Seven months after the closure of Welco Lumber Co., in Naples, the mill announced it has reopened full time.

General Manager of Welco, Brian Cox, in Shelton Wash., said the market for fencing products looks better this year than they expected it would when they announced the closing in October.

The mill began to reopen in stages according to Cox, running on a limited basis with 13 employees in June.

"We officially began running the mill full time as of July 17," Cox said.

Welco now employs 36 people. Cox said about 34 of the 93 people who were laid off in December, have been re-hired. He is optimistic that they will need to hire more people as the demand for the product grows.

Operations Manager, Ryan Comer has been with the company for seven years, and Dwayne Lund, the company's quality control shipping manager has been with the company 15 years. Both are longtime Bonners Ferry residents according to Cox.

"Things are going great and I believe we have been given a tremendous opportunity for the business as well as the community and the start up is going really well," Comer said.

The average wage of workers now employed by Welco is $13 to $15 per hour, Cox said.

Cox will visit Welco in Naples once a month to check on progress and continue making future plans for the mill.

"We are very excited about the reopening and it happened much sooner than anticipated," Cox said. "I could not be more pleased with progress and couldn't be happier with the crew."

Owned by Welco for 17 years, the company kept the mill in case it should reopen; however, a spokesman for Welco, which is based in Shelton, Wash., said in October the mill's reopening was unlikely.

The reason for the closure, in large part, was a result of weak demand for fencing products brought on by the sluggish housing market.

Welco quit buying logs after announcing the closure.

Due to economic developments in the area Cox said now the company is able to buy logs at a lower cost because of fewer cedar competitors.

When Welco closed in December it eliminated jobs that paid between $10 and $25 an hour plus benefits; the average employee was paid $15 an hour.

Welco may have contributed to January's high unemployment totals, according to Alivia Body regional economist for the Idaho Department of Labor in Coeur d' Alene.

Boundary County tied with Benewah and Clearwater counties at 15.3 percent in the February 2010 preliminary forecast, ranking it third highest for unemployment out of the state's 44 counties.

The decision to reopen the mill brings some relief to the unemployment rate in Boundary County and hopes for more jobs in the future.