The Love’s Travel Stop and Country Store chain has announced plans for a $10-million dollar store in Sidney with 100 truck stalls, a restaurant and 24-hour roadside assistance service. The truck stop would be just off Interstate 80 on Highway 385 near the Holiday Inn hotel.

Project Manager Steve Walters told the Sidney city council Tuesday that the town had been on Love’s “radar for quite some time,” and that it jumped up the company’s priority list when the state of Wyoming raised its tax on diesel fuel.

Walters said diesel had always been cheaper in Cheyenne than in Nebraska, but that with the higher tax rate it’s now cheaper for truckers to fuel in Sidney.

Love’s is still working through needed paperwork with the city, including a zoning change. The council held the first reading of an ordinance for that on Tuesday with the second reading scheduled for the next council meeting.

The city and company are also working with the state on the entrance design off Highway 385, but Walters says that’s a common situation and he’s confident it will be worked out.

Walters says that construction should take about 6 months, with Love’s shooting for an opening in the first quarter of next year.

Family-owned, Love’s has over 300 locations with more than 10,000 employees in 39 states and annual revenues of more than $26-billion dollars.