The Blaine County School District has placed a six-month hold on a controversial plan to install a 12,000-gallon biodiesel storage tank at the district's bus maintenance facility near Fox Acres Road in east Hailey.
The proposal was approved in September by the Hailey Planning and Zoning Commission but school Superintendent Lonnie Barber said Wednesday that the district now wants to reevaluate the plan.
"What I really want to do is put the people at ease that we're not just going to jump on their toes right now," Barber said. "There is a voice in the community that doesn't want us to put that biodiesel tank in there. I want to research it some more and I want to talk to people more. I just think we need more interaction before we decide what to do."
The school district developed the plan for bulk purchase of B20 biodiesel, a combination of 80 percent regular diesel and 20 percent fuel derived from vegetable oil and animal fats. The district is now fueling its school bus fleet with B20 at the Hailey Chevron station. District officials have said that installing the storage tank at the bus maintenance facility would lessen the number of trips buses now make for fueling and would reduce the price of the fuel, which is more expensive than regular diesel.
"Biodiesel is better for the ecology," Barber said. "Out intention is still to build a storage tank."
However, Barber said the district is now considering installing the tank on property the district owns just north of the Blaine County Public Safety Facility on Aviation Drive near Friedman Memorial Airport.
The property is the intended site of a maintenance and food storage facility, which is a $2.2 million line item in a proposed $59.8 million plant facilities levy that goes to the county's electorate on Oct. 29.
Barber said the district will eventually need to build the facility, regardless of whether or not the levy passes.
"If the facility levy passes, that will be on our radar right away," he said.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
