Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 2008)
Chamber tours new Boardman sawmill By David Sykes ^ Bessie Wet/ell Newspaper l ibrary University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 VOL. 127 NO. 44 12 Pages Wednesday, October 29, 2008 The first thing you notices as you enter the brand new sawmill getting ready for production near Boardman is “ it ain’t your daddy’s sawmill’’. From its 150 cam eras, to its m ultitude o f com puters, curve cutting saw s and environm ental certification, all the way down to the ‘no tobacco on premises’ rule, this is a mill for the future. Gearing up to start Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Britt bull going to PBR World Finals By David Sykes A bull from the Rog er and Rita Britt Ranch on Upper Rhea Creek is going to the Professional Bull Rid ers World Finals in Las Ve gas, N V, October 31 through November 9. Devils-Door Way is a seven year-old-rodeo bull with a 100 percent buck off rate, and, according to R oger B ritt, has bucked off some o f the best riders on the c irc u it including McKennon Winberly, J.B. Mauney, Kolt Donaldson and Harve Steward. D evils D oor Way has been on the circuit four years and is handled by PBR bull contractor Big Bend Flying 5 Rodeo Co. out o f Ritzville, WA. “This is the first one w e’ve had that has gotten to this level,” says Britt, who, along with wife Rita, raises 10-11 bulls a year for rodeos. The couple also uses a unique way to help out their grandchildren. “ We are in the Bom to Buck program w here each o f our three grandchildren has a bucking stock cow and they get the full scale production, the Collins Companies mill was recently constructed near Boardman in the middle of one o f the grow ing plots on a tree plantation that will feed the mill enough 12 year old fast growing Pacific Albus Popular to produce 40 million board feet of lumber each year. That requires six to eight acres o f trees cut per day from the 25,000 acres near Boardman, and the 8,200 acres the company owns elsewhere. The mill will em ployee 50 people when fully staffed, and m anagem ent says it is still looking for qualified mill workers. There are now only 29 on the job. “We need electricians, a saw filer and a certified grader, as well as general labor,” the head o f human resources said. A complete list o f jobs is available on their web site at: www.collinsco.com/ Careers/. The mill is highly automated and although it can take up to a 30 inch log, the ones from the planta tion are smaller. In order to get the most out o f the log they are computer scanned multiple times while being saw ed, trim m ed and cut. “The computers determine the best way to cut the logs,” says Lee Jimerson, manager o f manufacturing at the mill. He said there is a single pass head rig before the boards go on to re-saw, and the edger can do 60 boards per minute. As the plantation logs all seem to have a curve L-R Lee Jimerson, Manager of Manufacturing Accounts for The Collins Companies, shows Larry Nicholson. Claudia Hughes, Nancy Snider, Jeff Bailey, Shery l Bates and Kricket Nicholson the cut Pacific Albus boards front the new sawmill in Boardman. -Photo by David Sykes in them the large saw actu ally cuts in a curve to get the most out o f the wood. Once the boards are cut and trimmed they are shipped to the dry kiln, which is located on Port of Morrow Industrial property in Boardman. It is operated with surplus steam from the nearby gas powered electri cal cogeneration plant, the boards are sold and used for a variety o f products including: landscape tim bers, pallets, boxes, crating, recreational vehicle parts, veneer, Venetian b linds, furniture, picture frames and ceilings. None o f the tree is wasted as usually one half the tree goes to lumber and the rest to chips. Although the Pacific Albus is considered a hard wood, it is also a good al ternative to many softwood applications. The C ollins C om pany, which is a 153-year- old privately held company, runs the sawmill. The Green wood Company runs the tree -C ontinued on Page THREE M. C. Health District has donated over $883 thousand to Boardman health care facilities since 1999 By April Sykes The Morrow County Health District Board, in the process o f fine-tuning a contract with Columbia River Com m unity Health in Boardman, has indicated that they may not be able to make the previous an nual $70,000 subsidy to the Boardman clinic if MCHD's 39-cent levy pass does not pass on November 4. According to MCHD C hief Financial Officer Ni cole Mahoney, since 1999, Devils Door Way from the Britt Ranch on Upper Rhea Creek the health district has paid will be in Las Vegas at World Finals. -Contributed Photo $ 8 8 3 ,7 3 4 , to B oardm an health care clinics, first to proceeds from the bulls the D evils D oor Way the Boardman clinic, a pri cows produce for their col statistics from PBR web site vate clinic operated by Dr. lege fund,” Britt says. are as follows: Robert Boss and then, start 07-08 Season Career ing in 2004-05 to Columbia Times Ridden 0 out o f 4 times 0 out o f 4 times River Community Health, Percent Ridden 0.0% 0 . 0 % w hich is staffed by Dr. Boss. Buckoff Percent 100.0% 100 . 0 % According to the health dis Average Buckoff Time 3.63 seconds 3.63 seconds trict records, MCHD paid Average Ride Score 0.00 0.00 $ 105,019 to Dr. Boss’ clinic Average Bull Score 43.19 43.19 in 1999-2000; $108,466 in Bull Rating* 21.58 21.58 2000-01; $126,450 in 2001- 02; $121,558 in 2002-03; $140,000 in 2003-04; and $72,240 in 2004-05. MCHD also paid $70,000 to Co lumbia River Community Health in 2004-05 and then paid $70,000 to them in 05- 06 and $70,000 in 06-07. The board has stated Mustangs win district tournament that the CHCH 07-08 pay ment and subsequent pay ments may depend on the passage o f the levy. “ The MCHD Board has voiced several concerns, first, they have learned that an unidentified individual has begun placing signs in B oardm an o p p o sin g the MCHD levy; and second, the Boardm an com m uni ty is being told m islead ing inform ation concern ing the district’s support of the Boardman health care community. MCHD Board member Leann Rea told the board M onday night that one CRHC board member told her that he did not be lieve MCHD has contribut ed financially to CRHC. The MCHD Board has earlier expressed frustration that they haven't been able to communicate to the Board- man community the amount o f monetary support they provide for health care ser vices to the area. In addition to the $883,734 paid to the clin ics, MCHD also operates the Boardman and Irrigon ambulance services, pays salaries for two paramedics stationed in Boardman and one stationed in Irrigon, pays for standby and call back for EMT volunteers, has donated half the monies required to purchase a defi brillator for Riverside High School, provides CPR train ing for the schools, provides two standby ambulances for sporting events, recently purchased a $110,00 am bulance for the Boardman community, provides Home Health and Hospice serv ices for Boardman area residents and a operates a foot clinic in Boardman, currently stalled by Home Health nurse Cher yl Tallman o f Boardman. Vander Does said that the health district provides these services for each community in the district. Unlike Pioneer Me morial Hospital and Pioneer Memorial Clinic in Heppner and the Irrigon Clinic, how ever, which all bring in mon ies for the district, subsidies to Boardman clinics bring in no receipts for the district. MCHD CEO Vic tor Vander Does told the board that while some of the monies from operating the north end ambulances are recouped, the problem has been that while an ambu lance responds to a patient, if -C ontinued on Page THREE Don’t forget to turn back your clocks Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend. Don't forget to turn your clocks hack one hour on Saturday night. The Heppner Mustang volleyball team took first place in the district tournament held in F.nter- prise this past weekend. They Mustangs will host a plav-off game at home on Saturday, Novem ber 1, at 4 p.m. against Lakeview. -Photo hy Sandy Matthews WINTER OVERHAUL! 10% OFF ALL PARTS & LABOR 180 Day, No Payment / No Interest on all qualifying purchases ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 For turn) Mjulpmonl Tlslt our web site at www me«n»t
