October 15, 2009 in Idaho

93 will lose jobs when Idaho sawmill closes

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A Naples, Idaho, sawmill employing 93 workers is being shuttered in December and its workers laid off indefinitely.

Welco Lumber Company USA, which makes cedar picket fence boards, announced today that it can operate more efficiently by closing its Naples mill and concentrating production at its main Shelton, Wash., sawmill.

Employees were notified on Wednesday of the closure.

The Shelton mill recently underwent upgrades that will allow the company to meet production demands through the foreseeable future, said Peter Stroble, director of sales and marketing for the company.

The closure is expected in the third week of December. Employees are eligible for up to four weeks of severance pay at a rate of one week of severance for each year of employment with a minimum payment of $1,000.

“It’s sad to have to lay them off,” said Stroble. “They are good hard-working people up there.”

Welco purchases cedar logs for its production, so closure of the mill will apparently eliminate an outlet for cedar logs in North Idaho.

Welco has owned and operated the Naples mill since 1992. Naples is located 22 miles north of Sandpoint along U.S. Highway 95.

Stroble said the company has no plans to sell the Naples mill, and probably could not find a buyer for it even if it wanted to sell.

The wood-products industry has been hard hit by the downturn in the national housing market and the accompanying economic recession.

Stroble said the company is retaining the option of re-starting the Naples mill, but company officials believe the Shelton mill will be able to produce sufficient fence boards to meet forecasted sales growth and any improvement in the economy through 2012. The Shelton plant could be expanded to meet additional demand in 2013 and beyond.

Welco is a locally-owned company in western Washington that started 58 years ago in Marysville and later moved to Shelton.

Its Web site says Welco is “North America’s leading primary manufacturer of western red cedar fence pickets.”

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Three comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  GunnyHanson on October 15 at 5:33 p.m.

  I've watched the demise of the Northwest's logging and sawing operations for years. It doesn't make sense. Why do I have to buy lumber sawn in Canada from lumber that was grown in the USA? We sell lumber to Canada because the Canadian companies are willing to pay a premium price, thereby saving their own forests for their own future needs. We sell raw timber to Japan and they store a large percentage of it - uncut - for their own future needs. I guess the owners of our trees think more of making bigger bucks than they do about sustaining our own mills. I see the day coming very quickly when we will be buying all of our wood from foriegn companies. Course, what's new? We've been selling our country a piece at a time for decades………………

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  garfnagn on October 15 at 6:18 p.m.

  Every time a sawmill closes the earth breathes a little easier. Upright cedars are nice carbon banks. Ones on logging trucks, not so much.

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  force_vector on October 16 at 12:24 p.m.

  garfnagn-

  A single “upright” tree on average can absorb 48 lb/year of carbon dioxide, or 0.13 lb/day. Every human exhales approxamtely 1.98 lb/day of carbon dioxide (though I am guessing you exhale substantially more). Everytime a sawmill closes, people lose their jobs and an ability to support their family. I have never worked in the logging industry, but I can sympathize with their situation. You claim that the Earth can “breath a little easier” with each sawmill closed is idiotic. Afterall, everytime you run your mouth you have undone the work of approximately 15 trees…you do this every single day. Think more, exhale less. The Earth will breath a little easier for it.

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