While others seek help, Stoltze looks ahead

Headlines as of late have all been about bailouts - bailouts of banks, bailouts of financial firms, bailouts of auto companies.

It's as if a certain segment of the population, to steal a line from Thoreau, wants a life without consequences.

Meanwhile, the rest of us slog on. For some, things are better. For many, things are worse. And for others, doing the right thing is getting more difficult.

Recently I wrote about the 110th anniversary of the F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. Stoltze is one of the largest private landowners in Flathead County. They own 36,000 acres of land, mostly open for public use, much of which the family could have sold long ago when the real estate market was booming.

But they didn't. They're about timber and long-term strategy and they think ahead instead of behind. That's how a company survives 110 years.

Today, Stoltze is thinking ahead again. The company has already invested about $5 million in its modest mill here over the past five years. Now it is looking at the possibility of a co-generation plant.

See, the boilers at Stoltze, used to dry wood and heat the place, are nearly as old as the mill itself. They've seen better days.

Rather than simply replace them, the company has been exploring the possibility of a co-generation facility. A facility that would not just generate heat for the mill, but electricity for you and I.

Eventually, Flathead Electric Cooperative is going to have to go out on the open market for electricity, as the Bonneville Power Administration, which regulates the electric supply from Columbia Basin dams, has capped out what it will supply to the co-op.

A partial solution to this could come from Stoltze. The new boilers the company is exploring are super efficient, create virtually no emissions and use what's normally waste, for fuel. They could also spin a turbine and offer the valley electricity as well as supply the mill.

The problem, at this point, is financing, company officials note. Credit markets are tight, and government isn't exactly backing projects like this.

That leaves me scratching my head. Here we are bailing out banks and an auto industry that made horrible decisions, some which were downright fraudulent, and yet a company that's been around for 110 years can't get the money it needs for a project that certainly looks like a win for the community and a win for local jobs.

It's my sincere hope that Sens. Tester and Baucus and Congressman Rehberg take a good hard look at Stoltze's project if it proves to be economically viable. Take a good hard look at what it takes to be in business 110 years, and come to the conclusion that this is a project worth investing in.

Successful businesses shouldn't have to struggle, while Wall Street beggars rattle their large tin cup.

Chris Peterson is the photographer for the Hungry Horse News.