• 1t T ra - March 28, 2012 VOU! COMMUNITY Page 5
OSU to host college, pro western logging qualifier
Oregon State University will
host the Western Qualifier for the
Stihl Timbersports Series on Fri-
day, March 30, featuring some of
the top collegiate and professional
lumberjack competitors in the
western United States.
Winners of the professional
and collegiate competitions will
advance to the U.S. Championships
in Pigeon Forge,Tenn., June 1-3.
The Outdoor Channel, ESPN-
U and TUFF-TV cameras will be on
the OSU campus to film the West-
ern Qualifier. Schedule details are
available at http://www.stihltim-
bersports.us. The full airing sched-
ule for the Western Qualifier can be
viewed at www.stihltimbersports.
us/2012-resource-guide.aspx.
The event, part of the 73nd an-
nual Association of Western For-
estry Clubs conclave, will begin at
2 p.m. on Friday at OSU's McAI-
exander Field House (1800 S.W.
Jefferson Way, Corvallis). The
conclave takes place during Spring
Break, at Peavy Arboretum in Cor-
vallis, beginning March 28.
"Last year's top four western
professionals went on to win the
2011 U.S. Relay Championship,
and we anticipate seeing the tal-
ent these athletes will bring to the
competition this year," said Brad
Sorgen, producer of the Stihl Tim-
bersports Series.
In the Collegiate Series, the
participating universities select
their best lumberjacks or jills to
chop and saw in four disciplines
inclading the single buck, standing
block chop, stock saw and under-
hand chop, using professional-sized
wood and rules.
After competing in each of the
disciplines, the competitors with
the most cumulative points earns
a $1,000 scholarship from Stihl for
their school and advances to the
2012 Stihl Timbersports Collegiate
Championship.
Thirteen schools will partici-
pate in the qualifier including Colo-
rado State University, University
of Montana, and Humboldt State
University.
"We are honored to host the
2012 Stihl Timbersports Series
western qualifier here at Oregon
State as part of the annual West-
ern Forestry Clubs conclave," said
John Mann, director of college
forests for the OSU College of
Forestry. "I am very proud of the
leadership skills our students have
demonstrated in preparation of this
high profile event."
Following the Collegiate
Western Qualifier, the region's top
professional lumberjack athletes
will race the clock and each other
through six traditional categories
- the hot saw, single buck, spring-
board chop, standing block chop,
stock saw and underhand chop. The
competitors are contending for one
of four coveted U.S. Championship
slots.
Oregon native and long-time
competitor Mike Forrester, from
Glide, will be among the eight
professional lumberjacks to com-
pete in the qualifier. Another Or-
egon professional competitor is art
teacher and arborist Jeff Skirvin
from Clatskanie.
The top four pros from each re-
gional qualifier advance to the Stihl
Timbersports Championship where
they will compete for the national
title, a brand new Ram 1500 truck
and the opportunity to represent
the United States in the Stihl Tim-
bersports World Championship in
Lillehammer, Norway, Sept. 8-9.
Additional pros will be select-
ed by officials to represent the U.S.
in the World Championship Relay
Competition.
II Railroad
From page 1
Center, was hosted by Mark Rus-
sell, general manager of Albany
and Eastern, and Ginny Wood,
operations manager. About 40
people attended.
The company's 70 miles of
rails have been neglected for about
50 years, Russell said. The project
goal is to raise the Federal Railroad
Administration classification of the
rails to level two. Right now, parts
of the rails fall below the lowest
classification. Speeds are limited
in some places to as low as 3 mph.
When complete, the track will al-
low speeds of up to 25 mph.
The project is largely funded
through a Connect Oregon III grant
through the Oregon Department of
Transportation using Oregon Lot-
tery dollars. The state will pay for-
approximately $2.6 million out
of the $4 million estimated cost.
It will replace ties and crossings.
The A&E has already completed
work between Albany and Leba-
non and Lebanon and Mill City.
The railroad company also
will remove brush and trees from
the railroad right-of-way to "in-
crease visibility so cars can see the
trains, and the train crews can see
the cars," Russell said.
The work will begin when
weather allows and likely contin-
ue into the fall.
• "We actually started rebuild-
ing these rails just after we pur-
chased it," Russell said. Rick and
Bernice Franklin purchased it in
2007.
The main reason for the work
is public safety and operational
safety, Russell said, but he said his
company is eager to see the rail-
road contribute to the economy in
Sweet Home.
"There's been a perception
that, in Sweet Home, the railroad
is going to go away," Russell said.
"It's not."
Sweet Home has no shippers
using the railroad right now, he
said. The closest shipper is four
miles west of Sweet Home, but
A&E officials are hoping that an
improved railroad will help drive
economic development.
"We live here," Russell said.
"We work here. We care about this
community. We are trying to do
what we can to raise the interest of
industry to move to this area. We
need jobs."
The community has the nuts
and bolts it needs for industry,
Russell said. "We just need to get
the industry here."
The main purpose for the
meeting was to let property own-
ers along the rails know that A&E
intends to be good neighbors and
to let the public know how the
project will impact the public, he
said.
As the project approaches
each crossing, the railroad will
provide 14 days advance notice,
Russell said. The crossings will
be closed a couple of days at a
time, and it will require significant
reroutes on Pleasant Valley and
Clark Mill roads.
Property owners along the
right-of-way generally pay an an-
nual fee for a crossing permit.
Some of them have agree-
ments with Burlington Northern-
Sante Fe Railroad, which owned
the rails until the late 1990s. Some
of them have even made payments
as late as 2011, Russell said.
He said questions regard-
ing the $600 fee are still being
resolved. A letter outlining the
permit requirements with A&E,
including a $600 permit transfer
fee as well as a $1 million insur-
ance policy, was was written and
mailed prior to A&E having all
of the information it needs about
existing permits, Russell said. The
railroad has a request in to BNSF
and property owners for permit
information, so it can work out
permits.
Photo by Sean C. Morgan
Mark Russell, general manager of Albany and Eastern Railroad, discusses plans with neighbors and members
of the public.
Property owners asked for
more details about the costs and
insurance, but Russell said they'll
need to look at the permits indi-
vidually.
"I don't have that kind of
money," one property owner told
the railroad officials at the meet-
ing.
It isn't clear whether the rail-
road will charge property owners
with existing permits the $600 fee,
Wood said. That will be worked
out after the company gathers all
of the information it can from the
Federal Railroad Administration
and gathers all of the information
it can about existing permits.
Linda Rowton
Linda Rowton volunteers as a
driver with Meals on Wheels. She
is the Manna Free Meal co-coor-
dinator and Friday night Manna
cook. She is co-chair of Nuts for
Jesus and is actively involved with
the Sweet Home United Method-
ist Church, where she is treasurer,
part:time office staff. She a Leba-
Community Chorus board member and choir par-
/\\;,
ticipant and a member of a small vocal group with the
Lebanon Community Orchestra. She is a choir partici-
pant in the Willamette Valley Sacred Choral Festival.
"When I retired from my 'paid' job, l knew that
my ability to financially support the charities and proj-
ects that I believed in was going to diminish," Rowton
said. "I made a promise to myself that I would make
up for that by donating my time. Now my "thythe" of. 1 I
./time is way above 10 percent, but the returns I receive ] |
V'are immeasurable. Interacting with people is a bless-
ing. Being able to watch a person change from a scared, )€'
non-speaking individual into a laughing, sharing per-
son is a joy beyond words."
