Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The Sweet Home Planning Commission approved, Monday night, a two-year conditional use permit for Totman Renewable Resources to operate on Western States Land Reliance Trust property at the north end of 24th Avenue.
The company’s previous two-year permit recently expired but continued operating under an extension while preparing an application for a new two-year permit.
Dan Desler, who has been a financial partner in the company, is the full-time manager of the company and the managing trustee of WSLRT, which owns several hundred acres north of Highway 20 between 18th Avenue and Clark Mill Road.
Jeremy Totman, Desler’s partner, has left the company and started a new one called T2 Trucking, Desler said. The original conditional use permit was granted to Russell Totman Trucking. Russell Totman sold the operation to Desler and Jeremy Totman approximately 18 months ago.
Totman Renewable Resources takes wood fibers that are byproducts in manufacturing things like cardboard boxes, mixes it and repackages it into other wood products. The fibers are usually those that are too short to be used in making cardboard boxes. They also mix recycled fibers.
The fibers are used for things like hog fuel in electricity co-generation plants and as animal bedding on farms.
The operation initially had a composting component, but that is no longer part of the operation.
Initially, Totman Renewable Resources had a two-year permit to operate on the old Willamette Industries Sweet Home Mill site until a site west of Sweet Home could be prepared.
Desler thinks the new site will be ready in about one year, he said. It is located on the right side of Highway 20 about 3.2 miles west of Sweet Home on about 3.6 acres.
The conditional use permit drew opposition from residents of Clark Mill Road because around-the-clock truck traffic had been going to the old Morse Brothers property on the north end to use the scales there. That traffic ceased prior to the application for a new permit.
“I want to give first a heartfelt apology to the folks on Clark Mill Road that have been subjected to the (truck traffic),” Desler said when he testified to the Planning Commission. “There are scales all over the city. That scale was never intended to be used, and I apologize. It was used apparently in violation of city code, and it’s stopped. The gates will be locked.”
The land in question is planned for a residential subdivision as part of the Santiam Master Plan, which is a 1,575-unit project proposed by WSLRT and Santiam River Development Company.
It also remains under discussion as a potential site for a permanent amphitheater to be used by the Oregon Jamboree, Desler said.
Totman Renewable Resources has grown from a $1.5 million company to $5 million this year and up to $12 million next year, Desler said. It has grown from 14 to 22 employees.
The commission approved the permit unanimously. Present were Alan Culver, Kim Lawrence, Chairman Dick Meyers, Dr. Henry Wolthuis, Scott McKee Jr. and Frank Javersak. Mike Adams was absent.
In other business, the commission:
– Recommended to the City Council that it approve a vacation of 10th Avenue right-of-way between Juniper and Ironwood streets. Wolthuis voted no after saying the commission had intended during its last vacation hearing to keep right-of-way for looping between the two streets.