Horizon winter 2014

Horizon

Winter

2014

Strong Foundations For the Future

• Pend Oreille Mine • Priest River Industrial Park• Aerospace Industry • Idaho Forest Group • Port of Pend Oreille • Kalispel Natural Resources Department A supplement publication of the Newport and Gem State Miner Newspapers

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File photo

The entrance to C&D Zodiac in Newport is more visible since the old McDonald’s building was torn down. See story on page 29.

Horizon photo|Fred Willenbrock

The Idaho Forest Group office in Laclede is a historic landmark. See story on page 8.

Cover photo: David Bluff This photo by David Bluff shows the beauty and serenity of the Pend Oreille River. The river figures prominently in the history and the future of the Kalispel Tribe.

Horizon: PUBLISHED: December 2014 PUBLISHER: Fred Willenbrock WRITERS & EDITORS: Desireé Hood, Don Gronning, Michelle Nedved and Fred Willenbrock DESIGN: Charisse Neufeldt, Michelle Nedved, Pandi Gruver ADVERTISING: Lindsay Guscott, Beth Gokey, Cindy Boober and Susan Willenbrock HORIZON is published quarterly as a supplement to The Newport Miner and Gem State Miner, 421 S. Spokane, Newport WA 99156.

TELEPHONE: 509-447-2433 E-MAIL: theminer@povn.com.

FAX: 509-447-9222 Reproduction of articles & photographs is prohibited without permission of the publisher. See all issues at The Miner Online: www.pendoreillerivervalley.com

Index: Pend Oreille Mine starts production Page 4

P U B LI S H E R’S N OTE

Idaho Forest Group mill going strong at Laclede

We found great economic news in Pend Oreille Valley

Page 8

Priest River Industrial Park hub of manufacturing Page 12

Kalispels manage abundant natural resources Page 16

E

ven though the Pend Oreille Valley economy is still recovering from a recession started in 2008, there have been growing signs of a brighter future all year long.

The Miner staff thought it would be inspirational for the community to read about these bloomers. So this Horizon magazine is dedicated to stories and pictures about major economic engines in our communities. We picked the ones we felt currently are on the cutting edge even though there are many others driving the recovery.

Some of the ones we have included are in places people will find surprising and others are involved in industries many thought dead.

These stories represent only the tip of the iceberg of a resource based economy on the move. They show a strong desire by many to invest in the future of our communities and their stories are fascinating. Their stories are important to everyone living and working here.

-Fred J. Willenbrock Publisher Winter 2014|Horizon 3

Courtesy photo|Teck Washington

Miners work underground at the Pend Oreille Mine. Mine General Manager Mark Brown said the current work is focused on the crusher and the conveyor that lifts the ore to the surface.

Teck mine starts producing Housing shortage in north county

BY DESIREÉ HOOD

during the second half of December.

Brown said they have hired 209 employees on their way to a target of 236. More than 3,000 people from around the world applied to work at the mine.

“I think there is a very positive attitude in the three

towns,” Brown said of Metaline, Metaline Falls and Ione.

“I think, certainly, a benefit to the area.”

The workers recently ran ore and rocks through various parts of the mine system to find any issues and fix

Ore deposits were found along the Pend Oreille River in 1811 and gold was sought through the 1860s, having been found between Metaline Falls and Z Canyon, south of the Canadian border. This brought large groups of Chinese immigrants as some of the first miners, as well as many prospectors to work the gravel and sandbars of the river.

The gold was not striking the miners rich, however, but the gold prospecting led to finding lead and zinc deposits in the Metaline Mining District. In 1869, the first ore deposits were reported and the first claim filed in 1873.

Lead and zinc were not in demand in the late 1800s, but as the economy grew, demand for the metals also grew.

In 1910, the Idaho and Washington Northern

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209 people are settling in

‘Towns doing good and the economy is getting better. It’s good to see.’

around north Pend Oreille

Phil Cartwright

M

achines have been tested and

County as Teck mine ramps up for the first production of zinc and lead concentrates since the mine closed in 2009.

“Most of the systems we have are ready to go,” Mine General Manager Mark Brown said, adding the first production of zinc and lead concentrates would be shipped 4 Horizon| 2014 Winter

County rich in ore deposits

Manager of the Pend Oreille Apartments and Historic Miners Hotel

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

them. Brown said this would help ensure the equipment is ready to mine concentrates safely.

The stationary equipment has been upgraded over the past month. Brown said the shaft conveyances have been replaced, including new compartments in the “elevator” that lifts the ore crusher.

‘I think there is a very positive attitude in the three towns. I think, certainly, a benefit to the area.’

Mark Brown

Pend Oreille Mine General Manager

The work is currently focused on the crusher and the conveyor that lifts the ore to the surface. Work is also being done to secure safety for long-term use.

Almost every part in the processing plant has been rebuilt, replaced or refurbished, for an energy efficient system that requires less maintenance, Brown said. This allows ore to be processed into concentrate by the mill crews.

Brown said the 25-year-old pump that carries water 1,000 feet up from the mine was replaced, improving the efficiency and reliability of the pumping system.

“I think the group here has done a great job,” Brown said.

It will take three to four months to meet full production mode, but by April 1, 2015, Brown said the mine should be producing 2,200 tons of mill feed a day.

Mill feed is ore to the processing plant where the ore is ground and separated into zinc minerals, lead minerals and waste minerals. Annually, Brown said they should produce 44,000 tons of zinc contained in concentrates each year.

“We will work up to that rate and that’s the rate we are targeting for the next five years,” Brown said. He said that would continue to be the target if mine exploration after five years shows more concentrates are available.

About 10-12 trucks of concentrate will be driven across the Canadian border to the smelter in Trail, B.C., about 50 miles from the mine, on a daily basis. The state rebuilt the highway from the mine to the border years ago to accommodate the mine shipping and it is ready for the extra transports.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

PROPANE SALES

File photo

The entrance to the mine, pictured in the early 2000s, warns of checking brakes before the decline as the mine goes deeper than sea level. Paula Saxe, one of the EMTs working at the mine, said it takes her 30-45 minutes to reach the level of the mine where she works.

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Winter 2014 |Horizon 5

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The Pend Oreille Mine, operated by Teck American Incorporated, announced the reopening of the mine on April 23, 2014, because of rising zinc prices.

Railroad reached Metaline Falls, allowing for a way to transport lead and zinc from the remote north end of the county. Within a few years, a number of rock mines were in operation in the county.

In the 1920s, massive amounts of ore were found in the Metaline District, leading to the district producing more lead and zinc in the state of Washington than any other mine. The district was the second most productive mining district.

Author Tony Bamonte, who has studied mining in Pend Oreille County for many years, said three mines – the Pend Oreille, the Grandview and the Metaline – accounted for 90 percent of production at the time.

During the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, the mines and Metaline Falls cement plant together accounted for a significant amount of employment in the north end of the county. Especially in Metaline and Metaline Falls, fathers and

Workers happy for employment opportunity

Nerves and excitement hide inside of Paula Saxe, one of the EMTs recently hired by the mine. Saxe applied for three different positions but none of them for EMT work, which is where she eventually landed. She became an EMT in 2001.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” Saxe said. “A couple of the jobs I had no real experience at so this kind of worked out for me.”

She had not worked in about five years, instead opting to raise her young children. Now that the children are older, the timing was good to take a job, Saxe said.

The schedule will take some getting used to, Saxe said, as she works seven days on and seven off, with day shifts on Monday through Wednesday and night shifts Thursday through Sunday. The shifts are 12 hours long.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

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Miner photo|Desireé Hood

The Teck mine pond is one of the first signs the mine exists when traveling down Pend Oreille Mine Road north of Metaline Falls. The mine is expected to start producing in the next couple weeks, the first time it has produced concentrates since the shut down in 2009.

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

With a small injury to a finger as the only injury the mine has had in years, Saxe stays busy by operating a rock crusher.

“Luckily I haven’t had any medical things going and hopefully it stays like that,” Saxe said.

She said the rock crusher she operates takes big rocks and makes them smaller

‘I’ve never been underground before now. The first time I went down there, I just loved it.’

Paula Saxe

Pend Oreille Mine EMT

before they travel to a different area to be reduced in size again.

With hundreds of miles of tunnels, known as drifts, and rooms cut out of rock, the environment is something Saxe is getting accustomed to.

“I’ve never been underground before now,” Saxe said. “The first time I went down there, I just loved it.”

The trek to her machinery can take between 30 and 45 minutes, going to the “50 level.” Saxe said it is 50 feet above sea level and there are deeper places, such as the “Minus 50,” which is 50 feet below sea level.

Saxe said the job is fun and she is enjoying learning about the mining industry.

“You are never too old to learn a new skill,” Saxe said, adding she would retire at the mine if it stays operational.

Miners met with housing shortage

Brown said people have been moving into the area slowly with several moving in the last month. The influx of people to the north end has been met with a housing shortage. Rentals are a premium in the small north county towns.

Phil Cartwright, manager of the Pend Oreille Apartments and Historic Miners Hotel, said there is nothing available in his 57-unit complex.

“Right now, I have nothing,” Cartwright said. “It’s pretty tight.”

Cartwright has three units he is currently renovating and is hopeful to have two done by January. There are also four apartments rented by work crews for the Pend Oreille Public Utility District CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

Winter 2014|Horizon 7

Horizon photo|Fred Willenbrock

Mike Henley is the plant manager for Laclede and Chilco mills owned by Idaho Forest Group.

Laclede mill looks at 20-year plan Idaho Forest Group success based on diversified products, markets, innovation

BY FRED WILLENBROCK

T

his busy company is one of the top producers of its product in the country. They have markets

around the world and are on the cutting edge of the industry using constantly changing state of the art technology. This sounds like a Silicon Valley company 8 Horizon| 2014 Winter

selling search engines or biotechnology.

Surprisingly for many they make wood products from trees.

The Laclede sawmill is one of five mills owned by Idaho Forest Group in north Idaho. Like many in the timber industry, they are still in recovery stages since

‘We utilize a hundred percent of the log.’

Mike Henley

IDF Plant Manager

the 2008 recession that saw housing starts plummet.

They even shut down completely that year and went into a mothball mode.

But like many in this region’s rich timber industry, they learned from the downtime.

Diversity

They diversified their markets and products while CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

Cross-laminated timber future Wood panels are made off site, up to half a foot thick and 30 feet long, shipped to the construction site and bolted together to form the exterior and interior walls, floors and roof.

Even the stairwells and elevator shafts are made from these solid panels, called crosslaminated timber, which resemble supersize plywood.

Developed in Europe in the 1990s, cross-laminated timber, or CLT, is among the latest in a long line of “engineered” wood products that are strong and rigid enough to replace steel and concrete as structural elements in bigger buildings. Already popular in Europe, CLT is only beginning to catch on in North America, where proponents say buildings made with the panels could be a cheaper and environmentally friendly alternative to structures made with CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

investing in technology.

Now they are running two shifts with about 165 employees. They are working on 20-year plans and optimistic about the future of the wood products industry.

“This is a good career, it’s exciting,” said Mike Henley, the 46-year-old plant manager sitting in his sparse Laclede office in the center of the mill. Wood samples and computers were on his desk.

Trucks and front-end loaders were moving mountains of logs and stacks of finished lumber in front of his office window. Nearby, construction workers were assembling a new high-speed lumber finishing facility.

Henley grew up in north Idaho and lived in Priest River and Sandpoint for many years. He has been working in the industry for 27 years starting at the bottom and working up.

In 2008, two family-run companies, Bennett Forest Industries and Riley Creek Lumber, merged to become Idaho Forest Group. It also merged two wellknown timber industry families, Bennett and Brinkmeyer. Headquarters are Horizon photo|Fred Willenbrock

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

This new building will house the high speed finishing machinery at Idaho Forest Group’s Laclede mill.

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

now in Coeur d’Alene, overseeing five mills in Chilco, Laclede, Moyie Springs, Grangeville and Lewiston.

After the merger, Henley became manager of the Laclede and Chilco mills. He travels between the two during the week.

Henley said the company’s success is attributed to its ability to diversify products and markets. At the start of the

‘This is a good career, it’s exciting.’

Mike Henley

IDF Plant Manager

recession, they found markets overseas when the domestic market tanked. Today they still export but have balanced that with more domestic sales as the housing market in the U.S. rebounded.

But they don’t rely on the housing market alone, specializing in other wood products like shelving and fencing.

All their mills have specialties to meet different and changing demands.

those other materials.

The panels use a lot of wood: A typical eight-foot-high wall can contain more than six times as much as one made with conventional framing using two-by-fours.

In Europe, cross-laminated timber has been used mostly for low structures, like two-story apartment buildings or office complexes and schools, in part because building codes in many countries restrict wooden buildings to four stories. This is changing.

Construction of a 10-story CLT apartment tower has started in Melbourne, Australia. Some proponents think buildings made from the panels could be even taller.

The panels are built up from narrow planks, about an inch thick, that are laid side by side to form layers. Like plywood, each succeeding layer – there can be as many as 11 – is laid perpendicular to the preceding one. The layers are glued and the entire sandwich Horizon photo|Fred Willenbrock

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Aging & Disability Resources We’re here to help seniors & their families

Connecting Seniors with a wide array of programs and services within the community. We work with Medicare beneficiaries, assisting them with accessing prescription drug benefits.

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Lumber is stacked and rapped at the Laclede mill ready for shipment.

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Horizon photo|Fred Willenbrock

The Idaho Forest Group office in Laclede is a historic landmark.

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Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

Owners and managers from the various companies located in the Priest River Industrial Park gathered on a recent Wednesday morning to discuss the area’s business climate. Pictured, from left clockwise is: PRDC Business Manager Amy Emmons, Julbert President Robert Fhuere, Tom Clark of Skito, Jim Caviglia of Safety Line, Vern Freeze of Freeze Manufacturing, General Manager Mark Blankenship of Recycling Equipment Manufacturing Inc., Rob Hansel of Lone Wolf Distributors and Doug Cash, president of the Priest River Development Corporation.

Industrial Park hub of manufacturing in Priest River

T

BY MICHELLE NEDVED

Priest River Hardwood Grill on Highway 2 in the center of Priest River. The move to the Priest River

he parking lot is full at the Priest ‘We’d like to add a second shift,

but finding the right people to do the second shift is always a Wednesday morning, a sign that challenge.’

River Industrial Park on a cold

production at a handful of companies is going strong here, just west of town.

The main building at the park houses the Priest River Development Corporation, the economic development agency for the Priest River area. It owns and leases space at the park, and uses revenue to renovate, lease and sell other sites throughout the city.

Drive further down the road, and large buildings dot both sides of Shannon Lane, more manufacturing businesses, including the bones of a building in mid-construction that will eventually house Julbert.

Julbert now operates in a building just behind the 12 Horizon| 2014 Winter

Who’s at the Industrial Park • Aerocet

The world’s largest manufacturing of composite airplane floats. Employ 45 people in Priest River.

• Skito Enterprises

Mark Blankenship

General Manager, Recycling Equipment Manufacturing, Inc.

Industrial Park will increase the number of employees by 22. Currently eight people work for the industrial equipment manufacturer that relocated to Idaho from California three years ago.

This Wednesday morning, PRDC business manager Amy Emmons gathered managers and owners from most industrial park businesses and PRDC President Doug Cash to talk about the economic CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

A division of Carousel Action Wear, Skito creates high-end orthopedic saddle pads for injured horses and riders. Five people work at the industrial park.

• Freeze Manufacturing

Custom cabinetry, mill work and wood finishing. Employs 15 people in Priest River, and five at a Spokane office.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

New product, new employees, same Aerocet

BY MICHELLE NEDVED

T

he future continues to shine brightly for Aerocet Inc., the composite aircraft float manu-

facturer at the Priest River Industrial Park.

As the aerospace industry expands in the Pend Oreille River Valley – with companies located in Newport, Priest River and Sandpoint – Aerocet is eyeing new construction, an expanded workforce and a new product.

Operations Manager Garry Hojen said Aerocet is looking to expand production from the two buildings it currently leases at the industrial park – 15,000 square feet and 20,000 – to an additional 50,000 square feet with room to grow to 100,000.

It remains to be seen how exactly the new space will be constructed. “(The) preliminary feasibility study shows there’s actually no buildings up here that can accommodate us,” Hojan said. The closest available site is in Spokane, but owners Tom and Linda Hamilton want

to stay in Priest River. Coeur d’Alene doesn’t even have anything available, Hojan said.

Hojan said they’d like to see a joint effort between the state of Idaho, the city of Priest River and Bonner County on how to go about building the new space. He said they’ve already talked with the Idaho Department of Commerce and Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint.

Aerocet is working with what it’s got right now.

Hojan said they’ve built steal racks in the ceiling of their current space to store tooling so there’s more room for production on the floor.

“Everybody’s on board,” he said.

Part of that production will soon be the largest floats Aerocet has ever produced. Hojan said right now they’re deep in the research and development of the new floats that will sell for $400,000 a set, compared to the $90,000 their current most expensive floats sell for.

The new floats use a new design, new materials and are very elegant and simple, Hojan said. They will maintain Aerocet’s field repairability. “(They’re) not too exotic that people can’t repair them,” Hojan said. “That’s a huge thing for us.”

With 45 employees right now, Aerocet is looking to hire another five new employees in the next 12 months and 15 to 20 more people in the next three to five years. And, those employees may come directly from an education program spearheaded by

Aerocet.

Aeroset is the founding member of the Idaho Aerospace Alliance, a group of aerospace industry companies throughout the state that has built alliances with the education community, including North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene.

‘Quality of life is definitely the underlying reason we’re here.’

Garry Hojan

Operations Manager, Aerocet Inc.

Seventy students are enrolled in an aerospace program at NIC, and Aerocet has hired three graduates of the program.

Hojan said they are having difficulty luring people from Coeur d’Alene to Priest River, so they’ve become a satellite for the program. This week, 28 aerospace students from Sandpoint High School are coming to the Priest River plant as part of their dual credit program. This spring, a 4-H aerospace club will be formed.

“We would love to have Priest River (Lamanna High School) in that loop,” Hojan said.

New hires coming out of the program make about CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

climate in Priest River and why their respective companies are located here.

Growth on the horizon

All the companies located in the industrial park are manufacturers, requiring a specific workforce. Tom

‘One of the problems in this area is finding people who can do what we need them to do.’

Robert Fhuere President, Julbert

Clark owns Skito, a division of Carousel Action Wear that makes high-end orthopedic saddle pads for injured horses and riders. He moved the company to Priest River from Sandpoint in 2000, because he couldn’t get any employees there. Everyone was driving from Priest River, Spirit Lake and Blanchard.

He employs five people, mostly women. He pointed out women have smaller hands making it easier to do CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

14 Horizon| 2014 Winter

• Lone Wolf Distributing

Glock parts and accessories manufacturer, employing 24 people at the Priest River location.

• Recycling Equipment Manufacturing, Inc.

Builds custom machinery that either reduces volume or moves recyclables. Employs 22 people in Priest River.

• Selkirk Timberwrights

Handcrafted timber frame structures and high-end custom hybrid home construction. Employs two to four people.

• SafetyLine

High visibility safety clothing for the highway industry, police, first responders and other safety attire.

Employs eight.

Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

Right: Corey Hansel works on armory and barrels for Lone Wolf Distributing, which manufactures Glock parts and accessories.

They moved to Priest River from Oldtown in 2012 and have been in business since 1998.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

$25,000 a year at Aeroset, and wages get up to $35,000-plus range if they stay on the floor in production. Management and higher up employees make between $42,000 and $52,000.

On top of salary, Aerocet offers a solid benefits package, Hojan said, including an IRA program with 3 percent matching up to $10,000.

“That’s free money,” he said.

It is also a family-oriented company.

Hojan said they are sensitive to sick kids, family events and such.

“Do what you need to do,” he said.

About 80 percent of employees living locally – one even walks to work.

Aerocet located to the industrial park in 2000, and its in Priest River, “Basically because Tom and Linda like it here,” Hojan said.

The couple had lived in Arlington, Wash., but it got too hectic. They vacationed here and really like the area.

“Quality of life is definitely the underlying reason we’re here,” Hojan said.

Courtesy photo|Aerocet Inc.

Right: Aerocet Inc. manufactures composite aircraft floats, such as these 5850 floats.

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Courtesy photo|Kalispel Tribe

The Kalispel Natural Resources Department has several game cameras. This one captured the image of a black bear in Pend Oreille County. The tribe documents wildlife for the Multi Species Baseline Initiative and the Idaho Baseline Species Survey.

Courtesy photo|Kalispel Tribe

A game camera captured an image of a northern caribou about five miles over the border in Canada last August. The Kalispel Tribe works to document the various species of wildlife in the area.

Kalispel Natural Resources contributes economically, environmentally

BY DON GRONNING

I

n 1992, when Ray Entz first became involved with what would become the Kalispel Natural Resources Depart-

ment, it was a far cry from the multi-million dollar operation it is now.

“We had $190,000 in grants and three employees back then,” Entz says. The Kalispel Tribe was in the process of strategic planning and caring for natural resources was an important cultural value.

Entz, who is the tribe’s Director of Wildlife and 16 Horizon| 2014 Winter

Terrestrial Resources, says the department has grown significantly since then.

“We now have 47 employees,” he says, with a payroll of $1.8 million annually. Of the 47 employees, 34 are full time, 28 have science degrees and seven have at least two degrees. Entz is one of the staff who has multiple degrees. He has bachelors and masters degrees in science from Eastern Washington University. For his undergraduate degree he had an emphasis on zoology and for the masters degree emphasized ecology.

Entz says the department works on 44 projects annually, from a large species native plant nursery to restoring bull trout habitat.

KNRD has grown from a $250,000 budget in 1992 to the $6 million budget it has now, with $900,000 in contracts.

Department 95 percent funded with grants, contracts

Entz says the department receives 95 percent of its funding from grants and contracts – federal, state

‘There are a lot of impacts to restore.’

Ray Entz

Kalispel Tribe’s Director of Wildlife and Terrestrial Resources

and private. The department has never asked the tribe for money to carry out a project, he says.

When the department was in its early days, Entz says he scrambled for any sort of grant funding the CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

Winter 2014 |Horizon 17

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16

department was capable of obtaining.

“The first couple years we spent doing whatever contracts were on the table,” he says. The early work included things like documenting the fish, wildlife and condition of the habitat that was here and analyzing the data.

“Gradually, as we became better at acquiring grant funding, we could concentrate on those that provided specific conservation value for things the tribe was focused on,” Entz said.

Acquiring the 436-acre Flying Goose Ranch in 1992 as part of the Albeni Falls Dam wildlife mitigation was one of those things. The dam severely altered the environment in many ways and the Bonneville Power Administration, the federal nonprofit agency that markets electricity from hydropower, funded the work to restore the habitat.

With the acquisition of the Flying Goose, KNRD moved into a new phase of habitat restoration.

Habitat restoration benefits tribe, states

“There are a lot of impacts to restore,” Entz says. The restoration

Horizon photo|Don Gronning

These are some of the bass that are raised at the hatchery. The bass aren’t native but were brought to the area by the railroad car full and dumped into rivers and lakes throughout the west in the late 1800s.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

WORKING HARD TO USE OUR FORESTS WISELY Proud to be able to help better utilize our natural resources.

We’re recovering valuable wood fibre from many thousands of tons of material that would previously have been wasted on our forests’ floor.

WOOD FIBRE THROUGH BETTER FOREST UTILIZATION. 18 Horizon| 2014 Winter

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

work doesn’t just improve tribal lands, it contributes to the larger community’s environmental health.

“The tribe considers itself part of the broader community,” Entz says. It partners with a variety of agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service, the PUD, the Washington Department of Fish and

‘The tribe considers itself part of the broader community.’

Ray Entz

Kalispel Tribe’s Director of Wildlife and Terrestrial Resources

Wildlife, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and Pend Oreille and Bonner counties.

The former Flying Goose Ranch has now been restored consistent with its management plan and is in a maintenance phase, Entz says. The tribe’s hatchery is located on former Flying Goose land. About 180 acres of pasture has been restored back to wetlands, and 1,500 feet

Courtesy photo|David Bluff

The tribe has raised buffalo since the 1970s. They raise about 25-30 calves each year. The Kalispel Tribe is one of 56 tribes that belong to the InterTribal Buffalo Council, a South Dakota based non-profit formed in 1992 to help reestablish buffalo populations in Indian country.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

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20 Horizon| 2014 Winter

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20

of shorelines were stabilized from erosion.

It has had numerous acres planted back to native trees and shrubs, and it provides about 80 acres of grass hay every year for the buffalo.

KNRD spends a good deal of its budget locally. Most of its employees live in Pend Oreille and Bonner counties and the department buys supplies locally and most of the contractors are local.

The Kalispel Natural Resource Department is divided into two parts – one for aquatic and one for terrestrial resources.

Referred to in the department as the “wet and dry sides”, the wet side includes native fish conservation, fish management and water resources.

The tribe wants to restore native fish to the extent possible, Entz says. Starting in the late 1800s boxcars full of non-native fish were transported west and dumped into lakes and rivers. The non-native fish – bass, some trout and other species – in many cases out competed the local fish and took over.

The local fish species – bull trout and west slope cutthroat trout – couldn’t compete for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was habitat change caused by the area’s dams.

Toxins accumulate in apex predator fish

Entz says the non-native fish, especially the apex predator fish, such as walleye, accumulate more toxins than other fish, as the toxins keep going up the food chain when the big fish eat the smaller fish. Many of the large fish are eventually consumed by people, including tribal members whose historic diet has included a lot of fish.

Entz acknowledges there will always be non-native fish – the tribe produced bass for years in their hatchery – but by making habitat improvements for native fish, the hope is to restore native fisheries both

for the tribe, but also for the states.

The tribe has raised bass in their hatchery since 1999.

“The bass have been here a long time,” Entz says, since the 1900s at least. “In the last 100 years the tribe’s diet has changed quite a bit.”

The idea is to get the most calories for the least effort and bass certainly met that condition.

The hatchery was started to give the fry a better chance of making it through

‘This will be a training ground for future biologists, foresters and anyone interested in a career in the natural resources field.’

Bob Gilraine

Kalispel Tribe’s Forest Manager

the winter, Entz said. They do better when raised to a size slightly larger before release.

The tribe is moving towards using the hatchery for native fish, Entz says.

On the dry side of the department, programs for agriculture, wildlife, forestry and cultural resource are carried out.

Probably the most iconic and visible of the programs is the tribe’s buffalo herd, part of the agriculture program. The tribe has about 100 head of buffalo running on about 600 acres. The tribe butchers a couple for the annual powwow, sends some to other tribes to establish their herds and trades buffalo for salmon with other tribes.

Keeping a modern buffalo herd has a price. The animals can eat grass in the warm months but are fed hay about seven months out of the year. They eat 300-500 CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

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tons of hay a year, Entz estimates. That translates into $30,000 to $50,000 worth of hay a year. Throw in money to doctor the animals, keeping up the New Zealand high tensile, five-strand electric fence needed to keep them in, and the costs start to add up.

In order to feed the animals through the cold months, the tribe puts up about 300 acres of hay and share crops another 6,000-7,000 acres, Entz said.

Teaching forest established

One of the tribe’s newest ventures is the Kalispel Tribe’s proposed Community Forest.

The community forest is located on 133 acres of land northwest of Newport, on the east side of the river. The 133 acres are part of 550 acres the tribe acquired as part of a Bonneville Power Administration mitigation purchase. It is the site of the once proposed Saddle Mountain RV Park.

The project is part of the Bonneville Power Administration’s mitigation for wetland and riparian habitat loss due to the construction of Albeni Falls Dam at Oldtown.

Bob Gilraine is tribal forest manager.

He says the forest will be a teaching

lle Pend Orei County

forest.

“This will be a training ground for future biologists, foresters and anyone interested in a career in the natural resources field,” Gilraine said.

He said the community forest plan is still being finalized, but that he envisions a place where local schools can bring students to get some exposure to natural resource careers.

The tribe is involved with a couple programs that use game cameras to document wildlife species.

The tribe is participating in the Multi Species Baseline Initiative and the Idaho Baseline Carnivore Survey. Both are designed to see exactly what species are here. Images of caribou, bear, wolves, bobcat and moose, among others, were captured on the game camera.

Education is also an important part of KNRD. The department participates in a variety of forums, fairs, including career fairs, youth camps and a forest landowner day.

The Kalispel Tribe’s Natural Resources Department is firmly established and doing important environmental work.

It partners with other governments to improve the ecology of the area, in keeping with its mission to “protect and enhance all natural resources and the health of the entire ecosystem.”

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There’s been a shift over the last few years at the Port of Pend Oreille. The port, created in 1979 by a vote of the citizens to promote economic development, now makes almost as much revenue from shop projects, car repairs and license fees as it does from running freight along the railroad line it operates from Dover, Idaho, to Metaline Falls, Wash.

“It used to be that we hauled around 6,000 cars per year and our efforts were focused on freight shipments and line maintenance,” Port Manager Kelly Driver said. Back then, the private company MBar-D did car repairs in Newport and the port’s shop in Usk did a little side work.

Now, shipments are down to between 2,000 and 2,200 cars per year, and the port does its own car and locomotive repairs and other companies hire the port to do their repairs and renovations as well.

“Because we have an excellent shop crew, under our CMO Brad Byrd, we have

a good reputation for being able to troubleshoot and fix locomotives for other industries who can no longer afford to have their own locomotive mechanics,” Driver said. “We have adapted to the change.”

The crew recently installed heating units for the BNSF Railway in Spokane.

“We randomly do installs for BNSF,” Driver said. “Whenever they want us to.”

The port added to the shop facility last year and added a paint booth.

The port owns 61 miles of track in Washington, leases 24 miles of track in Idaho, on which it operates the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad (POVA). POVA interchanges with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company in Sandpoint to ship and receive cars from the BNSF and Union Pacific Railroads.

“The shop can do all sorts of repairs from replacing traction motors or generators to chopping a noise, rewiring, plus painting,” Driver explained.

The port employees about 15 people, steadily increasing its workforce of the last few years.

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the intricate work of sewing, which is becoming a lost art. Sewing classes are non-existent, and schools don’t teach the craft anymore.

Recycling Equipment Manufacturing

‘Wait a minute, we need backhoe guys, we need welders, we need carpenters, we need people who can run a sewing machine. It’s not a crime to do this stuff.

This is legitimate work.’

Mark Blankenship

General Manager, Recycling Equipment Manufacturing, Inc.

Inc. is in a similar situation. General Manager Mark Blankenship said he would like to add to his workforce of 22.

“We’d like to add a second shift, but finding the right people to do the second shift is always a challenge,” he

said.

REM makes equipment that reduces the volume of recycling material or moves it around, such as glass crushers, tippers and conveyors. His crew was finishing up work on a glass crusher that would be shipped to Iowa.

It’s custom work rather than production manufacturing. Every project is different.

“You can’t just hire any Joe or Janet,” he said.

High quality

The park seems to attract those custom, high-end manufacturing companies that require a narrow workforce and can make surviving these economic times a bit trying.

Jim Caviglia, owner of Safety Line, which makes high visibility clothing for highway and emergency personnel, said he sells a commodity product that used to not be one. China joined the market, making a cheaper product that doesn’t meet specifications, but there’s no regulation, he said.

“The market has spiraled itself down to where it’s so cheap we have a lot of stuff coming in that doesn’t meet specs but nobody’s watching,” he said. HowCONTINUED ON PAGE 25

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24 Horizon| 2014 Winter

Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24

ever, “I think some people are getting tired of the crap.”

This could bode well for him in the long run.

“It’s going to be a long pull because people like cheap,” he said.

Vern Freeze, owner of Freeze Manufacturing, moved his company to Priest River in 2003. He’s been in business since 1980, coming from Spokane where the sales department is still located. Fifteen people build custom cabinets, and do mill work and wood finishing at the industrial park.

His industry is tied to the housing market, which as been terrible since 2008, he said. But last year sales were good and they’re good again this year.

He’s added five employees in the last 12 months. Sales are slowing climbing so they might bring on more people.

“We’re trying to do more with less, like everyone else,” he cautioned.

Freeze Manufacturing does higherend custom work, mostly all new construction and commercial. He just finished up Pyrotek, a four-story building in downtown Spokane.

The new kid on the block is Lone Wolf Distributing, a Glock parts and acces-

sories manufacturer. It moved to the industrial park from the owner’s home in Oldtown, starting with the sales department in 2012 and the rest of the company in January 2013. It employs 24.

“This time last year we had 14,” Rob Hansel said.

PRDC assists companies

Along with Stiko, Lone Wolf is housed in one of the buildings owned

by PRDC, and leases office and manufacturing space from the development corporation.

Emmons explained that Stiko moved a couple doors down from its original bay to open up a larger space for Lone Wolf, and a $50,000 grant paid for the renovation of one bay into office space for the Glock manufacturer.

Along with operating the industrial park, PRDC recently remodeled a 3,000-square-foot storage facility at the intersection of Highway 2 and High Street. It’s nearly ready for lease or sale, with all new sheet rock, electrical and restrooms.

Parking lot improvements are also on their way.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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Why are we here?

Lone Wolf is right at home in Priest River, as Idaho is one of the most gunfriendly states in the U.S. Hansel said he thinks Lone Wolf pays well, and they offer retirement and benefits.

The rest of the companies, two of which relocated from California, are also at home in Idaho. Government over-reach and bureaucracy are what made Fhuere and Caviglia relocate Julbert and SafetyLine to Priest River. Fhuere said inspections alone on his dust collectors was too much.

“It just doesn’t make sense, monetarily, to hang out there (in California),” he said.

Blankenship feels the same about Spokane. He said he wanted to add 15,000 square feet to his Spokane facility. Government requirements had the cost up to a quarter million dollars.

“It was just too arduous to do work down there,” he said.

These companies aren’t here for the workforce, however. Most said they wouldn’t consider what they pay a livable wage for a family of four and finding CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27

qualified people is tough.

“One of the problems in this area is finding people who can do what we need them to do,” Fhuere said. It takes him a year and a half to train a welder, and the classes that are available don’t reflect realworld conditions.

The PRDC tried to remedy the problem by starting the Priest River Institute for Education Skills and Training (PRIEST) a couple years ago. The corporation dropped about $10,000 into the program that was meant to train the locals in trade skills and computers. PRDC secured a facility and hired instructors from North Idaho College.

“I think it got too big for its britches a little too early,” PRDC President Doug Cash said.

The initial thought was that potential workers should receive certification when they took classes. That drove up the cost.

One class cost about $250. Some employers paid for the classes, but interest was low.

“Do the people want to be retrained?

Do they want to move forward,” Cash is asking himself.

PRIEST is now in sleep mode, but Cash said they will bring it back to life under a different model, one that focuses more

on building interest rather than hiring professional teachers.

But the need is there.

“I sit here right now and I hear (Fhuere) complaining he can’t find qualified welders,” Cash said.

A different resource is area high schools, but Blankenship fears that won’t be the case for long. About half his workforce commutes from Spokane, where he’s seeing the emphasis in high school move towards academia.

Mead School District closed its metal shop. Blankenship said he asked an administrator why, and his response was that Mead’s mission is to get students ready for college.

“Wait a minute, we need backhoe guys, we need welders, we need carpenters, we need people who can run a sewing machine. It’s not a crime to do this stuff. This is legitimate work,” Blankenship said.

Freeze said some of his best employees he found in the wood shop at Priest River Lamanna High School. He pointed out that schools do a lot of screening for employers and suggest kids they know will do well.

Recycling Equipment Manufacturers had an opening for an intern.

“We had one kid who applied and the kid is wonder,” Blankenship said. “He just blew us all away.”

Horizon photo|Michelle Nedved

A welder works at Recycling Equipment Manufacturing, Inc., at the Priest River Industrial Park.

REM moved from Spokane to Priest River in 2010. It employs 22 people and management would like to start a second shift.

Winter 2014 |Horizon 27

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

Laclede manufactures specialty finished cedar and pine products for the retail markets.

They export some materials. This is in the form of metrically cut boards that buyers primarily in the Asian markets cut down for finished use.

They also export wood for furniture manufacturing in Mexico.

Technology

“It’s almost with a flip of switch,” Henley said about the technology in the mill that allows them to change the product dimensions. In the past, it had been very time consuming to change what they were milling.

They started using the scanning optimization system in 1992. This allows the computer to select the best way to cut a log. They use saws like many of the mills that minimize the thickness of the saw cut, minimizing waste.

“We utilize a hundred percent of the log,” he said. Selling the byproducts for everything from wood pellets to paper.

Waste like sawdust and bark are used.

They even paved the roads in the yard so dirt and rocks wouldn’t mix into the waste making it saleable.

The new facility near his office will

plain wood at higher speeds for highend appearance wood products, Henley said. He talked about this when showing how IFG was willing to invest in the mills for the future.

“You have to invest,” Henley said.

The company has been making headlines in industry news when Chairman of the Board Marc Brinkmeyer announced plans to work with a European company on cross-laminated timbers.

They are being promoted as a replacement for steel and concrete in skyscrapers and other commercial construction.

They haven’t produced any yet or decided which of the five mills will, Henley said.

This region is getting known for its high quality wood, Henley said. He pointed to a sample in his office showing the tight grain and small knots in the piece of fir they had milled. He said it’s the soil and climate that produces the quality trees for lumber.

So far they aren’t having problems getting logs, he said. They buy from within a 100-mile radius.

“Ninety percent comes from private land,” Henley said. Only a small amount comes from the National Forests.

The company gets some timber from CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

its land but mostly from small to industrial sized landowners. The state of Idaho also produces a significant amount for the mills.

“It helps now that we aren’t selling all to one market,” Henley said when reflecting back to the crash in 2008, when they depended primarily on dimension lumber for houses in the United States.

But the domestic housing market is good and will grow as the population grows, he said.

Technology has changed the way they do things in Laclede. Henley said he has instantaneous information about what is being produced in the mill and what is in the yard. At the same time, the sales force keeps him informed by the minute of market conditions for various products.

Henley said they can now make adjustments to what they are producing at lightning speeds.

About half their production is already sold under contracts, he said.

Henley said he feels working for his company is a good career for many people.

Their wages range from $13 per hour to $32 per hour with benefits. They also have very little down time and don’t plan on any in the future.

is pressed and trimmed. Then, using computer-guided saws and drills, it is cut to the precise dimensions in the architectural plans, including window, door, plumbing and ventilation openings. Channels for electrical wiring can be cut into the panels.

At the construction site, the panels are hoisted into position and bolted together with metal brackets to build up the structure floor by floor. Construction can proceed fairly quickly – in about two-thirds of the time it would have taken to construct a similar building in steel or concrete.

Fire is also a major concern, and one reason, no doubt, that codes have limited the height of wooden structures, but solid CLT panels do not ignite as easily as small two-by-fours.

Newport aerospace firm running round the clock

C

&D Zodiac in Newport is still looking for a Value Stream Manager after

former manager Natalie Osborne left the company in October.

They are hiring for this and other positions to keep their four shifts going and growing.

“We’re still on the hunt,” Human Resources Administrator Adrienne Fitzmorris said.

C&D Zodiac, located behind McDonalds, has more than 87 employees, an increase in the past three years from about 85 employees because of the many acquisitions the international parent company based in France, Zodiac Aerospace, has made.

Fitzmorris said they are still hiring and

the 87 employees included eight temporary workers. They have four shifts working around the clock, seven days a week, filling orders from around the world.

“We’ve been able to stay pretty busy,” Fitzmorris said. “That’s a good thing.”

C&D Zodiac supplies the Triumph plant in Spokane for its work on Bombardier planes. Triumph, in a plant formerly owned by Boeing, has among other clients Bombardier in Canada. Bombardier manufactures a large range of regional and business aircraft including the Learjet and Canadair.

But the company is growing from supplying the raw materials for the composites that make up airplane interiors to other Zodiac plants around the world.

The French company that owns the Newport plant, which is a satellite of operations in Marysville, Wash., has been on an aerospace company-buying spree for several years.

Zodiac Aerospace is a world leader in CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

Thank You Teck Pend Oreille would like to thank all employees, suppliers and the entire community for their contribution and support of the restart of our operation.

We are proud to be operating again and helping to support jobs and economic activity here in the community and beyond. learn more at www.teck.com

Winter 2014 |Horizon 29

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

cold water pipe project on Sullivan Lake, which he said are already rented when the contractors leave at the end of the month.

The apartment complex is busy so Cartwright said he hired an assistant to help with the work.

“Towns doing good and the economy is getting better,” Cartwright said. “It’s good to see.”

Kelly Davis, owner of Century 21 Kelly Davis Inc., said people are more inclined to rent than buy when moving into a new city or town. Davis said rental options in the north county “are not very good.”

“It’s the longevity, it’s the uncertainty of the markets,” Davis said, explaining that many different industries have this problem, not just mining. “I think we are in an upswing right now but people are still tentative.”

Davis said there are many vacant properties in the area, but most are for sale and not rentals. He said the sellers are motivated to sell and not rent, as that can often lead to house damage or other issues.

Davis said the rental market issues are not uncommon, especially in mining and timber towns. The towns are tena-

cious and survive, he said, and it is the same for Colville and Chewelah, which also rely on one or two industries to survive.

The rental market is tough enough in the north end that he is renovating his house into a duplex to accommodate two more families heading to Metaline Falls. With Pend Oreille River views, the duplex is in a prime spot, Davis said.

“I don’t think I will have any trouble at all renting my duplex when I get finished with it,” Davis said. “They are going to gain a little market confidence before they jump in.”

Linda Segal, manager of Falls Market in Metaline Falls, said the mine opening has helped business and they are grateful.

“We’re hoping it lasts a long time,” Segal said.

The busiest day of the week for the grocery store is Mondays, when the miners are returning from their weekends away, Segal said.

Her busiest day used to be Saturday, however, that has turned into the slowest day of the week.

She said food items that normally don’t sell have been selling, using hummus as an example.

“I am not sure if it’s cause I moved it or somebody likes it,” Segal laughs.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

sons, brothers, uncles and cousins all worked in the mines. By the later years, several families boasted of having three or even four generations of mine workers.

The mine tunnels go under the Pend Oreille River. Pumps run constantly to keep the lower levels from flooding. The mine is made up of hundreds of miles of tunnels, known as drifts, and rooms cut out of rock.

Economic conditions changed and in 1977, the Pend Oreille Mine was temporarily shut down.

By the early 1980s, with no buyers for the mine, the decision was made to shut off the pumps and let the lower levels fill with river water.

Within months, the Canadian firm, Resource Finance Corporation (RFC), did a feasibility study and said reopening the mine was possible. The Vancouver,

B.C. based company, then known as Cominco Limited, entered the picture in the early 1990s and purchased the mine in 1996. It then conducted another feasibility study to determine if the mine should reopen. The mine was not opened until 2004 and closed again in 2009.

After the purchase was announced, David Godlewski, environmental manager for Teck Cominco American at Spokane at the time and former Vice President of Teck American, said operating the mine is a natural choice for the company, since it is so close to the company’s smelter at Trail, B.C., Canada. Godlewski has since retired.

Teck American Incorporated, a Teck Cominco Limited subsidiary, currently owns the mine. It is only a matter of time before the mine will be exhausted of reserves and operations will cease permanently.

Implementing a vision of a better economy Growing one business at a time. . .

In Priest River Development Park

• Aerocet • Carousel Action Wear/Skito Enterprises • Freeze Furniture Manufacturing • Lone Wolf Dist.

• Recycling Equipment Manufacturing, Inc. • Selkirk Timberwrights • Van Tech/SafetyLine • Julbert, Inc.

Our Mission The Mission of PRDC is to facilitate the diversification of employment opportunities in the Priest River area. Provide properly zoned commercial property at reasonable costs, to support new business, existing business retention and growth.

PO Box 400 Priest River, Idaho • 208-448-1312 • www.PriestRiverEDC.com 30 Horizon| 2014 Winter

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29

aeronautical equipment and systems designed for commercial, regional and business aircraft, as well as helicopters and spacecraft.

Zodiac Aerospace has 30,000 employees worldwide, and brought in sales revenue of $3.4 billion in 2011/2012 through its five business segments: Zodiac Cabin & Structures, Zodiac Galleys & Equipment, Zodiac Seats, Zodiac Aerosafety and Zodiac Aircraft Systems.

Zodiac Aerospace is located worldwide on 98 sites, including Newport.

The company has followed a strategy of acquisitions over the last 30 years, enabling it to build world-leading positions in various niche markets from electronics to commercial airplane interiors, including seats.

The Marine division that made the Zodiac name famous was sold in 2007, enabling Zodiac to focus on growth and development in aerospace businesses.

The heart of the Newport plant’s value to Zodiac is still the machine that adds resins to synthetic fabric. The 60-foot-long machine stands about 10 feet high.

Another machine presses the honeycomb material made in Marysville between layers of the synthetic fabric they make into strong, lightweight flat panels. Each costs about $1,000.

The Newport plant primarily makes the two raw composite materials and adhesives that are shipped around the world to other factories that shape them into airplane interior parts. The final work is done at other plants so Newport crews can concentrate on the growing raw materials demand.

The lightweight and extremely strong composites are a key component to the new planes for many reasons, including fuel savings.

The aerospace industry has been on a steady rise since the dramatic decline after Sept. 11, 2001. The Newport plant was down to 26 employees.

They ship their products from Newport by truck and shipping containers for overseas and around the country.

In 2006, C&D Aerospace was purchased by France-based Zodiac for $600 million. The company provides materials including structural adhesives, honeycomb panels and pre-impregnated fiber to airplane manufactures. Zodiac group is based in Toulouse, France.

File photo

Zodiac honeycomb core saw operator Matt Cooper cuts the large honeycomb cubes into the correct thickness, last February, so Zodiac can ship the pieces off to companies who turn the material into overhead bins and flooring in airplanes. This is the newest department added to the Zodiac facility in Newport.

Eliminate High Heating Bills!

Winter 2014 |Horizon 31

32 Horizon| 2014 Winter