MOUN[AIN $ilATE$

By KENT MOXEY executive vice oresident

News Around the Region

Fred Deike and the missus have owned and operated the Burns Lumber and Implement for 22 years; they took a short vacation I 0 years ago, but other than that, Fred has missed only two days work in all those years. Their 48 Chevy truck has 511,000 miles on it - still runs and looks good! They look forward to retiring from business soon.

Steve Harper, Manager for years at Logan County Lumber in Sterling bought a farm in Missouri and moved to it. New manager there is JoRush Snow.

Bill O'Neill bought Charles Stroup Lumber in Fort Morgan, now O'Neill & Sons Lumber Co.. 20085 Hiwav 34 (no P.O. Box). Bi-tl was with Dale Rice & Son Lumber in Pueblo a few years back, nice guy.

Keith Hagen, manager at Wyoming Lumber Co. in Pine Bluffs has been in the hospital with a heart attack, word is he is doing ok. John Buckingham at

Buffalo is finishing up a large new building and retail store, looks good.

Welcome to the followine new associate members of the associalion: o Potlatch Corp. P.O. Box 15308, Lakewood, Colo. 80215, Bill Cherry. o Lifetime Fence Co. P.O. Box 29347. Denver, Colo.80229, Chuck Looney. c Boddington Lumber Co. P.O. Box 819, Colo. Springs, Colo. 80901, Bill Boddington. o Kaibab Industries P.O. Box 7, Midvale, Utah 84047, Carl Davies. o Taylor Building Products, 5081 Kjngston St. Denver 80239, James A. Nimmo.

Your safety progxam needs attention! It is easy to become lax: (1) Make a regular inspection to be sure you have a clean, orderly, safe place to work (2) Check for guards on machinery (3) Check for accumulations of trash (4) Correct any disorderly areas - now that cold weather is here you can take thetime to build shelves, racks, etc. to facilitate efficient, orderly storage (5) We all have an area that could be improved - the boss takes the lead - the employees catch on (6) A spirit of pride makes it happen.

I{EARLY 300 customers of Weyerhaeuser's Anaheim, Ca. operation were leted recently with a Nelvport Harbor cruise. They later docked for cocktails and dinner. Among the mob was Ganahl Lumber's John Wogan (1) and date Kathy. (2) Thelma and Arnold Nutter, of Inland Lumber Co. (3) Norma and Jack Rollins (Royal Plywood), Fred Field.

CAPE CANAVERAL? Nope, it's Plum Creek Lumber Company's new $1072 million medium density fiberboard operation in Columbia Falls, Montana. Plant's utilization of waste shavings, sawdust and trim amounts to what nine teepee burners could incinerate a day, an important ecological point in environment-minded western Montana. Annual production is estimated at 70 million sq. lt., at 3/4" thickness. Plant covers 4.6 acres under one roof , will employ .120 at lull lour-shift capacity, including weekends. Plum Creek has a total payroll of more than 600.

Pension Funds for Housing

National Forest Products Assn. launched a drive at its Fall meeting in New Orleans, La., for more investments by pension funds in home mortgages or mortgage-backed securities as a means of stimulating home building. Curing the depression in housing was the major theme running through the November meeting. Record attendance was a measure ofthe concern throughout the industry.

A resolution adopted noted that private and public pension funds comprise the largest growing source of savings in the U.S. and pledged NFPA support for efforts that:

(l) encourage pension funds to invest "a meaningful percentage of their assets" in mortgages or mortgage-backed securities:

(2) persuade private pension funds, especially those in building materials and forest products companies and their affiliates, of "the soundness and wisdom" of such investments, and

(3) assist government agencies and private entities issuing mortgage-backed securities in making arrangements which "will more readily meet the needs of pension funds and compete more favorably with other types of investment se curi tie s. "

NFPA also called on the forest products industry to "take positive, affirmative action to bring into balance existing federal laws and programs dealing with land use." This resolution said no new Federal land use legislation affecting state and private lands should be sought. However, it said efforts should be made to insure that any such measures, if proposed, will "advance the objectives of the forest industry."

Are Metrics Years Away?

Any official action on converting to the use of metric measurement is expected to be several years in the future according to reports from the recent San Francisco meeting of the American Lumber Standards Committee. Despite some earlier conjecture, there was no official discussion of metrication, according to observers.