Like any problem with a local business, the situation at Cenex Co-ops in Wauneta and Palisade has left customers angry, worried and, above all, perplexed.
    That particularly includes those who prepaid for propane and now cannot get it, or get their money back.
    “There’s a lot of very upset people in Palisade, because they are stuck without propane,” said Kenny Hohl of Wauneta. “Everybody I’ve talked to is so disgusted.”
    Part of what has so upset Hohl is that the January closing of the stations came with no warning.
    “I did not know they were even going to close up,” he said. “I was in there probably a week before that. They never told me one drop that anything was going to happen.”
    Hohl wouldn’t give an exact figure, but said he ordered and prepaid for more than $1,000 worth of propane he has not yet received.
    “The way it sounds, you don’t know if you’re going to get it or not. This is what everybody’s told me — you can just kiss it goodbye.”
    Kevin Janicek, who farms south of Wauneta, said he put $500 down for propane for his hired man as a Christmas bonus and has not received it, although he was told it was applied to his account.
    “It makes you mad,” he said.
    Janicek said part of the problem is that the co-op’s board is approaching the situation backwards.
    The board is spending its time trying to figure out what caused the co-op to run in the red, but “whoever buys this place isn’t going to figure out what went wrong.”
    Board members “should be out there talking to farmers and seeing what they want to do,” Janicek said.
    He’s also worried that if the co-op doesn’t reopen soon, it will lose what customers it has left.
    “Everybody’s scratching their head,” he said. And once customers go elsewhere, “it’s going to be awfully hard to get them back.”

To read the full storyy, subscribe to the e-edition online or call the Breeze at 308-394-5389 to subscribe to the print edition.