Boundary County loses 122 jobs in '09

In 2009, Boundary County experienced another year of disappointments.

Non-farm payroll jobs dropped 4 percent from 3,312 in 2008 to 3,190 in 2009, after remaining steady between 2007 and 2008.  The year ended with the closure of the county’s second largest mill, Welco in Naples, which employed 93 people. In 2010, the ripple effects of the Welco closure will lead of job losses in logging, transportation, retail and services.

In November, before the Welco closure, the county’s unemployment rate rose to 16.4 percent — its highest level since May 1982. It’s very likely that by January the county’s rate will approach 20 percent, by far its highest rate since the Great Depression.

An estimated 130 people left the labor force in 2009, as people moved out of the county to find work and as some people gave up looking for work. The county probably lost 100 people from its 2008 population base of 10,962.  In recent years, it normally has gained 130 residents per year.

After losing 85 mill and logging jobs between 2006 and 2008 as the U.S. housing market collapsed, the county lost 30 more timber jobs in early 2009. Although an August fire destroyed the main facility of TrussTek, the county’s third largest mill located three miles north of Bonners Ferry, the mill still is filling orders, and currently is being rebuilt.

Toward the end of the year, the timber industry seemed to be stabilizing. Then, Welco announced it would close its Naples cedar plank mill in mid-December.

The closure eliminated high-paying mill jobs and will erase dozens of jobs in logging and trucking.

The rest of the timber industry is a little stronger than it was at the beginning of 2009. Idaho Forest Group increased production at its Moyie Springs stud mill in November, requiring half of its 96 employees to work overtime. The mill expects to add 25 jobs in the coming year.

Other manufacturers managed to hold their own in 2009, employing 60 people just as they did in 2007. Northwest Industrial Manufacturing in Bonners Ferry has the strong potential to add dozens of jobs this year because of a new product it has introduced for truckers. 

The county’s large and diversified agricultural sector saw prices for its products drop from the highs of 2007 to much lower prices this year. The drop in wheat and other grain prices have reduced the spending of most county farmers, reducing spending on farm equipment, automobiles, farm supplies, and retail and services.

The county’s tree nurseries tend to thrive when a lot of new American homes are being built. So the low level of U.S. housing starts has taken a toll on nursery employment, which fell from 151 in 2007 to 112 by 2009.

Improved technology has reduced employment slightly at Anheuser Busch’s Elk Mountain hops farm, the county’s largest agricultural employer.  When the frames for hop plants are strung and then the plants are trained in the spring and when harvest occurs in late August, the farm employs more than 250 people—mostly migrant seasonal farm workers. 

Despite the recession, the county’s leisure and hospitality sector employed the same number of people in 2009 as it did in 2007 — 280.  Kootenai River Inn and Casino, owned by the Kootenai Tribe, employs about 170 people and draws many Inland Northwest and Canadian visitors to Bonners Ferry.

The International Selkirk Loop — a scenic route through Bonners Ferry, Priest River, Sandpoint, eastern Washington, and southern British Columbia — also helps draw visitors to the area.  Hotel-motel receipts totaled $3.2 million in the first 10 months of 2009, about 6 percent more than in the same period in 2007.

The county got its second bed and breakfast in early 2009 when Mary Cook’s Little Bear Bed & Breakfast opened in the foothills of the Cabinet Mountains. Blue Lake RV Resort, just off Highway 95 in Naples, added a clubhouse with a kitchen that can serve 50 people, some camping cabins, and a new dock where canoes and kayaks can be rented.

Bonners Ferry Visitor Center, which used to be open half the year, began operating year-round. The Boundary Economic Development Council reported that 8,989 visitors passed through the doors of the Bonners Ferry Visitor Center in the first 10 months of the year — a 53 percent increase over the same months the year before.

The number were up partially because the volunteers at the center have found some better ways of convincing people to take the time to sign the book, but most of the increase reflected a greater flow of visitors. 

Sharp drops in incomes have reduced retail and related sales. Taxable sales fell 11 percent from $56.1 million in the first nine months of 2008 to $50.4 million in the same months a year later.

Retail employment remained at 440, but many retail employees are working fewer hours. A fire destroyed the showroom and offices of Riverside Auto Center in Bonners Ferry in August.  The Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep dealership currently is being rebuilt. Badger Building Center plans to open a building materials store in Bonners Ferry in the next year or two. 

Lower incomes, population decline, and tighter credit pushed construction employment from 336 in 2007 to 230 in 2009, while real estate and related activities remained depressed.

Bonners Ferry landed on Mother Earth News’ 2009 list of “Great Places You’ve (Maybe) Never Heard Of,” recognizing towns that demonstrate positive civic energy, investment in the local economy,  and meaningful initiatives for the environment.

The issue released in late September spotlighted Bonners Ferry’s reinvention of itself from a logging town to a vibrant, diversified community with a strong commitment to local business. 

From the time the recession began in December 2007 to December 2009. when the Welco mill closed, four supersectors have lost 270 covered jobs (jobs covered by unemployment insurance, which is more than 95 percent of payroll jobs in Boundary County), while the other supersectors stayed the same or gained jobs.  The net result was the loss of 220 jobs.

Kathryn Tacke is regional economist for Idaho Department of Labor.