCA members approved the case’s settlement plan, effectively ending it as a business.

In June the Ottawa co-op picked up seven of FCA’s elevator locations in northeast Kansas, including Midland and North Lawrence. Its capacity at the time grew from 2 million bushels to a little more than 7 million, said Adrian Derousseau, the co-op’s general manager.

For the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, the Ottawa co-op took in 10 million bushels of grain and generated sales of about $27 million, he said.

He expects more this year, perhaps as high at $50 million.

“We have a big job ahead,” he said. “I’m sure it won’t all go smooth, but we’re very encouraged. The customer base has been fantastic.”