Eleven new jobs created at Riley Creek

Production up 25 percent

The recent merger of Riley Creek Lumber and Bennett Forest Industries has turned into 11 new jobs at Riley Creek’s mill in Moyie Springs.

The positions for machinists pay $12 to $16 an hour.

In addition, on Monday, a second shift was added to the local lumber mill to ramp up production by 25 percent.

“What the merger has done is given us a little more horsepower to be more aggressive in obtaining and building relationships with large customers,” said Jesse Short, plant manager for Riley Creek in Moyie Springs, where 104 are employed.

Boundary County Commissioner Ron Smith couldn’t be happier with the progress.

“They put 11 more people to work,” Smith said. “That will help the economy, and production will increase, which means more product will go to the mill, which will help loggers.”

“I think it’s a big boom for Boundary County,” he continued. “Usually in the past, we were down in the dumps because we’re losing those mill jobs. This is the reverse. They’re bringing them back.”

Bennett Forest Industries and Riley Creek Lumber in July merged to strengthen ties to large customers including Home Depot and Lowe’s.

In their announcement for the merger, Bennett, which produces about 185 million board feet of wood annually, and Riley Creek, which is more than three times as big, said large home improvement retailers demand suppliers be large enough to guarantee delivery of lumber products.

Bennett and Riley Creek said their merger could eventually lead to expanding the combined 550-person workforce at four mills located in north-central and northern Idaho. Riley Creek brought to the merger facilities located in Chilco, Laclede and Moyie Springs, while Bennett finished work two years ago on its modern mill in Grangeville.

Increasing production in Moyie should strengthen relationships with box stores, Short said. Riley Creek supplies 2- by-4 studs primarily for remodeling construction to Home Depot, Lowe’s and Menards.

Mike Sloan, economic development director for Boundary County, sees the merger as positive.

“Eleven new hires — it’s a lot for this kind of a community,” Sloan said. “I believe we will have a turn around within a year. It seems like our economy has done reasonably well because of the Canadians. They are coming here. New businesses are starting up every day.”