June 2015

“I came, I saw, I left,” smiles Central Washington Press supervisor Buz Crabtree.

A little more than 28 years ago Crabtree found himself calling the Yakima Valley his new home, at the helm of the Sunnyside press operation.  Friday, June 5, he will bid farewell to the local printing press because he retired.

His career in Sunnyside started one Memorial Day weekend. He and the woman who would eventually become his wife, Betty, decided to spend a weekend away from the hustle and bustle of their daily lives on the west side of the state.  Crabtree was working in Gig Harbor for a press operation there, while Betty lived in Portland. The duo decided to spend a holiday weekend in the Yakima Valley.

“I had heard the press in Sunnyside needed a press operator,” said Crabtree.

He decided it wouldn’t hurt to stop by the office of Central Washington Press and check out the place. Located at that time at 703 E. Edison Ave., he was surprised to find someone in the office on a weekend, a holiday weekend to boot.  That someone was the publisher of the Sunnyside Sun newspaper, Judy Edstrom.  She is now the editor of the monthly newsletter put out for the employees of Eagle Newspapers, which now owns both Central Washington Press and the Daily Sun News.

“It was a Sunday,” Crabtree said. Edstrom said she was at the press that day because when Eagle Newspapers bought the Sunnyside Sun about three years earlier, it was with plans to update the building and equipment.  Edstrom said she and the crew found “…just getting the newspaper out took all of our time. Then, the worst happened…the sole pressman incurred a serious back injury.”

Finding a press operator at the time was not easy, especially given the publication was at the time “in disarray.”  Edstrom interviewed Crabtree for the job on the spot that day, and was sold after another publisher told her he very well could be the answer to her woes.

But Crabtree didn’t realize anything was afoot, believing life as he knew it would continue upon his return home.  He couldn’t have been more wrong. It turned out he was in for a big surprise upon his return to work on Monday.  Crabtree’s boss told him, “Pack your bags…you’re moving to Sunnyside!” Crabtree said he was dumbstruck, but did as he was told.  “That’s how hiring was done years ago,” he said.

Crabtree was thrust into the mix from the outset. He arrived on Tuesday, the busiest print day of the week at the time. On Tuesdays back in 1987 the Sunnyside press printed the Daily Sun News, the Shopper, and the weekly Toppenish Review, Grandview Herald and Prosser Record-Bulletin newspapers.

Since then, there have been a number of changes. Central Washington Press, which was owned by longtime newspapermen Jim Flint, John Fournier and Eagle Web Press, has since been purchased by Eagle Newspapers Inc. It moved with the Daily Sun News to its current location across from the Sunnyside Safeway store in downtown Sunnyside.  There have also been a number of changes in the industry, said Crabtree. The biggest change has been via technological advances. He said the process of physically producing the newspaper has advanced from paste-ups and film to full digitalization – direct to press plates.

“Instead of cutting masks for spot color, it is a digitalized process and we don’t have to send color photos to Seattle for color separations because they are computerized,” Crabtree said.

There have also been a few occasions when not all worked as smoothly as it should. One such occasion played out much like a Halloween story. Although it created a scare even for Crabtree, all who were present laugh about it now.  Longtime Daily Sun News employee Kim Taylor Morris, now an ad sales representative for the community newspaper, recalls hearing a lot of crashing and banging from the press room one day.

“All of a sudden we hear ‘Ahhhh!’, and we (the Daily Sun News staff) rush into the press room to see what has happened,” she recalled.  Crabtree, she said, emerged from under one of the press units

and his head was covered in red.  “We thought he was mortally wounded,” Taylor Morris said, noting several staff members began asking if Crabtree needed to be rushed to the hospital.  “Even he thought he was injured,” she said.

But, Crabtree reached up into his hair, swiped his hand through it, pulled his hand away and looked at it. With a smirk on his face, he told the staff, “It’s just ink,” he laughed.  Although his career in Sunnyside began one Memorial Day weekend in 1987, Crabtree has spent all but the first 13 years of his life mired in ink.

“Ink runs in my blood,” he said.

At the age of 13, Crabtree began his career on the press in Ketchikan, Alaska. He said his father was a typesetter and his grandfather spent his life as a book binder.

“This is what I know,” said Crabtree, who said he will miss the people he works with, who have become like family.  Edstrom, who has kept in touch with the staff at the Daily Sun News and Central Washington Press, said Crabtree was a blessing to her and the Sunnyside press operations, and he will be sorely missed by everyone in the Eagle Newspapers family.

from DSN website June 2, 2015

Cal Borman died December 21, 2014 at his home in Aumsville, OR. The former Eagle Web Press sales manager retired in 2010 after a long career in the printing business. He came to Salem in 1971 to work at Denny Smith’s new printing company, BME Web Press, the birthplace of Eagle Web Press.

Cal had been in ill health in recent years. No service was held, but his wife, Kathi, plans a ‘Celebration of Life’ in early summer, depending on when their daughter can be home.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter, Nikki, grandsons, Brady and Bentley; granddaughter Bailey and his brother, Wayne.

In spite of his health problems, during his retirement Cal worked around their acreage “pretty much a full time job” according to Kathi. He often lunched with friends and the couple took a few short trips.

Cal was born in Enterprise, Oregon, September,1942. He was beginning seventh grade, when his family moved to Pendleton, and he graduated from Pendleton high school in 1961. In 1959 he started his printing career at the East Oregonian.

The Eagle Newspapers family will miss Cal!

Krista Andrews joined Eagle Web Press, Salem on January 5, 2015 as its new Project Coordinator, communicating with customers, sales staff and plant personnel.  She knows sheet-fed printing from her last 14 years in the business.  She’s now learning another type of printing…done on huge rolls of paper threading through the gigantic line of iron at Eagle Web Press.  Welcome, Krista!

Deb Jones was introduced as the new publisher of the Moneysaver in Lewiston, Idaho this past February.  Deb has extensive experience in print sales and ad creation in her career with Eagle – most recently at the Columbia Gorge Press, in Hood River, OR.  Deb’s move to Lewiston began last summer with her position as Advertising Manager and “replacement in training.”  Diane Johnson made a decision to retire this year as the publisher and has been working with Deb during the transition.

Diane started her career at the Moneysaver in June 1977 taking ads over the phone.  The Moneysaver began as a family business owned by Diane’s aunt, Judy McFadden.  Diane’s mother was hired as a proofreader and her sister, Jan, as the manager of sheet-fed offset press department.  Diane also worked in production and circulation until her brother Garth joined the business.  Garth took over circulation and Diane transitioned to the office and was display billing clerk. In July of 2005, Ms. McFadden and the family stockholders sold the company to Eagle Newspapers and Diane became the publisher.

“I was happy to become publisher of the Moneysaver.  Here we are today with the last family member retiring from the business!  The Moneysaver staff and Eagle Newspapers have been wonderful to work with.  It’s been an exciting industry to be in. When I think about all the technological advances in the last 37 years and what is to come, it’s beyond my imagination,” Diane said.

While Diane ‘officially’ stepped down in April from day-to-day operations, she will be available to Deb Jones through the end of September. During this time, she also will be working on some company projects for Eagle.

Congratulations to new publisher, Deb Jones.  Heartfelt THANKS for Diane Johnson, for her years of loyalty and service to Eagle Newspapers!

Welcome to Ashley DeRamus who joined the team at the Idaho County Free Press last November.  She was hired as an ad sales representative.

Farewell to Adam Lapierre, reporter and photographer extraordinaire at the Hood River News, in Hood River, OR.  Adam departed in February of this year for another position in the Hood River community.

Also saying goodbye – Julie Bock – leaving her circulation manager position at the Omak Chronicle, Omak, WA.  She started out in the mailroom in 1999 and also worked in production.

Springtime saw Karen Zackula join the Daily Sun News in Washington as a new member of the front office crew, specializing in classifieds.  University of Oregon grad, Patrick Mulvihill, joined the editorial department at the Hood River News as a general news reporter. Niki Piacente is enjoying the variety of her responsibilities and “the fun of working with and meeting so many people” as she joined the staff of The Dalles Chronicle, in classified sales. Two new employees joined the Moneysaver staff in Lewiston – – Cassie Chandler in classifieds and Becca Eller in graphic design. Welcome ladies.  And, all the way from Watkinsville, Georgia, where he was the sports editor for the Oconee Enterprise, comes Derek Wiley, who has become a reporter at The Dalles Chronicle.