PORT ANGELES — The $23 million Port Angeles Hardwood sawmill being built west of the city will have 95 employees and an $8 million payroll, company President Richard Tinney told the Chamber of Commerce on Monday.
Tinney keynoted the chamber’s noon luncheon Monday before an audience of about 100 at the Port Angeles CrabHouse.
“Our only business is alder,” Tinney said, “with maybe 6-8 percent maple. We intend to build a furniture-grade hardwood mill that will produce 32 million board-feet of hardwood.”
The company hopes to finish the sawmill by December and be operating by 2006, he said.
Port Angeles Hardwood LLC, a division of Mount Vernon-based Washington Alder, announced last August that it would build a $23 million hardwood sawmill on a 113 acres owned by the Port of Port Angeles near William R. Fairchild International Airport.
30-acre site
The company decided to buy a 30-acre site in the nearby Eclipse Industrial Park instead after Dry Creek area neighbors protested the project.
The city is now considering an annexation to bring the acreage within the city limit. Port Angeles Hardwood would be tapped into the city’s electricity, sewer and water systems.
The company’s 95 employees will have an average annual salary of $52,600 plus up to $20,000 in benefits and payroll taxes, which will equal an $8 million payroll, Tinney told the chamber audience.
