Georgia-Pacific’s Wauna mill has been picked as the site of a new paper machine that will add dozens of new jobs to the facility, bringing some welcome news following the recent announcement of widespread layoffs.

Wauna won out against four other western Georgia-Pacific mills for the machine, which will produce paper towels for the company’s high-end brand lines such as Brawny.

The mill has emerged as one of the top facilities producing the company’s premium brand products, said manager James Jordan, adding that the cooperation of state and local officials also helped its bid for the new machine.

Wauna officials sought and won tax breaks from the state of Oregon to improve the mill’s prospects in the selection for the new machine, one of two to be added nationwide.

The company will break ground on the project this month, but the new machine won’t be on line and producing paper until at least November 2007, Jordan said.

The actual number of permanent jobs the machine will bring to the mill isn’t known at this point. The machine itself requires 30 to 40 people to operate – more jobs will be added if the company also adds converter machinery to the new line.

The paper machine is the second to come to the mill in the past three years. The Number 6 machine, which began operation in 2003, added 110 new jobs with the machine and the associated converter line, which cuts the 10-foot-diameter rolls from the paper machine into the individual rolls customers buy in the store.

The decision whether to add a converter line with the machine will also impact how many construction jobs the project brings, Jordan said. But either way, the project will have “a significant impact to the local economy,” he said.

News of Wauna’s selection for the paper machine comes two weeks after the company announced that the mill will lose an estimated 130 jobs through a corporate-wide downsizing initiative.

The layoffs will affect 30 supervisory and management positions and 100 hourly workers. The cuts come as a result of the “Rapid Transformation” efficiency drive launched by Georgia-Pacific’s new owner, Koch Industries, which bought the wood-products company last December.

The company is seeking ways to streamline production at all its mills, a process that it says will include, along with the layoffs, the installation of new, more efficient machinery.

Some workers whose jobs are lost through the layoffs may be able to stay on at the mill switch to the new paper machine, or take jobs of other workers who transition to the new line, depending on seniority, Jordan said.

Last month the Clatsop County commissioners voted to support the company’s request for tax breaks under the state’s Strategic Investment Program. Under the program, the company will pay property taxes on only $25 million of the paper machine’s estimated $200 million total value. The tax breaks last for 15 years.

In exchange for the tax relief, the company will pay $500,000 a year into a Community Service Fund that will be divided among local taxing districts.