Mill closing will have ripple effect

For 16 years, Welco has been Delton Amoth’s bread and butter.

Since learning last month the Naples mill would close in December, the owner of Aamodt Trucking in Moyie Springs has been exploring different markets. Amoth, who delivered Welco’s cedar fence planks around the nation, has found nothing.

“They were pretty much the backbone of my business,” he said.

The Idaho Department of Labor has said with Welco’s closing, the loss of its 93 jobs will put Boundary County’s unemployment rate at 20 percent. That would be the highest among Idaho’s 44 counties.

“The ripple effect will go beyond that,” said Dave Darrow, manager for the Idaho Department of Labor’s Bonners Ferry office.

Amoth said he expects to lay off at least two drivers and called the loss to his company due to Welco’s closing “very substantial.” His long-haul drivers hauled five loads a week from the mill.

JMF Inc. in St. Maries, which runs the log yard and hauls cedar chips from the mill to Superior, Mont., for landscaping, expects to lose $500,000 in revenue.

“We hauled a lot of cedar bark,” said Mickey Buell, a manager for JMF.

During peak times, JMF had two people working in the log yard, but normally did the job with one man.

Buell doesn’t expect to lay off any workers.

“I’ll just end up putting them someplace else,” he said.