Crown Lays Off 45 At Idaho Sawmill

Portland-based Crown Pacific Ltd. has laid off 45 workers at its sawmill operation at Albeni Falls near Priest River, Idaho.

The mill employs 173 people to cut and finish lumber. For now, the layoffs affect only the cutting side of the operation. The 128 employees who finish lumber and maintain the mill will continue to work, said Fletcher Chamberlin, Crown Pacific spokesman in Portland.

They will work through the sawmill’s current stockpile. However, if market conditions don’t improve before the stockpile is exhausted, those workers also could be laid off, Chamberlin said.

“There’s a number of ways we can handle that situation if and when it comes up,” Chamberlin said.

The mill’s operation will be reevaluated every week to see if lumber prices have improved enough to restart the sawmill operations.

Short-term layoffs are not uncommon among sawmills around the holidays. But poor lumbermarket conditions have forced Panhandle lumber operations to remain shut down or only partially open for much of the year.

, DataTimes