An Idaho company has bought a shuttered sawmill in Coushatta, Louisiana and plans to reopen it later this year, creating 90 jobs, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Tuesday. The mill closed in 2008 because of the recession.
Idaho Timber LLC, of Boise, is renovating the mill recently purchased from Hood Industries of Hattiesburg, Miss., and expects to reopen it in the third quarter of this year, president and CEO Ted Ellis told a news conference Tuesday.
He said the company wanted to expand in the South, and liked the Coushatta mill for its flexibility, the area’s skilled workforce and its timber supply.
Salaries will average $32,000 a year and hiring has begun, according to a news release. The mill had 119 workers when it closed in May 2008.
Coushatta has nearly 2,000 residents and rural Red River Parish has 9,100. Preliminary state figures show 3,465 parish residents had jobs and 257 were unemployed in March. However, the mill probably won’t cut parish unemployment by one-third.
From The Idaho Statesman: https://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/05/01/2559479/idaho-company-will-reopen-sawmill.html