PORT ANGELES — An announcement could be made by Saturday that the KPly mill will reopen under new management, Port of Port Angeles Commissioner George Schoenfeldt said Tuesday.
Schoenfeldt declined to specify the possible arrangements, who is involved or if former workers would be rehired when he talked about a potential deal to about 30 people at a Port Angeles Business Association meeting.
“Apparently the guy already knows the business, and evidently he has a local bank who is behind it 100 percent,” Schoenfeldt said.
The plywood mill, which is on Port of Port Angeles property on Marine Drive, has been shuttered since Nov. 2.
Some 132 employees were laid off.
“I know there are discussions under way,” said Chuck MacRae, representative of Woodworkers District Lodge No. 1 in Gladstone, Ore..
“But I haven’t been informed on any final results or of any plans on hirings.”
Owner Klukwan Inc. board members could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Tom Crandall, former Klukwan president, has left the company and area, the Chilkat Valley News in Chilkat, Alaska, reported.
Although the port expects to know on Saturday if the deal has gone through, the date isn’t set in stone, said Bob McChesney, port executive director.
“That date [Aug. 16] is what we’ve been told,” McChesney said.
“But these deadlines have a way of getting delayed.
“So we at the port are in the process of doing what we have to do as well.”
