New sawmill a possibility for Nakusp and Area Community Forest?

A new committee is investigating the possibility of setting up a community-owned sawmill in Nakusp. Mayor Tom Zeleznik told the December meeting of Nakusp council he’s been appointed to sit on the exploratory committee. “[The] price of lumber has doubled in cost recently at the hardware stores, so it’s a good time to invest in our own local value-added forest industry, along with creating local employment,” Zeleznik told council. “We’re in the very early stages, we are just starting the process of determining ‘if and what’ would make sense here,” explained Hugh Watt, the head of Nakusp and Area Community Forest’s management team, in an interview. “It is one of our main strategic initiatives going forward.” But Watt also warns that there are a lot of questions about the concept, and much work has to be done to hammer down the fine details.