Construction on a new building to accompany the existing iFUELS gas bar is underway, says Jon Oulton. A brand new deGraaf’s Kwik Way & Take Out and a Robins Donuts outlet are being added to the location.
When the gas bar opened early in 2014, only members could purchase fuel at the gas bar. Oulton says the new facility will be Nova Scotia’s first fully self-serve gas bar.
Any customer will be able to fuel-up and pay with a credit card or debit card. The new construction, which will feature four gas pumps, will take place throughout this summer and fall.
Oulton says, “We are very excited about partnering with the deGraafs. This new building, the opening of this new business and the expansion of existing businesses, represents exciting new directions for our community.”
During the construction, there may be occasional shut downs at the iFUEL gas bar, “but we hope to be open most of the time.”
Oulton said that the new operations will be one hundred per cent locally owned. He recalled having to move “literally heaven and earth, between the province and the Fire Marshall,” to open the gas bar initially after eight years without a gas station in the village.
Over the past three years, “the response,” he noted, “has been unbelievable. That was important to me.”
Furthermore there has not been any vandalism to the unmanned gas bar despite the fact, he says, that youth gather in the vicinity.
“There’s been no mess, no breakage,” Oulton added.
Three years ago, he called the gas bar model “a lightening rod. Government has to be on the side of doing business in rural Nova Scotia. That’s the philosophy of the Ivany report.”
Based in Windsor, Oulton’s opened in 1990 selling furnace fuel. Later the firm expanded into Kings County.
Watch out for closures
Oulton Fuels will be announcing any closures at the iFUEL site on their Oulton Fuels Facebook page and at the iFUEL’s kiosk. For updates on closures and project progress follow Oulton Fuels on Facebook.
