After he gets the station operational around February 1, [image-nocss] he hopes in a second phase to install a biodiesel pump, which would make the place one of fewer than 10 biodiesel fueling stations in the state. The lawn care equipment will also run on biodiesel, and the garage will help tweak ordinary diesel engines so they can run on the alternative fuel, too.
Stathakis was able to purchase the station in February after a two-year tangle with the state Department of Environmental Protection over transferring ownership on a site yet to be fully remediated, he told the newspaper. The dispute was finally resolved with the town foreclosed on the property for back taxes owed, it added.
The former CITGO site, the only station within 6.5 miles, will be a Sunoco, Stathakis said. But he is more enthused by biodiesel. The fuel, more expensive than petroleum diesel, has distributors in the state, including nearby Guilford's Greenleaf Biofuels. But biodiesel is normally delivered in 55-gallon drums, not pumped at a station.
"Having a gas station put in a biodiesel pump is huge," Richard Parnas, head of biofuels research at the UConn Biofuels Consortium, told the paper. "We want a lot of people to know about this and make sure this guy does really well."
Not only will the north Madison Sunoco offer biodiesel, but the garage will convert diesel engines in cars and trucks so that they can run on biodiesel, which Stathakis said would require only a slight modification.
And all of his rental equipmenta small backhoe, tillers, trenchers, leaf blowers are plannedwill use diesel engines and run on biodiesel.
"In 10 or 15 years, we won't even be running cars on gasoline," Stathakis said. "It's going to happen. Gasoline's days are numbered. And I want to be one of the first to get into alternative fuels."
He hopes the station's convenience store will attract neighborhood kids by selling soft-serve ice cream and give north Madison residents a place to go for late-night necessities, saving them the trip to the center of town. He plans on serving high-quality coffee there, too (made from bottled water) and healthy snacks, said the report.
To prevent future spills, Stathakis plans on putting up placards telling customers not to drip, keeping an absorbent handy and a spill barrier. But he said the underground storage tanks are relatively new, not prone to leaking, and will last another 20 years or more.
Stathakis has always dreamed of owning his own garage. Growing up, he used to fix his sister's friends cars and would rebuild cars with his brother. "Owning a garage is something I've always wanted to do," he told the paper. "This just happened to have a gas station."
Though he will continue to full time as a data storage sales manager, he said that in owning the station, "I'm making my hobby a reality, although hopefully without getting my hands greasy."
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