PORT ANGELES — Federal loan guarantees totaling $1.89 million announced Wednesday for Peninsula Plywood are part of a package of financing for the once-shuttered mill now on the verge of production, said its president, Josh Renshaw.
Starting Monday, the 72 employees now working at the mill at 439 Marine Drive in Port Angeles will start two-day training sessions in three shifts, and the mill should be producing plywood by the first week of March, Renshaw said Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development in Washington State announced Wednesday the approval of a conditional commitment for two loan guarantees.
The loans are part of a package of loans the mill, which is on land owned by the Port of Port Angeles, had already obtained, Renshaw said.
“This just makes it official, but it doesn’t change anything,” he said.
Sound Community Bank in Seattle is providing a loan of $950,000, while ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia in Ilwaco is loaning Peninsula Plywood Group LLC $949,270.
The mill had operated under different names and owners for 67 years before Klukwan Inc., an Alaskan native-owned village corporation, laid off workers from the mill, which had operated under the name of KPly for 19 years, in November 2007, and permanently closed it in April 2008.
A total of 132 workers — including Renshsaw, who was sales manager at KPly — were laid off.
Renshaw said he hopes to eventually top that number of jobs and employ about 175 people.
“The use of Recovery Act funding to help the unemployed work force in Clallam County is in the spirit of why the act was passed in the first place,” said Mario Villanueva, USDA Rural Development state director.
“This would have a positive impact on the economy by putting many people back to work.”
First load of logs
The first load of logs arrived earlier this week.
“We already have a whole lot sitting at other yards that we couldn’t bring in initially because we didn’t have the heavy equipment,” Renshaw said.
“But now we have it, and even though the ones on the barker now may be processed out by next Friday during training, more wood will start arriving very soon.”
The company’s investors are Renshaw, former City Council member Grant Munro and Wilmer Possinger Jr., all of Port Angeles.
The Port of Port Angeles signed a lease with PenPly in August after the company acquired the equipment from Sterling Bank in July.
The lease is $13,500 per month plus a 12.84 percent leasehold tax.
Half of the rent is deferred for the first two years.
The company’s goal is to produce 5 million board feet of plywood a month.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
