Local woodcutter provides fireplace fuel for retail stores
By ROWENA PLETT
Reporter / photographer
If anyone recently has purchased a bundle of split wood for the fireplace, the likelihood exists that it may have come from the Marion area.
Mike Loomis of Marion has a contract with Good Times Wood Products, a company in Texas, to provide fireplace logs for many retail outlets throughout the Midwest. Some wood even goes to Colorado and Arizona.
"We can't cut enough wood to keep them happy," Loomis said.
He noted that many areas of the country don't have the hardwood preferred for fireplaces.
He and his wife Jody, together with several full-time employees, cut down trees such as ash and hackberry, then saw and split the logs.
Loomis said farmers often are happy to have someone come onto their land and clear the wood because the trees are a nuisance and sap moisture from the soil.
Jody, who often runs the wood-splitting machine, acknowledged that it's hard work but she said it pays better than any other job she could have.
The wood is hauled to an empty lot at Loomis' Marion residence at 413 S. Fourth, where it is stretch-wrapped in small packages, then placed on stretch-wrapped pallets for shipping, about 80 bundles to a pallet.
Semi-trucks from Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Ace Hardware and other retail chains pick up the pallets.
Loomis said his contract stipulates that the company can hire no other woodcutter within 300 miles of him.
Harvesting the wood can be done all year long but it is marketed from the end of August through January.
Loomis has been involved in the wood-cutting business for about a year. He also runs a construction and carpentry business.
The Loomises have six children: Ashley, 13; Trai, 10; Andi, 9; Justin, 9; Bree, 6; and Jason, 2.
