Introduction to John Brewer:

John Brewer retired in October 2015 after almost 18 years as publisher and editor of the Peninsula Daily News in Port Angeles, Washington. Brewer oversaw the daily newspaper's transition from a print-centered operation to one that today also delivers content using the Web, social media sites including Facebook and Twitter and the PDN's eEdition, an electronic page-by-page replica of the newspaper.

Brewer's five decades as a journalist started with manual typewriters and rotary-dial telephones - and finished with smartphones, Wi-Fi and the replacement of one daily printing deadline with the Internet's pulsing 24/7 news cycle.

THE PROMISE OF CROSS-LAMINATED TIMBER

John Brewer, board member and past president of the Port Angeles Business Association (PABA), noted a recent article by The Associated Press about one of two U.S.

timber mills making CLT - cross-laminated timber.

CLT is "the buzz of the construction industry," according to the AP article, "lighter and less energy-intensive than concrete and steel and much faster to assemble on-site than regular timber, proponents say."

The mill that AP wrote about is in the tiny town of Riddle in southern Oregon, "where, like Port Angeles, logging used to be king," Brewer said.

(Click on this link to read the article:

"I'm sure you'll hear much more about CLT in 2017," said Brewer, a retired newspaper publisher.

"Building a CLT mill in Clallam County is a top priority for the Port Angeles Business Association (PABA) and the Clallam County Economic Development Corp.

"And elsewhere in Washington state, Darrington and Colville also are working to attract a CLT manufacturing facility," Brewer continued.

"As he told a PABA meeting last May, state Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim, secured $5.5 million in state funds for a pilot project to build classrooms with CLT.

"And our local congressman Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, in his presentation to PABA in December, talked about proposed legislation in Congress to increase the use of CLT."

According to the AP article, Brewer said, "many say [CLT] could infuse struggling forest communities like Riddle with new economic growth while reducing the carbon footprint of urban construction with a renewable-building material."

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