Linden is getting itself a huge lumber mill. The mill building is 35,000 square feet of framed space whose high metal girders at the moment seem ready to house a small super bowl.
“It is the football season,” said Lee Elliott, city manager and Linden Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) director. “This company is going to be such a boost to us.”
Advanced Lumberworks–Linden LLC is building the mill and making a $4 million investment to turn timber into materials for wood pallets.
“The company’s mill was originally in Douglassville, but owners ran out of space and so were able to find property here and are bringing this much larger mill to Linden,” explains Meagan Kirkland, Main Street director and assistant LEDC director.
Lumberworks has acquired the former Watson Wood Yard and its 25-acre site west of Linden. Rapid construction of the spacious facility is going on there now.
Employment is expected to expand “from 15 to at least 25,” said company partner Mike Sandefur of Texarkana.
“We’ll take the area’s tremendous timber resources and add value by making this product for pallets right here. We hope to ship at least 25 truckloads of product each week.”
“We will help the local economy by generating employment, reducing trucking distances and emissions and increasing the tax base. We are excited about our location in Cass County.”
Equipment inside the huge facility is being engineered and especially designed for the new facility, Sandefur said.
For the county’s part, the mill will receive initial tax abatements to keep taxes low in the start-up period, Elliott said.
“The city will provide a job fair and incentives for job creation while the LEDC will assist their EPA green grant application,” he added.
The mill will make parts for pallets which are ubiquitous in today’s world. The pallet is a portable, rigid platform that’s flat and can carry a load. Different types of pallets are used to store, assemble or transport goods. They improve warehouse operational efficiency by allowing easy movement of stacked goods using machines such as forklifts.
On Thursday of last week, the company and the city put together a tour of the construction site to show not only the work in progress but also the company’s potential to engender economic incentives. Participants included mill manager Jimmy Beard, Linden Mayor Lynn Reynolds, Elliott, Kirkland and Sandefur.
Elliott said a larger purpose for appreciating the arrival of the lumber mill is that it is part of a plan for Linden.
“The city’s not had a comprehensive plan,” Elliott said. “At least, one that was not just thrown under the table. We have major issues but lots of opportunities. We are positive. The City Council, economic development board and schools are working together. You don’t get that in every city.”
The site for a new lumber mill facility near Linden is spacious. Taking it all in are, from left, Mike Sandefur, Lynn Reynolds, Lee Elliott, Jimmy Beard and Meagan Kirkland.(Photo by Neil Abeles)
The aluminum object is not part of a rocket but rather part of the lumber mill’s dust catching system. It is called a silo. It has been delivered early and will be installed later in the construction cycle. (Photo by Neil Abeles)
The interior space to hold equipment, logs, products and people for Advanced Lumberworks’s Linden mill is huge. (Photo by Neil Abeles)
