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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2019)
SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2019 | 7A FORESTRY from page 5A Job Corps is the nation’s largest free education and job training program for young adults from ages 16 to 24. The most local division is Angell Job Corps, located in Yachats. “It’s like a federal job train- ing program for disadvantaged youth,” said Bryce Crunkilton, one of the trainers for Angell. “They can come to Job Corps, get their high school diplomas or driver’s license. And it’s a trade school, so they can learn a trade. We have urban forestry, plumbing, carpentry, painting, masonry and automotive.” The Angell students get food, lodging, uniforms, equipment and even a small bi-weekly al- lowance. “We get about $1 a day,” said Jack Day, who was working at the Baker site. “You get $32 a month, and that’s if you’ve been here for eight months. I only get about 22 every two weeks. “I didn’t come here for the pay,” he added. “I came for the training. I can’t complain.” While Angell works with a variety of trades, the group at Camp Baker are in the forest- ry program, which takes them to different sites around the region to learn in the field. Here, they’re taking out dying trees, cutting down dangerous branches from the living ones and making the place safe for Scouts. “You see these stumps here?” Anderson asked, pointing to two small, fresh tree stumps in the ground. “A kid, 17 or 18, comes up to me and points out had they had rot in the sides. He said, ‘We need to do something about that, they’re not getting enough light.’ I asked what he recommended. He said they needed to be removed as they weren’t going to survive here. I said, ‘OK, let’s do that.’ His face just lit up. ‘An adult listened to me!’ It was a neat experience to see someone take his ad- vice. He ran to his friends and said, ‘Guys, we got a removal!’ We allow them to express their opinions and go through with things. We’re okay with that, we Buying or Selling? I can help. Aileen Sapp Broker 541 999-5396 7th Street #1100 – Wooded 0.23 acre lot on an undeveloped street. The Professional Offi ce/Insti- tutional Zoning District is intended for the estab- lishment of offi ces, medical and other institutional uses, limited accessory services for worker’s convenience and public space. Buyer to do due diligence. $12,941. #2911-18257693 1749 Highway 101 • 541-997-1200 Always Something Happening 541.997.1994 | 888.968.4086 715 Q UINCE S TREET | F LORENCE , OR 97439 | WWW . EVENTCENTER . ORG WHAT’S COMING UP: JANUARY Winter Music Festival January 25th thru 27th FRAA Winter Arts Festival January 26th 11 a.m. to 5 p.m January 27th 11 a.m. to 4 p.m FEBRUARY Florence FoodShare’s Crab Crack Fundraiser February 2nd, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Fraudville February 9th, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Nicole Henry February 14th 7 p.m. FEC Indoor Yard Sale February 23rd, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m want our property to be right. We trust them.” The workers at Angell, many of whom are still working on their high school diplomas, come for various reasons. Day already had his GED before he arrived. “But I didn’t have too many skills,” he said. “I wasn’t doing too well back in my hometown, wasn’t doing anything good.” So he looked into Job Corps and the training it offered. “They make you try out three trades to make sure that’s the one you want. I didn’t even try out the other two, painting or masonry. ‘Just send me over to forestry.’ I’ve done a little bit of logging with family and this just seemed the most unique in my eyes. I didn’t even know what an arborist was until I saw the urban forestry trade. Some people think they’re just loggers. That’s what I thought it would be. But then I found it was a lot more.” Day’s coworker, Jessie Fox, agreed. “I don’t think a lot of people understand what an arborist is,” he said. “I thought it was just cutting trees. I didn’t know it was taking care of them, prun- ing. And now I’m doing it.” Fox, who is 17, came to the program for his diploma. Along the way, he found a true passion for forestry work. “It’s the most hard-work- ing trade,” he said. “It’s super unique. I never even realized this is how people took care of trees. I never knew any of this stuff before I came to Job Corps, and I fell in love with it. … I really enjoy climbing, I’m not afraid of heights. It really falls into place.” Every worker we talked to at the Baker site listed climbing and delimbing as their favorite aspect of the job, though that aspect can be tough for begin- ners. “We’ve had foresters who were afraid of heights,” Fox said. “Actually, a lot. That’s one of the reasons they joined, which was to get over their fear of heights. The whole pro- fessional quality of it, the help from other people, is a good way to get over that fear. We have successful people who just could not do it their first day. One of my good friends who graduated two months ago was terrified. But now he’s climbing, he’s delimbing, he’s topping. All of it. There are definitely great things about a trade like this, both personally and work related.” Once you get over the height challenge, the views can be awe inspiring. “The view is great!” said Wyatt Artemenko as he was readying for an ascent. To safely get up a tree, one has to take a line with a weight attached to it and throw it up in the tree, either by hand or slingshot. Once the line is at- tached, which can be over 100 feet high, the climbing rope is pulled up and the forester is good to climb. “I was going to do plumb- ing, but I tried forestry and it was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it,” Artemenko said as he was readying the weight and the line. “And I’m still en- joying it, so might as well do it. I like that it’s really hands on, it’s outdoorsy. Getting a pretty good workout, learning a lot about trees. My first day here, I probably learned about three different kinds of trees. It’s hard work, but it’s cool.” And it can be dangerous work, which Job Corps knows full well. “Absolutely it’s dangerous,” Crunkilton said. “Once in a while they’ll get cuts and scrapes, but nothing major. The main purpose of the pro- gram, the main priority, is always safety. We’re teaching them the right way. It’s one of the most dangerous fields out there. Learning how to do it the right way is really import- ant. We teach them all of our industry safety standards. If they’re running a chainsaw up in the tree, they always have two separate tie ins. In the event they cut one, it’s still there. There are always two hands on the saw. Wrap your thumbs.” The training saves lives, but it also gives them direction. “We’re basically giving them a head start to get out in the field instead of going through a company’s training program,” Crunkilton said. “They’re al- ready going to be at a certain level where they’ll be able to get promotions and raises a lot quicker. It helps get their foot in the door. A lot of them ha- ven’t had a whole lot of work experience yet, just getting out of high school. They can put this down on their resumes, and it really helps them get a job. We get them industry cer- tifications too, like a chainsaw certification, first aid and CPR cards, pesticide certification.” Most of the students that day were eager to start careers in the forestry field, which is currently in desperate need of workers. According to an Au- gust 2017 article in The Guard- ian, as construction dried up during the Great Recession, so too did the forestry jobs; tim- ber just was not in demand. But when the economy came back, the workers had moved on to less dangerous professions. That’s why programs like Angell Job Corps are working to get younger generations in- terested in the profession again. And so far, it’s working. Eighteen-year-old Tyler Hartman had never had any experience with forestry before Job Corps, coming in just to finish his high school diploma. But now, he’s all in, hoping to get a job in forestry or land- scaping. “I like the physical labor of it,” he said. “You get your own chainsaw, climb trees. You can go home every day, knowing you did something. It’s very satisfying.” For more information about the Angell Job Corps Civil- ian Conservation Center, visit angell.jobcorps.gov/. For more information about Camp Baker, visit www.otcbsa. org/baker/. AUDIT from page 1A cussion is the level of “ma- teriality” that the error or information provided to the auditors meets. In the case of the WLAD report, the actual amount involved was approx- imately $88,000. For SVFR, the amount was less than half of that total. That amount was not judged to be “material.” The much higher WLAD lia- bility number was the reason for the “qualified” designa- tion for that district, although the accounting practices used were the same. It was the total dollars involved that caused the different assessment deter- mination. The difference in the as- sessment does indicate there are issues that may need to be addressed immediately or, in the case of the “qualified” as- sessment given to WLAD, the possible use of personal med- ical plans available to PERS employees would require the district to increase its PERS contributions in order to ad- equately address this possible future financial liability. Mahr’s report was well re- ceived by the SVFR Board of Directors, but the members of the WLAD board decided to immediately address the pend- ing PERS healthcare liability issue. WLAD directors were unan- imous in their meeting with Mahr that they wanted to take whatever action was possible and necessary to avoid the des- ignation of “qualified.” To this end, the board passed a motion to reject the report and take internal actions to meet the potential PERS liability issues immediately. This course of action would require the district to make the financial adjustments to cover any type of liability to PERS. Interim Chief Director Steve Abel, who oversees the admin- istration of both SVFR and WLAD under an intergovern- mental agreement, wants the public to know that the report presented by Mahr to WLAD was a concern that the district takes seriously. “Both SVFR and WLAD take their fiduciary respon- sibility seriously and want to ensure that we are in full com- pliance with Oregon Laws and accounting practices. We are pleased that we are in com- pliance,” Abel said. “Due to a change in audit requirements to fully account for reporting potential future liabilities, we have asked the auditor to in- clude Post Employment Health Benefits report in the WLAD audit, which will allow the audit report to be considered ‘unqualified’ — meaning that there are no significant issues that need to be addressed.” The decision to ask for the audit to be put on hold while the necessary financial ar- rangements were made to cover the potential liabilities will postpone the acceptance and forwarding to state offi- cials of the report but should be accomplished within the timelines required for filing an audit with the state. The use of the term “quali- fied” means the assessment is made with one or more issues highlighted by auditors, which give them pause, or to the firm’s inability to access all the rele- vant information for the audit. This term also may refer to a particular aspect of the organi- zational accounting process or an accounting error that can be adjusted to alter the end deter- mination of the report. Generally, these “qualified” assessments are not the result of serious errors or the result of any type of malfeasance; they are used to indicate an area in the financials that may need closer attention. In WLAD’s case, Mahr’s firm was con- cerned with a potentially un- funded future PERS liability. Another aspect of the dis- FRAA ART CENTER 120 Maple Street Phone: 541-997-4435 Hours Open: Wed-Fri 10am-4pm, Sat 10am-5pm, Sun. 10am-4pm Classes, Workshops & Events Acrylic Pour Art with Pam Nedder Every 1st Saturday. Next one, February 2, 2019, 2-4 pm. Make your own acrylic pour painting. All materials provided. Pre- registration req’d at FRAA or w/ Pam, pam.nedder@gmail.com . Alcohol Ink Wine Glass Workshop with Denise Tarvin Saturday, February 16, 2019, 2-4 pm Learn to apply alcohol ink to wine glasses. All materials provided. Pre-registration req’d at FRAA. NEW! Basic Leather Tooling with Tandy Leather Saturday, February 23, 2019, 2-4 pm Learn basic leather stamping and tooling techniques to make a leather coaster. All materials provided. Pre-registration req’d at FRAA. Big Wave Poetry 1st Tuesday Open Mic Tuesday, February 5, 2019 at 7:00 pm. Celebrate the New Year with Poetry! Admission is free and refreshments will be available. Writers on the River - Creative Writing Workshop w/ Catherine Rourke Writing from the Heart: Find Your True Voice Follow your heart’s call to write! Sat., February 16, 2019 10 am - 12 noon Brand new program ~ 4th annual event! All writing levels and genres, Contact: CJReditor@gmail.com , 541-708-2120 Midnight in Florence Literary Salon FRAA Quarterly Member’s Meeting Tuesday, January 22, 10:00 am. Come learn what we have been doing, upcoming events, and provide inputs for the future. Saturday, February 2, 2019, 6:30-8:30 pm Featured author-poet Jack Karasch Writers Open Mic with Catherine Rourke Free public event $5 donation suggested Contact: CJReditor@gmail.com , 541-708-2120 Winter Music Festival Sponsored by FRAA, held at the FEC, Saturday, January 26, 11-5 pm and Sunday, January 27, 11- 4 pm Join us for this annual event full of music, food and great art. Painting with John Leasure Saturdays 9 am - 12 pm No painting experience required. Contact: jnleasure@hotmail.com or 541-991-2754 for details and fees. For more information about classes, visit fraaoregon.org. To register for these classes, please call or visit FRAA at our Art Center on Maple Street. JARED ANDERSON/SIUSLAW NEWS Job Corps members learn all the safety tips and tree identifiers before climbing them to do necessary work.
