202 



Ketcmmn Dally Newsi 



Saturday-Sunday, June 8-9, 1996 



Seley looks to reopen 

 mill in Thome Bay 



By CATHY ST. JOHN 



Daify News Staff Wriiir 

 Seaborne Lumber owner Steve Seley 

 is coniidering relocating his now shut- 

 down Ketchikan operations to Prince of 

 Wales Island as part of a new S5 million 

 secondary manufactvihng facility. 



Seley is scheduled to present a pro- 

 posal, which is in the early stages, to the 

 Thome Bay City Council on June 20, he 

 said. 



Seaborne Lumber's J5.1 million mill 

 dosed April 27 due to a declining timber 

 supply. Seley is especially interested in 

 locating to the Thome Bay area, as the 

 prospects of a Gravina Island industrial 

 site "■'" and POW growth continues, he 

 said. 



POW has always 'extended open arms 

 to the (timber) industry and jobs.' he 

 said. 



The island has more beachfront prop- 

 erty than Ketchikan and will probaUy 

 surpass Ketchikan's population in the 

 next 10 years, he said. 



"Thome Bay is also a good commu- 

 nity of primary manufacturers,' hesaid. 



Seley would relocate his log mer- 

 chandising and primary manufacturing 

 equipment and remanufacturing plant. 

 He plans to add a dry kiln and planer to 

 the facility. A dry kiln reduces the mois- 

 ture content of wood in preparation for 

 further manufacturing, while the planer 

 provides the Gnal cut before sale. 



The proposal is to employ 60 work- 

 ers, about tour from Seley's shutdown 

 Ketchikan operations. The remainder 

 would be local hire, he said. 



The plant would be designed to split 

 its time between Seaborne s and otner 

 bminess's needs. Seley is looking at a 

 'good, sound operation' that wUl al- 

 low added investment in the commu- 

 nity by offering additional manufac- 

 turing for the smaller 'mom-and-pop' 

 operations, he said. 



Seley would like to begin construc- 

 tion in spring 1997, but there's a lot of 

 work ahead, including finding a fiber 

 supply, he said. 



He plans on two-thirds of his timber 

 supply coming from U.S. Forest Ser- 

 vice sales. The remainder would come 

 from state timber sales, he said. 



The facility will manufacture shop 

 lumber, industrial dear boards and 

 construction-grade products, which 

 have a market in other parts of the 



state. 



'There are a lot of users up north,' 

 be said. 



Seley u scheduled to meet with 

 Gov. Tony Knowles' staff nart week 

 to discuss bow the project falls under 

 a Knowles task fonx recommenda- 

 tion for a regional facility with value- 

 added capabilities. 



He is considering a site on the east 

 coast of POW because it is strategic to 

 the timber supply and because Thome 

 Bay has shown the most enthusiasm, 

 said Seley. 



The City of Thome Bay had previ- 

 ously considered constructing a bio- 

 mass plant to provide power and pos- 

 sible dry kilning for secondary manu- 

 facturing. 



Mayor Kay McMaster said the dty 

 is very exdted about the proposal. 



'The dty will do whatever it can do 

 to accommodate (Seley) and facilitate 

 the project,' she said. 



The dty and City Council are also the Goose Creek subdivision in case 

 asking the state to create two 20-acre Seley is interested in those lands, said 

 parcel for bid in its next sale of lots at McMaster. 



Southeast Alaska Conservation Council 

 Senate Bill 1877 A-JL,,/,, , J-rL 

 July 10, 1996 /^'^^^'•c/f 



