NAPOLEON - Several elevators married a super shuttle terminal at Sterling and six years later, they're contemplating a divorce.

Some say there are irreconcilable differences in a joint venture between four elevators in South Central Grain Cooperative and Cenex Harvest States.

Others say the relationship is past the rocky road phase and is just now moving toward financial harmony.

Members of elevators at Napoleon, Hazelton, Wishek and Kintyre will vote this month on whether they want to split up, continue the joint venture or solidify the relationship with a full blown merger.

Voting will end July 27 and the elevator co-op board will know what direction members want to go.

In the joint venture, Cenex Harvest States owns the 450,000-bushel terminal at Sterling and leases the four co-op elevators.

Michael Johnston, a development director for Cenex Harvest States, said a split would force his company to go it alone at the terminal without the support of the co-op elevators.

"It would be more difficult," he said. He said Cenex Harvest States would prefer to continue its relationship, but "the ball's really in their court."

Dale Johnson, of Kintyre, a former co-op board member, pushed for the vote.

He threatened to use a petition to force a split without it.

Johnson's laundry list of problems with the Sterling terminal - heralded as a way to get grain from the region into the 110-car shuttle system preferred by Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway - is long.

At the top of his list is his belief that the four community elevators get treated like poor relatives - all of the attention and best treatment go to the Sterling terminal.

Instead of a partnership of equals, he sees the relationship as unbalanced, with minimal investment in repairs and upgrades to the co-op elevators.

The bottom line, he says, is that Cenex Harvest States cares about its financial success, not whether there continue to be any local co-op elevators.

Now, Johnson says he's not sure whether the four elevators could make it alone, mostly because the board can't assure enough operating capital to make it work.

"I'm ready to throw my hands up," Johnson said.

He does believe that it's only a matter of time before two, and maybe three, of the co-op elevators close.

Jeff Wald, a co-op board member, said those concerns are legitimate.

The Sterling operation cost almost twice to build as estimated and isn't taking in the anticipated bushels - around half of the 13 million that were projected when the project was proposed in the late '90s.

Four shuttles were loaded out of Sterling last year, partly because a substantial amount of wheat went over to the Peavey operation at Jamestown.

Crops are changing from all wheat to everything but wheat and shuttle terminals like Sterling are all about huge grain trains headed to the export markets.

Wald said he thinks the co-op should continue as a joint venture and retain control over the fate of the community elevators, which can serve the increasing number of specialty crops being grown.

Otherwise, Hazelton, Kintyre and eventually Napoleon elevators could be closed and the region will have Wishek elevator on the Canadian Pacific line and Sterling on the BNSF, he said.

"That's probably how it's going to go. Time tells, we don't know," Wald said.

Board member Mike Appert said Johnson's push to force a split comes at exactly the wrong time in the venture.

"It's finally going to work," Appert said.

He said the venture is finally recovering from some bad financial moves made early on and has a positive cash flow, though on balance, after more than five years, it's still some $200,000 in the red.

Appert said the push to split might push the joint venture into a merger instead.

In a merger, the local co-ops will give up ownership of the four elevators and "they" (Cenex Harvest States) will have the final say, he said.

Still, if it's change people are after, a change to merge would be better than breaking up.

Splitting up would be financial suicide, he said.

"One hiccup and we'd be broke," Appert said. "We can't go on our own and compete on our own."

He said Cenex Harvest States has never tried to influence the co-op elevators' direction.

Johnston, the business development director for Cenex Harvest States, said as much to about 85 farmers who met at Napoleon Tuesday night.

"We're not here to tell you to merge, sell or go on your own. That's up to you," he said.

An underlying issue is rail service on the CP line to three of the four co-op elevators, served by short line operator Dakota, Missouri Valley and Western Railroad of Bismarck.

At the meeting, short line official Jeff Wood said his company has a $22 million investment in the region.

The short line lost about 5 million bushels a year to Sterling and BNSF and foresees losing more when a new shuttle elevator opens on the BNSF rail at Hensler next year.

Wood said despite problems with car delivery last year, the short line is committed.

"We hope to come here with trains for a long time," Wood said. "It's up to you."

The elevator co-op still has about $2.4 million in equity, some of it in cash and some of it tied up with Cenex Harvest States.

If the co-op elevators break away, Cenex Harvest States will have to repay their investment, which went into operating capital.

If a merger is approved, Cenex Harvest States says it will double every dollar of cash merged into the deal and invest it in improvements.

That agreement doesn't specify where the investments would be made.

Johnson said he already knows the answer, though.

"We know where they'll put that capital. It'll be at Sterling," he said.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)