ME: Old Town Losing Mill

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Lewiston Sun Journal
Old Town losing mill

By David Sharp, Associated Press Writer
Friday, March 17,2006

PORTLAND - Georgia-Pacific Corp. announced Thursday that it is shutting down its Old Town pulp and paper mill that employs 400 people, delivering another blow to the state's paper industry and sending the governor scrambling to find a buyer.

The mill will begin shutting down over the next few days but Georgia-Pacific will maintain the facility for 60 days while the state seeks a buyer.

Gov. John Baldacci didn't retreat from the deadline, saying there were interested buyers, and that several of them would tour the facility next week.

"I intend to get it done," Baldacci said at a news conference in Old Town.

Economic and Community Development Commissioner Jack Cashman was optimistic as well. "I am confident we can sell this mill. I have already talked with interested parties. There are a number of business owners who see this facility as a real opportunity," he said.

Georgia-Pacific pledged that workers would receive regular pay and benefits over the next 60 days, regardless of whether they leave their jobs sooner than that.

Production will begin winding down immediately and the process could take a week, said Ted Sapoznik, Georgia-Pacific's vice president of consumer products manufacturing.

Also, it'll take a week or so to ship remaining inventory from the mill, he said.

Four wood chip mills in Costigan, Milo, Portage and Houlton that supplied raw material to the Georgia-Pacific mill also will cease operations. The chip mills, which employ 30 people, ceased operations on Thursday.

The announcement did not come as a complete surprise to workers. Rumors that the mill might close had been circulating for weeks.

"These cuts will hurt many, many households, and the effects could ripple through the economy of Penobscot County and our entire state," said U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, himself a former paper mill worker.

Nonetheless, workers remained cautiously optimistic that the governor would come through with a buyer willing to invest in the mill to make it viable for the long haul, said Dan Bird, vice president of United Steelworkers Local 80 in Old Town.

"We believe the governor will leave no stone unturned," Bird said.

Georgia-Pacific announced in October that it was cutting 850 jobs in North America as part of a global restructuring aimed at saving $100 million a year.

That same month, the company announced it was shutting down two tissue-converting lines and four napkin lines, eliminating about 50 workers in Old Town. The mill continued to produce paper pulp and large "parent" rolls of tissue.

In November, Kansas-based conglomerate Koch Industries Inc. agreed to pay $12.6 billion for Georgia-Pacific. The deal was completed in December.

Sapoznik said that the Old Town facility, which is costlier to operate than its other mills, was no longer needed because of production efficiencies elsewhere. "We no longer need this asset to serve our customers," he said by phone from Old Town.

The plant closing marks the latest difficulty for Maine's paper industry, which today employs about 10,000 workers - roughly half of the level 10 years ago.

Eastern Fine Paper Co. closed mills in Brewer and Lincoln, displacing 750 workers in 2004. The Brewer mill remains closed but the Lincoln mill later reopened under new ownership.

Great Northern Paper's mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket, which together employed 1,110 workers, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003. Both mills later reopened under new ownership with a smaller work force.

American Tissue Co., which had a mill in Augusta, collapsed in 2001. And Kimberly-Clark closed its Winslow mill in 1999, leaving 264 without jobs.

Across the border, the Fraser Papers mill in Berlin, N.H., will close on May 6. That mill closing comes on the heels of the shutdown of Groveton Paper Board Co. of Northumberland, N.H., which led to the elimination of 220 jobs.

"We have seen a lot of downsizing all across the nation, but Maine has taken proportionally a big hit. And I'm not sure that process is done," said Mark Wilde, a managing director for Deutsche Bank, who tracks paper, forest products and packaging industries.

Mills like the one in Old Town, which is small compared to modern pulp and paper mills around the world, face a challenge to compete, Wilde said.

It's possible that the state can find a buyer to run the mill's tissue operations, Wilde said. Despite growing pulp prices, the pulp operation could be a harder sale because there's so much global capacity coming online, he said.

Daniel Innis, dean of the business school at the University of Maine, said the state needs to look at the economic factors affecting the industry. Those include high energy and transportation costs, among others, he said.

"If we need policy changes, and I suspect we probably need a few, then we want to ask ourselves: Is this an industry that we want to keep in the state? My personal feeling is that many people will say, 'Yes, it's important."'

https://www.sunjournal.com

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Team readies help for G-P workers
Thursday, March 23, 2006 - Bangor Daily News

ORONO - A support team for laid-off workers met Wednesday at the Black Bear Inn to plan for the possibility that a buyer won't be found for the Georgia-Pacific Corp. mill in Old Town.

The Penobscot County Transition Team met to discuss the ramifications of G-P's announcement last week that it's closing the mill and to begin readying resources for the more than 400 people who now are jobless. Team members also discussed the possibility that a buyer may be found, but if that happens, the work force still would be reduced.

"The Department of Labor supports the governor's position and hopes that a buyer will soon be found and everyone goes back to work," Judy Pelletier of the state Department of Labor Career Center said Wednesday.

The transition team is made up of local organizations, business leaders, and lawmakers whose goal is to help workers recover from layoffs and closures. The group first came together when the Millinocket mills filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003.

With up to seven buyers already interested in the Old Town mill, Gov. John Baldacci and state Economic Development Commissioner Jack Cashman have said they are confident they can find a buyer within the 60 days in which G-P agreed to maintain the mill before carrying out a complete closure.

Cashman continued Wednesday to work with and talk to interested parties, some of whom already have visited the mill site. More are expected to tour the facility before the end of the week.

"What we don't want to do is give a mixed message to the [union] members and employees of the mill," Michael St. Peter, secretary of the Local 80 papermakers union, said at Wednesday's meeting. "They are starving for information, and there's a lot of what-ifs."

Union leaders are working with government and community leaders on all aspects of the impact, according to the union Web site.

"We remain cautiously optimistic that a buyer can be found," a notice on the site says. "Please be patient through this difficult time."

Formal severance discussions with G-P were expected to begin Tuesday, and details will be communicated to union members once the discussions are complete.

Those who attended Wednesday's meeting said that although they want to make sure the questions of laid-off workers are being answered and the proper resources are in place, the situation with Old Town is slightly different than with previous mill closures.

G-P is working with the state to allow time to find a new buyer, and workers will continue to be paid for 60 days from the time they are let go.

"Within a week, we'll have an idea of how long the process will take," St. Peter said. "It may end up being a situation where not everybody goes back to work. We hope not, but we want to be prepared."

The majority of the questions that St. Peter says union leaders are receiving from workers now have to do with finances, such as what to do with pensions and 401k plans.

"I think those [questions] are going to get more personal as time goes on," St. Peter said.

The transition team decided Wednesday that they would put together a survey to distribute at the next union meeting, which is expected to be held in about 10 days, to find out what laid-off workers need in terms of information and assistance.

"These people get so frustrated and discouraged because they're not used to the way the system works," Brenda Davis of Crossroads Ministries, an Old Town food pantry, said Wednesday, adding that she wants people to utilize the organization as they need it.

"If we can help them with food, it frees up some income for them to go buy some things that we don't have," Davis said, noting that the pantry always can use donations of nonperishable food items.

It can take time to receive assistance once it's been requested, and people often wait until the last minute to seek help.

"Don't wait too long. Start this process now," Michael Noyes, a representative from U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' office, said Wednesday.

The next transition team meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. April 11, at the Local 80 papermakers union hall on Main Street in Old Town.

http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=130963

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Red Shield ash test finds excessive lead
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

Old Town, Maine - Leachable lead levels exceeding Maine’s approved standard have been found in ash coming from the Red Shield Environmental LLC boiler, according to DEP Commissioner David Littell.

The boiler had been running on a mixture of green wood chips/45 percent construction/demolition debris producing power for the mill and electricity sold to the power grid.

Until the investigation is completed, Red Shield will continue to burn only green chips....

http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx? ... zoneid=500

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Governor Baldacci’s Statement on Sale of Red Shield

October 23, 2008

AUGUSTA – Governor John E. Baldacci released the following statement today concerning the sale of Red Shield Environmental LLC in Old Town to Patriarch Partners. The sale is expected to be finalized on Oct. 27.

“This is good news for workers and good news for the community,” Governor Baldacci said. “I have spoken with Patriarch CEO Lynn Tilton, and I am impressed with her vision for the facility and her commitment to get people back to work.”

Governor Baldacci said he will meet with Tilton when she visits Maine during the next few weeks.

“The Old Town facility has great potential both as a producer of alternative energy and as a pulp mill,” Governor Baldacci said. “The work that has taken place in cooperation with the University of Maine is ground-breaking and offers the potential to ease our reliance on foreign oil and invigorate our forest products industry. I’m confident that work will continue.”

“The workers at the Old Town mill have been through a lot,” Governor Baldacci said. “They deserve this good news.”

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nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com
Cash from pulp's woody biomass
Published Monday November 24th, 2008
Technology Researcher hopes pulp mill owners can turn byproducts in profits
B1
REBECCA PENTY
Telegraph-Journal

Hemant Pendse knows how pulp mill owners can make cash from compounds found in wood without disrupting the pulping process.

His research has been used to retrofit the Old Town pulp/paper mill in Maine and will be used at a biorefinery to be built next year adjacent to the mill.

Pendse has formed a partnership with Red Shield Environmental LLC, an investment group focused on the refinancing and start up of the Maine mill.

http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com ... cle/490176