Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Plant Closing Affects Area

Almost 600 people will be looking for work when the International Paper Co. plant in Camden closes in 2001.

The announcement of the closing was made Wednesday, Oct. 25, stunning the entire community.

However, the plant closing will also affect Nevada and Clark counties as residents from these areas also work at the plant.

This plant is the single largest employer in Ouachita County, which has a 7.7 percent unemployment rate at this time.

Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, said the closing will have an impact on Nevada County, but how far reaching it will be isn't known yet.

The closing will also have an effect on those who supply pulpwood to it, as well as the trucking industry.

Billy Hines, president of Hines Trucking, Inc., said his company will be affected by the trickle down effect. "I don't know how many chips we take to this plant, but I know they use 500,000 tons of chips and logs.

"They'll have to go somewhere, but I don't know where."

Hines said the effect the closing will have on his trucking firm will be negative, but the extent is not known at this time.

Most of the chips going to the Camden plant, he said, come from other IP plants, and they will most likely be diverted to other paper mills.

The ones who will feel the closing the most, Hines said, is the independent loggers who depend on this for their livelihood.

The closing came as a shock, he said, even though there had been rumors the plant would be shut down floating around for years.

State Rep. Percy Malone said the impact of the closing will be enormous in the area.

The effect, he said, will not only be felt by those who work in the woods, but also by the retail merchants as well.

"I've talked to the leaders of Ouachita County," Malone said, "and offered to help. I'll listen to their needs and see what I can do in that regard."

Ouachita County, he said, can take advantage of a number of state programs, as can those in surrounding counties displaced by the plant closing.

The most important thing, though, is for the county leaders to move quickly and get position to recruit new industry to replace this loss.

Malone related the similarity in circumstances between what's going on now in Ouachita County and what occurred 14 years ago in Clark County. He said if the leaders pull together and work hard, Ouachita County could enjoy the same success Clark County has in industrial recruiting.

Leaders in the state House of Representatives and Senate have agreed to listen to the needs of the people in Ouachita County and work with them.

"The most important thing," Malone said, "is to help the community by bringing in new jobs. They can do it. This is a difficult thing for a community to go through."

Losing a major employer isn't new to Ouachita County. A few years ago Camden saw the General Dynamics plant close, which contributed to the county's rising unemployment rate.

"We don't want people to have to leave the area," Malone said. "They're skilled workers and a valuable asset. Industries look for places with skilled workers."

Don Morehead, with Gurdon's International Paper Wood Products Co., said it's too early to tell what the effect of the closing will be.

"It could have an impact on our timber purchase strategy," he said. "But most of our chips go to Pine Bluff and we'll run as usual."

The chips from the Whelen Springs plant, he said, had been shipped to the Camden facility, but will now likely be diverted to Little Rock or Texarkana.

One of the tragedies, Morehead said, is this is one of the oldest paper plants around.

It was originally built in 1927 and produced 280,000 tons of Kraft paper each year. Most of the paper was used to make grocery bags, but there is currently a glut of such paper on the market because of the increased use of plastic bags.

John Dillon, chairman and chief executive of IP, said this wasn't an easy decision for the company to make.