when canton's paper mill closed last year some impacts were immediate and obvious but others aren't so apparent and tonight news 13's reaj reports how the shutdown tracks to another Factory in Waynesville which is now having to make major adjustments with a Canton paper mill shut down fewer freight trains are passing through the mill and continuing on up to the premier magnesia facility here in Waynesville that's prompting the facility here to invest in Greater storage capacity Premier magnesium
also known as Giles produces Epsom salts our bulk facilities depend on rail service for the delivery of our two primary raw materials uh one being magnesium oxide uh the other being sulfuric acid the company's operations vice president Matt Haynes emphasized to Haywood County Commissioners the impact to them from the mill closure the reduction of rail service associated with the pack of closure represented a significant threat to our operations Giles was receiving rail cars 7 days a week twice
a day with the closure of the pive went down to 5 days once a day and their cost went up when the paper mill closed last year County leaders went to work on ideas to protect Premier magnesia one of the County's biggest employers a company well over 270 employees the county received a 4 million doll Economic Development Grant when the mill closed 1.4 million of that will help premere restructure its train deliveries Premier come up with a plan that will uh you know help offload be able to store s
tore more of their uh manufacturing uh chemicals that they need to complete the processes if they can expand that area then they can uh have more product delivered with less uh less trips if you will now we're having to try to piece together you know with these fewer trips that that they can store more prod there commission chairman Kevin Ensley says the county is taking all necessary steps you know we'll go through whatever the protocol is to make sure that they we follow it properly so we can
get the expansion done and eny says it's protecting those jobs here at the premier magnesia plant that's one of the top priorities reporting from Haywood County Rex Hodge news3
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