Eudora-area farmers are waiting to find out whether they’re losing their 90-year-old grain elevator.

Jim Carpenter, owner of Eudora Feed and Grain, closed the elevator last week and auctioned off most of its equipment Wednesday. But he’s holding out hope the elevator, founded in 1913, will reopen under another buyer.

By Monday, Carpenter said, he should know if a deal he’s been working on will come through. He declined to name the possible buyer.

“We have somebody who is interested,” Carpenter said. “I’m reasonably sure there is going to be someone here.”

Speculation among farmers in the Eudora area is that the Leavenworth County Co-op is poised to buy the facility.

Karol Lohman, a manager with the Leavenworth County Co-op, declined to comment on the speculation.

Area farmers said they were hopeful someone would buy the elevator because it still provided a needed service.

“It is important for Eudora to have a grain elevator,” said Bobby Gabriel, a Eudora-area farmer. “It will hurt some of the farmers if we lose it.”

He said the elevator provided a convenience to farmers who didn’t want to travel to Lawrence or elsewhere to purchase supplies.

Jim Carpenter, owner of the Eudora Feed and Grain, has closed the 90-year-old business due to health reasons. Carpenter said Monday he was pursuing a deal with a potential buyer.

Farmers also said the elevator was extremely important to farmers harvesting bumper crops because it was difficult to haul large volumes of grain long distances.

“You get in a situation where your combine is sitting still while you’re waiting for the truck to get back from the elevator,” said Bill Wood, Douglas County agriculture extension agent. “That’s no fun.”

The elevator also provided fertilizer and herbicide spraying services, which would be more difficult to obtain otherwise, Wood said.

Carpenter said he was closing the facility largely to deal with personal health issues. He said the elevator was in good financial health when he closed it.

“It is really just a situation where I’m not going to be able to be here as much, and I don’t like other people running my businesses,” Carpenter said.

The elevator served about 100 farmers in the area, and handled between 2.5 million to 3 million bushels of grain in a year, Carpenter said. It employed five people. Carpenter, who owned the Eudora elevator since 1998, said three of the employees would transfer to a small feed store and elevator that he will continue to own in De Soto.