BEAVER — Portac Inc. will reopen its sawmill here on Monday after shutting down last Monday and plans to resume five-day per week operations after the Thanksgiving holiday.
The new arrangement — which adds one day of operation per week — will be evaluated weekly, according to the company’s Tacoma headquarters.
“That’s the plan, reviewed week-to-week, month-to-month,” said Terry Mathern, personnel administrator at Portac Inc.’s Tacoma headquarters.
The mill shut down for the week beginning last Monday.
Its 54 employees had been operating on a four-day work week since Oct. 23.
This week, workers will work three days, with two days off for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Operations will resume on a five-day-per-week schedule on Nov. 27.
Mathern confirmed that a two-week closure had been planned for the company’s planer mill in Forks, idling 55 employees, although he would not say when the closure had been scheduled.
But he also said the Forks planer mill is “down as long as the (Beaver) mill is down.”
The weeklong Portac shutdown is being blamed on high log costs and weak timber markets.
