LP closing Belgrade timber mill- 137 jobs lost

The Louisiana Pacific timber mill in Belgrade is closing for good, plant officials said Wednesday.

By NICK GEVOCK, Chronicle Staff Writer

The mill’s 137 employees were given 60-day warning notices on Wednesday, plant manager Bill Fleming said

He said the flood of cheap softwood lumber from Canada has created the worst timber market in 20 years and has left the plant running in the red all year.

"This is the worst year that this plant has ever had as far as the bottom line," Fleming said. "There’s nothing on the horizon stating that this market is going to get better, so upper management in Portland made a decision."

Belgrade City Manager Joe Menicucci said he was sorely disappointed upon learning the news Wednesday. The mill is the biggest private employer in Belgrade, so its closing will certainly be an economic blow.

"Anytime you lose jobs in that number in a community, it’s very difficult to replace, if not impossible," he said. "They’re one of the larger taxpayers in the county and the school district."

The Belgrade mill has been around since the early 1960s and owned by Louisiana Pacific for the past 11 years.

In recent years it has periodically shut down for a couple of weeks in the fall, a move employees had become accustomed to, remaining confident work would resume.

But this year employees have been told several times that things weren’t going well, Fleming said.

The federal government put a 30 percent tariff on lumber from Canada in 2001. Canadian mills responded by revving up production of timber, a move Fleming said the plant here couldn’t compete with.

In addition, the plant was paying a high price for logs because it competes with RY Timber’s Livingston and Townsend plants for local timber, said LP spokesman David Dugan in Portland, Ore.

"It’s been difficult to acquire the amount of wood to supply that mill," he said. "It was just the availability of the timber at reasonable prices."

Employees will receive a severance package based on the number of years they’ve worked for the company.

"There’s quite a few employees who have been here 10 or 15 years, so they’re getting a pretty nice severance package," Fleming said. He’s worked for LP for 26 years and will probably retire.

In addition, the company will let employees know about openings at other LP plants, Dugan said.

The plant will continue production until July 3. A few employees will be retained after that to clean up the site in preparation for sale.

Fleming said with several million dollars in payroll, the closing will hurt Belgrade. But after the mill is cleaned up he’s confident something else will come along and replace it.

"Every year we get phone calls from people wanting to know if we want to sell a portion of the property," he said. "It’s going to be pretty attractive to developers."

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2003/05/22/news/01millclosebzbigs.txt