Gilbert Smith Forest Products Ltd. (GSFP) reps say they were “...very happy with the turn out” for their achievement day celebration and barbecue held last Thursday at the mill in Barriere.
General manager Greg Smith spoke during the celebration saying the event was to bring together everyone involved with the company’s accomplishments in safety, and the achievements that had been reached.
He noted there have been 41,000 hours put in to date on the mill’s recent $5 million dollar upgrade. Dan Doyle supervised the contractors that were hired for the project, including the GSFP crew that were also involved. This works out to 20 men working for one year, with no time loss accidents in that year for the project. The mill was able to operate throughout the upgrade process.
Smith also stated the sawmill has one year and 11 months no time loss accidents as of June 19, 2012. And that the Woodlands Department for GSFP has achieved 12 years of no time loss accidents.
This is an outstanding accomplishment as the Woodlands Department employees spend a lot of time on the roads, including the forestry roads which are not always that great under winter conditions, they are also walking the logging blocks which present a number of different natural hazards.
“Excellent job on safety everyone keep it up!” said Smith.
He also complimented many other members of the crew, and made special note of the mill having two 40 year grader veterans, and now four new certified graders.
The mill currently employs 46 full time, 19 part-time, and eight to nine office staff.
Smith made note that during the month of April 2014, 3.4 million board feet had been shipped, with 1.9 million board feet already shipped in the first 11 days of May.
On the planner side, 9100 board feet an hour was produced during March of this year, with a total of 900,000 board feet of 2x6 run during that month.
Employees, management, GSFP retirees, and guests all enjoyed a steak barbecue, cake, and games with numerous prizes involved.
“The crew all had a great time with the pike pole game,” said a staff member, “And guessing the weight of all the employees on the scales, with the weight being 14,263 lbs. Rodney Jules’ guess of 14,204 lbs. won him a brand new barbecue. We wish him happy barbecue days from now on!”
The cooler was won by Woodlands clerk Marian Wallace, by way of pulling out numbers by the name, as nobody was able to find the winning mark on the trim ends during the pike pole game. Wallace says she is very happy, and will be going on a fishing trip to the ocean next year with her cooler.