5 minute read

Lumbermen In Earth Day Event

Next Article
OBITIUARIES

OBITIUARIES

The timber industry can use traditionally environmentalist forums to tell their side of the story, and Earth Day seemed a good takeoff point for some Southern California lumbermen.

Dennis Dooley, Dooley Lumber Co., Pasadena, organized a booth at a special Earth Day festival April 2l in Pasadena, co-supported by Sierra Pacific Industries, Redding; Arcadia Lumber, Arcadia, and Lincoln Avenue Lumber & Mill Co., Pasadena.

Tens of thousands attended the Arroyo Seco Earth Festival, held adjacent to the famed Rose Bowl, visiting booths at 12 special theme villages.

The lumber companies staffed an industry booth, handing out redwood seedlings provided by Louisiana-Pacific and Sierra Pacific and literature on the industrv and forest

O'Malley Lumber Sold

The O'Malley Companies, Phoenix, Az., have agreed to sell all their operating units to The Levin Group, a two year old San Francisco. Ca.. investment company headed by Michael D. Levin. While no price was revealed in the transaction, informed sources put it in the area of $15 million.

Under the agreement, Levin gets all inventory and receivables and assumes virtually all liabilities. The O'Malley Lumber Co., which is changing its name to the O'Malley Investment Co., retains 16 pieces of property in Texas and Arizona, essentially debt free. The property, consisting of land and buildings, is expected to be sold offover a period

News Briefs

/(-ontittueLJ lrorrt puge l8) practices supplied by the Western Wood Products Association and California Redwood Association.

Diamond Pactfic Forest Products, a div. of Pacrfic Southeast Forest Products, Diamond Springs, Ca., has opened a Medford. Or.. wholesale offrce dealing in mouldings, millwork, cutstock and lumber, Butch Abbott in charge Stribling Forest hoducts, Los Lunas, N.M., has been reactivated by Parrill Stribling.

But, sighed Dooley, "the one thing that surprised me was that more companies refused to participate financially than did. A lot of the retail yards didn't even know there was a (timber shortage) problem. 'Give $500 for what?' they'd ask."

Grassroots level movements are the key to public awareness, he said. "You need to go to the local communities," Dooley explained. "For many years the Sierra Club has been giving its side of the story with no rebuttal. It's easy to believe when no one is disagreeing. You can do all the statewide television ads you want. But look at those California insurance initiative ads. People didn't go for it; industry didn't win the vote."

Dooley has spoken on radio inter- of time with the proceeds going to O' Malley shareholders. views and talk shows and at city hall meetings. He urges others to attend such town gatherings, seeking support for the lumber industry-supported California ballot measure, The Global Warming & Clear Cutting Reduction Wildlife Protection & Reforestation Act of 1990.

Levin gets these pieces ofground: Mallco Lumber & Building Materials, the Phoenix contractor yard, the El Paso, Tx., contractor yard and a 20 acre undeveloped site in Phoenix at 39th and Buckeye Road.

The total transaction includes seven O'Malley contractor and consumer operations in Phoenix, Mesa. Buckeye, Apache Junction and Sun City, Az., and El Paso, together with Mallco Lumber and Building Materials of Phoenix; O'Malley Builders Hardware of Phoenix; O'Malley Glass operations in Glendale, Az., and Albuquerque, N.M., and a door plant and a remanuflacturing unit in Phoenix.

Japan has agreed to accept more U.S. wood products imports in a new trade deal expected to produce up to $ I billion in increased U.S. export sales. .

American China. Phoenix. Az.. has leased a 27,500 sq. ft. industrial complex for additional finishing and warehouse space as well as corporate offrces and a 2,000 sq. ft. lavatories showroom.

He has found city hall meeting audiences to be "concerned people who don't have all the facts. You can't expect to change everyone. But afterone meeting four or five staunch environmentalists came up to me."

The time for action is now. "We've remained silent for a long time and it hasn't worked," Dooley said. "People might think I'm carrying the water for the mills, but you can't expect the sawmills to hold all the burden. It's also the wholesalers' and retailers' responsibility. If people want to be in the lumber industry, it'd be nice to have lumber.

"Environmental issues are going to be with us for a long time," he added. "They're not going away after Earth Day or after November."

The agreement gives Levin the right to rent the land at fair market values for those operating units where he does not own the land. It is not certain at this time if the new owner will choose to continue all operations formerly owned by the pioneer lumber family. A decision is expected in 30 to 90 days.

Duncan R. Hossack. 38. an 18 year veteran with O'Malley and currently executive vice president, has been named by Levin to manage continuing operations. Shareholders approved the deal April 28 at a meeting in Phoenix. Funding for the transaction, being handled by Chase National Bank of Arizona, was expected to be completed within days.

A class action suit has been filed against WTD lndustries, Inc. Portland Or., on behalf of shareholders

A lleyerhaeuser review board accepted a plan to refocus softwood lumber & plywood & export raw materials as stand alone businesses by product line .. five teams will implement changes, part of the refocusing announced in 1989...

NLBMDA Fires Exec. V.P. Hummel

Harlan Hummel was dismissed as executive vice president of the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association and publisher of the association publication, Building Material Retailer, April 7.

Following his termination during a special executive committee meeting in Washington, D.C., regional associations voted overwhelmingly to approve the action. Although he no longer occupies his oflice at NLBMDA headquarters in Washington, D.C., Hummel will not be o{Iicially terminated for six months, an association spokesperson said.

Because of the two and a half years remaining in his contract with the association, informed sources feel there isa possibility of legal action since Hummel reportedly has obtained legal counsel.

A search committee has been appointed to fill the vacancy. "lt is highly unlikely that the executive committee will choose another lumberman as managing officer," a high official in NLBMDA remarked. "They will probably select someone with an association management background."

Hummel, a lumberman by profession, became executive vice president of NLBMDA in early 1986, several months after the resignation of John Martin.

Ahska Cdminal Charyes Filed

The present owners of an almost 70 year old Seattle, Wa., business are in trouble with the law in Anchorage, Ak.

Six counts of racketeering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice were handed down against Ken Rogstad and Wayne Larkin of H. W. Blackstock Co., according to Peter Gamache, assistant U.S. Attorney in Anchorage.

Rogstad is president and Larkin is head of administration of the company located at 2344 S.W. Spokane Ave. They are the second owners of the company since it was sold by family members in 1970.

Founded in 1921 by Herbert W. Blackstock and Clyde Gourlay as Gourlay-Blackstock Lumber Co., the firm became Blackstock Lumber Co. in the '30s. After the company converted to the manufacture of housing components in the '50s, the name was changed to H. W. Blackstock Co.

Timber Cuts Hurt Horneowner

Timber supply restrictions are increasing the cost of housing, forcing thousands out of the home market.

"Last year the volume of wood withdrawn from harvest in the Pacific Northwest by appeals was enough to build more than 270,000 homes," said Albert Coetzl, American Forest Resource Alliance econo- mlst.

Stumpage prices are almost 1000/o higher than two years ago, he said. Wood products account for about 1 5% ofthe construction cost ofa new home and about 70lo of the price. The average new single family home requires about 13,000 board feet of softwood lumber and 8,500 sq. ft. of wood panels.

Timber supply restrictions also increase prices for home repairs and remodeling, multi-family housing and low-income housing, according to National Association of Home Builders' figures.

This article is from: