Pukwana elevators to be demolished

PIERRE — The state Railroad Board agreed on June 18 to spend up to $8,000 to help pay for demolishing several dilapidated grain elevators at Pukwana.

The elevators are on state property along the state-owned Mitchell to Rapid City line.

Town board member Larry McManus said the plan is to salvage some material then burn the structures. The remains would be buried.

The Brule County Commission agreed to provide a truck and loader, and three fire departments from the area will be on watch at the demolition, McManus said.

The town of Pukwana doesn’t have any money for the work because it’s been behind on water, electricity and IRS payments, according to McManus, who said some of the materials could be buried at the Tri-County regional landfill, where he is the manager, but it would be too expensive to dispose all of the materials there.

The elevators were privately owned and property taxes were collected on them, but they fell into disuse during the past 30 years and nothing was done as they decayed.

The state board’s chairman, Todd Yeaton, of Kimball, said he tried to buy the elevators in 1981.

“That was going to be my FFA project,” Yeaton said. “He wouldn’t sell them. He was still cleaning wheat in there.”

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