JANUARY CUNUIICE Released
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T - ’-r - •r~ ry ! • 28 - THE HERALD, Wed., Jan. 20, 1982 Smelter shutdown could irteon 40% colonial Manor Mediation: new Whalers end company’s zbic smelter. The main porUl ^ By Brian Mottaz Hill Mine itself is lost In the sprawling smelter conjidex. losing ways United Press International S S d n r t h e smelter is KelloM, a will go condo divorce strategy *».•,5* ■’. ’I i:- aboS 5,000 split in two by KELLOGG, Idaho (UPI) — Most residents of Idaho’s tral business district Ues on a hitoide to t ^ ... page 13 ... page 9 Silver Valley are hanging on, waiting for spring and Newer businesses and a >"odem-looktog h ^ re h o o l oc page 3 answers to their questions about the end of an era in cupy flatter land north of the elevated freeway. western mining. A fourth of Shoshone County’s work force will be out y \ THE 30-MILE-LONG valley is ja m m ^ ^ th othCT of their jobs if the last of the glowing furnaces are working mines, such as the Sunshine — sUll turned off at the Bunker Hill Co. lead and zinc smelters largest silver mine — the Galena, Lucky ^ after nearly a century of operation. Crescent. But Bunker Hill has always Along with the prospect of 2,000 jobs lost goes the $50 and most visible enterprise in the Coeur d Alene Mining million Bunker Hill workers take home each year and spend in dozens of businesses lining the Coeur d’Alene DisMct. Manchester, Conn. River as it winds through the narrow Silver Valley. Until this year. Bunker Hill annually Chance of snow Most of those businesses are bearing up for now. But tofts of refined lead, another 100,000 tons of metalUc anc Thurs., Jan. 21, 1962 even before Christmas, one apparel store held a going- and over nine million troy ounces of silver, not to men again Friday 25 Cents out-of-business sale. tion smaller quantities of gold and cadmium. — See page 2 U m lh GULF RESOURCES, a Texas conglomerate which Despite this wealth. Bunker Hill President ^ Ken-: owns Bunker Hill, is getting out of the mining and drick revealed recently. Gulf Resources and O i ^ c a l smelting business in northern Idaho. It cites heavy Corp., owner of the Kellogg smelting complex since losses as the reason for shutting down. 1968, bailed out Bunker Hill financially at least once In A group of north Idaho businessmen has an option to the past. He said Bunker Hill would otherwise have gone buy Bunker Hill. Even if they succeed, they say there out of business years ago. will be reductions in the work force and operating costs to erase a projected $40 million 1982 deficit. Gulf Resources didn’t get into any complex explana “Bunker Hill is no longer real for us,” said Jim tion when It announced in August It was c lo s ^ the ^ Costello, a 12-year employee who wants to stay in smelters. Gulf simply said Bunker Hill was iM l^ too ! Kellogg even after he loses his job. UPI photo much money — $7.7 million in the first half of Iw l. '.| GOP purges “Just a few months ago I thought I was going to work KENDRICK SAID a factor in Gulf’s decision to close t for Bunker Hill for the rest of my life,” said Costello, The planned shutdown of the Bunker Hill Co. employer. The firm’s parent company, Gulf or sell Bunker Hill was Its specialization in refining who feels it would be “dumb” to close one of the few Resources of Houston, says the firm Is losing mostly Silver Valley ores, which prevented the ewnpany ^ remaining smelters in the United States. smelters In Kellogg, Idaho, will have a “You’re going to have some people really suffering. I striking effect on the economy of north too much money to stay open. from competing with foreign smelters. _• know people who don’t have anything happy to say any Idaho’s Silver Valley, where it Is the largest During the past century, the company had w l t h s t ^ more and that’s not good.” sometimes violent tabor strife — including thei ’The owner of a local moving business has had to hire Employment forecasts 40 percent unemployment in the A1 Wellman, who has been selling cars in Kellogg for dynamiting of its mill in the 1890s — and a host of em, right-wingers more workers to keep up with the demand from people months ahead. 30 years, says the city will never be the same if Bunker vironmental problems that cost it tens of millions of; wanting to leave their homes in this company town and The department’s Kellogg office would have to Hill finishes a step-by-step shutdown of its lead and zinc dollars. , process more than 1,500 claims for jobless benefits from smelters and mine. find new .jobs. But the closure announcement came at a time when., “I had my back against the wall,” problems until they can learn to live But for now, there has been no mass exodus from former Bunker Hill employees between now and spring. “I just don’t think people around here realize what Most of the right-wing opponents effect this is going to have on their lives,” said. depressed prices for lead, zinc and silver were nnaklng It; of Republican Town Chairman Cur said Porter, charging that he was and let live within their own party. Kellogg. Most Bunker Hill employees seem content to The maximum payment of $145 a week will only be a tough to earn a buck in the American metals Industry.^ “Ironically, they may.have turned Wellman. tis M. Smith were swept out of the targeted by Smith and his allies. sit tight for the winter, living off of unemployment and fourth of what many smelter and mine workers take “But rather than quietly walking out some of the people who were savings. home in their paychecks. “Bunker Hill has been in existence for so many years The Hecla Mining Co., the valley’s second largest', GOP Town Committee in most representative of the — the major employer — and all of a sudden it’s leaving employer, knew that when It spent a year looking for a t Wednesday night’s party caucuses. away, I said I will fight you at your “Shoshone County has traditionally had one of the own game. president’s views.” OTHERS ARE SIGNING up for a special Com most stable employment rates in the state,” said Gary the area. Some people just don’t believe it.” buyer to help save the Bunker Hill smelters. ] The housecleaning gives Smith, prehensive Employment and Training Act program Beck, who heads the local employment office. Even as he spoke, a young couple came to his office Vice Chairwoman Donna R. Mercier designed to give them new job skills. seeking to return one of the two new cars on which they Dave Wolfe, assistant to Hecla’s president, wasn’t: and their moderate allies virtually But Porter agreed that the Mrs. Sadloski held a similar view. “A year ago, things couldn’t be better. Metal prices really surprise no one was then interested. He said If j changed face of the town committee “Those who have been running the “I think people are starting to realize they will have to were high.” were making monthly payments. unchallenged control of the party. make a move, maybe next spring,” said Hal Hibbert, a Gulf Resources couldn’t turn a profit at Bunker Hill, lt’a>^ will put Smith in the driver’s seat. party have been losers,” she said. Among the active critics of Smith “He’s successful in fighting nine-year Bunker Hill worker. “It’s really tough to have ART BLICKENSTAFF, manager of the First THE IDEA OF a Silver Valley without Bunker Hill Is doubtful anyone could. ‘ ’ who either were defeated or chose “It will be lock step with the to move in the winter.” National Bank of Idaho branch, doesn't think Kellogg is still a hard concept for many of the area’s residents to “Gulf Resources’ decision to close It down Is the bestj boss,” he charged. “We may not be Republicans, I only wish he could do not to run Wednesday were Ger as well at fighting Democrats. Trying to get a handle on the ultimate impact of the any worse off than many other communities trying to grasp. indicator of its economic viability,” said Wolfe. ; ' trude Starkey, who served as recor able to speak out.” Bunker Hill closure is the governor’s special Silver deal with the depressed economy. But he recognizes a As Interstate 90 winds its way eastward from Fourth “In general, the ultra- "The whole point of a minority i Still, as Bunker Hill slowly shut down, a group headed • ding secretary; Karin VonDeck, Valley Economic Task Force, but answers aren’t easy larger problem looming ahead. of July Pass, the twin 700-foot smokestacks construe^ conservatives have proven to be party — and at the rate he’s going it by mining executive Harry Magnuson and newspapier: who was District 3 chairwoman; to come by. “If half of Bunker Hill’s people were to leave, it would by Bunker Hill a few years ago to help ease air pollution Robert S. Smith, who was District 2 poor losers,” said Smith. "I would will remain a minority party — is to “When you find the answer, come back and tell me,” be a loss certainly,” said Blicken^taff.