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Opinion: Student gets educated outside of high
school
Newberg Area Business Directory
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Newberg will remain home to Action Equipment |
By Gunnar Olson, Newberg
Graphic reporter
E-mail Gunnar at golson@eaglenewspapers.com
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Action Equipment Company’s owners were
blunt with the city of Newberg.
The local company needed room to grow and couldn’t find suitable
land within city limits. If the city couldn’t help it relocate here,
warned company president and co-owner Andrew LaVeine, it would head
to Vancouver, Wash.
“We’ve got to move,” Andrew LaVeine said last week as he gave a
tour of his current facility, located at 1000 Industrial Way. “It’s
just not suited to what we build today.”
Founded by Harold LaVeine in 1977 in Tualatin, Andrew LaVeine
started working at his father’s material-handling company in 1990.
The business has since relocated to Newberg, and he and his brother,
Dan, have taken over ownership and management. Dan oversees
operations. Andrew manages sales, patents and marketing.
The company has grown. Its products – custom-made vibratory
screeners, conveyors and feeders – have gone from primarily handling
wood products to handling anything from scrap tires to auto-shredder
residue and industrial wastes.
“If it doesn’t vibrate we don’t build it,” Andrew LaVeine
explained.
Last week Action Equipment was given the green light to continue its
expansion and to do so in Newberg. The Newberg City Council on Dec.
6 approved a resolution to change the zoning on a piece of land to
which the company plans to relocate.
The land is off Hayes Street, just east of Parr Lumber. Because of
its proximity to the airport, buildings on the property can be only
so high. The land has therefore been difficult to find a use for.
Newberg Councilor Roger Currier made a point at the council
meeting, after the resolution passed, to say that the city has been
trying to find a use for that property for years. That plot was the
proposed site for an apartment complex about 10 years ago, he said,
but the city council denied the use over a safety issue. He said he
was glad the land finally had a use.
The new facility will more than triple the company’s space, from
20,000 square feet that includes an office to 60,000 square feet in
addition to an office. LaVeine said he hopes to complete building in
two to three years.
David Beam, economic development coordinator and planner for the
city, characterized the relocation of Action Equipment as a success
story. Beam said industrial land is limited in Newberg, but that the
city wants to retain a balance of industry and residences – so as to
not become a bedroom community.
Beam said the city recognized Action Equipment as being able to
help strike that balance. In relocating the company will pay more
property taxes, increasing the city’s tax base. But more
importantly, he said, the company will add good-paying jobs (about
$12 per hour average) to the community.
“We wanted to do everything we could to keep (the company) in the
community,” Beam said.
Andrew LaVeine noticed. He said the city was helpful in helping his
company relocate.
“Everybody wants us there,” he added.
That probably includes some of the company’s employees. The current
crew includes a night staff keeping the factory pumping out product
around the clock to keep up with growing demand. Andrew LaVeine said
he hoped the new facility would enable the company to move everyone
to a single day shift.
More space will also mean more employees. LaVeine said he hoped to
hire 10 to 20 more employees in the next year. He currently has
about 40 employees.
The company’s specialty lies in its size-separation capabilities.
In addition to moving product from one machine to another in an
industrial setting, the company can custom build equipment that can
separate product by size. It has multiple patents on designs that
make the company one of the nation’s leading separators – the only
company that specializes in scrap tire screening, for instance.
Action Equipment has custom built equipment for quarries, sawmills,
power plants and recycling facilities in 45 states and 18 foreign
countries.
For more information visit the company’s Web site at
www.actionconveyors.com. |
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From
Dec. 15, 2004,
Newberg Graphic
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