Former mill men saddle up

RONAN - School's in session in Ronan, but it's not any public school for children. This school is found on Main Street, in the back workshop of Muley Bluz, a store with "cowboy toys" that specializes in saddle making and boot and shoe repair. Owner Steve Crumm is there every day, and for the past three months or so, Kayo Reynolds and Will Harris have been there too. The men are two apprentices studying and working 40 hours a week to learn everything Crumm has to offer.

"These two cost me a bottle of Anacin a day," Crumm cracks, chuckling a bit over the hum of the boot repair machine.

But that is all they cost him - except for maybe some of his sanity, Crumm says. The two men have studied with Crumm since January under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, a federal government-funded program designed to afford displaced workers with the opportunity to learn a new trade.

"Only TAA-certified layoffs are qualified, and it was enacted (in 1974) for jobs affected by the impact of foreign trade," said Lake County Job Service manager Debbie Krantz. "It's a really neat program that can help workers learn a variety of re-employment skills."

The two do qualify as displaced - they were among the approximately 90 workers laid off when the Plum Creek sawmill shut down permanently last June, leaving a major void of employment opportunities in the Mission Valley.

"The schools are going to suffer and just look at all the guys that worked there, all the taxes and groceries they bought," said Reynolds, a former electrician and maintenance man at the mill who put in 27 years of service before being laid off last June. "It's a major blow to this valley. You drive out of this area, and you realize this place is dead."

Rather than pack it in and hang their heads, former Plum Creek workers have taken the initiative and used the TAA grant to learn a new occupation, Reynolds said. He said he knew of many former colleagues going to community college in Kalispell or Missoula to learn a different field, while Reynolds and Harris have stayed close to home to learn a profession they've always been interested in.

"I've always been kind of big into this stuff, so it hasn't been no big transition," Reynolds said, noting that he runs a small ranch with horses outside of town. "Me and my wife are empty-nesters, so I'm trying to find something I can do by myself. If you're not learning something you might as well be dead."

The wide-range of different professions people can learn is what makes the TAA such an appealing program to qualified workers, Krantz said.

"The neat thing about TAA is it is flexible enough to adjust to people's different interests and abilities," she said, adding that 73 people at the job service have used the program in the last year. "The range of things people have been trained for under TAA is as wide as the range of jobs available."

Crumm has been registered with the state for eight years to be a certified training provider, and has had approximately a dozen students over that time, he said. The government pays him "for my knowledge and supplies," he said, and the time he takes out of his daily work to teach them. The men collect unemployment benefits, and get to learn a new profession for free.

"What's so good about it is the state will pay for it, so it's not out of their pockets at all," Crumm said.

His two pupils are taking full advantage of the program. They both are enrolled in the four courses Crumm offers: saddle making, advanced saddle making, boot and shoe repair, and tooling. He expects the men to take approximately six months to complete all four, graduating in June with a certificate.

"They're learning the whole nine yards," Crumm said. "There's no limit to the knowledge they can receive. What's so rewarding is when they turn out something really great. That's an awesome feeling because you know you've taught them well."

Crumm usually works by himself, but acknowledges that he contracts out work, and wouldn't mind hiring the guys once they complete school. Both the men are content with their new field as well.

"We always said, if it turns into work, we might as well quit," Harris said.

That sentiment is what has made the program so compatible for the boys at Muley Bluz.

"I won't take just anybody though," Crumm said of prospective students. "You've got to meet my credentials. You've got to want to do this, not just come to do the program."