Right: Looking to the southeast across some of Milford Township's fine land, shows the Ethanol Plant just about the time it opened in the summer of 2006. The view is from well over a mile away and shows a Milford Twp farmstead on the far left and then the grain division of the Heart of Iowa Coop and then the new Lincolnway Energy alcohol plant which includes the right third of the pictured horizon.
The trailer court that is in the southwest corner of Sec 18, just northeast of Dayton Park was started by George Manley in the early fifties. Patsy Manley reports that it was “started in 1952 and operating by 1954” with a four-star rating. The road on the south side of the court was hard surfaced in the late fall of 1960 (according to official records) and some remember the entrance to the court was located off a gravel road ("E" -190th- Hartland Rd) for awhile. Currently, 2007, there are about 35-40 trailers on site. Just across the road to the south is the Wakefield Woods.
In 1961 the second National Animal Disease Labo- ratory in the nation opened in Milford Township. Construction was started in July of 1958 and completed in May of 1961. The facility is located in the west half of Sec 31 and the south half of the west half of Sec 30 in the southwest corner of Milford Twp and covers 318 acres. In 1961 there were 33 fire resistant buildings. By the early 1960's there were 450 people employed there. In 2006, when asked the number of employees employed at the Lab, the words, "We're sorry, that is matter of security, and such information can not be released" were, unbelievably, heard. So be it. The aims and purposes of the Disease Lab are to develop basic and applied research programs on infectious and noninfectious diseases of farm animals. Also, there is a regulatory program that deals with quality control of veterinary biologics and diagnostic service for national control and eradication programs with research being conducted on approximately 25 diseases. In 2006 and 2007, a large building expansion is under construction.
The motel, built as a “Best Western” and is now a “Quality Inn”, and stands at the northeast corner of Dayton and 13th was constructed in circa 1979. Also, along the north side of 13th, are a “Burger King”, “Buford's Steakhouse”, a “Kum and Go” and the “River Valley Credit Union”.
The first house built in the subdivision, Tullamore Glen, located in the northwest corner of Sec 18 was constructed in 1984.
The plant was built in 2005 and is located to the south of the train tracks just a half mile south of Milford Township in Sec 3 of Grant Township, about two and a half miles west of Nevada.
One of the most unique features of this facility is that it is a coal fired unit which makes a lower operating cost. The total cost of the facility is around $83,000,000 of which over 38 million was raised in a matter of 53 days. It has the potential of producing 50 million gallons of ethanol a year and markets dried distillers grain and “fly ash” for cement mixing and possibly CO2 for some specific businesses. The plant employs about 48 people.
For the plant to produce the projected output of 50 million gallons of ethanol annually, there would be the need to use 18 million bushels of corn. (That's 51,000 bushels a day.) In the year of 2003, a good year, Story County produced 26 1/2 million bushels of corn; so one could get a grasp on the figures by remembering the plant would have used 68 percent of that harvest had the plant been in operation in that year.
Fifteen board members under the direction of Bill Couser `73, (son of Dick Couser `47) Board Chairman, put up their own seed money and hired personnel to implement feasibility studies and fund-drive meetings. Tim Fevold, land owner, farm manager and resident of Milford Twp is Secretary. The Cousers are a four generation Milford fAmily.
Arrasmith Service Station across the road to the south of the School. Page 279
Golden Harvest (now Sygenta Seeds) opened their facility for research in 1999 on E29 a half mile east of the School in Sec 22 on the south side of the road.
Gull Painting started in 1965 in Sec 26-the Brown farm and moved to SE Sec 13 in 1975- Homer Thomas Farm. (1/4 mile north of the E29-S14 intersection)
Sylvia (Amil `33) Twedt operated a beauty parlor from her home near the SW corner of Sec 3 in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies before moving it to Story City.