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Boise set to start up rebuilt mill Photo by Bob Pennell Electrician Rex Thomas (top left) works on a catwalk Monday above the plywood presses outside the Boise Cascade mill. Production may resume less than a year after devastating fire By DAVID PRESZLER There are still missing pieces in production lines, machines that have yet to arrive or be built and lots of equipment to be tested. But the rebuilt Boise Cascade mill off North Pacific Highway is less than a week from starting an equipment shakedown, and officials hope to begin limited production by the middle of August -- less than a year after the mill burned down. "I'm really looking forward to getting this thing cranked up," says Dick Rudisile, Boise's area manager. Testing is scheduled to begin Monday. Once the bugs have been worked out, production will start slowly and build throughout the fall and winter, with workers being recalled as they are needed. By early next year, Rudisile hopes the plant will employ around 300 people -- about two-thirds of the amount the mill employed before the fire. Rudisile declined to be too specific about when and how many workers will be recalled for fear of raising hopes among laid-off workers. He says specific recall dates are hard to pin down because they depend on how well the equipment checks out. "We want to make sure it's going to be productive before we bring a lot of people back," he says. About 60 workers displaced by the Labor Day fire were temporarily moved to the company's White City operations and will likely be moved back to the Medford mill. Another 75 or so have been recalled to help with construction efforts. "It's been quite an experience to watch it rise," says Phyllis Steinhauer of Eagle Point, a Boise employee for 22 years. She and others rehired to help with the construction say they like what they've seen of the new facility. "I think it's going to be a lot better than it was before," says Fred Del Pizzo of Medford, who has spent 27 years with Boise. ``It's really impressive. It's going to be a lot more efficient." "A lot of the things that were frustrations in the old plant have been fixed," Rudisile says, adding that better lighting and a more open layout should make things nicer for employees. Boise officials refused to disclose how much it cost to rebuild the mill, not wanting to give competitors insight into the mill's financial state. Though investigators were unable to pin down an exact cause of the fire, the company reached an insurance settlement following the fire and announced its decision to rebuild the day before Christmas. Construction began this spring. The rebuilt mill is smaller than the old one (it covers around 315,000 square feet where the old one was more than 700,000). It also has a narrower focus. Its two main thrusts will be supplying the company's laminated veneer plant in White City and producing sheeting and finishing grade plywood. It won't process logs but rather green veneer that has been peeled at other Boise mills. The production lines to supply the White City mill will come online first, followed by the plywood production line. Rudisile hopes plywood production will begin around Oct. 1. The veneer dryers will also come online one at a time, with the first scheduled to start operating in a few weeks. The dryers and some other equipment were salvaged from the charred remains of the burned-out mill. Some other equipment that was not damaged or could be salvaged was transferred to other Boise mills. Construction has moved quickly. The complex project has had about 150 people working on it, both from the company and from about a dozen different contractors. Rudisile said the combination of expertise has significantly sped the process. "It's come along a lot faster than can be done in most cases," he says. But for him and hundreds of others, the wait has lasted long enough. "I just want to get these people back to work." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA