iation news

Lumber Association of California & Nevada is hosting a pair of Know Your Lumber seminars, Feb. 12 in Northern California and Feb. 13 in Southern California.

Presented by Rich Geary and Frank Stewart, Western Wood Products Association, the product knowledge seminars will cover standards and grading, characteristics and identification, seasoning, structural lumber, design values, special structural lumber, non-structural lumber, storage and handling, and environmental update.

LACN's Second Growth group held its final meeting of the year Dec. 6 in Cerritos, presided over by outgoing president Pete Ganahl, Ganahl Lumber Co. Nominated as next year's officers are incoming president Bob Baxter, Barr Lumber Co.; v.p. Lisa Randel, Barr Lumber; secretary Rex Klopfer, Ganahl Lumber; treasurer David Abbott, Hampton Distribu- tion Co., and member-at-large Jim Nicodemus, Weyerhaeuser Co.

For coverage of LACN's recent fall conference, see p.44-45.

Mountain States Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association is sponsoring Bill Darling estimating courses throughout January.

Blueprint reading classes will be held Jan. 7 in Casper, Wy., and Jan. 14 in Denver, Co. Residential framing lumber estimating seminars are set for Jan. 8-10 in Casper, Jan. 15-17 in Denver, andJan. 29-31 in Albuquerque, N.M.

Western Building Material Association has rescheduled its annual convention and buying show to Jan. 24-25 at the Doubletree Lloyd Center, Portland, Or. The event, originally planned for November in Bellevue, Wa., was postponed due to a drop-off in registrations.

Council Touts Treated Safety

A new Treated Wood Council has been formed to unify the resources of the treated wood and wood products manufacturing industries in developing a constructive, fact-based dialog about the safety of preservative treated wood products.

The group will promote the use of sound science as CCA treated wood is evaluated at every level of government and in the press, and work to foster broad implementation of the enhanced Consumer Awareness Program. It has already enlisted a communications firm to conduct a poll and focus group study.

William Currie, Universal Forest Products, is chairman of the council's executive committee, which also includes David Fowlie. CSI: Brian Greber, Weyerhaeuser; Bert Jones, Mid States Wood; Art McGowen, International Paper; Jimmy Rane, Great Southern Wood; John Taylor, Osmose, and Steve Wisnewski, Arch Wood Protection.

Parker Brugge newly appointed president of American Wood Preservers Institute, will also serve as executive director of the Treated Wood Council.

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Wa., and Highlands Ranch, Co.

The stores feature products bundled by project type rather than product category, in departments such as "Home Safe Home" for home security, "Organize Your Life" for organizing systems, and "Solutions Place" for di-y projects.

"Research shows that the big box approach to home improvement overwhelms many customers," said executive v.p.-retail Ray Griffith. "Which is why we have developed the Home Solutions Concept Stores."

Ace chose Houston and Denver based on U.S. Census Bureau figures showing sharp increases in the number of homeowners in those metropolitan areas.

ACE HARDWARE'S HomeSolutions Conceot Stores feature deoartments organized by project type, not product type; below is the "Organizing Your Life" department.

COLORADO PIONEER: Ace's Highlands Ranch,Co., store (above) is oneofonly lwo Home Solutions Concept Stores;nine more prototypes are olanned.

New Store Concepts For Ace

Ace Hardware Corp. plans to open nine new prototype Home Solutions Concept Stores during the next l8 months.

The stores are what Ace calls their "solutions-based approach to home improvement," with more than 34,000 products featuring color-coded aisles organized by project themes to assist customers.

Five new stores are expected to open in the Houston, Tx., area and four more in the Denver, Co., area. Cunently, there are only two prototypes in the country: Longview,

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Ex-Trinity Worker Charged

A former controller of Trinity River Lumber Co., Weaverville, Ca., has been arrested by federal agents on suspicion of embezzling more than $7 million.

Thomas Edward Van Luven. 45. is

Doug Fir Logs Take A Dip

Douglas fir logs owned by Harwood Products, Branscomb, Ca., spilled into the Pacific Ocean as rough seas toppled a barge 30 miles off the Oregon coast.

The log barge, owned by Pacific Link, Vancouver, British Columbia, originated in Vancouver and was car- accused of 46 counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering over a five-year period. He allegedly wired money to personal accounts and to a rare-coin dealer. rying 13,000 cubic meters of logs Nov. l3 when it was hit by what Pacific Link officials called "a rosue wave." when he was subsequently fired on suspicion of stealing.

Van Luven started at Trinity in 1996 and worked until Julv 2001.

Harwood Products resource mgr. Jim Little said no recovery operations have been planned yet, although there have been reports of logs washing ashore in Washington.

If convicted. Van Luven could face up to 270 years in prison.

Pacific Settles Out Of Court

Pacific Lumber Co.. Scotia. Ca.. has settled a lawsuit out of court with the family of an activist killed on its land by a felled tree.

David Nathan Cain was killed on Sept. 17, 1998 as he protested logging operations on Palco's property near California's Gnzzly Creek State Park. That day, after an argument with Cain and EarthFirst activists, Palco employee A.E. Ammons cut a 135-ft. tree that

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No criminal charges were ever filed against Ammons.

As part of the settlement, Palco agreed to leave the tree where it fell, with a 100-ft. no-logging buffer surrounding it. Additionally, a memorial will be erected on company property and a community roundtable will be formed to address logging practices.

The financial terms of the asreement were not released.

Supply Partners At Odds

Both manufacturers and distributors admit a lack of commitment and trust between them is the greatest barrier to improved sales performance and profitability, reports a new study.

The survey by Industrial Performance Group survey found that34%o of both manufacturers and distributors have "low" expectations for improved relations in the next two years. Only 2O7o of respondents felt there was a "high" chance of cementing better relationships in the future, whereas 45Vo chose "moderate" to describe the likelihood of improved relationships.

Survey respondents also cited other concerns, including insufficient investment in people and technology, short-term financial performance pressure, and failure to understand and respond to changes in the industry.

The survey was conducted between August and October of this year, and included more than 500 manufacturers and distributors.

A summary can be found online at www. indusperfgrp. com.

Depot Eyes Web Shoppers

Home Depot recently launched its Home Depot Outlet and Online Holiday Gift Center, two e-commerce programs designed to test the viability of building product sales on the Internet.

The Online Holiday Gift Center, which is linked to the main Depot site, features 200 items that range in price from $5 to $500, including small appliances, power tools, grills and other items.

"Our gift center is designed to complement our regular online sales retail store," said v.p.-e-business Rebecca W. Bass. "For the (gift center) we've selected items that will make thoughtful gifts."

The gift center will be taken down Dec. 26 and thenre-activated for Valentines Day.

The Home Depot Outlet is a pilot program that was launched in partnership with online bidding site eBay.

According to Home Depot's Don Harrison, a select inventory of products, including power tools, has been put up for bidding on eBay's Web site. Customers also have the option of buying the items directly at Depot's own Web site. cn +. (-() Fd h L +) CN !|E t -leH o q)-E €) ; -I a N a-\ v ,-\ v N tr-c) cd 5-o HC/)'i.". 5!?n, 9B;i 11 C.) ',S€g E:F E .9F c E A^63c) -.= <) > !'lH U)(gl-oZ Y 5 -.vLAEQztd>' I ^- A.r!HV-;\ - 7 xp !Ez>'a-tv Y!A_ -AFL .FVHA -r-AV coSd= ?'E +E ",x d E L-l-{ iiddu P >.;5

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