House project helping mill veterans learn a new trade

On average, the morning crew helping to construct the fifth Student Built House in Polson is two years away from retirement.

Amid jokes about AARP benefits and the pros of the senior discounts, there’s talk of Christmas and Spring breaks this year, too, as they finished setting the footings last week and are hoping to have the house on the corner of Fifth Street and 15th Avenue enclosed before the winter weather hits.

The newer crew is a group of six who joined the traditional students to help build the house after being laid off when the Plum Creek Sawmill in Pablo was closed. According to law, laid off workers must be offered two years paid schooling or retraining through Trade Adjustment Assistance programs.

Plum Creek officials announced the mill’s closure in April, citing continued poor market conditions and the economic performance of each mill as factors in the closure. More than 87 area residents were left without jobs.

Mill veteran Jim Sheumaker said they knew it was coming.

“I was hoping for another year and a half (at the mill), then I was going to retire,” he said.

He, and most of the others, chose the building project to stay close to home and cut out a commute to Kalispell or Missoula. Even after 38 years at the mill, so far on the new job, “you just find muscles you haven’t used in years,” he said.

The nine-month long class follows the high school’s schedule and is run in conjunction with Flathead Valley Community College, who pays for the supervisor.

The 11-person afternoon crew is a student group that is working their way through high school. They will also have a chance to earn college credit through FVCC online courses.

All the work, minus the plumbing and electrical, is done by the crews, that are overseen by contracting veteran Daren Gunlock.

Student Built House committee chairman Gehrand Berchard said the privately-funded house is an amazing opportunity for students to learn a skill that will translate into a job even if they don’t attend college.

Working on the house last week, Warren Fisher said it was traumatic to be laid-off this year. He spent 39 years at the mill and the closure came at a time when “you’re in your late 50s and don’t want to start over,” he said.

For now, he’s also going to take the opportunity to learn the construction trade to keep his hands moving.

Coworker Anthony “Moe” Schoon was laid off in January after 33 years at the mill.

Along with Fisher and the others, he’s taking it all in and going to reassess things when he turns 62 a year from January.

“I just can’t sit around and do nothing,” Schoon said.

When it’s completed the 1,380 square foot, three-bedroom house will be put up for sale. Any money made goes back into the fund for the next year’s house, and pays off the loan secured by the Lake County Building Association.

Much of the supplies are donated or given at reduced cost by local businesses, Berchard said.

“It’s actually a self-funding thing,” he said.