Your Hometown News Source
Your Hometown News Source
Mark Lewis
DAYTON–Phoenix Pulp and Polymer, LLC, a local business with indirect ties to financially troubled wheat straw-to-pulp factory Columbia Pulp I, LLC, is still in business and is neither connected to nor affected by Columbia Pulp's financial difficulties, says Phoenix's Founder and CEO, Mark Lewis.
Columbia Pulp I, LLC (CPI) is currently subject of an April 15 foreclosure and sheriff's sale (see page 7), after two creditors exercised liens on the real property at 1351 Highway 261, near Starbuck. Contractors DKB, Inc. and Power City Electric, are seeking relief in the amount of $570,206 for DKB and $88,283 for Power City Electric, and were awarded a judgment in Columbia County Superior Court in October, 2021.
Lewis is concerned that the public, in general, perceives that Phoenix Pulp and Polymer is part of CPI.
"We [Phoenix] are separate from Columbia Pulp," Lewis asserts. "The only connection between Phoenix and Columbia Pulp is me personally."
He is one of the inventors of the process which converts wheat straw into pulp fiber suitable for processing by paper goods manufacturers. Columbia Pulp's plant near Lyons Ferry is the first non-timber pulping operation in North America.
Lewis licensed the technology to CPI, but other than that, there's no other connection, operationally or financially, he says.
"I want to see them succeed," Lewis commented.
Phoenix's Dayton plant, at 606 Wagon Road, employs about a dozen and a half employees where small batches of fiber are processed for companies around the U.S. and world to use.
"We test and do research on raw materials for end users," Lewis said. For example, barley straw from Gene Warren's fields are used to make label paper and six packs for Corona, and has coined the phrase "from seed to sip."
Lewis initially served on the CPI board with John Begley and Michele McCarthy but was later removed when additional equity was received and the board expanded.
Lewis added that he is not at liberty to discuss CPI's situation.
