Community packs meeting about proposed Town Pump expansion

By BENJAMIN KIBBEY

The Western News

Troy residents packed the Kootenai Senior Center in Troy Wednesday for an informational meeting about the proposed expansion of the Town Pump on Highway 2, for which developers are proposing the partial closure of Second Street — a move that some residents oppose.

Company officials said the expansion would create more than a dozen full- and part-time jobs and increase the variety of goods for sale.

It was not an official city meeting, Troy Mayor Dallas Carr said, so no decisions were to be made. Instead, the purpose was to let the Town Pump representatives explain the proposed project, which is in its infancy.

Dan Sampson, project manager and a construction development manager with Town Pump, said they are proposing that a section of Second Street between the company’s properties be closed to double the size of the store, to increase the variety of fuels it can sell, and to improve traffic flow around their fuel pumps.

He said residents would still be able to drive into the new Town Pump lot from Second Street or from the alley behind the store.

As a result, traffic could pass through the Town Pump property from Second Street to Highway 2, he said.

Many people voiced concerns after listening to Sampson’s presentation.

The most common objection was to the proposed partial closing of Second Street. Some said they were concerned about traffic diverting onto First Street. Others said they did not like the idea of the city handing public property to a private entity.

Some said they had no issue with the expansion if it could be done without closing the street.

Sampson said the company had yet to study how closing Second Street would alter traffic on Third and First streets. Town Pump will have to do a traffic study to get Montana Department of Transportation approval, but Town Pump does not plan to seek that approval unless Troy approves closing Second Street, he said.

After the meeting, Carr hesitated when asked if he would consider making any agreement contingent on the results of a future traffic study.

He said he understands the concerns of those living on First Street, as traffic will increase to some extent, though they don’t know now by how much.

“I’d love to keep (Troy) the way it was,” Carr said. “But the way it was had (more) businesses, had (more) industry.”

Development such as the proposed expansion of Town Pump “is the future,” he said.

Audience members questioned why Town Pump couldn’t expand the store in a different configuration that could keep Second Street open.

Sampson said that the company had looked at other configurations using the available property, and no other approach worked within their needs and safety concerns.

As to buying more property on the west side of Second Street, Sampson said Town Pump approached neighbors of the current store, but none were willing to sell.

Lay of the land

Sampson brought a poster of the proposed site plan to the meeting, but said it was only a preliminary drawing. The properties Town Pump owns in Troy were surveyed, and the most likely configuration for the new location was added as a layer to the survey.

A new store would be built approximately double the size of the current store, Sampson said. The west wall would be set near where the current west wall is, and the east wall would extend to about where the middle of Second Street is now.

The single line of pumps would be located on the eastern section of the property, running north to south, and the new fuel tanks and one set of pumps would be installed to the north of the alley on the east side, according to the proposed site plan.

Under the proposed site plan, all of the existing store, pumps and fuel tanks would be removed, said Arnold Osmun, petroleum construction manager with Town Pump, after the meeting.

The property would then be graded to make it the same elevation as the property currently on the east of Second Street, he said.

If the city were to approve closing Second Street, the company would move forward with design elements such as drainage, Sampson said.

In addition, when working out their design for drainage, they hope to at least improve the current flooding issues in the area, Sampson said.

Town Pump is willing to do approximately $20,000 in sidewalk improvements as an exchange for the town giving up the portion of Second Street, Sampson said. The new sidewalk would run up the east side of Second Street from the Town Pump fuel pumps to Spokane Street, then east on the south side of Spokane to Third Street.

In addition, the new store would have no lighting other than security lighting in the back, he said. A combination of improved lighting and a 6-foot barrier fence around much of the property would make the light and noise impact possibly less than that of the current store, he said. A landscaping barrier would also help control noise.

Exploring options

Early in the meeting, Second Street resident Rick White questioned why Town Pump would expand inside city limits, when it could find more land farther out and build something well-suited to semi trucks and heavy traffic.

“Where you could possibly have a casino, or where you could have more parking for trucks and semis and that sort of thing,” White said.

“We don’t want to develop a casino,” Sampson said. “Our business is convenience stores. If it’s not convenient, you’re not going to succeed.”

Sampson said that they are not trying to get semi-truck traffic, and intend the new design to not accommodate vehicles that large. Though the new station will sell diesel, the largest vehicles it will accommodate will be those such as school buses and fire trucks.

The target market for Town Pump is local residents, he said.

Audience members also questioned why Town Pump could not build with the pumps on one side and the store on the other, but with Second Street left intact.

Sampson said that was unacceptable because of safety concerns due to customers having to cross Second Street to go from the pumps to the store.

Others proposed that Town Pump scale back its plans and build both the pumps and store on the east side of Second Street, with nothing on the current site.

Sampson said the base costs of the project would make it too expensive to be worth it if they did it on a smaller scale.

After the meeting, Osmun was asked whether the company could place the tanks where the current store sits, and construct the new pumps and store on the empty property to the east of Second Street, thus leaving Second Street open.

While fuel lines could potentially be run beneath the street, Osmun said that configuration would not allow enough space for the new fuel tanks.

Safety and numbers

Sampson said that the store expansion is being considered because the company is concerned about safety at the current location, and because of the amount of business already done there.

Carr and some audience members agreed that the current situation is dangerous, citing near-misses they had seen where a pedestrian or motorist could have been injured as people jockey for position at the pumps.

Sampson said Town Pump also wants to expand because it sees a market for more variety and quantity of products in its store.

He said the larger store would employ six full-time and up to ten part-time workers. The starting wage for the jobs would be $9 an hour, Sampson said. He encouraged people to visit townpump.com for additional details on jobs and benefits.

Some residents worried that the positive impact of new jobs would be offset by the bigger store driving other stores out of business.

Sampson said it is possible that other businesses could lose customers as Town Pump gains them. However, he said he does not think they sell in the same niche as most other businesses in the area.

As to if it is legal to close a street at one end and then hand the property to a private entity, Carr said the city’s lawyer, Cliff Hayden, said there should be no legal issue.

After the meeting, Carr said that he was not concerned about the requested street closure setting a precedent. Any future similar requests would have to be justified, he said.

“Troy’s too small to just say, ‘Boom! You can have it,’” he said. “We’re not going to do that just because somebody wants to do it.”

Carr said he felt the Town Pump proposal had merit based on the way it was presented to the City Council. That made it worth bringing to the public for more input and taking a closer look, he said. However, he emphasized, no decision has been made, and the City Council hasn’t agreed to anything yet.

Town Pump would make improvements as well, Sampson said.

By the end of the meeting, opponents continued to object to the street being closed off, even if traffic could still pass through. Several questioned what Twon Pump’s alternative plan was if the closure wasn’t approved.

Sampson said there were no alternative plans.

After the meeting, asked again what Town Pump will do if it doesn’t get approval, Sampson said he does not know.

The current situation is too dangerous to leave as it is, and the company will have to do something, he said. They would continue to explore options, but Sampson does not know what option they would find.