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Tlw following If efrorad at writttn ttctimeny for tho Sonata Small Buslnoaa Committae 

 fiaM haarfng hold in Rapid City, 8D on Septembar 4, 1M9: 



Thank you Sonator ProMlar for tha opportunity to offer my testimony to this committae 

 oonceming the Black HIHs National Forest management plan revision and the proposadf South 

 Dakota WiUemass Act of 1893. 



My name Is Paul Smith. I consider myself to t)e very lucky; as I am a native South Dakotan. I 

 have lived In South Dakota my entire life, almost exclusively In the Black Hills area I 

 graduated from high school In RapM CKy and want on to graduata from the School of Buainass 

 at tha University of South Dakota in VannBlloa I am a CPA and am cunantly employed by 

 Marfllat Industries, Inc. in RapW City. I am one of tha lucky few South Dakotans that have 

 been able to remain in this sparsely populated state and vrark In my chosen field. Without a 

 viable timbar industry, it Is ve^ likely that I will be forced to leave South Dakota. 



While Merlllat Industries does not qualify as a Small Business, I beliave that oir impact on tha 

 k9cal economy certainly does affect many small businesses. As the plant accountant fOr tiia 

 tocal operation, I am well aware of the financial Impact Merlllat has on the economy of Rapid 

 City and the entira Black Hils ragkxi. Merlilat employs over 325 persons In Rapid City. These 

 are high paying Jobs for the region, averaging over $10.00 p^r hour. This does not include a 

 full fringe benefit package. Offered as benefits to our employees are paid vacations. paM 

 holkJays, pension benefito, absentea pay (we feature an ail-Balarted concept, recognizing the 

 sometimes unavt^dable absences that emptoyaas have, and cwnpensata our employees for 

 those absences}, and a comprehensive health care plan. Our payroll for tfie calendar year of 

 1992 exceeded $8,000,000. Our total axpenditursa for the Rapid City facility Ibr 1992 

 exceeded $44,000,000, of whk;h a large portion Is expended In the Black Hills region. Of 

 course, cur employaas in tum spend the $8,000,000 they earned In many area businesses, a 

 large portion of which are small businesses. 



Merlllat Industries built their plant kn Rapid City In the early 1980'8 for many reasons, but 

 certainly not the toast of these was the availabHi^ of a raw material supply for the manufacture 

 of partideboard. Merlllat uses over 200 toick loads of wood chips, sawdust, and planar mID 

 shavings each and every vraek to produce over 90,000,000 board feet of partideboard every 

 year. From this partk:leboard we produce cabinet components for an average of 16,000 

 kitchen and bath cabinets dally. This leaves some excess particleboanj that wa seR to other 

 users. Marillat Industries is the sinole largest manufacturer of kitchen and bath cabinetry in the 

 United States. The finished components are shipped to any one of several assembly 

 operations located throughout the United States. The point I am trying make here is that 

 without the availability of raw material for partcleboard manufacturing, there remaina iHUe 

 incentive for Merillat industries to continue to operate in RapM City. 



i look at the IVIeriliat plant in RapM City as the largest refueling facility In the state of South 

 Dakota. I do this because Merillats basic raw material, prior to the establishment of the Rapid 

 aty facility, was a waste product of local area saw mills that were basically either being burned 

 or buried. We also take every opportunity to reduce our discharges of wasta. Several years 

 ago, we took the necassary steps to reduce the amount of waste going to the local land fill, 

 and Installed equipment that takes our scrap items and grinds them back to a material we now 

 reuse to manufacture mora partideboard. This act reduced our shipments to the land fBI by 

 60%. ' 



