WALLACE –– On Tuesday afternoon, the Shoshone Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) accepted and awarded a bid from gas station company Maverik concerning a parcel of county-owned property in Smelterville.

Maverik will be building a new gas station on the property, directly adjacent to the eastbound Interstate 90 offramp in Smelterville.

The $2.1 million bid was $300,000 more than the next highest bid from local company Beamis Property Management (BPM), who was also interested in putting a fuel station in the budding business district of the small bedroom community.

Initially, the bidding period was set to end on Friday, May 27, at 9 a.m. (the date which had been advertised in the Shoshone News-Press) but representatives from Maverik believed that they had through the end of the business day on Friday to place their bid.

After formally protesting the closing of the bidding time, the BOCC rescinded the award of bid from BPM and reopened the bidding period until Tuesday at noon.

While rumors that circulated wildly on social media said otherwise, according to the BOCC, there were no nefarious intentions with the initial time chosen to close the bidding period.

Following the close of the bidding period, the BOCC deliberated on the merits of both bids before deciding to go with the bigger offer.

Maverik began almost a century ago after founder Reuel Call began building his gas station empire in Wyoming in 1928.

94 years and almost 400 locations later, Maverik will be making their next home in the Silver Valley.

A full story will be available in the coming days.