RICEBORO – The line around the Riceboro Youth Center wrapped around the building, waiting for the doors to open Thursday afternoon.

By the end, more than 275 job seekers had filed into the center to take part in a job fair quickly assembled by the Liberty County Development Authority and several partners.

Once news of the International Paper mill in Riceboro was going to close, the wheels began turning to get a job fair put together for its employees and for others also seeking new jobs.

“We wanted to bring in people looking for an opportunity and bring in employers looking for people,” said LCDA chief executive officer Brynn Grant. “We just want them to put their best foot forward and give them the opportunity.”

When Grant first broached the idea of a job fair, the first call she got was from RISE, the Regional Industry Support Enterprise.

“This all came together very quickly,” Chafin said.

Grant noted the IP workers who came to the event are a “seasoned, incredible workforce.” The Riceboro containerboard mill is expected to be shut down completely by the end of the month.

More than two dozen employers were on hand, including SNF, which is just a couple of miles from the International Paper Riceboro mill. While the company had a chance to meet potential new hires, it also did so with the thought that many of the people they were meeting are about to be out of a job.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Kirk Thomas, vice president of SNF’s Riceboro operations, said. “We hate to see this for the community. We hate to see this for Liberty County.”

For SNF, the chance to talk with IP employees has an upside for the company. Those employees, Thomas pointed out, know what it’s like to work in a plant and may have experience working with chemicals.

“It gives us the opportunity to get more qualified people into SNF,” Thomas said. “This isn’t the normal stream of candidates we get. We normally get people with no plant experience. Being able to talk with some of these people with International Paper gives them a leg up.”

Grant acknowledged the mill’s closing also has a ripple effect, including truck drivers who bring supplies and materials to the mill and to the logging crews who cut the timber that eventually goes to the mill or the saw mill.

The closures of International Paper’s facilities in Savannah and Riceboro, along with the Georgia-Pacific mill in Blakely’s closure, prompted the state House Rural Development Committee to hold a summit Wednesday on the impact of pulp and paper mill closures in rural Georgia.