Burned-Out Sawmill Workers Won’t Be Idle Jobs Offered Constructing New Priest River Mill And Restarting An Idle Plant Near Portland
The 135 workers at the JD Lumber Co., whose mill burned to the ground this month, will not be jobless while the mill is rebuilt, company officials said Friday.
The mill plans to hire back about 65 employees to construct a new mill. The remaining employees have been offered jobs at a now idle sawmill near Portland.
“The owners called us and said they would restart the mill if we wanted to send some people over. They will take as many that want to go,” said Dave Slaughter, co-owner of JD Lumber.
“It might not be ideal for some, but it’s a job. It’s not all bad news,” he said. “We all have to do things we don’t like to do when things get a little rough.”
The Estacada lumber mill is about 40 miles southeast of Portland. The owners are acquaintances of Slaughter. He said the offer was very generous and the company even promised to help relocated workers find inexpensive temporary housing.
JD Lumber, which is in Priest River, Idaho, burned down after a spark from a welder or compressor turned into an uncontrollable blaze. The fire razed the sawmill and caused several million dollars worth of damage.
“Our biggest concern other than trying to get as many of our people back to work as possible, is the effect on the local merchants and independent loggers,” Slaughter said.
Priest River’s economy is driven by the timber industry. Having the mill shut down and sending employees to work out of town will no doubt hurt local businesses, he said.
Priest River’s timber economy was already in a slump. Crown Pacific closed its Albeni Falls mill this year and Louisiana-Pacific Corp. shut down its Priest River operation before that. That was a loss of about 200 jobs.
Some of the workers at JD Lumber are hoping to pick up work at the other local mills. At least one of the mills is considering adding another shift of workers.
Almost half of JD’s employees have already been to the Job Service office in Sandpoint, said manager Denny Scollon. The workers signed up for unemployment benefits and were checking on other jobs. But at this time of year, Scollon said jobs are scarce. The unemployment rate in Bonner County in September was already at 9.5 percent.
“That’s not unusual for this time of year but we expect that rate will climb over the next couple of months,” Scollon said. “Folks in the timber industry start to get laid off this time of year as do some Forest Service workers. The local jobs are really shrinking up.”
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: RISING FROM THE ASHES Crews will start tearing down the charred JD Lumber Co. sawmill in Priest River this weekend. Company officials expect it’ll be five months before the mill is running again.