City forecasts growth with new plant in place.

• Author: Clark, Pauline
• Position: Kendra-Dryden: Special Report - Kenora, Ontario - Brief Article

Imagine a plant that sits on a 160-acre site and has an estimated area of 10 acres under roof. That is about the size of Kenora's new Trus Joist Weyerhaeuser TimberStrand (LSL) plant, according to Terry Brennan, the company's general manager.

The mill, now nearing the final stages of construction, is located about 12 kilometres from the City of Kenora and is two kilometres south of the Kenora bypass on Jones Road. It lies adjacent to the city's new industrial park.

Brennan says the mill's main product will be TimberStrand headers up to 64-foot lenghts for the residential market.

Brennan says Weyerhaeuser has hired all the "associates" or employees, all of whom are currently in training.

Many will be attending training sessions at Trus Joist Weyerhaeuser's two other TimberStrand mills in Kentucky and Minnesota.

The completion date for the construction of the plant is set for August, with production set to begin in November. Brennan says construction has gone quite smoothly.

The company has been tapping into industrial park services and has received "excellent co-operation from the city," Brennan says.

It was in 1999 that Thus Joist Weyerhaeuser was selected to manage the Kenora Forest Unit and build a new plant in area. Late in 2000, the company decided they would locate the mill the largest TimberStrand mill in the world - in Kenora. The estimated cost of the facility is $258 million. Grant Carlson, economic development officer with Lake of the Woods Business Incentive Corp. (LOWBIC) in Kenora, says the construction phase has been beneficial for the city.

TimberStrand (LSL) is made using Trus Joist Weyerhaeuser's own technology.

The laminated strands of lumber are used in place of dimensional lumber, especially in areas where structural building is being carried out. The mill is the largest of it's kind in the world and is the third TimberStrand mill for the company.

Carlson says one of the features of the mill is that the only wastewater is from employees.

He says the company's full complement of 236 employees includes the most recent ones hired in late May, and many management members on staff since 2000.

As many as 150 employees were hired locally, while the remainder were hired from outside of the community because of the experience prerequisites.

Carlson says the area should also see an increase in the amount of wood that is removed from the Kenora Forest Management Unit. The area was previously logged mainly for softwoods and though...