Nebraska Public Service Commission suspends Pender Grain license

The Nebraska Public Service Commission temporarily suspended the warehouse license of Pender Grain Co. Thursday (Oct 14) to resolve a record-keeping problem that indicated a grain shortage at the elevator.

 

The action diverted grain trucks, operating in the middle of this fall's harvest, away from the 607,000-bushel elevator Thursday (Oct 14). The co-owner of the elevator said its grain can be accounted for and he hoped the issue could be resolved quickly so the normal flow of harvested grain can resume.

 

"There's no shortage. This is the worst day of the year for it to happen," said John Darling, the co-owner.

 

This is the peak of harvest in the 30-mile-radius area that the elevator serves, he said, and farmers are working long hours to finish in case rain returns next week. Some farmers may put newly harvested grain in their own bins until the elevator re-opens, but it's uncertain when that will happen.

 

John Fecht, director of the commission's grain regulation division, said inspectors had visited the elevator in January, and its manager, Katie Darling, showed them a new computer system that wasn't working properly. When inspectors returned August 31 the computer software still wasn't working correctly.

 

At that time, Fecht said, Katie Darling, agreed to keep manual records showing up-to-date grain inventory, delivery obligations and other information.

 

Inspectors returned to the elevator Thursday (Oct 14) to license a new bin. They also looked at the records, Fecht said, and found the manual records weren't up to date and that a computer printout showed a shortage of 333,000 bushels of corn and 28,000 bushels of soy.

 

Fecht said he isn't sure those numbers are accurate, but he requested an emergency meeting of the commission Thursday (Oct 14), which is charged with ensuring that elevators buy and sell grain properly.

 

"What we need to do is effectively stop any grain activity movements, being received or loaded out, so we can get an accurate cutoff and accurate accounting of all the records to determine where they're at in their course of business today," he added.

 

By a 5-0 vote, the commissioners approved an order taking title to the grain, effectively stopping activity at the elevator while the records are reviewed. The order went into effect immediately.

 

John Darling said the elevator records hadn't been updated with transactions for the past couple of days. "Some of the manual records were done, but not all of them were done yet. The elevator was taking in as much as 70,000 bushels of grain a day. It takes a while to get all that entered," Darling said.

 

Fecht told the commissioners that the inventory and review of the records may be done late Friday (Oct 15) or early Monday (Oct 18). The commission has a meeting scheduled for Tuesday (Oct 19) and could cancel the license suspension then if the elevator records check out, he said.

 

He said there's another grain elevator in Pender and elevators in nearby towns that could accept grain while the Pender Grain elevator is closed.