Louisiana-Pacific Corporation has finished selling its timberlands, downsizing its North American manufacturing facilities, and looks forward to a financially sound future in corporate headquarters being relocated from West-coast Portland, Oregon, to mid-America's Nashville, Tennessee.

Meanwhile, tiny Urania, Louisiana, one of the communities directly impacted by the downsizing - meaning, mills closed - is fighting for its economic survival.

Last month, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, announced the completion of the long timberland divestiture portion of the company's reorganization plan.

"We are on schedule to complete essentially everything we set out to do," said Mark A. Suwyn, LP Chairman and CEO.

LP has already or will receive more than $750 million from sale of timberlands nationwide, including almost 100,000 acres in Louisiana. The money will be used to reduce corporate debt which had accumulated from major acquisitions of new companies, and from operating losses in oversupplied wood products markets.

Final sale of the timber land was 463,000 acres in Southeast Texas to an institutional investor for $290 million.

"Following our asset sales, we are a dramatically different company than we were a couple of years ago - both in focus and geographic dispersion," said Suwyn.

One of those dramatic differences left the small town of Urania fighting for survival.

Closure of the Urania mill occurred in an exchange of plants in August, 2002 in Texas and Louisiana between Georgia-Pacific Corporation and LP, which was created in a corporate spin-off from Georgia-Pacific in a court ordered separation in the 1970s.

The transaction was an asset exchange, and allow Georgia-Pacific "to acquire plants that geographically complement its existing manufacturing and distribution capabilities," LP stated.

As soon as the transfer was completed, GP immediately issued a statement idling 352 workers at the Urania plant.

However, this hometown of the innovative father of reforestation Henry Hardtner, once proud center of bustling industry, refuses to give up. Leading the bandwagon of optimism and hope in Urania is their bright, hardworking mayor Terri Corley.

"Good things happen here," Corley said as she drove down the main street of town. Corley says that even though the town's major industry, a plywood plant owned first by Louisiana Pacific (now owned by Georgia-Pacific) closed its doors more than a year ago, putting 352 people out of work.

Mayor Corley drove her truck,complete with the "Granny" license plate,to the mill site where equipment was at that moment being moved out of the closed Georgia Pacific mill. Last month, GP reported that they had no thoughts of ever re-opening the plant.

"Somebody will come here," said Corley, as we made a turn in the factory's once busy front gate. "We've got everything for a successful company." She listed railroad access, nearby Highway 165, a major north-south thoroughfare, and the modern buildings, equipped with sprinkler systems

"We can make more than plywood here," she said. "We'll tell anybody, this is a wonderful town to raise kids in. It's a great place to retire."

Already, computer-wise citizens have posted the idled plant, with all its conveniences and accessible nature on the Internet, looking for a new industry.

For a town of around 700 people, Urania can well boast of their hospital, the Hardtner Medical Center, a pharmacy, Sabine Bank, a convenience store, the LaSalle Correctional Center, and two new businesses in town. A logging and trucking company opened part of an old plant,while ACT Kilns began operations recently with around 20 employees.

Corley, who is now in her third term as mayor of Urania, refuses to take credit for many of the good things happening there. She's had some hard times, but she took office with her goals of building on what Urania had to offer clearly in mind. A few months after she became mayor, the town's water system broke down. Corley made arrangements to have the water tied into nearby Olla's system and applied for a grant with hopes of paying off the unusable, inoperative old water well.

The Federal Government had other ideas. Corley discovered that Urania would have to use the money to build a new water system and pay off the nearly half million owed for the old plant whether they could use it or not. Today, the nearly 600 water subscribers in Urania pay about $20 per month for water. Almost all of that goes to pay for a system they haven't used for years. Is Corley discouraged? That's a word that probably isn't in her vocabulary.

Instead, she prefers to point out a lovely downtown park framed by old growth pine trees settled around a small pond. The trunk of an enormous cypress tree has been formed into a child's playhouse and in the center of it all stands a log cabin. One of Corley's first goals was to restore the lovely park. Applying for a grant, she went to the courthouse for the necessary paperwork.

"It had been given to the town with a handshake for a contract," Corley remembers. Once again, she threw herself into the project, made the required contacts and today the park is the center of activity from senior citizen's wiener roasts to community parties and settings for gorgeous outdoor weddings.

"This is what it's all about," she said, indicating the park. "Being able to successfully get things done for your town."

Urania citizens can also be proud of their new fire truck. Corley knew they needed two because a railroad splits the village down the center. If a fire occurred on the opposite side, a fire truck couldn't get across quickly enough if a train were on the tracks.

Another indication of the changes made by Corley's administration is the old town cemetery. Once overgrown and cared for by willing volunteers, it stands as a monument to the beauty of rural Central Louisiana.

"When you turn off Highway 165, you enter a quiet peaceful world here in Urania," Corley said. "We're not trying to compete with the world. We have it all right here in our town."

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