Parker County Today August 2015 | Page 62

our biz: BUSINESS SENSE Talk with the Business Titans GREG REIGER AUGUST 2015 PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY Lone Star Mill and Lumber PCT: How did you get into the sawmill business? GR: There was a large sawmill south of where I grew up on the coast of California. My step-dad used to take me there when I was a young boy, and I was fascinated with it. He would take me to the mill and I would watch it cut the giant redwood trees with a very large band saw blade, and I was always so fascinated with the mill and how it could make lumber with such ease. He had a wood lot and was a builder so I was always around lumber of all types while working for him in the summers and any free time I had out of school. I got into the sawmill business when I was just out of high school. I went to work for the lumber company and sawmill I grew up watching as a young boy and was still amazed at this giant machine and its capabilities. It wasn’t until I moved to Texas and met a now very dear friend of mine who was in the business here for 15 years and has since retired [that] I [seized] the opportunity to purchase my own sawmill and open for business. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. PCT: What qualifications do you need to work for a sawmill business?  GR: There really aren’t a lot of qualifications to work for a sawmill business, but I do look for certain qualities in a person that comes to me as a potential employee of Lone Star Mill and Lumber LLC. I look for the physical ability to handle the very physical job, 60 BY CHRISTINA LOVELESS