REGION
SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2022
Prairie Wood Products
is up and running again
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Prairie
City residents woke up last
week to a sound they had
not heard in years.
A working sawmill.
The Prairie Wood Prod-
ucts sawmill offi cially
reopened on Monday, July
11, for its fi rst full day of
operations.
The D.R. Johnson
Lumber Co. announced last
month that it intended to
reopen the mill, which was
shuttered 15 years ago. To
staff the operation, the com-
pany hosted a two-day job
fair at Chester’s Thriftway
in John Day.
Plant manager Tom
Moore said the mill hired
roughly 25 people. He
said once the planer is up
and running, he would be
looking to hire 15-20 more
employees.
Prairie Wood Products
President Jodi Westbrooks
said the company was happy
to be able to hire the staff
needed to get the mill run-
ning again.
“They are working hard,”
she said. “I’ve been in the
mill watching them go as
hard as they can.”
Westbrooks said there
are some kinks the sawmill
has to work out with the old
equipment. But all in all,
she said, things are running
smoothly at the mill.
“It is going,” she said,
“and we are thrilled.”
Moore, who used to work
for the DR Johnson-owned
Grant Western sawmill in
John Day, told the Eagle
that the mill’s mothballed
cogeneration plant has some
issues that must be worked
through before it can be
fi red up again.
Craig Trulock, Malheur
National Forest supervisor,
told the newspaper last
month that the cogeneration
plant could provide a way
to remove biomass from the
forest. Currently, he said,
there is no market for that
material.
The biomass, which con-
sists of small logs, branches
and bushes that would oth-
erwise get burned up in the
forest or left on the ground,
could be ground and burned
in the cogeneration plant to
generate heat and electricity,
Trulock said.
Westbrooks said the com-
pany plans to get its timber
supply from a combination
of public and private lands
and will purchase logs from
independent loggers and
landowners.
Brett Morris, the owner
of Morris Forestry, said in
a Friday, July 15, interview
that he had already deliv-
ered nine loads of logs to the
sawmill.
“(Prairie Wood) is really
cranking up production,” he
said.
Morris said he works as
an independent logger in
the spring, but during fi re
season he works as a wild-
land fi refi ghter with his
logging equipment, which
makes him good money.
With Prairie Wood open, he
said he would be running
his logging company during
fi re season.
In the long term, he said
running his business would
be better for him and his
family.
“My family will appre-
ciate that I won’t be gone for
two to three months in the
summertime,” Morris said.
Morris said his company
had been about a month
behind schedule with the
late spring rain, but things
are going well now.
He said if the mill had
not been open in Prairie
City, he would have had to
haul logs to Elgin or Pilot
Rock for milling. With
rising fuel costs, there would
have been a good chance he
would not have been able to
operate.
“My little company
couldn’t aff ord to haul (logs)
that far with the way fuel is
right now.”
Having the mill open
benefi ts local private land-
owners with respect to fuel
reduction and removing
wildfi re risks, Morris added.
While Prairie Wood
hopes to collaborate with
the Malheur National Forest
and other public agencies on
forest restoration projects,
Moore said the mill has pri-
marily been working with
private landowners so far.
He said the company
hopes to build other relation-
ships going forward.
Moore said he could not
say how many board feet
of timber the mill plans to
process because it is in its
“infancy stages.”
Nonetheless, Moore —
who worked for Malhuer
Lumber before coming to
Prairie Wood Products —
said that reopening the mill
has been a great feeling.
“It is not every day,” he
said, “that you get to bring
something back from the
dead.”
The Prairie City mill
was purchased by the D.R.
Johnson Lumber Co. in
1976. Two years later, the
family-owned company
added a stud mill and planer.
Then, in the late 1980s, the
company installed a cogene-
ration power plant.
The sawmill, which oper-
ated successfully in Prairie
City for more than 30 years
and employed upwards of
100 people who worked two
diff erent shifts, shuttered in
2008 amid a housing market
crash that led to a lack of
available sawlogs.
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Dustin Wright of John Day, part of the gang edger crew at Prairie
Wood Products, shortens a saw blade on Thursday, July 14, 2022.
Prairie Wood Products offi cially reopened on July 11.
Premium Books Available
at these locations
Cook Memorial Library
La Grande City Hall
OSU Extension Office
Tap That Growlers
Anderson Perry
Union Market
CJ’s Country Store
Dollar’s Corner
Rosewood Cottage
Pioneer West
Smokehouse
Benchwarmers
Grande Ronde Fitness
Union County Chamber
Pat’s Ally
Hines Meat Co.
JaxDog Books
Community Bank
Nature’s Pantry
D&B Supply
The Market Place
The Senior Center
Joe Beans
Oregon Trail Livestock
Supply
Miller’s Home Center
Red Cross Drug
Animal Health Center
THE OBSERVER — A3
‘This is my fi nal move’
Veteran National
Guard aviator and
FAA inspector
happy about return
to Pendleton
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Army
aviator Chief Warrant
Offi cer 4 David Long this
month moved back to the
town he loves from the
Willamette Valley.
Long resided in Pend-
leton from 1995 to 2009,
while serving with the “Dust
Devils” Oregon Army
National Guard CH-47 Chi-
nook heavy-lift helicopter
unit based at the airport.
“This is my fi nal move,
he said. “I am here to stay.”
The 36-year veteran
is assigned to the Oregon
Army National Guard
UH-72 Lakota helicopter
unit in Salem. The Airbus
Helicopters’ Lakota has
two engines, with a single
four-bladed main rotor.
Boeing Chinooks have two
tandem, counter-rotating,
three-bladed rotors.
Long moved to the
Portland area in 2009 to
work as an aviation safety
inspector for the Federal
Aviation Administration
fi eld offi ce. He has fl own
almost every rotary wing
aircraft, but for the FAA
specializes in night vision
goggles, large helicopters
and air ambulances.
Long recently returned
from an FAA assignment
in France with Airbus
Helicopters. There he was
one of the fi rst Americans
to fl y the new H-160, a
medium utility helicopter
in the Airbus MH-65 Dol-
phin family. It’s a scaled
up Dolphin, with a new
fi ve-bladed main rotor and
an empty weight of 9,348
pounds, versus MH-65’s
5,267. The U.S. Coast
Guard operates four-bladed
Dave Long/Contributed Photo
Dave Long gives a check ride to his Afghanistan battle buddy Brad Wahl of Wildhorse Helicopters,
Pendleton, in a Bell 47 above Umatilla County in September 2021.
Dolphins. Lakota weighs
only 7,904 pounds.
“It was the pinnacle of
my fl ying career to be on
the certifi cation team for
the FAA and to represent
America,” Long said. “It
was a great honor to be on
the team that certifi es a
new prototype helicopter
for import into the United
States.”
Long deployed to
Afghanistan with the Dust
Devils in 2005-06, bri-
gaded with the Nevada
Guard’s Mustangs. His
barracks roommate and
friend, Pendleton native
CWO Adrian Stump, 22,
and Staff Sgt. Tane Baum,
30, formerly of Athena,
were killed in action.
Three other soldiers died
with them on Sept. 25,
2005. There is a large
Mustang 22 Memorial in
Reno and a smaller one in
Pendleton.
An assignment to
train pilots in Bangladesh
followed.
Every summer the
Dust Devils fought wild-
fi res across Oregon, dip-
ping underslung giant,
20,000-pound (when fi lled)
Bambi buckets into water
sources. He often engaged
in search and rescue mis-
sions. Boeing gave his
fl ight crew an award for a
daring, long-range rescue
in the Sierra Nevada at
13,100 feet.
Long’s lengthy aviation
career has prepared him
well for his next assign-
ment in October. Though
eligible to retire, he has
volunteered for yet another
deployment — fl ying the
Lakota on the southwest
border.
“The mission will not
be easy,” Long said. ”We
will fl y each night. Our
mission is to stop fentanyl,
meth and other illicit drugs
from crossing the border,
and additionally, to stop
human traffi cking and pro-
vide humanitarian aid to
those in need. But my pri-
ority will be to use all of
my skills and experience
to bring everyone home on
this deployment.”
Long’s fi nal goal is to
serve his last eight years
in Pendleton, once again
fl ying the CH-47.
“My last fl ight in the
Lakota will be Texas,”
Long said. “Upon my
return, I will check into the
Pendleton Chinook unit,
and they will either tell
me to turn in my gear and
retire, or send me to fl y the
Chinook. Either way, I am
good.”
Long has spent a life-
time of public service in
many capacities. He served
several years on the Pend-
leton Airport Commission,
is an ex-board member
of McNary Yacht Club, a
Pendleton Air Museum
co-founder, former member
of the Pendleton City Club
and a 27-year volunteer at
Happy Canyon.
“I can’t wait for Round-
Up,” Long said. “I love the
run-in.”
Long has an interest in
helping the Pendleton Air
Museum.
“I have a lead on an old
UH-1H (Huey),” Long said.
“I think I can help PAM
get the helicopter and we
could put it on static dis-
play at the airport.”
Long can work for the
FAA remotely from any-
where within commuting
range of Portland in his
Rutan Long-EZ home-
built light plane. World-fa-
mous engineer Burt Rutan
autographed it in Coeur
d’Alene, Idaho, as the fi nest
example of his design he
had ever seen.
“I picked Pendleton
because all my friends are
here,” he said. “Pendleton
is my home. I love dinner
at Cimmiyotti’s on Friday
night, a cold beer at the
Packard, CrossFit at 1910
and the real feel of a com-
munity here.”
Eastern Oregon town forgives fi nes after challenges
By APRIL EHRLICH
Oregon Public Broadcasting
ONTARIO — The Eastern Oregon
city of Ontario is waiving over $1 mil-
lion in unpaid fi nes and penalties stem-
ming from its nuisance abatement rules.
City nuisance abatement policies
typically regulate garbage and weeds at
businesses and homes. Some say Ontar-
io’s rules were too strict and vague. Its
own mayor in 2019 sued the city over a
$500 fi ne and won.
In June this year, the city settled a
lawsuit with the Oregon Law Center, a
legal-aid nonprofi t, in a case involving
two clients: Heriberta Contreras
Granados and Susan Ragsdale.
The legal complaint says the city
failed to send notices to Contreras
Granados in Spanish, even though
that’s her primary language. She later
tried paying the city’s penalties, the
complaint says, but the city put a nearly
$10,000 lien on her property.
“These are prohibitive amounts of
money for our clients to pay,” attorney
Emily Teplin Fox said in an interview
with OPB. “They just don’t have it; they
can’t pay it down. And it’s completely
disproportionate to the types of prop-
erty nuisances at issue here.”
It was also unclear how the city
wanted Contreras Granados to improve
her home, Teplin Fox said. The city’s
notice said Contreras Granados had
“outdoor storage of non-trash items,”
but it didn’t explain what those items
were, according to the complaint.
The notices were especially dif-
fi cult for Contreras Granados to
understand because they were only
in English. Compared to many other
Oregon cities, Ontario has a sig-
nifi cant Spanish-speaking popula-
tion; almost half of its 11,600 resi-
dents identify as Hispanic or Latino,
according to U.S. Census data.