Rep. Hendrick: Stick together and use available resources
by Rep. Gordon Hendrick
I have been attending several meetings relating to the closure of the Smurfit-Stone mill here in District 14, and at each of these meetings I have offered ideas based on our experiences in Superior. Mineral County went through this same experience 15 years ago in 1994 when our mill closed. I was mayor of Superior at that time. Now Frenchtown and Missoula County are experiencing the same thing.
Some people saw the job situation a little bit different than others and expected this or were somewhat prepared for it. Others weren't prepared for it. Many people are upset and angry and frightened. Our first advice to people is, Don't make any hasty decisions. Don't pack up and leave the area. Hang in there, wait for a little bit, take advantage of the resources that are going to be available to you, and let's see what turns up here. You don't want to go off and do something silly that you might regret later. Rather than have a knee-jerk reaction, sell your house, and put yourself out on the road to try to find something, we are asking people to wait and identify resources available to them.
Many people are reluctant to use these resources. They have been working all their lives and they are used to helping other people. But I tell them, you have paid into this system all those years--use it.
That's been the consensus: Take a moment to get your feet back under you rather than panicking and running all over the place. The first six months, we are in the shock stage. Everybody moseys around trying to figure out what they're going to do. The main effects will come not just six months from now, but three years from now. In Superior, we're 14 years from the mill shutting down and we still feel the impact from that.
I also advise people: Watch for, and care for, the children. The children are the ones going to be affected by it. Kids worry just as much as the parents do. The schools need to be aware of the additional stresses placed on all of these families, and especially the children. It doesn't affect just the parents, it also affects the kids. They are the quickest ones to be affected by it. They think they will have to be dragged from their school away from the friends they've known all their lives. There will be more 911 calls, and there are more things that are going to happen. The schools should be lining up the counselors and talking to the kids. There should also be counselors coming in and talking to the employees, to let them know what's going to be taking place.
Losing your biggest employer is the hardest thing in the world. If you haven't gone through it, you don't know.
One of the first things I did after hearing of the news was to contact our other state officials to try to get as much information as possible about the impact on property taxes in District 14.
Kevin Furey, who is the energy development specialist for the Montana Department of Commerce, let me know that property taxes will not automatically go up to represent the loss of taxes paid by Smurfit-Stone. Local governments will see a decrease in revenue, and it will be up to those local governments to decide how to adjust to these changes.
Another question is about retraining. Due to the economy, our College of Technology is overstuffed right now, and there is nowhere to put the additional students. We will be talking with the University system to find out what the possibilities are, and how they can take more students. One idea I have had is to connect Frenchtown High School to any college and use it for long-distance education.
The ripple effect has already started. I have already started hearing from independent truckers in our area who are going to be affected. The Department of Revenue will be producing a more detailed report on the impacts and I will be sure to share a copy of that report when it is done.
I attended a meeting in Missoula at the Union Hall with Gov. Schweitzer, and another at the University of Montana the same night. The governor has been promoting the idea of a biomass energy generation facility. Of course, any use of that site depends on what Smurfit-Stone decides to do with it. It is coming out of bankruptcy, and they will still own the site. The governor has been talking with their CEO, and Northwestern Energy is also interested in talking with Smurfit-Stone about it.
At the union meeting that morning, the union talked to the workers about unemployment and their alternatives for retraining. There were questions about the retirement plans and making sure that the retirement is protected.
People mentioned that there is no one-size-fits-all retraining for all of the workers. It's no good training everyone to be a welder, if the market can't support those jobs. If we don't need workers in those fields, it's no good retraining them in those fields. They would be in the same boat, having wasted all that time getting education that they can't use. A lot of homework is going to need to be done.
One idea that came up is for people to start their own small businesses. You can get help with a business plan through the county extension office. We also brainstormed about teaming up with business students at the University. They have to write up business plans as part of their classes, so we are thinking that in addition to their grades, they have an opportunity to see how successful they are with real-world business ideas.
The meeting at the University Center was in the theater on the third floor, and it was pretty full. The governor recognized all the representatives there, and said I was a very good representative for our area and a very caring person. But then he recognized Sen. Ron Erickson who sponsored bills on global warming and carbon sequestration and the governor went right to attack mode, said the Republicans shot those bills down, the Republicans don't believe in global warming, can you believe that? And he was looking right at me. I didn't feel that was the time and place to start a political free-for-all, but I did comment later during the question and answer period. I said: We're not here to play the blame game. These people didn't come here to listen about who did what or when or where. They want to know what's going to happen now. I don't care what party you're from, everybody is going to have to work together on this.
The next lady that stood up could hardly talk, she was so upset. She said she had worked at the mill for 26 years. She said, I appreciate what Rep Hendrick said, because I myself had that first knee-jerk reaction of panic. It's nice to know we don't have to react to everything immediately.
It's really tough. As the governor stated, "Well, Rep. Hendrick, you've been through this before."
I told him, "Yeah and unfortunately it looks like we're going to go through it again."
We haven't seen the worst of this yet. We don't know how many people from Mineral County are going to be affected by this; we don't know how many employees live in Mineral County. We need to learn to stick together, work together, and utilize the sources that we have here.
We recently started a group to help care for one another in Mineral County, the Mineral County We Care Foundation, and it looks like we had perfect timing in getting that started. We will bring people together to help those in need in our communities.
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I have been attending several meetings relating to the closure of the Smurfit-Stone mill here in District 14, and at each of these meetings I have offered ideas based on our experiences in Superior. Mineral County went through this same experience 15 years ago in 1994 when our mill closed. I was mayor of Superior at that time. Now Frenchtown and Missoula County are experiencing the same thing.
Some people saw the job situation a little bit different than others and expected this or were somewhat prepared for it. Others weren't prepared for it. Many people are upset and angry and frightened. Our first advice to people is, Don't make any hasty decisions. Don't pack up and leave the area. Hang in there, wait for a little bit, take advantage of the resources that are going to be available to you, and let's see what turns up here. You don't want to go off and do something silly that you might regret later. Rather than have a knee-jerk reaction, sell your house, and put yourself out on the road to try to find something, we are asking people to wait and identify resources available to them.
Many people are reluctant to use these resources. They have been working all their lives and they are used to helping other people. But I tell them, you have paid into this system all those years--use it.
That's been the consensus: Take a moment to get your feet back under you rather than panicking and running all over the place. The first six months, we are in the shock stage. Everybody moseys around trying to figure out what they're going to do. The main effects will come not just six months from now, but three years from now. In Superior, we're 14 years from the mill shutting down and we still feel the impact from that.
I also advise people: Watch for, and care for, the children. The children are the ones going to be affected by it. Kids worry just as much as the parents do. The schools need to be aware of the additional stresses placed on all of these families, and especially the children. It doesn't affect just the parents, it also affects the kids. They are the quickest ones to be affected by it. They think they will have to be dragged from their school away from the friends they've known all their lives. There will be more 911 calls, and there are more things that are going to happen. The schools should be lining up the counselors and talking to the kids. There should also be counselors coming in and talking to the employees, to let them know what's going to be taking place.
Losing your biggest employer is the hardest thing in the world. If you haven't gone through it, you don't know.
One of the first things I did after hearing of the news was to contact our other state officials to try to get as much information as possible about the impact on property taxes in District 14.
Kevin Furey, who is the energy development specialist for the Montana Department of Commerce, let me know that property taxes will not automatically go up to represent the loss of taxes paid by Smurfit-Stone. Local governments will see a decrease in revenue, and it will be up to those local governments to decide how to adjust to these changes.
Another question is about retraining. Due to the economy, our College of Technology is overstuffed right now, and there is nowhere to put the additional students. We will be talking with the University system to find out what the possibilities are, and how they can take more students. One idea I have had is to connect Frenchtown High School to any college and use it for long-distance education.
The ripple effect has already started. I have already started hearing from independent truckers in our area who are going to be affected. The Department of Revenue will be producing a more detailed report on the impacts and I will be sure to share a copy of that report when it is done.
I attended a meeting in Missoula at the Union Hall with Gov. Schweitzer, and another at the University of Montana the same night. The governor has been promoting the idea of a biomass energy generation facility. Of course, any use of that site depends on what Smurfit-Stone decides to do with it. It is coming out of bankruptcy, and they will still own the site. The governor has been talking with their CEO, and Northwestern Energy is also interested in talking with Smurfit-Stone about it.
At the union meeting that morning, the union talked to the workers about unemployment and their alternatives for retraining. There were questions about the retirement plans and making sure that the retirement is protected.
People mentioned that there is no one-size-fits-all retraining for all of the workers. It's no good training everyone to be a welder, if the market can't support those jobs. If we don't need workers in those fields, it's no good retraining them in those fields. They would be in the same boat, having wasted all that time getting education that they can't use. A lot of homework is going to need to be done.
One idea that came up is for people to start their own small businesses. You can get help with a business plan through the county extension office. We also brainstormed about teaming up with business students at the University. They have to write up business plans as part of their classes, so we are thinking that in addition to their grades, they have an opportunity to see how successful they are with real-world business ideas.
The meeting at the University Center was in the theater on the third floor, and it was pretty full. The governor recognized all the representatives there, and said I was a very good representative for our area and a very caring person. But then he recognized Sen. Ron Erickson who sponsored bills on global warming and carbon sequestration and the governor went right to attack mode, said the Republicans shot those bills down, the Republicans don't believe in global warming, can you believe that? And he was looking right at me. I didn't feel that was the time and place to start a political free-for-all, but I did comment later during the question and answer period. I said: We're not here to play the blame game. These people didn't come here to listen about who did what or when or where. They want to know what's going to happen now. I don't care what party you're from, everybody is going to have to work together on this.
The next lady that stood up could hardly talk, she was so upset. She said she had worked at the mill for 26 years. She said, I appreciate what Rep Hendrick said, because I myself had that first knee-jerk reaction of panic. It's nice to know we don't have to react to everything immediately.
It's really tough. As the governor stated, "Well, Rep. Hendrick, you've been through this before."
I told him, "Yeah and unfortunately it looks like we're going to go through it again."
We haven't seen the worst of this yet. We don't know how many people from Mineral County are going to be affected by this; we don't know how many employees live in Mineral County. We need to learn to stick together, work together, and utilize the sources that we have here.
We recently started a group to help care for one another in Mineral County, the Mineral County We Care Foundation, and it looks like we had perfect timing in getting that started. We will bring people together to help those in need in our communities.
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