Welco Lumber Co. reopens doors

NAPLES — Seven months after Welco Lumber Co. closed its doors, the mill has reopened.

The move was prompted by a better-than-expected market for fencing products this year than when the closure was announced in October, said general manager Brian Cox of Shelton Wash.

The mill began to reopen in stages, according to Cox.

It began running on a limited basis with 13 employees in June. Welco now has 36 employees.

“We officially began running the mill full-time as of July 17,” Cox said.

Cox said about 34 of the 93 people who were laid off in December have been re-hired. He is optimistic that they will need to hire more people as the demand for their product grows.

The employees who are back on the job include operations manager Ryan Comer, who has been with the company for seven years; and Dwayne Lund, the company’s quality control shipping manager, who has been with the company 15 years. Both are long-time Bonners Ferry residents, said Cox.

“Things are going great and I believe we have been given a tremendous opportunity for the business as well as the community. The startup is going really well,” Comer said.

The average wage of workers now employed by Welco is $13 to $15 per hour, Cox said.

Cox plans monthly visits to the Naples mill to check on progress and continue making future plans for the mill.

“We are very excited about the reopening and it happened much sooner than anticipated,” said Cox. “I could not be more pleased with progress and couldn’t be happier with the crew.”

Owned by Welco for 17 years, the company kept the mill in case the market changed.

In October, however, a spokesman for Welco, which is based in Shelton, Wash., said at the time the mill’s reopening was unlikely.

The mill’s closure was prompted, in large part, by a lack of demand for fencing products triggered by the sluggish housing market. Welco quit buying logs after announcing the closure.

However, that has now changed.

Due to economic developments in the area, Cox said now the company is able to buy logs at a lower cost because of fewer cedar competitors.

When Welco closed in December, it eliminated jobs that paid between $10 and $25 an hour plus benefits; the average employee was paid $15 an hour.

Welco may have contributed to January’s high unemployment totals, according to Alivia Body, regional economist for the Idaho Department of Labor.

Boundary County tied with Benewah and Clearwater counties at 15.3 percent in the February 2010 preliminary forecast, ranking it third highest for unemployment out of the state’s 44 counties.