Stoltze calls back workers to restart sawmill

F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber will resume operations at its sawmill on Monday (March 23).

The move means that about 50 employees will be back on the job after a six-week layoff this winter.

Stoltze began calling employees earlier this week, general manager Chuck Roady said.

Roady said mill employees will gradually return to their jobs, some more quickly than others. For example, planer employees won't come back to full shifts immediately because it will take time to mill the timber and dry it.

Roady said the call back wasn't due to the market. The market is still in a severe slump. But many of the logs the company has are from fire salvage sales and the wood simply isn't going to keep as a log — it's better to make it into lumber.

The lumber markets are still at their lowest point in decades, but Roady said he expects some increase in price as the weather warms, but not much. He noted there is still a housing surplus in the U.S. and consumer confidence is still low.

The company continues to work on plans for a co-generation plant that would produce surplus electricity and power the mill.

There are some hurdles that still need to be crossed. For one, there has to be a utility company willing to purchase the excess power and the company needs some financial support.

The Obama administration has a goal of creating more "green" power sources and co-generation facilities are seen as one way of providing it.

The recently passed federal stimulus package could have some support for such projects, but the details of how financing and government support would work aren't completely clear at this point.