Rapho Township Supervisors on April 19 continued a hearing on a proposed soybean processing facility, agreeing to render a decision May 3.

Samuel Glick, of 337 Cider Press Road, had received approval from supervisors to construct a soybean processing facility on a 3.1-acre portion of his 100-acre farm in December. That facility would operate six days a week and have the capacity to process Lancaster County's annual crop of 1 million bushels of soybeans.

That plan is being contested by a neighboring property owner, however. Now, Glick proposes to build a facility on 4.3 acres of a 84-acre farm at 706 Milton Grove Road, which houses Garber Farms Inc., a trucking company that hauls agriculture-related products.

Glick said the Garber Farms facility would be a "temporary measure" until the Cider Press Road plan moves forward.

Proposed hours of operation for the Garber Farms facility would be 1 a.m. Monday to midnight Friday. Glick expects to process 4,000 bushels of soybeans daily, or 1,040,000 bushels per year.

The proposed facility would be staffed by at least one person at all times and is expected to generate 25 trips by tractor-trailers per day. The facility would use existing grain bins for storage of soybeans and processed soybean meal. Glick would build a metal shed on an existing concrete slab to house the processing equipment.

Supervisors agreed the Garber Farms site is better for this activity since there are few homes close by. Additionally, Glick would be locating the self-contained diesel generator units to the rear of the area, which is close to Route 283.

"I like this site, there's little impact on neighbors and the noise from the generators will blend in with the traffic noise from Route 283," said Supervisor Jere Swarr.

However, he had fire safety concerns, citing several soybean-related fires in the past.

Clinton Martin, who will install Glick's equipment, said most fires occur while roasting soybeans to remove moisture. Instead of roasting the beans, this facility preheats them to reach an optimum moisture level, then the hull is removed and the beans are processed to produce soybean meal and soybean oil, which can be sold to be used in biofuel products.

Fry noted that a conditional use is granted to a property, not the owner, so if Glick focuses on Cider Press Road, the soybean facility could continue operating at Garber Farms under a different owner.