Jim Carpenter had high hopes that the Leavenworth County Co-op would purchase Eudora Feed and Grain after he shut down the elevator in November, but a deal never materialized, leaving the future of the 90-year-old grain elevator in limbo.

Since purchasing the facility in 1998, Carpenter provided storage, fertilizer, herbicide and spraying services, and supplies to Eudora-area farmers.

Jim Carpenter ended his ownership of Eudora Feed and Grain elevator in November. Carpenter had owned the elevator since 1998.

Despite three straight disappointing fall harvests, Carpenter said his business was in good financial health when it closed. Health problems that would have limited his day-to-day involvement led to his decision to close the elevator. He had hoped to sell before traveling to Arizona for the winter, but talks with the Leavenworth County Co-op fell through.

Carpenter continues to own and operate the De Soto Feed Store, which is handling some of the fertilizer business previously done at Eudora Feed and Grain.

Reached by telephone in Arizona, Carpenter said in late February he has not been contacted by any interested buyers, but he wasn’t worried.

“I’ve just been waiting, but I didn’t expect anything to happen during the winter anyway. It’s a bad time to do anything like that anyway because there’s not really a big need for it to be open until the wheat harvest in July. Nothing’s going to happen in this business in the cold weather anyway, because nobody wants to crank up a frozen elevator.

“We shut it down and started waiting until spring,” said Carpenter, who planned to be back from Arizona by the end of April. “Hopefully somebody will be interested by then, but there’s nobody interested at the present time.”

Until a new buyer is found, the elevator will remain closed and Eudora-area farmers will have to take their crops elsewhere. That inconvenience is the main problem farmers will have to deal with if the elevator does not reopen.

“Having it closed puts a crimp on a lot of things that our farmers were depending on Jim for,” said Bill Wood, Douglas County agriculture extension agent. “The next closest chemical applicators or fertilizer applicators are a few miles away. The Ottawa co-op is the next closest, but that’s a long way to haul chemicals or fertilizer.

“Plus, when you’re cutting corn or soybeans, if you have to dump it in a truck and haul it to a place like Kansas City, you can’t get as much done and you’d have to hire more help.”

Carpenter said he has suggested that area farmers purchase the elevator and form their own co-op, guaranteeing the facility would remain open for a long time, but that hasn’t happened.

“Some of those farmers could get together and create a co-op, and if they get the proper management they could do it,” he said. “I still think there’s a definite need for a co-op, but it’s hard to organize two farmers, let alone half-a-dozen of them.”

Talks of forming a local co-op began soon after Carpenter announced he was selling his elevator, Wood said, but back-to-back years of drought and poor economic times brought discussions to a halt.

“It was tough for farmers to say they could put extra money into it,” Wood said. “They’re still looking just to survive. If things were different weather-wise and price-wise, it would’ve had a greater chance of happening.”

Whether a farmers’ co-op is developed remains to be seen, but Carpenter said he is confident the elevator will be open by July. He just promises he won’t be the person in charge.

“I think a lot of them (farmers) have bets on me coming back and opening it up for the wheat harvest,” Carpenter said. “I think they’re going to be wrong as far as me opening it up. That’s not going to happen. I can’t really predict any farther than that, but I’m sure when I get back we’ll get something worked out.”