By Jenn Watt

Published May 9 2017

This time next week Rod Consack will no longer be donning his bright orange work shirt. He won’t be scheduling trucks or organizing workers at Emmerson Lumber. As of Thursday May 12 after 36 years of continuous employment with the local building supplies company Consack will be bidding adieu to both his job and Haliburton heading for something new.

“He’s been here more than half the [60 year] length of the company” says owner Kim Emmerson. “He has been a steadfast employee dependable for 36 years.”

Twenty-six of those years Consack has been foreman responsible for much of the organization of yard. He is Emmerson’s longest serving employee.

It’s not always easy to find full-time work in the Highlands’ seasonal economy so he was happy to land a job at the store.

Consack said he decided to leave his hometown to go to Arnprior with his wife Molly. It’s where his daughter and her family lives.

“I’m excited to be trying something new” he says seated at a picnic table during a warm spring day at work. “But I’ll be leaving behind people. … The people I work with are like family.”

Consack has lived in Haliburton his whole life and has been active not only at Emmerson’s but through his volunteerism with the fire department police support association hockey baseball cub scouts – the kinds of activities parents take on as they raise their kids.

Consack has two grown children Becky and Jon; three grandkids and two step-grandkids.

He said his new chapter in Arnprior isn’t entirely figured out yet but “I’d like to try something different.”
While Consack’s last day is Thursday he says he’ll be back to flip burgers at Emmerson’s barbecue at the store on May 20 celebrating six decades in business.