{"id":68628,"date":"2016-05-17T17:55:58","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T21:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=68628"},"modified":"2016-05-17T16:02:37","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T20:02:37","slug":"johnson-brothers-lumber-expands-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=68628","title":{"rendered":"Johnson Brothers Lumber Expands Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"County<\/a>by Sharon A. Driscoll<\/em><\/p>\n

A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, June 03, 2016 to celebrate the\u00a0completion of Johnson Brothers Lumber\u2019s five new drying kilns located at the Buyea Road landfill site in Lincoln.<\/p>\n

Johnson Brothers is using the excess heat from the Gas-to-Energy plant at the main landfill to\u00a0dry their lumber. They are the first company to take advantage of the excess heat produced by\u00a0the Gas-to-Energy facility owned and operated by Waste Management Inc. The kilns at JBL\u2019s\u00a0Cazenovia facility are heated with a waste wood burning boiler.<\/p>\n

Construction for the $1.7 million drying kilns began in May of 2015 when Whitney Construction\u00a0of Camden began work on the foundation for the kilns. William Dougherty Construction of\u00a0Cazenovia worked with Whitney on the foundation as well. Johnson Brothers secured a\u00a0NYSERDA Grant that covered approximately 25 percent of the project cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are happy to see this project come to fruition and proud that one of the first facilities to\u00a0locate at the Agricultural and Renewable Energy Park (ARE Park) is a local company who is\u00a0expanding their operations,\u201d said Kipp Hicks, Director of the Madison County Industrial Development Agency.He explained that the primary goal of the new business park is to\u00a0encourage energy conservation and the development of green energy initiatives.<\/p>\n

He explained that the primary goal of the new business park is to\u00a0encourage energy conservation and the development of green energy initiatives.\u00a0Johnson Brothers recently expanded their saw mill in Cazenovia increasing production\u00a0proportionally to match the throughput of the new kiln capacity. JBL purchased low-cost land\u00a0from Madison County as the new site for five drying kilns. This land purchased from the County\u00a0has been put back on the tax rolls.<\/p>\n

According to Paul Johnson, one drying kiln can hold five tractor trailer loads of lumber for a total\u00a0green weight of 280,000 lbs. After dried, the lumber weighs approximately 50 percent less.\u00a0One kiln full of lumber has an average value of $75,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new facility will provide jobs for area residents,” said Director James Zecca. “This is a win-win situation for both Johnson\u00a0Brothers Lumber Company and Madison County.”<\/p>\n

The kilns went online in March. Dimensions for the facility are 180 feet long and 30 feet wide,\u00a0housing five large drying ovens and a control room to manage heat and humidity\u00a0levels.\u00a0\u00a0Temperatures in the kilns during the drying cycle fluctuate between 90 and 150 degrees\u00a0for two to four weeks (depending on wood species and moisture content) before it is ready to be\u00a0milled.<\/p>\n

Kara Johnson Connellan, Paul Johnson\u2019s daughter, explained that the lumber is purchased from\u00a0a 90-mile radius of the Cazenovia mill. JBL purchases all hardwoods: hard and soft maple, ash,\u00a0cherry, red and white oak, birch, basswood and hickory. After being kiln-dried, the lumber is sold\u00a0both domestically and internationally. Approximately 30 to 40 percent of Johnson Brothers lumber is sold internationally, Asia, Europe and Canada representing a majority of sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kiln dried wood is made into flooring, furniture, kitchen cabinets \u2013 material used in the\u00a0finished housing markets,\u201d said Connellan.<\/p>\n

Compartment-type kilns are most commonly used by timber companies. A compartment kiln is\u00a0filled with a static batch of timber through which air is circulated. In these types of kilns, the\u00a0timber remains stationary. The drying conditions are successively varied from time to time in\u00a0such a way that the kilns provide control over the entire load of timber being dried. The drying\u00a0method is well suited to the needs of timber companies, which have to dry timbers of varied\u00a0species and thickness, including refractory hardwoods that are more susceptible than other\u00a0species to check and split.<\/p>\n

This family-run business, located in Cazenovia, was established by brothers William and\u00a0Victor Johnson in 1937. Located in Central New York, Johnson Brothers Lumber has access to\u00a0some of the finest growing hardwoods found in the world, according to President Paul D.\u00a0Johnson who took over the company in 1983.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: Sharon Driscoll is media director for the Madison County Department of Solid Waste and Recycling.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sharon A. Driscoll A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, June 03, 2016 to celebrate the\u00a0completion of Johnson Brothers Lumber\u2019s five new drying kilns located at the Buyea Road landfill site in Lincoln. Johnson Brothers is using the excess heat from the Gas-to-Energy plant at the main landfill to\u00a0dry their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-hQU","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/County-Seal.jpg?fit=226%2C226&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}