PORT ANGELES — A lumber mill shut down for five months after 25 years of operation reopens today under new American-Canadian ownership.
Production at the five-acre mill on 21 acres of property about two miles west of Port Angeles was to resume at 8 a.m. today, company officials said.
It will provide 20 family-wage jobs, and three more at a dry-kiln operation in Spanaway.
“This mill is a solid asset to the local economy,” said mill Manager Tad Price, who also managed the mill when it was owned by Takeuchi Lumber Co. Ltd. of Nagoya, Japan.
That company informed Price on Aug. 3 of its plans to close its American-based companies.
The new owner, Green Creek Wood Products LLC, is a joint venture of Green Crow Corp. of Port Angeles and Creekside Trading Corp. of Langley, British Columbia, owned by Doug Martin, of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Green Crow is owned by the Crow family, Randy Johnson and Dennis Yakovich, all of Port Angeles.
John David Crow is chairman, and Johnson is the company’s president and chief executive officer.
The Port Angeles lumber mill officially shut down in October. Takeuchi also owned a Shelton sawmill and the Spanaway dry-kiln facility that together employed nearly 100 people.
As new owner, Green Creek Wood Products LLC is already filling orders for “high quality lumber,” said mill sales manager Hiroshi Takeshima.
“We’re starting right off with a challenge to get the mill operating up to full capacity and fill our customers’ orders, including beams to the second largest homebuilder in Japan,” said Takeshima, who is based in Shelton.
