City, company negotiating removal of oil tanks

Coeur d’Alene is negotiating a deal with Kerr Oil to remove the petroleum storage tanks next to Memorial Field that city officials consider an eyesore and potential hazard.

The deal ultimately could help clear the way for the relocation of the North Idaho Museum to the site.

Even though the negotiations aren’t yet finished, next week Kerr Oil will remove the six tanks that are visible from Northwest Boulevard as drivers enter downtown.

The rusty tanks, clustered together behind a chain-link fence, sit just behind the Chamber of Commerce sign welcoming visitors to the city by the lake. Black spray-painted graffiti is on several of the tanks and chest-high weeds grow between the rows of pipes.

City Attorney Mike Gridley said the majority of the tanks haven’t been used in years. Petroleum receptacles that sit unused for more than a year are a fire code violation, he said. Kerr Oil also is testing the area for contamination.

“We want to clean up that area,” Gridley said. “There’s graffiti and evidence of a bum town and it’s right next to our crown jewel.”

Eventually the city wants the North Idaho Museum to build on the site as part of its conceptual plan for the Four Corners area, which includes City Park, Independence Point and Memorial Field.

The city’s urban renewal agency, Lake City Development Corp., is negotiating to pay Kerr Oil for relocating the tanks and possible remediation.

LCDC Executive Director Tony Berns said no dollar amount has been finalized.

Company owner Del Kerr said the bulk tanks have been in that location since 1928. His company acquired the lease in 1970 from Shell Oil Co.

Trains would stop and dump fuel into the tanks. The oil company then would distribute it to its customers, Kerr said.

Only one of the tanks is in use, storing stove oil or kerosene.

Kerr leases the property, including the white sheet metal building used by Kootenai County for storage, from BNSF Railway Co. The city actually owns the land but the railroad has an easement to use the property until the railroad tracks are officially abandoned, Gridley said.

BNSF removed in October about a quarter-mile of railroad track that runs parallel to City Park, across Mullan Road and just past Memorial Field. The railroad also took out two sets of track that run past the city skateboard park to Park Avenue.

The city wants all the tracks removed from Memorial Field north to the new Riverstone Development near the Interstate 90 interchange for an educational corridor. But that won’t happen until Stimson Lumber Co.’s DeArmond mill, which uses the tracks, is relocated.