EDITOR’S NOTE: Rayonier Inc.’s Port Angeles pulp mill closed forever 10 years ago this week.
A total of 365 workers lost their jobs, not to mention an estimated 1,265 spin-off jobs across the North Olympic Peninsula.
This article – as well as one on Page C1 along with historical photos of the mill and its demolition – concludes a two-part series begun Sunday,
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Talking with Judy Napiontek, you can’t help thinking of a cork.
Not the kind that pops out of a champagne bottle – the kind that floats, bobbing to the surface no matter what.
Judy and her husband, Art, are Rayonier mill survivors.
They may not possess all they ever wished for, but they have each other – and that’s a lot.
“You saw a lot of ups and downs,” Judy said last week of the time that followed the pulp mill’s closing 10 years ago Wednesday.
“I saw a lot of it with the wives. I saw a lot of it with the kids. There were a lot of divorces.”
Whereas Art is self-effacing and laconic, Judy is effervescent.
Maybe there’s something bubbly inside her after all.
