East Coast investors may bring more jobs to Prineville mill

An East Coast investment company is looking to acquire an interest in Consolidated Companies, a family-owned lumber company in New Jersey with a small mill in Prineville.

Crook County Commissioner Seth Crawford said Tuesday he flew to New Jersey to met with the representatives of Tzar Investment Group LLC of Rhode Island and Consolidated Companies of New Jersey, which has a subsidiary, Consolidated Pine, in Crook County.

The company announced it plans to invest in the Consolidated Pine lumber mill, though details have not been made public. The facility currently employs about 30 workers.

Any more wood products jobs would be very welcome in the struggling community. Last year, after a roof collapse, Woodgrain Millwork decided to close its Prineville mill and lay off many of the 55 workers as it shipped the work to another state.

Prineville residents said it’s great news for the community, but getting the raw material may be a little hard.

“It’s hard to get lumber because they won’t open the timber industry to where you can get lumber,” resident James Pradmore said.

The community needs it more than anything else, he said.

Crawford said he doesn’t know yet how many jobs could be added.