ANCIENT TIMBER MAKES MIGHTY GIFT FOR COLLEGE CARPENTRY PROGRAM
OUR DONATIONS
Cotter’s Hazmat and Demolition Specialists have always remained a very active part of the Penticton and the Okanagan community. We always strive to help any way that we can. We donate to several different organizations and sponsor a wide array of events from festivals to colleges, including:
Okanagan College
Cotter’s Hazmat and Demolition donated $22,266 worth of Douglas fir timbers
Donated Storage Containers to Penticton Rotary Children’s Festival
Rotary Okanagan International Children’s Festival
Sponsored
Donated containers
Summerland
Tree Sections
Tree Cutting Service
Naramata Community
Provided free grappling for beach
Sponsored and donated bins for Christmas tree disposal
300-year-old timbers
Tournament of Hearts – Penticton Curling Club
Donated Containers
Penticton Indian Band
Donated Containers
Recycled timber originating from 250-year-old BC forests will soon add an authentic note of heritage to Okanagan College thanks to a hefty in-kind donation to the College’s carpentry program through the Okanagan College Foundation.
Kim and Doug Cotter, owners of Cotter’s Hazmat and Demolition Specialists in Penticton, salvaged the Douglas fir timbers from the historic Naramata packinghouse and offered to donate the lumber - worth approximately $22,266 - to the College.
“It makes you feel good to have something done of value from this salvaged wood,” said Doug Cotter, who spent time working in BC’s logging industry.
The Naramata Packinghouse was built in the 1930s from 250-year-old timber stands on Vancouver Island, explained Cotter. The Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative operated the packinghouse for decades but closed the building a few years ago. When a water pipe burst last spring, the Cooperative determined the cost of restoring the building was too great and hired the Cotters to demolish it.
Alf Leimert, who chairs the Construction Trades Department at Okanagan College, got wind of the demolition and approached the Cotters about making a donation. Earlier this year, the towering posts and beams were delivered to the College’s Kelowna campus, where the wood will be used in the carpentry program. Nails and massive fasteners had to be removed from the posts and beams to prepare them for stacking in the College’s shed.
Leimert said the wood gives his students a rare appreciation for the products that came out of the province’s forest industry more than 70 years ago.
“These were the original growth trees. They had closer grain, they were slow growth, and the trees were larger. You just don’t see that anymore,” he said.
This coming spring, carpentry classes will begin using the wood to construct a large-scale heritage project for the Penticton campus. A decorative archway is expected to be complete by summer.
“There’s nothing greener than recycling,” Leimert said, pleased the end product will add some local heritage to the campus. “In-kind donations like this make a real practical difference to our students and help them create something we would otherwise never see.”
The Cotters have worked in the Penticton area for 24 years, operating Cotter’s Tree and Bin Service, and, more recently, Cotter’s Hazmat and Demolition Specialists, which provide demolition and mobile container services throughout the region.
To learn more about our services, contact us.