Stack of wattles, no maple syrup, seeks guy lines

A customer at Friedman’s Home Improvement store in Santa Rosa on Monday afternoon purchased a tall stack of straw wattles used for erosion control and drove the unwieldy load, wobbling freely, through the store parking lot to a space near the store entrance.

The wattles were loaded into the back of the red pickup truck by a store employee using a forklift in the yard, according to Michael Turner, assistant store manager. He said the store’s yard employees often load merchandise into vehicles, but are not supposed to assist customers with securing loads. “We had to go talk to him to make sure he didn’t do that again,” Turner said of the employee who loaded the wattles.

“We’re not allowed to tie anything down,” Turner said. “But we loaded it in the truck. We still hold some responsibility,” he said.

“We helped find the gentleman,” Turner said. “He was in here buying tie-downs. Joe took him outside. He left.”

Joe Hewitt, another manager who observed the towering wattles, located the customer in the store aisles to make certain that the load was guyed properly.

Straw wattles are used routinely for erosion control in areas hit by fire, or in construction zones. Typically a wattle runs 25 feet long and 9 inches in diameter. A pallet of a dozen costs about $300.

James Dunn covers technology, ?biotech, law, the food industry, and banking and finance. Reach him at: james.dunn@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4257