Building Boom in Stillwater and Rare Earth Facility news in Stillwater!

[PokeSaladAnnie]

June 9th Gov Stitt announced a 100 million Rare Earth Facility moving to Stillwater and buying a huge facility on Airport RD and doing a 60 million renovation.

This recent news will be exponentially huge for Oklahoma, Payne County, Stillwater, and OSU Geology School. Rare Earth is a company out of Tampa, Florida with facilities in West Texas and Colorado that mines materials for the Tech industry.

Owner of Rare Earth is Pini Althaus and he is vocal about only using resources in USA rather than buying from other countries. Wasn’t T Boone saying the same thing?

Apparently they are mining material used primarily for green earth and used for electrical vehicles and wind mill and magnets for jets and submarines. Appears these precious materials will be transported to Stillwater from West Texas via railroad and they will renovate a huge warehouse on Airport RD that was vacant for over 20- years.

Their research and development is in Wheat Ridge, CO and their mining site is in Hudspeth County, Texas. This is a new company that was started up with Biden initiative for electrical vehicles in 2020.

Stillwater is going through a building and economic boom so this will be needed with all these new jobs coming to Stillwater.

https://apnews.com/article/politics...a-stillwater-a7ed6424f2975c41bca402a84df52998

https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/c...cle_d6005438-e86b-11ec-a630-9b4b6f67dcb0.html

 

[Justin]

The railroad through Stillwater has set dormant for so long I wonder if it needs to be updated?

 

[PokeSaladAnnie]

The railroad through Stillwater has set dormant for so long I wonder if it needs to be updated?

Maybe they won’t use railroad. The railroad about 6 miles north of Stillwater always has a train in the morning. Do trains go to the grain elevators?

 

[jetman]

They should use the railroad. The train tracks run right into that building. Train cars can be loaded inside.

 

[oldguy]

They used the building and the railroad just a few years back for the Christmas train.

They really need to do something about Airport road as it goes by there and National Standard.

 

[LoyalandTrue]

Looks like the green new deal.

 

[oldguy]

On the downside, Armstrong may shutdown their plant in Stillwater..

https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/l...cle_8f01bf2e-d8a1-11ec-84b3-0f2b695cddb8.html

 

[PokeSaladAnnie]

They used the building and the railroad just a few years back for the Christmas train.

They really need to do something about Airport road as it goes by there and National Standard.

I drive down Airport road daily. I guess the truck traffic made bumps in the road and at time trucks are sitting on the road waiting for warehouses to open their gates.

There seems to be a number of vacant or abandoned warehouse in the area. I was talking to a trucker and he claimed train transport is more expensive than truck transports so he was doubtful they would be using trains. Is there restrictions on trains in Stillwater as rarely do I see trains in Stillwater. Many trains go through Oklahoma In all directions but seems they are going to East or West Coast or North or South.
Oklahoma apparently has more pipelines than other states as there is a pipeline from Texas to Canada going through Cushing.

 

[naffigator]

I drive down Airport road daily. I guess the truck traffic made bumps in the road and at time trucks are sitting on the road waiting for warehouses to open their gates.

There seems to be a number of vacant or abandoned warehouse in the area. I was talking to a trucker and he claimed train transport is more expensive than truck transports so he was doubtful they would be using trains. Is there restrictions on trains in Stillwater as rarely do I see trains in Stillwater. Many trains go through Oklahoma In all directions but seems they are going to East or West Coast or North or South.
Oklahoma apparently has more pipelines than other states as there is a pipeline from Texas to Canada going through Cushing.

The problem is Stillwater isn't on a mainline track, it is a spur and a pretty long spur at that. Cushing is the pipeline crossroads of America, there are a ton of pipelines that go through Cushing.

 

[PokeSaladAnnie]

If this USARareEarth takes off and expands they may have a need for more warehouse space. With all the vacant warehouses in Stillwater this could provide space for expansion. Is there a vacant Mercury Marine warehouse nearby?

 

[gundysburner]

I drive down Airport road daily. I guess the truck traffic made bumps in the road and at time trucks are sitting on the road waiting for warehouses to open their gates.

There seems to be a number of vacant or abandoned warehouse in the area. I was talking to a trucker and he claimed train transport is more expensive than truck transports so he was doubtful they would be using trains. Is there restrictions on trains in Stillwater as rarely do I see trains in Stillwater. Many trains go through Oklahoma In all directions but seems they are going to East or West Coast or North or South.
Oklahoma apparently has more pipelines than other states as there is a pipeline from Texas to Canada going through Cushing.

Brother in law works for a company in OKC that produces refridgerated semi trailers (reefers). They ship them via train constantly because it's cheaper than having someone drive each unit.

 

[Go Pokes]

The railroad through Stillwater has set dormant for so long I wonder if it needs to be updated?

I heard somewhere that there are plans to turn the abandoned railroad into a biking/walking/running path that connects Couch Park and that area to the Kameoka Trail and even further north and east past Boomer Lake.

 

[gundysburner]

I heard somewhere that there are plans to turn the abandoned railroad into a biking/walking/running path that connects Couch Park and that area to the Kameoka Trail and even further north and east past Boomer Lake.

The plan to connect Couch Part all the way up to Boomer has been there for years now, and frankly, I was hoping it'd be done by now. It'd be awesome to see that get done, and there are some significant parts of it already in place, just not enough.

 

[PokeSaladAnnie]

Brother in law works for a company in OKC that produces refridgerated semi trailers (reefers). They ship them via train constantly because it's cheaper than having someone drive each unit.

My guess is they choose this facility because of the option to use trains or they could load truck trailers onto trains and go up to OKC and then for the last 60 miles semi truck the material to Stillwater. That area of Boomer has people running, walking, biking from 6:00 to 7:00 am when I am driving to work. There are Geese Families everywhere in that area.

 

[naffigator]

My guess is they choose this facility because of the option to use trains or they could load truck trailers onto trains and go up to OKC and then for the last 60 miles semi truck the material to Stillwater. That area of Boomer has people running, walking, biking from 6:00 to 7:00 am when I am driving to work. There are Geese Families everywhere in that area.

The tracks in Stillwater connect to Tulsa not OKC.

 

[PokeSaladAnnie]

I moved last weekend so I no longer drive down Airport RD. I drove by today and noticed changes to the property with new fencing around the USA Rare Earth property and trucks appearing related to security. This got me to thinking— Will this be a high Security operation or are they just preparing to upgrade the building?

The Flooring Company must have received funding to stay open as they have a sign about hiring. Now that Oklahoma has medical marijuana it is my understanding many don’t pass the UA drug screen for jobs and employers in Stillwater have staff shortages.

 

[StillwaterTownie]

I moved last weekend so I no longer drive down Airport RD. I drove by today and noticed changes to the property with new fencing around the USA Rare Earth property and trucks appearing related to security. This got me to thinking— Will this be a high Security operation or are they just preparing to upgrade the building?

The Flooring Company must have received funding to stay open as they have a sign about hiring. Now that Oklahoma has medical marijuana it is my understanding many don’t pass the UA drug screen for jobs and employers in Stillwater have staff shortages.

Probably employers and their insurance companies need to update their worker policies to not coming to work high or smoke pot at any time, including during breaks. Or else get fired.

Meanwhile, the petition for SQ820 to legalize rec marijuana got enough signatures. It will be on the ballot in Nov. unless the governor, state AG, or someone else gets it delayed. Since the state AG isn't running for election, I think he would be more likely than the governor to get it delayed. Republicans may feel it's not in their best interest to have a pro pot question on the ballot in November. In the past, they felt it best to put med marijuana on the ballot for the primary in 2018, but it didn't work out very well for them.

 

[OSU79]

Probably employers and their insurance companies need to update their worker policies to not coming to work high or smoke pot at any time, including during breaks. Or else get fired.

Meanwhile, the petition for SQ820 to legalize rec marijuana got enough signatures. It will be on the ballot in Nov. unless the governor, state AG, or someone else gets it delayed. Since the state AG isn't running for election, I think he would be more likely than the governor to get it delayed. Republicans may feel it's not in their best interest to have a pro pot question on the ballot in November. In the past, they felt it best to put med marijuana on the ballot for the primary in 2018, but it didn't work out very well for them.

Not passing rec mj would be stupid. Everyone who wants a card gets a card. My primary care physician has a stake in one the the dispensaries in town - he'll give out medical cards all day long. I don't use (for now), but the state not capitalizing on the income potential is a waste at this point.

 

[PokeSaladAnnie]

Not passing rec mj would be stupid. Everyone who wants a card gets a card. My primary care physician has a stake in one the the dispensaries in town - he'll give out medical cards all day long. I don't use (for now), but the state not capitalizing on the income potential is a waste at this point.

Most employers do UA pre-employment drug screenings and can’t offer employment due to federal guidelines. The Federal government will need to make it legal nation wide.

 

[Italiancowboy]

When you add the CO2 footprint of the rare earth metals, batteries, etc. to electric cars, then the fabrication footprint of the electric car vs a conventional gas combustion engine is such that it takes 10 years TO BREAK EVEN !! Since the average age of US cars is 12 years, that's only 2 years of advantage/benefit. So anyone thinking of driving us to green pastures is nuts.

But I to like the US trying to gain some independence from China on rare earth metals - just not as a green solution.