Rough & Ready Shuts Down after 90 Years

Rough & Ready Lumber closed its 90-year-old mill in Cave Junction, Or., last month. The company's kiln and shipping operations are expected to close by late May.

"We deeply regret having to close the family lumber business that my Orchard Supply Hardware has opened two stores in the Portland, Or., area-its first locations outside California.

The 41,000-sq. ft. stores with 12,000-sq. ft. garden centers in Beaverton (Mike Wickstrom, store mgr.) and Tigard, Or., opened April27, bringing the chain to 91 units.

OSH also held a May 4 grand opening in Yorba Linda, Ca. (Richard Penticoff, store mgr.).

Ace Hardware opened a 10,386sq. ft. store in Green Valley, Az., April 5 (Mark Hoffman, owner/store mgr.).

Workbench True Value Hardware, Castro Valley, Ca., will open store #4 Aug. 1 in Pleasanton, Ca.

Parkrose Ace Hardware. Portland, Or., held a grand re-opening celebration last month to show off its $500,000 remodel.

Astoria Builders Supply's former yard in Astoria, Or.-shuftered since September-has been acquired by the neighboring Columbia River Maritime Museum.

Builder's Choice, Anchoraoe. Ak., has ioined Lumbermeis Merchandising Corp., wayne, Pa. The buying group now has members in all 50 states.

Habitat for Humanity of Utah Countv ooened its second ReStore hom-e improvement outlet April25 in Spanish Fork, Ut.-the sixth anniversary of its Orem, Ut., store.

Anniversaries: Fisher Hardware & Lumber Co., Santa Monica, Ca., 90th Monument Lumber Co.. Freedom Ca.,60th ... Pacific Coast Building Products, Sacramento, Ca..60th grandparents founded in 1922," said c.e.o. and co-owner Jennifer Phillippi.

The company had considered a $2 million upgrade, slated to begin in 2014, but couldn't overcome problems with obtaining a sufficient supply of logs.

"We can't justify the cost with an inadequate, unpredictable log supply supporting only one shift," said Phillippi.

The Phillippi and Krauss families will continue managing Perpetua Forest Co., which sells timber from its private forestlands to other mills.

Hayward Buys Bay Area Yard

Hayward Corp., Monterey, Ca., expanded its presence in the Bay Area with its acquisition of T&H Building Supply, Redwood City, Ca.

"T&H Building Supply will give Hayward a platform to offer its complete line of building products to new and existing customers in the Bay Area," said president, c.e.o., and chief sustainability officer William E. Hayward. "It will dovetail with our newest Design Center in Menlo Park."

Hayward, in business since 1919, has six lumberyards in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties, as well as six Hayward Design Centers, and a truss manufacturing facility (Hayward Building Systems) in Santa Maria, Ca.

The new acquisition will offer a full-service lumberyard, roof trusses, Hayward Fast Floor, and Zehnder Comfosystem, a whole house air management system distributed exclusively in California by Hayward Corp.

"Hayward will give T & H additional resources to offer more products and even better values to our existing customer base," said Carol (Hodgson) Ebner, president and c.e.o. of T&H Building Supply, who will stay on.

OSH Gets Delay from Lenders

Orchard Supply Hardware, San Jose, Ca., now has until June 30 to reach a deal with its lenders to deleverage, modify or otherwise address the company's capital structure.

"Orchard continues to make solid progress in our efforts to strengthen our capital structure and improve our operating performance," said c.e.o. and president Mark Baker. "Our supplier partners have done a great job helping to keep our inventories at appropriate levels, even while we have been outperforming our sales plan through the start of the spring season."

In February, OSH had wamed that it could default on a $55.2 million loan, if the previous May I deadline was not extended. Restructuring lawyers were then hired, to help negotiate a new agreement.

Mendocino Redwood Strikes Logging Deal

Mendocino Redwood Co.. Ukiah. Ca., has promised to improve conservation measures on 332 square miles of redwood forest in return for an 80year federal and state permit to disturb the habitat of up to 42 endangered and threatened plants and animals as part of its timber harvesting operations.

Although Mendocino would not be permitted to deliberately kill protected wildlife, it would be allowed to cause limited damage to habitat and population during routine timber operations.

The company believes that the new arrangement will be better than trying to manage the environment with a patchwork of separate permits. "If you think about that large ownership like ours, that's not the most effective way" to manage a forest, said Michael Jani, president and chief forester of Mendocino Redwood.

In return for the blanket permit, the company pledges to expand its existing conservation efforts, including preserving the scattered patches of old-growth forest and improving fishspawning habitat in the adjacent streams and rivers, which have reportedly suffered under traditional logging practices since the 1850s.

Environmentalists like the proposed conservation measures, but fear that the 8O-year lifespan of the permit would make it hard to challenge the company if the preservation plans don't succeed.

"That is just simply too long a time period," said Andrew Orahoske, conservation director of the Humboldt County-based Environmental Protection Information Center, "particularly since many of these species are on the brink of extinction on the Mendocino coast."