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Then Potlatch announced it was shutting down the mill after a century of paper-making in this central Minnesota community, putting 616 employees out of work when it closed March 18, 2001.
“It’s hard to believe it’s five years already,” Hartman said. “It was stressful for everybody.”
But the economic devastation many feared was largely averted. Resiliency was the key, according to former employees and economic development officials.
“I tried to be optimistic about it,” Hartman said. “I tried to look at it as a new frontier — a new opportunity.”
The local job market has recaptured about 300 manufacturing jobs since Potlatch closed, according to the Brainerd Lakes Area Development Corp.
Following the closure, community leaders formed the 2020 Economic Vitality Task Force to develop a strategy. After years of planning and research, it’s planning more aggressive efforts to attract jobs, industries and services to the area.
“What did we learn?” BLADC executive director Sheila Haverkamp said of Potlatch. “It’s very hard to replace 600 high-paying jobs. My hope is the 2020 program will help us do that. We’re creating about 60 manufacturing jobs a year.”
Craig Nathan, WorkForce Center operations manager in Brainerd, recalled the “deer-in-the-headlights” look in people’s eyes when they first learned Potlatch was closing.
Many families had multiple members working at the plant. Sometimes both spouses depended on the mill for their livelihoods. Some people who had worked at the mill all their adult lives had trouble believing it would actually close. Losing jobs carried the emotional impact as a family death or divorce, Nathan said.
Some Potlatch employees returned to paper-making when new owners restarted the mill. Others looked to new careers or retired. Some moved away.
Don Hines landed on his feet. His father worked at the mill until he retired. Hines expected to follow suit. When it closed, Hines had been on the job 15 years.
Two days after his last shift at Potlatch, Hines started working at Nor-son, a construction services company where he is safety director.
“I guess I’m very fortunate that worked out for me,” he said.
Those who struggled the most were those who refused to believe the plant would close and were used to taking overtime shifts to make ends meet, said Gerard Miller, who was with Potlatch for 13 years.
“It wasn’t the disaster that everyone thought it would be,” Miller said. “Granted, most of us aren’t making the same wage, but I think we are all learning to adjust to it.”
Miller decided to do something totally different. He got a two-year degree in criminal justice from Central Lakes College and went to work in security. He works in the Cuyuna Regional Medical Center emergency room and at the Brainerd Public Library.
Hartman took advantage of retraining money, but it was hard. For 10 months, he spent his weekdays at barber school in Fargo, N.D., returning home only on weekends. After a year as an apprentice, he opened his own business three years ago — Wayne’s Barber Shop.
“I’m glad I went into barbering,” Hartman said. “I enjoy it. I think I found a good niche to fall into. You are taking a risk whenever you make any kind of a career change.”
Given the chance for a new start, Hartman remembered a relative who was a barber.
“I always kind of envied him; he seemed like he always enjoyed his job,” Hartman said. “No matter where you go, people need haircuts. So I figured it’s a pretty versatile operation.”
