Woodshop boom creates ripple effect on jobs

SANDPOINT — Tucked away from view, two local woodshops hum like a high-power line at peak capacity. Inside the buildings, the sound of nail guns pierces the morning chill as sheets of plywood are joined around pallets of merchandise and a small forklift tries to stay ahead of the game by as it rumbles out the door with a cargo of plywood crates.

This summertime burst of activity — and the unexpected lift in employment that rode its wake — came to an end on Friday as a local woodcrafting shop went from basically a one-man operation to a two-shift manufacturer and back again in the period between May and the middle of August.

This spring, Barush Woodworking owner Barry Barush was approached about producing new store fixtures for the Coldwater Creek fleet of retail stores across the United States — custom wood creations which will be unveiled in the Sandpoint-based women's apparel and accessories company's retail fleet this month. Barush looked over the contract, did some quick materials calculations and swallowed hard. Then he said, “yes.”

The order would entail “hundreds of slabs of wood, more than 100,000 feet of molding and 300 gallons of stain and finish,” Barush pointed out. It would also need to be delivered under a deadline of less than three months so that the stores — more than 350 of them at last count, according to the most recent company press release — could receive the fixtures in time for the unveiling.

“Early in the job, I was wondering if I was crazy,” Barush said. “And I was nervous. Not nervous about creating quality merchandise, because that's what I do. But nervous about getting supplies in a timely manner and meeting the deadline.”

Drawing on a local network of people whose jobs or personal preferences give them time off in the summer — namely skiers, school teachers and college students — Barush quickly filled out a full-time work shift at his existing shop near Gooby Road, along with an 8,000-square-foot building he leased off of Boyer Avenue as a second production site.

“I did two weeks of production, ran the numbers and saw that I needed to add a shift in order to meet the deadline,” the owner said. “I put the word out and within two days, I was having to turn people away.”

In all, the limited time contract created jobs for 40 people, he added, all of whom either had to get ready to go back to school or wanted to enjoy the last few weeks of summer on their own schedule by the time the job was completed. The contract also created work for the businesses that supplied materials to Barush Woodworking, most of which were local.

“It's been like magic to think that all of this has rippled out from here,” Barush said with a tilt of his head toward the shop building. “One of my suppliers had actually cut back employees when things got so slow and this allowed them to hire people back.

“Keeping it local worked for everybody,” he went on. “It gave Coldwater Creek closer contact with the people who produced the materials and it helped the local economy.”

After 30 years in custom woodworking — the last 16 of those spent in Sandpoint — Barush was surprised to go from being solitary craftsman to temporary manager of a two-shop, two-shift operation with a monthly payroll topping $90,000. Last week, production was winding down at his Boyer shop, though you wouldn't have known it to look at the place. Employees still worked their way through stacks of molding at multiple worktables and the spray booth and finishing area continued to operate at what appeared to be full speed.

Farther along inside the building, two crews crated up the goods just in time for them to be hoisted up and lifted onto one of two long rows that matched the precise dimensions of a large freight trailer.

By Friday afternoon, the little village of mini-barns that once held supplies in back of the woodshop had been emptied. The crates were headed down the highway and the workstations stood in neat rows with no one there to use them.

“Three weeks ago, you could barely walk through here,” said Barush. “We've been in full production since the end of May and we had trucks going out of here on a daily basis.”

Barush Woodworking now will go back to its main shop, leaving the Boyer facility vacant. The owner would like to see the location, which has been home to a succession of cut shops and wood product manufacturers for more than 20 years, back in production following the improvements he made during his brief, but extremely busy, tenure there.

“That has been another way all of this has helped on the local level,” he said. “I'm hoping that it breathes new life back into this building.”

The dust had barely settled as Barush reflected on the contract that redefined his business — at least for one summer season.

“It was intense, but it was a good experience,” he said. “I believe Coldwater Creek will be pleased and, if they've ever got something like this again, they'll come to me.”

As far as the immediate future, Barush plans to throttle down considerably.

“I'm taking a vacation,” he said. “I'm completely exhausted. After that, I'm going to get back to work on the kitchen remodel I started before this contract came up. I think it would make my wife very happy if I finished that project.”