A5
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2022
OBITUARIES
Betty Olvey
Betty Jane Olvey
Astoria
Oct. 27, 1928 —
June 30, 2022
Betty Jane Olvey was born
in Astoria to Richard and
Elsie (Strom) Olson on Oct.
27, 1928. She spent her life
as a native of Astoria until her
passing on June 30 at the age
of 93.
Betty’s school years were
spent in Clatsop County, where
she attended Chadwell School
from fi rst-through-sixth grade,
while the remainder of her
school years were spent in
Astoria.
Betty worked many diff er-
ent jobs in her life. As a young
woman, she worked at Fort
Stevens during World War II,
later followed by the fl our mill,
two local laundries and vari-
ous canneries. She then went
to work as a fi lleter at Astoria
Seafood in 1958, and retired
after 35 years.
During her working years,
Betty was a senior regent for
the Moose Lodge, and member
of the cannery union. However,
her favorite title was “Cookie
Grandma,” given to her by
her grandchildren for the deli-
cious cookies she always had
on hand.
In Betty’s free time, she
enjoyed dancing, especially
to live music, spending time
with friends and family and
working in her garden. Betty
enjoyed talking to people from
all walks of life, and was well
known for speaking her mind.
Many family meals and hol-
idays were spent in the Olvey
home, which she cooked her-
self until she was 91 years
old. The most famous of all
these meals was her prime rib
Christmas dinner.
On Aug. 1, 1947, Betty was
married to Gordon Olvey, and
together they had fi ve chil-
dren. Betty is survived by
her children, Leroy Olvey, of
Astoria, Sonja Fleming (Ger-
ald), of Ohio, and Terri Cag-
win (Mike), of Astoria; broth-
ers, Larry Telen, of Astoria,
and Vern Telen (Diane), of
Hillsboro; nephews, Jeff Telen
(Tracy) and Steve Telen, both
of Astoria; nieces, Barbara
Hall (Mike), of Beaverton,
and Marian Bragdon (Bob),
of Hillsboro; and many grand-
children, great-grandchildren
and great-great-grandchildren.
Betty was widowed in 1992,
and also preceded in death by
her daughters, Cindy Smith
and Lynnie Hayner; her par-
ents; and sister-in-law, Shirley
Telen.
Betty will be laid to rest at
Greenwood Cemetery with her
family.
Her beautiful smile and
feisty personality will be
remembered by her loved ones.
The family would like to
thank the staff and residents of
Astor Place for their care over
the last year.
Photos by Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
A forklift motors around the Prairie Wood Products yard.
Closed for more than a decade, an
Oregon sawmill is running again
New life for mill
in Prairie City
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
Local residents woke up
last week to a sound they had
not heard in years.
A working sawmill.
The Prairie Wood Products
sawmill offi cially reopened on
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 14 years
ago. To staff the operation, the
company 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 between 15
and 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 running
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 equip-
ment. 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 D.R. Johnson-owned
Grant Western sawmill in John
Day, told the Blue Mountain
Eagle that the mill’s moth-
balled cogeneration plant
has some issues that must be
worked through before it can
be fi red up again.
Craig Trulock, Malheur
Dustin Wright, of John Day, is part of the crew at Prairie Wood Products.
National Forest supervi-
sor, told the newspaper last
month that the cogeneration
plant could provide a way to
remove biomass from the for-
est. Currently, he said, there is
no market for that material.
The biomass, which con-
sists of small logs, branches
and bushes that would other-
wise get burned up in the for-
est or left on the ground, could
be ground and burned in the
cogeneration plant to gener-
ate heat and electricity, Tru-
lock said.
Westbrooks said the com-
pany plans to get its tim-
ber supply from a combi-
nation of public and private
lands and will purchase logs
from independent loggers and
landowners.
Brett Morris, the owner of
Morris Forestry, said that he
had already delivered 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
SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
he works as a wildland fi re-
fi ghter with his logging equip-
ment, 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 appreciate
that I won’t be gone for two to
three months in the summer-
time,” Morris said.
Morris said his com-
pany 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 mill-
ing. 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 ben-
efi ts local private landowners
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
with respect to fuel reduction
and removing wildfi re risks,
Morris added.
While Prairie Wood hopes
to collaborate with the Mal-
heur National Forest and other
public agencies on forest res-
toration projects, Moore said
the mill has primarily been
working with private land-
owners so far.
He said the company hopes
to build other relationships
going forward.
Moore said he could not say
how many board feet of tim-
ber 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. John-
son 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 cogeneration power plant.
The sawmill, which oper-
ated successfully in Prairie
City for more than 30 years
and employed upward of 100
people who worked two dif-
ferent shifts, shuttered in 2008
amid a housing market crash
that led to a lack of available
sawlogs.
D.R. Johnson restarted the
mill in early 2009 but shut it
down permanently by the end
of the year. The cleanup of the
mill, which sits at the west end
of Prairie City, concluded in
2019.
Since then, much of the
mill equipment has remained
on-site, along with the cogen-
eration plant.
FRIDAY
REGIONAL FORECAST
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
68 55
71 56
Breezy in the
Morning drizzle
p.m.
73 56
71 59
Mostly sunny
and nice
Areas of low
clouds
70 58
73 59
Low clouds
Low clouds
breaking
71 58
Rather cloudy
Aberdeen
Olympia
69/55
77/58
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
77/53
ALMANAC
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Thursday
Tonight’s Sky: Waning crescent
near Uranus.
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 67/58
Normal high/low .................. 68/54
Record high .................. 88 in 1928
Record low .................... 44 in 1966
Precipitation
Thursday ................................. Trace
Month to date ........................ 0.30”
Normal month to date ......... 0.62”
Year to date .......................... 42.87”
Normal year to date ........... 37.79”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Time
10:54 a.m. 5.4 4:44 a.m.
10:11 p.m. 7.5 4:06 p.m.
Cape Disappointment
11:00 a.m. 5.1 4:07 a.m.
9:55 p.m. 7.4 3:30 p.m.
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today .................. 5:47 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 8:56 p.m.
Moonrise today .............. 1:32 a.m.
Moonset today .............. 5:27 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
11:01 a.m. 5.4 4:22 a.m.
10:01 p.m. 7.6 3:45 p.m.
Warrenton
10:49 a.m. 5.8 4:28 a.m.
10:06 p.m. 7.9 3:50 p.m.
Knappa
11:31 a.m. 5.7 5:45 a.m.
10:48 p.m. 7.8 5:07 p.m.
Depoe Bay
July 28 Aug 5 Aug 11 Aug 18
10:19 a.m. 5.3 3:39 a.m.
9:08 p.m. 7.7 2:55 p.m.
0.3
3.0
0.5
3.4
0.4
3.3
0.4
3.1
0.3
2.6
0.5
3.7
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
Today
Hi/Lo/W
93/75/t
96/76/s
92/76/t
102/81/s
97/64/pc
87/75/pc
97/79/s
82/63/pc
91/81/t
96/79/s
109/87/pc
67/54/pc
97/76/s
Sun.
Hi/Lo/W
94/74/c
96/77/pc
84/68/t
103/82/s
85/63/t
87/76/s
98/78/s
80/63/s
90/80/t
98/80/s
101/81/t
69/57/pc
97/80/pc
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
92/61
Hermiston
The Dalles 93/59
Enterprise
Pendleton 86/53
92/58
90/61
La Grande
88/54
83/57
NATIONAL CITIES
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
83/52
Kennewick Walla Walla
89/62 Lewiston
95/61
78/55
Salem
Pullman
92/57
Longview
68/55 Portland
80/59
86/60
Yakima 91/59
78/51
Astoria
Spokane
90/66
Corvallis
82/53
Albany
81/54
John Day
Eugene
Bend
83/54
91/52
91/51
Ontario
97/64
Caldwell
Burns
93/48
95/59
Medford
93/60
Klamath Falls
91/49
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
88/45/s
70/55/s
67/56/sh
82/55/pc
63/49/sh
Sun.
Hi/Lo/W
89/47/s
73/55/s
70/57/pc
91/61/s
63/50/pc
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
66/52/s
86/56/s
68/55/sh
84/53/s
79/58/pc
Sun.
Hi/Lo/W
65/54/pc
91/62/s
74/56/pc
91/60/s
90/64/s