C3o—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, March 22,19*0
Alcohol fuel group forms, sets future meetings
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
YORK Some committed
and about one hundred
curious turned out last
Monday at the Extension
Office meeting room to
witness the York County
Farmers’ Union’s formation
of a first in Pennsylvania, a
farmer-cooperative for the
production of grain alcohol
for fueling farm equipment.
Spokesmen for the group
painted a realistic picture of
the difficulties that loom
ahead in getting an alcohol
distilling unit off the ground.
Admitting that they expect
to make plenty of mistakes,
and will initially sell a
product that isn’t priced
ity Farmers Union members committed themselves to the
production of alternate fuel by signing on the dotted line as members of the
state's first alcohol production cooperative.
COAL-WOOD
FURNACE
• BAFFELED
• FORCED DRAFT
• DUMP GRATES
. ENAMEL FINISH
• HONEYWELL CONTROLS
WOOS H2AT
Kt. Pleasant Valley
Quakertown, Pa.
Open: Mon., Tues., Thurs. & Fri. 12 to 8;
Sat. 9 to 5; Sun. 1 to 5; Closed Wed.
Phone 215-346-7894
* DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED +
W DAYS NO FINANCING CHG
■HHi FINANCING UP TO 30 MONTHS
competitively, organizers
will ask the new
cooperative’s members to
adapt their equipment
engines to burn the alcohol
and help gather data and
experience on the alternate
fuel’s performance.
Following a brief regular
Fanners’ Union business
meeting and a discussion of
the proposed cooperative
venture, 15 farmer-investors
lined up to sign contract
papers for the purchase of
stock in FUEL, the Far
mers’ Union Energy League.
Those charter signers then
withdrew to hold an initial
business session and election
of temporary leaders.
George Hoke, Spring
ADD-ON
Grove R 3, was chosen
temporary chairman. The
four other directors are
Frank Goodlander, Box 178,
Lewisberry; Victor Hebei,
Stewartstown R 2; Albert
Bentz, Thomasville R 2; and
Trond Grenager,
Lewisberry Rl, who’s been
serving as a consultant on
technicalities of the distilling
process.
Uillsburg attorney Marian
Furman has been retained
as legal counsel for FUEL
and has drawn up articles of
incorporation for presen
tation. A total membership
of 25 investors has been set
by leadership as the
minimum before the fuel
cooperative will proceed into
POURED CONCRETE WALLS
MANURE STORAGE
Your Layout May Work with A Gravity Flow
System which would save dollars.
Let us Check It Out.
STRASBURG POURED WALLS
the acquisition of a
production distillery.
FUEL will operate under
the state’s cooperative law,
the Pennsylvania
Cooperative Agriculture
Association Act. Only those
engaged in some amount of
actual farming are eligible
for membership, although
the board of directors will
have the option of selling in
limited amounts to non
member patrons.
Voting membership is
established with the pur
chase of at least one share of
common stock, in the cost of
$lOO, plus a non-refundable
initial membership fee.
Purchase of a share of
RD 2 Box 8
Strasburg, PA 17579
Phone (717) 687-6668
common stock constitutes an
agreement that the member
will purchase an annual
quantity of alcohol fuel once
the plant is in production,
possibly an arbitrary 500
gallons.
Non-farmers who wish to
invest in the cooperative
distillery plant will be able to
purchase shares of preferred
stock, at $5O per share, with
no voting privileges.
A maximum eight percent
return on the stock may be
paid, once the plant is
operating at a profit and
capital investment levels
have been met.
Stressing the immediate
need for more “hands on
UID OR DRY
Square or Round Walls
Built Below or
Above Ground
Aluminum Forming System using
Redi-Mix Concrete and
Reinforcing Steel
This gives us flexibility to form a
manure storage system to fit your
layout.
Call Ken Groff.
experience,” FUEL leaders
proposed to initially distill
only quantities of fuel that
members themselves can
use, sold at cost of
production.
“The farmers who want
this cooperative are con
cerned primarily about the
availability of fuel, not the
dollar return on in
vestment,” Leonard
Zemaitis, state director of
the Pennylvania Farmers
Union had stressed in the
opening discussion of the
proposed cooperative.
Organizers also view the
alcohol production plant as
an alternate market for
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