The Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors is considering whether to sell a portion of a county-owned park in Hancock to an adjacent grain storage company for an expansion. The Daily NonPareil reports the Scoular Co., which has a grain storage facility in Hancock, would like to purchase approximately 2.8 acres of land in Botna Bend Park, located alongside the facility. A Scoular official has said the land was in an unused portion of the park.

Botna Bend is a 119-acre park featuring a campground, playground, hiking trails and basketball and volleyball courts. The Scoular representative told the paper the campground area is still 400 to 500 feet away from the planned expansion site. A proposed new storage building on that ground would be 70 feet high, 180 feet in width and 420 feet in length.

Scoular reportedly will invest up to $4.5 million in this expansion,with $40,000 in additional tax revenue for the community. The purchase agreement calls for the company to pay $50,000 for the property and agree to pay an additional $50,000 for park improvements where needed. The new structure would be considered an “overflow” type of storage facility, especially during fall harvest time when current storage buildings reached their own capacities.

The five-member board of supervisors, before officially voting on the matter, requested the company and the county’s conservation office work out an agreeable plan for drainage issues. Also at Tuesday’s board meeting, the board set a public hearing on the 2015 fiscal year county operating budget for March 17 at 10 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors room.