WESTERN ASS0C[A1r[0N NEWS

Lumber Merchants Association will hold its annual owners seminar April 19-21 in San Diego, Ca. Attorney Laura Innes will address a variety of labor law issues, and Dr. Rick Eigenbrod, Ph.D, will address making the most of relationships, aimed at helping individuals discover their own style and showing how to use it in managing and using differences, communication, problem solving and learning.

Other features: a roundtable session led by seminar founder Bruce Pohle, Southern Lumber Co., two group dinners and golf.

The second annual Associates/ Dealers Golf Tournament will be held June 10 at the Fountaingrove Country Club, Santa Rosa, Ca., followed by a barbecue and awarding ofprizes.

Mike Palmer, Martin Forest Products, is chairman of the tournament committee, with members Andy Thompson, Ace Hardware; Bob Aita, Q&A Insurance Marketing; Larry Hoffman, Lumbermen's Underwriting Alliance, and John Souza, Diablo Timber Co.

The outing will benefit the Bob Patterson Scholarship Fund, which each year awards $500 scholarships to recognize commitment to the industry, outside training, self-directed study, industry knowledge, leadership ability and future contributions to the industry.

This year's winners are John Duddleston. Mead Clark Lumber: Dave Houck, Central Valley Builders Supply; Wayne Ingram, Payless Building Supply; Maria Navarro,

Fischer Lumber Co., and Bret Black, Fairfax Lumber Co.

Western

Building Material

Association's Young Westerners Club elected Bruce Abel. Don Abel Building Supplies, president during its annual conference in Coeur d'Alene, Id. Natasha Edscorn, Weyerhaeuser, is vice president, and John Humphrey, Humphrey Lumber, secretary-treasurer,

Trustees are: Rick Estes, Kingston Lumber Supply; Steve La Marr, Builders Lumber & Millwork; Teny Brown, Weyerhaeuser; Russ Vance, Gerretsen Building Supply; Dennis Pahick, Irrigators Lumber, and Steve Levers. Boise Cascade.

WBMA members attending the National Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association's annual legislative conference and board meeting in Washington, D.C., were WBMA executive director Mary Murphy, national director Merlyn Jolley, vice president Carl Van Well, and past presidents Bob Jacobsen, Robert Kerr and Tad Scharpf.

The WBMA region was honored to have Senator Larry Craig (R-Id.) as a featured speaker at the conference.

Big Fines For lllegal Exports

Patrick Lumber Co., Portland, Or., was ordered to pay $265,000 in fines for shipping lumber to Libya, a violation of a 10-year-old U.S. trade embargo.

The firm pleaded guilty Nov. 28 to two counts of violating the embargo and agreed to pay $225,000 for both counts (see The Merchant, Jan., p. 33). The U.S. district judge ordered the company to pay the amount immediately, as well as $20,000 to the U.S. Treasury Department within 15 days and $20,000 to the U.S. Department of Commerce within 30 days.

Company officials contend that without their knowledge an ambitious, young former trader worked with Patrick's Austria-based trader to ship southern yellow pine through Italy and then to Libya.

Patrick Lumber is also preparing to go to trial in June against another former trader seeking $ 1 1.3 million because he was fired after allegedly reporting the illegal shipments to company officers and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Shippers Oppose Rail Merger

The nation's largest shipper group is protesting Union Pacific Corp.'s $3.9 billion takeover of Southern Pacific Rail Corp., unless the merger is substantially altered.

Arguing the merger would have "substantial anticompetitive effects," the 1,400-member National Industrial Transportation League filed comments with the federal Surface Transportation Board, which will ultimately rule on the deal, requesting that the combined company divest thousands of miles of routes to protect competition in the West.

Barr Buys Reliable Lumber

Barr Lumber. Los Alamitos, Ca., has acquired the assets of Reliable Lumber Inc.. Rosemead, Ca., as its 1Oth retail location.

Jerome M. Higman, Sr., established Reliable Lumber in 1929, managing the business until his death in 1946. His widow, Ann, managed the yard until she was joined by her two sons, Jerry and Dan, in 1960, but remained active until her death in 1993.

Jerry and Dan Higman will concentrate their efforts on Reliable Wholesale Lumber, Inc., Huntington Beach, Temple City and Fontana, Ca.