BETHEL, Alaska (AP) - A Bethel-area village is starting a commercial lumber business along the Kuskokwim River.
Workers from the Native village of Napaimute are currently moving a sawmill 40 miles downriver from Chuathbaluk to three miles below Kalskag where the mill will cut commercial lumber on demand, KYUK-AM reported Wednesday (https://bit.ly/2lHga5f). Officials say the mill will create jobs and provide cheaper lumber for Kuskokwim residents.
Napaimute Director of Development and Operations Mark Leary said the same crews who are moving the mill are also plowing the Kuskokwim highway, another job creation effort out of the village.
“You ask any young person in our region what they want. They want a job. They want a job, and I have so many people calling, asking, ’Do you got any openings? Do you got any openings?’ So many guys looking for work,” Leary said.
The going is tough, but Leary said chartering a barge in summer months wouldn’t have benefited the village as much.
“Very few local people (are) working in the barge industry anymore, and we chose to move it ourselves by ice roads so our guys can get the work,” Leary said.
Napaimute purchased the sawmill from a family in Chuathbaluk, funding the purchase and move with a $600,000 federal grant.
The mill will sit three miles below Kalskag on the same 400 acres of white spruce where Napaimute harvests and operates a firewood business. The village leases the land from the Kuskokwim Corporation.
Leary said in addition to the jobs the lumber mill will provide, the business will also offer inexpensive, locally sourced lumber. He said there’s definitely a demand for that wood.
“In the past couple weeks,” Leary said, “I’ve probably had six different families call me, wanting to purchase house packages, because they have tax return money right now.”
The crew should finish moving the equipment this week.
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Information from: KYUK-AM, https://www.kyuk.org
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