SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (AP) - Steve Swanson, the president and chief executive officer of Swanson Group Inc., picked up his ringing phone the day after a massive fire destroyed his company’s plywood and veneer mill in Springfield. On the other end was Gov. John Kitzhaber, offering his help.
On Thursday, more than six months after the July 17 fire, Kitzhaber and state and local officials made good on that pledge, announcing an offer of a forgivable loan of up to $400,000, tax breaks and other assistance to help the company rebuild at its South F Street location and hire 190 workers.
The announcement came as Kitzhaber toured the mill site during a daylong visit to the EugeneSpringfield area. The governor said he is delighted that the mill’s owners have decided to stay put.
“This is an incredibly important company for Oregon and obviously for the community here,” Kitzhaber said while flanked by Swanson and Springfield Mayor Christine Lundberg.
Earlier in the day, Kitzhaber visited Two Rivers-Dos Rios Elementary School in Springfield and Churchill High School in Eugene.
He ended his Lane County visit with a guest lecture at the University of Oregon Law School.
Swanson said the local and state assistance has and will continue to be invaluable.
“We’re very, very happy with the outcome, and there’s been a lot of help that has come our way that has made this very possible for us,” he said.
Earlier, Swanson gave the governor and high-level city officials a look at its plans for the new mill during a private meeting. He then led them on a tour of the site where the fire destroyed the mill, which was subsequently cleaned up.
The governor’s visit came one week after Swanson Group, a family-owned company based in Southern Oregon, announced its intention to rebuild the mill at the same location instead of acquiring a mill elsewhere.
The company has declined to say how much it will spend to rebuild the mill.
Steve Swanson also divulged a few more details about the new mill. It will measure 330,000 square feet and be built of steel construction. Construction will begin this summer, with the first plywood panels going out the door in the fall of 2016.
The mill will hire about 95 employees when it starts operation, Swanson said, and it will take a year to bring on its full workforce.
The old mill employed 250 workers, but the new mill will need fewer employees because of increased automation, the company has said.
Swanson said 100 mill employees displaced by the fire called after hearing of the announcement and said they’re “ready and willing” to come back.
Those employees who are hired back will retain their length of service, Swanson said.
“They won’t be new employees to us so I think it’s a good incentive for them,” he said.
Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, will offer a loan of up to $400,000 that will be forgiven if Swanson hires an agreed-upon number of employees. The exact amount won’t be known until the company and state finalize an agreement.
Swanson said the new mill will create more jobs at companies that cut down and transport the mill’s logs and finished projects, and provide parts for its equipment.
The chief executive officer said he also expects state officials will help the company meet permit and environmental regulations before and during the new mill’s construction. “Delay costs money,” he said, “and I think they’ll help us get up and running substantially quicker,” he said.
Springfield city officials already announced the company’s intention to apply to exempt its new construction and equipment from property taxes for up to five years, under the rural enterprise zone program that city officials manage in partnership with the state.
The company also is negotiating with Union Pacific Railroad to buy the roadway property it has been leasing so it can access the mill site, which had been a potential roadblock for redevelopment on the site.
The fire, believed to have started in one of the mill’s three massive veneer dryers, sent a large column of black smoke into the clear summer sky that residents could see for miles. Fire officials briefly evacuated the area around the mill. No serious injuries were reported.
Swanson gave Kitzhaber and city officials an up-close look at the two remaining veneer dryers during the tour. One of the dryers has been removed.
In the weeks after the fire, the company paid to have more than two dozen properties cleaned up after debris contaminated with insulating asbestos from the mill’s pipes and roof rained down on them from the burning mill.
The fire is also believed to have killed fish swimming in the neighboring millrace. City officials and others celebrated the restoration of the waterway several days after the fire.
Lundberg thanked all the partners who worked to help keep Swanson, which acquired the mill in 2007, in the community.
“We’re enormously excited that Swanson has been able to see that this is the best site for them to rebuild,” she said. “It just adds to our heritage of wood products in Springfield.”
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Information from: The Register-Guard, https://www.registerguard.com
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