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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2018)
News Blue Mountain Eagle OFFICE Continued from Page A1 Carpenter told the court the new hire could take on new cases over time and provide continuity for a new deputy district attorney. Calling the loss of the deputy district attorney a “safety issue,” Commission- er Rob Raschio asked Trea- surer Julie Ellison to look for places in the budget where funds could be shifted to pay for the deputy district attor- ney position. TIMBER Continued from Page A1 market effectively to mass timber, then it could be huge.” Benefits, skepticism Locke describes himself as a “wood guy.” Before join- ing OFRI, he ran a marketing agency, Pipeline Public Re- lations, in Portland, serving clients in the construction in- dustry. Locke is the first director of forest products for OFRI, a position created in 2015 and partially funded by a two-year, $250,000 Wood Innovation Grant from the U.S. Forest Service. He said the job was a perfect fit. “They wanted to promote Oregon wood products into commercial construction,” Locke said. “That has al- ways made sense to me.” First, Locke said, there are cost savings on construc- tion and installation with mass timber. He explained how each floor panel at Al- bina Yard was installed in three hours, whereas with steel and concrete it would have taken twice as big a crew up to a week to do the job. Then there is the environ- mental element. Production of CLT emits 26 percent less greenhouse gases than mak- ing steel, and 50 percent less than concrete. Carbon 12, the Portland condo building, also stores up to 577 metric tons of carbon dioxide in the wood — equivalent to taking roughly 105 cars off the road for one year. CLT was initially devel- oped to create a high-end Raschio noted that the district attorney’s position is paid by the state, but depu- ty district attorney positions across the state are funded either by grants or through a county budget. He called the system of funding deputy district attorneys with grants “a crazy idea.” Jim Sproul noted that Grant County Counsel Ron Yockim may retire soon and the court could consider con- solidating the district attor- ney’s office with the county counsel as a way to pay for a deputy district attorney. use for lumber. Locke said it could also provide a market for small-diameter trees and the wildfire fuels building up in western forests. Others, however, have tempered expectations. Ac- cording to University of Washington and Washington State University researchers, the predicted demand for softwood lumber to manu- facture CLT panels is still less than 1 percent of the annual Pacific Northwest timber harvest, making it a boutique industry at best. Doug Heiken, conserva- tion and restoration coordi- nator for the environmental group Oregon Wild, de- scribed CLT as a side prod- uct of the timber industry that would not change its overall carbon footprint. He said there is no guarantee wood for mass timber would come from sustainable for- estry practices, and not in- dustrial clear-cuts. “Mass timber isn’t really that different from any other timber in that way,” Heiken said. Building codes The main limiting factor, Locke said, are the interna- tional building codes, which are slowly being adapted to catch up to tall wood build- ings. In April, the International Code Council moved to up- date codes allowing for wood buildings up to 18 stories, al- though the proposed changes would not be adopted until 2021 at the earliest. Oregon took the extraordi- nary step in August of adopt- ing the recommendations under its Statewide Alternate Method — the first state to do so. Locke said mass timber Sproul said other Oregon counties combine district at- torney and county counsel offices. Raschio asked Ellison to look into Sproul’s idea, not- ing that while it might help solve the question of how to fund a deputy district attor- ney, it would not solve the problem of funding a victim intervention specialist and special investigator. Grant County Judge Scott Myers, however, noted that Yockim is paid $2,750 per month, which is not enough to fund a replacement Wednesday, September 19, 2018 deputy district attorney. Emergency shelter Raschio also pointed out that the VAWA grant provid- ed 0.75 full-time employee funding for the Heart of Grant County director, and the group will need a director to help in its current efforts to build an emer- gency shelter. The Heart of Grant County, a nonprofit established in 2008 to provide advocacy and sup- port services for victims of do- mestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking, moved into a small house in Contributed photo/Shanna Hall Photography The new mass plywood plant at Freres Lumber Co. near Lyons. has passed every required test and is proving to be just as safe as concrete or steel. Such tests are conducted at the TallWood Design Insti- tute, a collaborative research program of the University of Oregon College of Design and Oregon State University’s College of Forestry and Col- lege of Engineering. Iain Macdonald, associate director of the institute, said 20 to 30 professors are work- ing in research and product development, studying fire performance, building phys- ics, environmental impact and economics. “Urbanization is going to drive a huge demand for housing around the world,” Macdonald said. “Our role is to do applied research on this, to put together educational programs for stakeholders like architects, structural en- gineers and construction com- panies.” Macdonald acknowledged fears about mass timber, es- pecially regarding fire safety. Fire tests involve roasting panels in a furnace at 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit for up to two hours, and Macdon- ald said the results so far are promising. While the surface does char, Macdonald said the inte- rior of the panel remains insu- lated from the heat. He com- pared it to throwing a whole log onto a campfire, versus small pieces of kindling. William Silva, pre-con- struction manager for Swin- erton Builders — the Portland company that built the First Tech’s Hillsboro headquarters — said that as product testing and building codes come to- gether fellow builders should get over their fears. “It’s become more than just a progressive concept,” Silva said. “I see a lot of de- velopers looking at this as a value proposition.” Peavy Hall Not everything has gone smoothly for mass timber de- velopment in Oregon. Just outside Macdonald’s office at the OSU College of Forestry in Corvallis, work is underway on the new Oregon Forest Science Complex that will house the College of For- estry, TallWood Design Insti- tute and replace Peavy Hall on campus. The project is supposed to be a showcase building for the materials, but was hampered earlier this year by a costly and potentially dangerous setback. On March 14, two of seven layers in a third-story CLT panel measuring 30 feet long by 4 feet wide, weighing June 2016 that provided of- fice space and an apartment for emergency shelter service. Prior to that, the only shelter services the organization could provide were at local motels or shelters outside the area. Plans are in the works to build a facility to provide office space and emergency shelter needs. The organization pur- chased a property in John Day, and a Phase 1 environmental study assessment of the proper- ty was conducted using $3,100 from Business Oregon. The court on Sept. 12 ap- proved a request from Eco- nomic Development Coordi- nator Sally Bartlett to submit a pre-application on behalf of Heart of Grant County for a community development block grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Devel- opment. If approved, Heart of Grant County will be invit- ed to submit a formal request. The estimated grant amount is $980,000, which may not be enough to complete the project, according to board minutes. Cost estimates of $366 per square foot for the building run to about $1.2 million. a half-ton, delaminated and fell 14 feet onto the second floor below. Panels for Peavy Hall were manufactured by D.R. Johnson. Nobody was hurt, but the incident did bring con- struction to a halt while offi- cials investigated what went wrong. Evaluations were con- ducted by the general contrac- tor, Andersen Construction, as well as D.R. Johnson and APA — The Engineered Wood As- sociation. OSU also hired KPFF Consulting Engineers of Portland as an independent consultant. They determined D.R. Johnson employees erred when they pre-heated lum- ber in stacks outside during a period of cold weather be- fore gluing them together into CLT. This caused premature curing of the adhesive, weak- ening the bond. Valerie Johnson, president of D.R. Johnson Wood In- novations, said the incident was the product of a “well-in- tentioned, but unfortunate” change in the manufacturing process. She said the compa- ny has added quality control measures, and built a cli- mate-controlled glue layup room in its facility to ensure delamination does not happen again. “We are confident we have rectified the problem perma- nently and have an even better production process as a re- sult,” Johnson said. Andersen Construction authorized D.R. Johnson to resume making panels for Peavy Hall, and construction resumed in July. In its project specifica- tions, OSU stipulates that CLT components for Peavy must be manufactured within 300 miles of Corvallis. D.R. Johnson is the only certified CLT fabricator that meets the requirement. OSU spokesman Steve Clark said engineers are still determining how many pan- els already installed at the complex may need to be re- placed. The project is divided into three zones, with Zone 3 needing 45 of 71 panels re- placed. Analyses are not yet competed for Zones 1 and 2. “Ultimately there is some expense and delay,” Clark said. The 95,000-square-foot complex is now expected to open by January 2020. The total cost is now $79 million, of which $30 million comes from state bonds, $38 million in donations and $11 million in university funding. Despite the problem, sup- porters of CLT do not ap- pear to be fazed. Clark said the university remains “very committed and confident” in the future of CLT. Locke de- scribed it as a “blip” in the process. Macdonald said it was an anomaly. “We really have not heard about this happening on a CLT project around the world,” Macdonald said. “It’s good that this deviation in the manufacturing process was caught. We’re not concerned about the long-term impact.” Eagle Cap Excursion Train Saturdays: Sept. 29, Wine & Cheese Train October 6 & 13, Train Robberies October 20, Season’s Bounty Elgin Depot 800.323.7330 Descriptions & Tickets at www.eaglecaptrainrides.com Gordon Larson for Grant County Commissioner A Vote For Grant County’s Future Gordon is a local rancher, businessman, and retired Oregon State Police Lieutenant. He served for 12 years on the Grant County School District #3 Board of Directors. Let him put that experience to work for Grant County. BARGAIN MATINEE IN ( ) Adults $7 ALL FILMS $6 ON TIGHTWAD TUESDAY MOVIE SCHEDULE SEPT 21 - SEPT 27 Monday, September 24 th , 2018, Prairie City Senior Center 79904 Tuesday, September 25 th , 2018, Mount Vernon Community Center Visit Gordon’s Campaign Page on Facebook, or GordonLarsonforGrantCountyCommissioner.com Set in the forested canyon near Lyons, Freres Lumber Co. has pioneered a new form of mass timber to sustain its business and 470 employees. The company, founded in 1922, debuted its new mass plywood factory in December 2017, a sparkling $40 million, four-acre facility that manu- factures panels using veneer lumber up to 12 feet wide, 48 feet long and 24 inches thick. Tyler Freres, co-owner and vice president of sales, said the company received patents for its mass plywood panels earlier this year. He believes mass plywood is a more effi- cient product than CLT, using 20 percent less wood while holding up in every facet of construction. “This is a truly unique fa- cility,” Freres said. “We had to design all the processes ourselves.” Freres, who lives in nearby Stayton, said the prosperity of local schools and commu- nities is tied to the success of the timber industry. Mass tim- ber can be a lifeline, he said, though it will require a more productive approach to thin- ning federal forests to boost volume. In the 1970s, Oregon’s timber harvest totaled more than 8 billion board-feet, ac- cording to the state Office of Economic Analysis. To- day, the timber harvest has dropped by more than half that amount, and logging on federal lands is down nearly 90 percent. “It’s been an absolute di- saster, losing timber,” Freres said. Freres said mass plywood will be key to supporting his family’s business for another 100 years. He said the com- pany receives many inquiries from builders interested in mass plywood. “The potential is almost limitless,” he said. 1809 First Street • Baker City • (541)523-5439 Meet the Candidate Nights Thursday, September 27 th , 2018, Dayville Church Rural prosperity SEARCHING (PG-13) After his 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a father breaks into her laptop to look for clues to find her. FRI & SAT (4:10) 7:10 9:35 SUNDAY (4:10) 7:10 MON-THURS 7:10 THE PREDATOR (R) When the universe’s most lethal hunter returns to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soliders and a disgruntled science teacher can save the human race. FRI & SAT (4:20) 7:00 9:30 SUNDAY (4:20) 7:00 MON-THURS 7:00 THE NUN (R) Horror. A priest confronts a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun. FRI & SAT (4:20) 7:20 9:40 SUNDAY (4:20) 7:20 MON-THURS 7:20 $9 Adult, $7 Senior (60+), Youth 79492 A10
