Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009

Old name, new owners at lumberyard

by Kenneth Lassiter

What was once the Oskaloosa Lumber Company is now the Oskaloosa Lumber Company again as the former Meyer Lumber Co. along US-59 Highway in Oskaloosa recently changed hands.

King City Lumber Co. of King City, Mo., took over ownership of the lumberyard and hardware store officially on Sept. 14. The lumberyard had been in the hands of the Meyer family, originally based in Merriam, since at least the mid-1970s. The business was Oskaloosa Lumber Co. in its former site north of the courthouse square before the move alongside the highway in 1976 and the name change to Meyer Lumber.

King City Lumber Co. was started in the 1960s by Max Tunks, who is now mostly retired as the business is run by his sons, Monty and Marty. The business includes a lumberyard in King City plus some general contracting and building. Marty Tunks has been mostly involved with the purchase of the Oskaloosa business and the transition as the family looks for a manager to help run the store.

The purchase came about through the hardware distributor Do It Best as retail development specialist Tom Hartman knew the business was for sale and, after some market analysis, worked with the Tunkses on the idea of the family business branching out.

“We had been looking around for five years, but nothing felt right,” Marty Tunks said. “There was something about this place that we just liked.”

“It was just a good fit,” Hartman said. “It was a great fit for the community and the business.”

Shelley Mullenix has stayed on along with a couple part-timers to help in the ownership transition as operations manager, and there is definitely a transition under way at the yard. Major renovations are on-going, first on the interior, then on the exterior of the building. The hardware that was formerly in the north side of the business has been moved over to the lumber side for the extensive renovations that Tunks said should take about seven weeks. The exterior is planned to be finished by the spring. Tunks did want people to know the lumber yard is still open, however, during the renovations. The hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

“We are open for business,” Tunks said. “Please excuse our mess. Shelley has stayed on with us and she’s been great. We thought we would like her and the more we’re around her, the more we like her.”

The plans are for the business to be improved coming out of the renovations. The store will carry a wider range of merchandise than it had before.

“We want to keep the right stuff and add the other stuff we need. This will be a full-line hardware store,” Tunks said. A small storage building is also being added in the project.

“There was a lot of field work done in making this happen,” Hartman said. “We want to fill some holes in what the store had offered. Getting a manager will also help with that.”

Tunks is also planning to be around often during the early transition as he has a camper set up behind the business and the drive home to King City, where he lives with his wife and three kids, is under two hours.

“We want to be involved in the community,” Tunks said. “King City has a population of just over 1,000, so it’s about the same size. I’ve been trying to get out and meet a few people. I’ve been really happy so far, we’ve gotten a lot done this week.”