Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Potlatch Honored For Commitment To Safety

Employees of the Potlatch Southern Unit celebrated a milestone in safety on Friday, August 11, when their facility was accepted into the Voluntary Protection Program of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) is reserved for facilities that have shown an exemplary commitment to safety, and that have safety programs far beyond the standards required by law.

VPP has two levels of achievement  Merit and a higher level called Star status. Due to the quality of work done by the mill's VPP team and the mill's safety record, Southern Unit was inducted at the Star status.

To celebrate their achievement employees gathered for a lunch in Warren and heard remarks by company and federal officials.

"This is a very important and special achievement," said Dwane Clark, Southern Unit manager. "Nationwide, fewer than 500 manufacturing facilities have achieved Star status. In the wood products industry the Southern Unit is one of only 42 Star facilities. This is the result of a three-year application and inspection process. It took a great deal of teamwork by employees here, plus the fact we have a safety record that is far better than the industry average."

John B. Miles, OSHA regional administrator, spoke briefly about VPP before presenting Potlatch employees with a VPP flag. The flag can be flown only at Merit and Star sites, and is a daily reminder of that facility's commitment to safety. An employee team immediately hoisted the new flag near the Pine Street entrance to the Southern Unit.

Rick Kelly, Potlatch vice president of Wood Products, also complimented employees and reported on several other company facilities that are VPP participants. Among them is the Potlatch Ozan Unit at Prescott. Before the meal, employer Jamie Rochelle lead the invocation.

Gary Langford, VPP facilitator at the Southern Unit, introduced the speakers as well as guests in the audience. They included representatives of OSHA, the Arkansas Department of Labor, Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission, Bradley County Chamber of Commerce, Bradley County Industrial Development Corporation, SEACBEC and Warren Public Schools.

Elected officials present included Warren Mayor Gregg Reep, state Rep. Joyce Dees of Hermitage, state senator-elect Jimmy Jeffress of Crossett and U.S. Rep. Jay Dickey of Pine Bluff.

Potlatch, founded in 1903, is a publicly-traded forest products company headquartered in Spokane, Wash. The company has timberlands, manufacturing and/or distribution facilities in Idaho, Nevada, Minnesota and Arkansas. In Arkansas Potlatch owns 500,000 acres of timberland and employees near 1,000 people. The company operates pine lumber mills in Prescott and Warren, the Bradley Unit hardwood mill in Warren and the Cypress Bend pulp and paperboard mill near McGehee.