GLOSTER — Crippled by a weak market for building materials, the Georgia-Pacific plywood mill is scheduled to shut down indefinitely in early December, throwing 280 employees out of work — just in time for the Christmas season.

The Tylertown plant shut down earlier this month, leaving 35 people unemployed.

This is the second time the Gloster mill has idled in December in recent years.

“We’re letting our employees know that because of the ongoing market conditions, we’re going to indefinitely idle the operations at the Gloster mill,” G-P spokesman Julie Davis said this morning.

“What we’re doing is telling them we expect to take about eight weeks to wind down operations there. There’s not an absolute date at this point, but we expect it will be early December.”

The entire mill will shut down, with no employees remaining on duty, Davis said. The idling is a result of ongoing market conditions, not the current economic crisis being debated in Congress, she said.

Davis stressed that G-P does not consider the action a permanent closure, and the plant could reopen if and when conditions warrant.

“The bottom line is there’s not as much of a market for the finished product at this point,” she said. “This is an indefinite idle, which gives us the flexibility to bring it back up when the right situation presents itself. ... Unfortunately, the market just has not started to improve, and it’s forced us to make some very difficult decisions.”

She said the shutdown is a result of broader market conditions, not the Gloster mill’s performance.

“This is no reflection on our employees there or the plant there,” Davis said. “They’ve done a great job, which is why they’ve continued to operate so far into this market. It’s just a matter of needing an improvement in the market.”

The mill has been upgraded with new equipment in recent months, but that’s not enough to keep it open, Davis said. “We have been investing in our facilities across the company to help our operations become more efficient,” she noted.

The company has given employees a 60-day notice and will later take steps to help them find other jobs, she said. “We do typically do everything we can do to help them.”

The Gloster mill closed Dec. 1, 2002, leaving 300 people without jobs. It reopened in October 2005 after Hurricane Katrina left vast amounts of timber on the ground.

The availability of trees downed by hurricanes Gustav and Ike didn’t rescue the plant this time, Davis said.

“This is simply there being a matter of the market we produce for, not the availability of timber. We’re sitting in a great timber basket there, but we’ve got to have a market for what we make,” she said.

Mayor Billy Johnson said news of the closing is staggering to the town of just over 1,000 people.

“It’s going to be devastating to our economy,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of people that’s going to be out of a job. Unemployment’s going to go up.”

But Johnson hasn’t abandoned all hope.

“Then again I’m hopeful a lot can happen within these 60 days. Maybe things can turn around. Maybe the economy can pick back up. Maybe anything can happen,” he said, noting he plans to call Davis to see what, if anything, town officials can do.

Betty Stevens — a real estate agent, chamber of commerce spokesperson and owner of AB Trucking — received the news this morning.

“We’re sick,” she said. “It’s going to affect all of us, and right here at Christmas time.”

Stevens doesn’t understand why the mill is closing after money was spent on improvements, but as a real estate agent she does understand the market conditions.

“We haven’t had new houses built around here in years,” Stevens said.

She well remembers the devastating effects of the 2002 shutdown.

“It was several houses — people lost their houses,” she said. “There was nothing around here to make a living. This is the life of our town. ...

“It was just nowhere to go. A lot of people don’t want to travel to Baton Rouge to go to work. With the gas prices, who can afford to go out of town to work?”

She’s not sure yet how the shutdown will affect her trucking company, which has eight trucks that haul logs and chips. “I don’t know what we’re going to be doing,” Stevens said.

In Tylertown, G-P indefinitely idled its plant Sept. 8, citing the same market conditions. That plant manufactured “fingerjoint” material.

G-P’s chip and sawmill plant in Roxie remains idle after shutting down in November 2006, laying off all 70 employees.