The Columbia Forest Products operation in Rutherglen is hoping to re-open in the next couple of weeks.

Plant Manager Chris Daur told BayToday they closed the facility in January as it was in need of repairs.

“The main structure is fine but the smaller dimensional timbers had started to crack,” he says.

He says they evacuated the mill as a pre-caution and employees are temporarily out of work.

“We were getting possible failures in the roof. That happened on January 28th and we stopped production until we could get the situation assessed,” Daur says.

Daur says business does slow down in the winter so in that sense this has been a timely renovation.

He says it was assessed and the company has invested funds to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars to do the repair work.

Columbia Forest Products in Rutherglen employs 75 workers including production, maintenance and office staff.

(photo from BayToday)

Filed under: Columbia Forest Products, Rutherglen