February 1, 1999 Ravalli Republic article: Waiting and hoping and moving on Darby Lumber workers cope with lay-offs By BUDDY SMITH Republic staff writer

Steve Welty has always enjoyed working with horses. Out of passion and necessity - - what has been for the past several years a hobby. and a part-time job could very well become Welty's bread and butter.

Welty is one of more than a hundred Darby Lumber and Bob Russell Construction employees thrust into unemployment when the Bitterroot Valley's last lumber mill closed its doors last fall.

Like other men and women he worked with, Welty says he knew the mill wouldn't t keep running forever. Partly because he anticipated being laid off one day, he began to prepare for life after Darby Lumber. "I worked in that sawmill for 21 years, Welty says

He did just about everything" at the mill. but these days Welty trains horses at his ranch south of Stevensville.

"I've always liked horses," Welty says.

In some ways. Welty says "being laid off was a God-send." "That's because he's focusing more on the mind and spirit of the horse, and that's something he truly enjoys. In the tradition of Monty Roberts, a real-life "horse whisperer," Welty employs a methodology steeped in communication between horse and human.

Though he's still seeking other work and says his best shot at a good job would be if the mill reopened, Welty says there's a chance training horses can develop into something lucrative.

"It's really too early to tell,'' Welty said. I'm pretty sure it will."

For Welty - a homeowner and family man, whose wife also works in the Bitterroot Valley relocating to find work wasn't really an option. Doing what he likes and understands made more sense.

"It makes it harder to move on we have a lot of stuff here," Welty says

After being laid off from a job where wages average from $7 to $14 per hour, he says he didn't see a future working elsewhere in the Bitterroot.

Welty is currently training three horses and he says that's "pretty good for January and for someone getting back into the business.''

Most of his clients are recreational riders who will use their mounts to ride into the national forest, he says. Building on the belief that a person's good reputation travels on the words of satisfied customers, Welty says he's looking to building strong relationships. During a portion of each day Welty coaxes; guides and rewards horses as part of a training technique

After more than two decades of working in the timber industry, he's training horses for recreational riders, many of whom will ride along forest trails, surrounded by the raw product he says could one day flow through Darby Lumber again.

Leaning out of the saddle, he pats the 5-year-old gelding, rewarding and acknowledging the horse's response to his teaching.

For now, at least, he's no longer a timber worker. And if there is some faint, silver lining here, he just may have found it.

It led me to this," Welty says.

Robert Hackle worked at the mill for approximately five and one half years. He held several job titles before becoming a filer. It was a good job , Hackle says, and it paid well.

But toward noon one Friday, Hackle recalls, a motor broke, stopping work. Hackle says he was told to go home because the motor would take a week to replace.

When he returned the following Friday, he found, along with his paycheck, a note expressing regret that he was temporarily laid off.

Like other employees of Darby Lumber, Hackle is hopeful and is moving on but said he left with some frustrations.

"It just kind of makes me mad when you have it ripped from underneath you."

Hackle says he's patiently waiting. But he says he doesn't hold much faith in the mill reopening anytime soon. Sparse information from Darby Lumber management, he says, doesn't make deciding what to do next any easier, but he is considering his options.

I don't know right now," Hackle said It's either move out of the area or do something. else."

Hackle and his wife moved to the Bitterroot Valley 19 years ago because they wanted to try something different, he says. Now, with just two years left to pay off their home, leaving the valley permanently doesn't make a lot sense to Hackle And so now he sends out resumes where he can. He's even considering taking a timber job in Idaho. He used to drive semi trucks and he kept his license current so that's another option for Hackle but working out of state driving trucks could mean being separated from his wife and three kids five days a week at a time.

"I'm going to end up leaving my family either way," Hackle says.

Hackle says going back to school would be next to impossible because that would mean a loss of income for his family while he studied.

"I can't afford to take two years off to go to school."

For now, he says he's patiently waiting.

"I'm like a lot of guys," Hackle says. "Maybe I waited too long."

Meanwhile, he continues to look for the kind of work that can support his family and he remains hopeful.

Greg Holt has worked for Darby Lumber since 1996. There, he worked as a boiler engineer but now he says he's ready to try something else.

Holt is currently waiting to find out whether he'll receive a federal education grant to attend barber school at the University of Montana's College of Technology. The grant would pay for 90 percent of his training.

Holt says he first heard about the barber college at a December meeting of Darby Lumber employees. At the time, he says,- he joked with others, saying "That's just what the town of Darby needs is another barber," but now the 58-year-old former police officer is serious about it.

"When people say 'have you got any work yet?' I've been working all the time," he says of the numerous resumes sent out and the face-to-face job contacts he's made.

Being a barber could bring a sense of job security, and that's important to Holt who, with his wife, purchased a home in the Grantsdale area last year.

At the time they bought the home, things at the mill were "looking bright," he says. It wasn't long ago that Holt says he begin to "read the handwriting on the wall" and he knew that economics and changing attitudes about timber harvesting could bring production to a halt.

"The bottom line is have you ever seen an unemployed barber?" Holt says.

Holt says balancing a budget now contingent on unemployment benefits requires considerable adjustments,- even for someone with an average, middle-class lifestyle "We don't have any frills as far as payments on ATVs or snowmobiles," Holt says. "We're just trying to keep the wolves away from the door. "And with roots running deep in the Bitterroot, Holt is digging in and he says he's not going anywhere soon.:

"I've got a daughter and grand daughters in the valley," Holt says, "I'm not too excited about pulling away."

According to Gary 'Locke of the Bitterroot Job Service, most people- facing a plant closure - don't leave the area. "You're not going to see U-Hauls clogging the highway with Darby Lumber workers leaving the Bitterroot Valley," Locke says.

Locke says only a small percentage of former timber workers have taken" advantage of relocation funds that provide up to $800 for someone on an Out-of-the-area job search.

"Some folks have made the decision to move, some are thinking about it," Locke says.

Some former mill workers have taken jobs in the log home industry, Locke says. And although a number of Darby Lumber employees have found work elsewhere, Locke said most have to start at the beginning of the pay scale and so they aren't making the wages they once were

"Nobody's come in bragging about 'I got a better job'", Locke said.