Dakota Shankel took stock of his new home for the next month as he pulled his camper trailer into a lot across from the Tamarack Sawmill on Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s real close to work, so now it’s walking distance,” said Shankel, a sawmill employee who lives in Council with his wife.
Shankel is among many local workers and families who have been scrambling to make plans ahead of a month-long closure of U.S. 95 between Council and New Meadows that is scheduled to start on Sunday night to repair damage from a March 16 landslide.
The only detour around the closure involves a five-hour drive down to Payette, across Idaho 52 to Horseshoe Bend, and then north on Idaho 55 until it reconnects with U.S. 95 in New Meadows.
“You either adapt to it, or you stay home and lose a month’s worth of pay,” Shankel said. “Most people can’t afford that.”
Sawmill among most affected
The sawmill, owned by Evergreen Forest Products, is among the most affected local businesses by the highway closure. The mill employs about 70 people, most of whom live south of the closure in the Council area. The mill, meanwhile, is north of the closure.
“That first day that the road was closed, I think there was three employees here,” Tarah Davis, a manager at the mill who lives in Council, said of an initial closure after the landslide.
Like Shankel, Davis plans to live at the sawmill in her personal camper trailer for the duration of the closure, which ITD officials estimate will last until late April or early May.
Other sawmill employees who do not own camper trailers have been offered housing in three apartments the company owns in New Meadows. The apartments are typically used for new hires who do not have housing or for contractors hired by the mill.
The company is also renting motel rooms in New Meadows for employees who can be away from home during the week and continue working through the closure. All said, Davis expects to be down about seven employees during the closure, mostly due to medical reasons, animals, or children at home.
‘Major impact’ on distribution
Still, Rodney Krogh, the president and CEO of the mill, expects the highway closure to have a “major impact” on operations.
Besides potential workforce shortages, the mill will not be able to haul as much processed lumber to its distribution facility in Meridian.
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“We would haul 2 to 2 ½ loads a day to Meridian down 95 and now we must go down 55, which the trucks can only do one load a day,” Krogh said. “The transportation issue and the potential of being so short-handed will have a definite impact on our production of lumber and our viability.”
State police assisting Adams sheriff
The highway closure will also interrupt other businesses and public services.
The Adams County Sheriff’s Office, which is headquartered in Council, will rely on Idaho State Police to respond to any law enforcement calls north of the closure, Sheriff Ryan Zollman said.
“We are also working on a plan to get a deputy to the north side of the county quicker than the 55 option but that is still in the planning phase,” Zollman said.
St. Luke’s to house displaced employees
Meanwhile, St. Luke’s McCall employs 16 people who live south of the closure zone in the Council area, said Laura Crawford, a hospital spokesperson.
Nurses, EMTs, lab personnel, and cleaning staff are among the positions affected. However, the hospital is not expecting any operational impacts, Crawford said.
“We will provide temporary housing for employees,” she said. “This will be accomplished through hotels and utilizing St. Luke’s existing temporary housing near campus.”
The nearest hospital available to people who live south of the closure is in Weiser—about six minutes farther than St. Luke’s McCall. The nearest St. Luke’s hospital is in Fruitland, which is about 30 minutes farther than McCall.
Brundage expecting reduced staffing
Brundage Mountain Resort expects to be down as many as 20 employees during the closure, said April Whitney, a spokesperson for the resort.
Empty employee housing beds are being offered to affected employees, but Whitney said that solution is not practical for all employees, including those with families or small children.
“We’ll probably have some managers out there scanning lift passes in the next couple weeks,” she said.
Whitney later told Valley Lookout that most of the 20 affected employees have been able to continue working by staying in employee housing or with friends. The company is paying mileage for those commuting the long way around the closure.
Short-term rentals offer answers
While larger employers have employee housing at the ready, not all are so lucky.
Hannah Combs, an Adams County employee who lives in Fruitvale, is not affected by the closure, but said her entire immediate family is.
“My husband works in McCall, and then my parents and siblings all work in McCall as well,” Combs said. “We’re looking at Airbnb options for the month of at least April.”
The Airbnb will cost thousands, but Combs said it still makes economic sense to spend the money rather than be out of work for a month.
“It’s nice that there’s people to split with, but it’s still a very unexpected and expensive cost—just to go to work to make money,” she said.
