A3
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019
Oregon State celebrates the
opening of timber research lab
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS — A new
facility dedicated to research-
ing and testing mass tim-
ber in commercial buildings
is now open at Oregon State
University.
Oregon
State
cele-
brated the grand opening
of the A.A. “Red” Emmer-
son Advanced Wood Prod-
ucts Laboratory on Oct. 10 at
the main campus in Corval-
lis. The 17,500-square-foot
lab is part of the College of
Forestry’s new Oregon For-
est Science Complex, which
broke ground in 2016.
Mass timber refers to
products such as cross-lam-
inated timber, or CLT, and
glue-laminated beams used
in the construction of build-
ings, as opposed to steel or
concrete.
While Europe has pio-
neered mass timber since
the early 1990s, Oregon
became just the fi rst state last
year to adopt building codes
that allow for wood-framed
buildings up to 18 stories tall.
That is due in part to
research by the TallWood
Design Institute, a partner-
ship between Oregon State’s
College of Forestry and Col-
lege of Engineering, and the
University of Oregon’s Col-
lege of Design.
The Advanced Wood
Products Lab will house
the TallWood Design Insti-
tute, with 20 to 30 profes-
sors studying fi re perfor-
mance, building physics and
environmental impact of new
mass timber products.
Iain Macdonald, direc-
Oregon State University
The Advanced Wood Products Laboratory at Oregon State
University will house the TallWood Design Institute, a research
collaborative for mass timber in tall commercial buildings. It
includes state-of-the-art equipment such as a KUKA milling robot.
tor of the TallWood Design
Institute, said the program
has close links with Ore-
gon’s manufacturing com-
munity, including both of the
state’s mass timber producers
— D.R. Johnson Lumber in
Riddle and Freres Lumber in
Lyons.
“We have also been able
to conduct structural, fi re,
acoustic and durability test-
ing for many of the mass
timber building projects that
have taken shape around
Oregon and beyond,” Mac-
donald said.
The grand opening fea-
tured live demonstrations
of state-of-the-art manufac-
turing equipment, such as a
milling robot used to carve
mass timber beams and
panels.
Anthony Davis, interim
dean of the Oregon State
University College of For-
estry, said wood construction
“has to be a cornerstone in
mounting an aggressive front
in challenging our sustain-
ability and climate crises.”
Figures provided by the
Oregon Forest Resources
Institute show it produces
26% less greenhouse gases to
make CLT compared to steel,
and 50% less than making
concrete.
“Oregon is blessed with
having some of the most
productive and diverse for-
ests in the world,” Davis
said. “Because of this, we
are better positioned than
anyone else to serve as a
bridge between our natu-
ral resources and meeting
demands of urban growth
and renewal, while also con-
tinuing to conserve habi-
tat and provide recreational
access.”
The lab is named after
A.A. “Red” Emmerson, who
founded Sierra Pacifi c Indus-
tries in 1949. His son, George
Emmerson, graduated from
OSU in 1978 and is now
the company president. His
daughter, Carolyn Emmer-
son Dietz, is also president of
the Sierra Pacifi c Foundation
and graduated from Oregon
State in 1982.
Sierra Pacifi c Industries
is the second-largest lum-
ber producer in the U.S., and
donated $6 million toward
construction the Oregon For-
est Science Complex.
The $79.5 million com-
plex, funded through a mix
of public and private money,
will also include the new
95,000-square-foot Peavy
Hall, which is scheduled to
open in spring 2020.
According to Oregon
State, enrollment in the Col-
lege of Forestry has steadily
increased over the last
decade, with the number of
applications and admitted
students up nearly 20% in
2018.
“These new facilities
represent a critical step in
the pathway toward using
renewable materials in new
ways,” Davis said. “Our mis-
sion is to use this space as a
model of how we can pair
Oregon’s intellectual capac-
ity with our natural resources
and capitalize on our spirit of
innovation.”
Weyerhaeuser ex-fi nance manager
charged with fraud, identity theft
By MAXINE BERNSTEIN
The Oregonian
Federal
prosecutors
have fi led criminal charges
against an ex-fi nance man-
ager from timber com-
pany Weyerhaeuser who
is accused of stealing at
least $4.5 million from the
business.
Susan Tranberg, 60, who
had worked for the com-
pany for 42 years, is charged
with mail fraud and aggra-
vated identity theft, accord-
ing to a criminal information
fi led in U.S. District Court in
Eugene Tuesday.
Tranberg also faces a
temporary restraining order
in federal court, barred from
liquidating or transferring
any of her assets at Weyer-
haeuser’s request.
Tranberg acknowledged
the fraud in a signed state-
ment to Weyerhaeuser that
she wrote on Jan. 15, the
day she was fi red in a meet-
ing with company offi cials
at a hotel near the offi ce
in Springfi eld where she
worked. Weyerhaeuser fi led
the statement in court.
“There is no (one) else
to punish but ME,’’ Tran-
berg wrote, offering to give
up her 12 weeks of banked
vacation pay, retirement and
401(k) to try to make things
right.
Weyerhaeuser in Febru-
ary referred the fraud case
to the U.S. Attorney’s Offi ce
for criminal prosecution.
Tranberg defrauded the
company from June 2004
through January, according
to Assistant U.S. Attorney
Gavin W. Bruce.
Company offi cials say in
court papers that Tranberg
defrauded the business for
at least 15 years by creating
fake vendors and approving
payment to the vendors by
forging co-workers’ signa-
tures. She also would hack
into colleagues’ computer
systems without authori-
zation or their consent, the
offi cials allege.
The payments in ques-
tion were made to vendors
identifi ed as M.J. Miller and
Margaret J. Miller, the name
of Tranberg’s mother who
died in 2009, company offi -
cials said.
Tranberg had created
a phony contract between
Weyerhaeuser and fake sell-
ers M.J. Miller and R. J.
Miller called the “Tree Farm
Family Agreement,’’ which
was dated June 16, 1986,
according to court papers.
Tranberg used her mother’s
Social Security number, her
own home mailing address
and
Springfi eld
offi ce
address to receive fraudulent
payments made to the Mill-
ers under the fake contract,
according to Weyerhaeuser.
Weyerhaeuser
never
received timber under the
contract but the payments
to the non-existent Millers
continued for more than a
decade and were pocketed
by Tranberg for her personal
benefi t, company offi cials
wrote in court documents.
“Defendant used her
Seaside gives nod to
vacation rental fee hike
A new $400 fee
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — The City
Council has voted unani-
mously to raise annual per-
mit fees for vacation rent-
als . The fee hike adds $400
per year to all permit costs,
which are divided into three
tiers based on occupancy.
The goal is to fund a com-
pliance offi cer, designed to
inspect vacation rentals and
enforce local codes related
to items like noise, litter and
parking.
“One of the things coun-
cil needed to look at was how
they would fund a compli-
ance offi cer position,” City
Manager Mark Winstanley
said. “It was suggested the
business license for vaca-
tion rental dwellings might
be the best alternative.”
The fee increase, Win-
stanley said, will “allow
for generation of enough
money to pay for costs asso-
ciated with the compliance
offi cer.”
These could include sal-
ary, benefi ts and necessary
equipment.
In public comment on
Monday night, Joyce Hunt,
a resident, “highly encour-
aged” councilors to increase
the annual fee.
“We really need to get
ordinance enforcement,”
Hunt said. “This is the fi rst
step, and I hope we can keep
it going.”
There are about 275
vacation rentals in Sea-
side, Winstanley said, the
majority designated small
or medium. The c urrent
rates are $75 for rentals with
one to fi ve occupants, $100
for six to 10 occupants,
and $150 for more than 11
occupants.
John Dunzer, who owns
a one-bedroom bed-and-
breakfast in the Cove,
Consult a
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LEO FINZI
Weyerhaeuser offi cials say Susan L. Tranberg defrauded the
business for at least 15 years.
knowledge of and responsi-
bility for the advance cash
payment process at Weyer-
haeuser to receive cashier’s
checks made payable to the
fake vendor account,’’ the
prosecutor wrote in a crim-
inal information.
Tranberg was in federal
court in Portland Tuesday
morning, appearing in a civil
case brought against her by
her former employer. Her
lawyer in that case, Randal
Acker, told the court his cli-
ent is not trying to hide her
assets, nor has she been on
any “spending spree,’’ as
suggested by the company’s
lawyer in court documents.
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objected to the increase.
“My little bed-and-
breakfast — one room with
two occupants — has had a
633% increase,” he said.
Winstanley said the
increase was based on the
cost of a visit to a prop-
erty by a compliance offi -
cer, which would generally
be the same regardless of a
property’s size.
“The reason we made
them all the same, was basi-
cally because the work is all
the same,” he said.
With business licenses
sent out in December, the
council needed to act imme-
diately to pass the ordinance
in time for the new year.
City Councilor Dana
Phillips showed little appe-
tite for delay.
“If we start dragging our
feet, it’s not going to go into
effect for months,” Phillips
said. “Isn’t that why we had
two workshops? Isn’t this
why the Planning Commis-
sion has done all the work
they’ve done? I think we
need to move forward.”
City Councilor Tom
Horning echoed her com-
ments, and defended the
$400 fee hike across all
occupancy ranges.
“The idea of having fees
set in order to meet a bud-
get for an employee who is
going to be hired to over-
see this is an important part
of the process,” he said. “If
you start cutting discounts
for certain parts, you start
unfunding the position. I’d
recommend moving for-
ward with this.”
One more council read-
ing remains, on Oct. 28,
before the new fee struc-
ture goes into effect 30 days
later.
C hanges to the ordinance
could be ahead, includ-
ing incentives for property
owners with a good record
or who use a management
company.
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