PORT ANGELES — Peninsula Plywood President Josh Renshaw says he has hired more than half of the 60 employees he is required to take on at the resurrecting plywood mill before the end of the month.
Renshaw, who gave a report to the Port of Port Angeles at its Monday commissioners’ meeting, said 39 people have been hired and seven more will begin soon.
“Several more” positions are still unfilled.
“We have made great strides to preparing to produce,” Renshaw said.
He said it is possible the mill might not have all 60 people on board by Dec. 24 — the deadline established in its lease with the port — but that they would be hired shortly afterward.
“Everything has been a little slower than we thought it would be,” Renshaw told port commissioners.
“But we are very hopeful, and we are moving forward with all optimism.”
First load soon?
Renshaw said he hopes to receive his first load of logs by the end of the year and begin operations by February.
About 125 will be needed to restart the mill, he said.
He has said PenPly will eventually employ 175 people.
The commissioners praised Renshaw’s efforts to get the mill restarted.
“Those 39 people employed and seven more on board make me happy with the progress,” said Commissioner George Schoenfeldt.
“I appreciate you being a bulldog with this because it has been an uphill battle the whole way,” Schoenfeldt told Renshaw.
Replied Renshaw: “You have to be a bulldog to get fed.”
Gregoire request
Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers also attended Monday’s meeting and said the city had put in a request with Gov. Chris Gregoire to include $250,000 in her supplemental budget for PenPly.
The money would go toward building renovations and a new fire sprinkler system, he said.
Public money can be used only on public facilities, he said.
The port owns the mill buildings that PenPly is leasing.
They money is half of a $500,000 settlement that the city of Port Angeles received after the state Department of Transportation’s graving yard project was closed down.
The onshore dry dock was to be used for manufacturing floating bridge components, but the discovery of burials and artifacts from the 2,400-year-old Klallam village of Tse-whit-zen halted the project.
Money obligation
The $250,000 would be fronted by the port and reimbursed once the Legislature approves the budget.
“The Legislature is more or less obligated to this money by the settlement,” McEntire said.
The other half of the funds was spent improving facilities for Angeles Composites Industries, the aircraft parts manufacturing plant at William R. Fair child International Airport in Port Angeles.
Klukwan Inc. of Alaska, closed the plywood mill, which it called KPly, in April 2008 after laying off 132 people the November before.
PenPly acquired the mill from Sterling Savings Bank in August.
Renshaw has said that the company’s goal is to produce 5 million board-feet of plywood a month.
Clallam County also has provided PenPly with financial aid.
Last week, the Clallam County commissioners approved an $85,000 grant from its Opportunity Fund for the port to upgrade the publicly owned facilities at the mill.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
