{"id":7127,"date":"2022-04-11T09:48:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T13:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=7127"},"modified":"2025-08-13T19:50:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T23:50:42","slug":"generations-at-the-mill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2022\/04\/11\/generations-at-the-mill\/","title":{"rendered":"Generations at the Mill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Justin Waceken has followed in the footsteps of his grandfathers by working in a mill setting, as they had once done. \u201cTwo of my grandfathers had made paper in the mill using machines. And my great grandfather worked in the woodyard, so he used to take the wood to the mill that they used to make the paper and produce steam,\u201d Justin said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Justin\u2019s work involves his making steam. \u201cI work on the Cogen boiler at our mill. The mill makes paper and cardboard and to do that they need steam. So at my job we make steam. And we make steam from boilers by burning things,\u201d he said. \u201cWe burn woodchips and we put water in this boiler. It’s just like boiling water on the stove. The steam produces power for the mill so it can run. And the steam is also used in the process to make cardboard and paper.\u201d He started working in the mill on June 1, 2020. By that time, it was a different world from the mill setting his grandfathers had been a part of.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Equipment from inside the paper mill from 1965.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hazen Naas started working in a paper mill in 1965. \u201cI was the youngest paper guy when I came into the mill, and I was the oldest guy when I left. It was a different world in the beginning than it was toward the end,\u201d Hazen said. Hazen stayed despite the dangerous work conditions because he was good at what he did and had something to prove. \u201cI wanted to get into the paper room cause that\u2019s where all the money was. They didn\u2019t like the idea that I was so young. But I moved up because I wouldn’t turn a job down,\u201d Hazen said, \u201cMy first day, my superior said to me, \u2018You\u2019re not going to last. It will be over 100 degrees in here today.\u2019 Well, that\u2019s just how it was. I worked through it. But the heat got to him that day.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was up to these workers to take their safety into their own hands. Often protocol was determined by those on the job. \u201cSome things we were just unaware of. We didn’t know about heatstroke. When someone got heatstroke, we just took them outside and laid them on the ground,\u201d Hazen said. Measures to keep the workers safe were very gradual. \u201cI saw a lot of change while I was there, but it was slow. A lot of the older guys didn\u2019t like change at all because we were changing the way we do things. It was important that it did change. I was for it,\u201d Hazen said, \u201cWe\u2019ve had accidents there I still think about from time to time. Some friends of mine that lost their lives there.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many decades later, Hazen\u2019s grandson, Justin, strives for a safe work environment. \u201cThere is a lot of equipment and machinery we work with. You can never get too comfortable, because machines can become dangerous at any time,\u201d Justin said, \u201cIf equipment is down, then it\u2019s my job to lock it out safely. I am like a babysitter because I\u2019m always babysitting equipment. Things are always broken, but we make sure it gets the care it needs.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Since Hazen\u2019s last days at the mill, there have been many more safety protocols instated. But the work is still dangerous.\u00a0 \u201cThe industry is dangerous. You\u2019ve got to be careful and safe and always wear your PPE, which is personal protective equipment. We\u2019ve always got to watch out for what we are doing and listen for any off sounds,\u201d Justin said. In the future, he hopes to continue to see these changes being made that will help them to be safer and more efficient on the job. Until then, Justin\u2019s best advice is to be careful and take your time. \u201cTake your time and make sure it\u2019s safe. Because if somebody gets hurt, it’s your name on it, which means it\u2019s on you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Justin Waceken has followed in the footsteps of his grandfathers by working in a mill setting, as they had once done. \u201cTwo of my grandfathers had made paper in the mill using machines. And my great grandfather worked in the woodyard, so he used to take the wood to the mill that they used to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8164,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions\/8164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}