Belgrade mill ends manufacturing

By WALT WILLIAMS, Chronicle Staff Writer

BELGRADE - As the Louisiana Pacific stud mill wrapped up operations Thursday, plant worker Dan Kostelnik of Belgrade stacked lumber for shipment in boiling 98-degree heat.

"I've been here 18 years," he said. "I worked my way up to a sit-down job pushing buttons with an air conditioner and a radio, so this has kind of been a workout stacking lumber and things like that."

The mill is scheduled to finish manufacturing operations by today, leaving only clean-up crews and a few employees to load the remaining lumber onto trucks.

Along with the last trucks goes one of this community's largest private employers. As recently as this spring, the mill provided jobs for 137 people from across the region, including 67 city residents.

About 40 employees remained at the plant Thursday. Most manufacturing had already ceased with only the planer -- a machine for surfacing wood -- left running.

Kostelnik wasn't sure if Thursday would be his last day or not. He was supposed to quit work several days ago, but each day he was asked to work just one more day. The mill needed help.

"When I started, this was a job to get me back in college, and I told them I'd work two years," he said.

Kostelnik worked the night shift and eventually earned a degree in speech communication. It didn't do him much good.

"I couldn't find a job where I could use my degree and not lose too much income from the sawmill," he said. "Now, of course, I'm going to see how I can use my degree. I hope to get something white collar."

The sawmill paid good money, with salaries at the mill ranging from $12 to $21 an hour, plus benefits. A high school education was all that was needed for many jobs.

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

The company announced the mill's closing in May, blaming the decision on a flood of cheap timber from Canada and giving employees 60 days notice.

Plant manager Bill Fleming said several parties are interested in the property and may salvage the equipment.

"It's going to be developed," he said. "I don't think (the corporate executives) really know who that is going to be right now."

The next business could be another plant or a series of smaller industries. But it almost certainly won't be another mill - all the buildings will be torn down and leveled.

About six security guards will remain at the site to protect the equipment and buildings against vandalism and theft.

Also, activity at the plant will continue into next week as the remaining lumber is hauled off site.

For Art Sather of Livingston, who has worked 18 years at the plant, the last few weeks come as something of a relief. He said there have been rumors of the plant shutting down for years.

"It's a closure, I guess you might say," he said. "It's kind of good in one way, kind of bad in another. Time to move on and do something else."

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