The Long View Partner Spotlights

the lonG view partner spotliGhts The Long View Project would be impossible without the financial and creative support of our sponsor partners. During the coming year the Reader will feature brief profiles of these partners — highlighting their relationship to Longview and interest in its history.

Legacy Sponsor Nick Lemiere / Edward Jones

His sponsorship honors his ancestors with thanks for all who have gone before him to bring his family to Longview.

Oscar and Doris Lemiere at R.A. Long High School

Though my family wasn’t here for the founding of Longview in 1923, we feel fortunate to have roots here since 1925. I’m grateful to live in this community, operate a business, and raise a family in Longview. I’m thankful for all those who have gone before me to bring us to this little corner of Southwest Washington, and look with hope to what this city will be like in the next 100 years. What would Robert A. Long say if he could see this city today? What would we say if we could see this city 100 years from now? May we all be agents of the good and just to see this city thrive for the next 100 years! I am fortunate to have four wonderful grandparents, Duane and Gloria Nordstrom, and Oscar and Doris Lemiere. Each have unique and interesting stories of our ancestors coming to America, and eventually settling in Longview. The Nordstroms have great grandparents who came from Norway and Sweden in the 1860s. The Lemieres are more recent settlers, whom I’d like to share about here.. Cyrille and Palmyre LaMiere boarded the White Star Line in 1920 leaving Antwerp, Belgium, heading across the Atlantic for the United States. Palmyre had a sister who had already settled in the distant state of Washington, and she encouraged them to come to her small town of Elk (north of Spokane), where a lumber mill had plenty of jobs. As a humble shoe cobbler in post-World War I Belgium, Cyrille was looking for steady income. When they arrived in Ellis Island, their last name was changed to “Lemiere,” and they were given a small silk American flag, which we still proudly display. They continued the long journey across the United States to Elk and joined Palmyre’s sister. After working here for a short time, the mill unfortunately shut down, but another lumber mill in Longview was hiring. Cyrille moved again, to this new “planned city” in 1925, finding work at the Long-Bell Lumber Co. The last of Cyrille and Palmyre’s four children, Oscar Lemiere , was born in September 1925 here in Longview, being the only member of the family born in the United States. He was the first child baptized in St. Rose Catholic Church. He left RA Long High School early to join the Marine Corps in 1944 to fight in World War II, serving much of his time in Guadalcanal. When he returned, he married his high school sweetheart, Doris Shepard, and got his degree from the University of Oregon. He played football for the Ducks, and spent most of his career teaching and coaching at Lower Columbia College. •••

People+Place Then and Now Sponsor Busack Electric

Keeping it in the Family

The Busack Family founded Busack Electric more than 50 years ago with $15,000 and two pickup trucks. They had lived in Rainier before moving to Longview and settling on 40 acres on Robertson Road, in the Mill Creek area west of town. At first, Larry Busack used the big kitchen counter at home to roll out the plans and paperwork. Within five years, they’d established an office in downtown Longview (on the present site of Fibre Federal Credit Union), with 20 employees working off site on electrical jobs. Of their electrical work, which also included some residential and commercial, “Industrial was my favorite,” Larry recalled. In later years, the company moved its office to Industrial Way and Columbia Boulevard and by the late 1990s, had grown the company to 90 employees. “You still feel like family when you work for this company,” said Andy Busack. “You can walk into the boss’s office and talk about anything that’s on your mind. We look out for each other.”

Over the years, Busack Electric has done work for Weyerhaeuser, NORPAC, Longview Fibre Company, Triangle Shopping Center, Fibre Federal Credit Union, Red Canoe Credit Union, and Foster Farms, among others. Whether it’s original construction, remodels, or simply supplying maintenance and upgrading services, the company enjoys a strong regional, and even national reputation. “We’re proud of the fact that we do it right, and safely,” said Andy, “We’ve been recognized for sixteen straight years by the National Electrical Contractor’s Association for having an accident-free workplace.” Larry retired in 1999 and Busack Electric has since transitioned from one generation to another, presently operated by son Andy and his wife Kelli. “He’s like the big cheese,” Kelli joked about her father-in-law. “Comes in, sees what’s going on.” Thursday is family dinner night for the Busacks at Antidote Tap House, Kelli and Andy’s “other business,” which started as a hobby and now thrives in its downtown Longview and Woodland locations.

Integrity, kindness, and truth are their company’s stated values. “Even if you’re not going to make a dime on a job, “ Kelli said, “you have to be honest. Longview is a great community,” she said. “It has a core community of people who take care of each other.” “That’s missing from a lot of corporate America… where you’re just an employee number,” said Andy. “It’s why we’ve been here for those four generations.” Electricians still abound within the Busack Family. “I think you’d be hard pressed to find twelve members of one local family all in one trade,” said Andy. “And that represents four generations.”

Andy Busack and his dad, Larry Busack in 1998.

Logos: Busack Electric’s original sign (top); its current logo. Below: Logo for Antidote Taphouse, which began as Andy and Kelli’s hobby.