REDMOND, OR -- Some local propane customers are going without heating fuel due to an apparent problem with a rail shipment. William Tallman relies on deliveries from Co-Energy Propane as his primary source of heat for his Prineville home.
He tells KBND News he's been waiting more than a week. "I called them on the seventh that I was in peril of running out, and that’s when I first found out I was going to be put on a list. And, they were taking the worst-case scenarios first – like, if you were already out of fuel, they were going to take care of you first. And, you’d be moved up the list as things progressed." After several more calls, Tallman says he finally got some answers, "And then finally, I got, I guess it was this past weekend, someone told me they were having train trouble; the railroad wouldn’t release a car and that’s all they would tell me."
A Co-Energy employee confirms the propane is sitting on a train in Redmond, but the railroad won’t release the shipment. She tells KBND News she's received a number of calls from angry customers. Burlington Northern would not discuss specific clients or shipments.
"In the meantime," says Tallman, "The only other heat we have in the house – in each bedroom, there’s electric heat – but, in the main room in the house there is no other heat. I’m in the kitchen, so I turned the stove on and the burners on til it warms up really good. And then, I went out and bought a propane bottle with a heatilator on top and I run that until the tank runs out."
