The Planer Started Again, and a Former Town Marshal Paid for It
E. Jenne reaches into an idle machine at the Fidelity planer to clear the side heads. It comes to life under his hands.
E. Jenne had several fingers badly cut while working at a planer at the Fidelity planer on Tuesday morning. The machine at which he was working had stopped and he went to the side heads, and while working around them the machine suddenly started. Two of his fingers were badly lacerated. Mr. Jenne was formerly marshal of Newport.
“The machine at which he was working had stopped and he went to the side heads, and while working around them the machine suddenly started.”
Before lockout-tagout was a phrase, the rule at a planer was whatever the man at the machine remembered, and Jenne's fingers were the price of a machine that could restart itself. Sawmills and planers remained among the most dangerous workplaces in the Northwest for decades, and the timber economy of Pend Oreille County was built on that risk. The detail that Jenne had once been town marshal is the small, human sting: authority in Newport did not buy anyone safety at the mill.
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