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NEMROC breaks ground on-site to improve lumbering productivity

ALPENA, Mich. — An Alpena lumbering facility will spend the next month laying the foundation down for several kilns. It’s a $1.2 million dollar project designed to insulate and dry–out moisture from wood.

The Northeast Michigan Rehabilitation and Opportunity Center lifted dirt with their community partners for the groundbreaking event. NEMROC has been drying wood with kilns since the early 90’s, but now the structure is getting too old.

CEO Dave Szydlowski says he won’t destroy the rusted kilns. NEMROC will use them as pre–dryers.

He says, “Envision 300 semi-trucks rolling out of here in the course of a year. That’s the volume of wood we’ll produce, and a lot of people don’t realize how much moisture is in wood. When we’re dying a 50,000 board foot kiln of oak, we’re probably going to remove a little over 11,000 gallons of water.”