Posted on 10/01/2014 10:19:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The closure will cost the town of 5,000 people almost half of its tax revenue. The state Department of Labor says the LePage administration has 60 days to find a buyer for the mill, which has operated since 1930.
Hundreds of mill workers from across the state will find themselves without jobs at the beginning of the holiday season after Verso Paper Corp.’s sudden announcement Wednesday that it will close its paper mill in Bucksport effective Dec. 1.
More than 500 employees will be out of work in the third mill closure in Maine this year, dealing a severe blow to the town of 5,000 people, which derives 47 percent of its tax revenues from the Verso mill.
A gas-fired power plant that the company operates on the same property will remain open, and state and town officials said it was unclear if the 70 workers who staff it will be affected by the closure.
Town officials said losing the more than $4 million in taxes paid by Verso each year would force them to reduce municipal and educational services....
(Excerpt) Read more at pressherald.com ...
Merry Christmas from Barry and his ‘RAT pals!
Hang on... why do they expect the state government to find a buyer? They should let the private sector do business and keep the state nose out of it.
Folks, Look up the Logging industry in the Adirondacks for what will happen to that area of Maine.
Sad story. Competition from overseas, weak demand for product, increasing costs, and less demand for printed materials in the internet age.
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These jobs must pay very well for people to do this. I've never heard of this arrangement being used for blue-collar jobs outside the oil & gas sector.
Damn, we always stop in Bucksport for a soft ice cream on the way to Bar Harbor. It’s right across the Penobscot from the original Fort Knox, an impressive granite fortification erected to keep the British North Americans from stealing all the timber on the Penobscot. I’ve driven by that plant dozens of times. I was always amazed they could keep it open all these years.
I’ve met two Buckportians outside of Bucksport, one a young woman who worked at our company, and later moved to Montana where her husband was from. The other was a young airman in Alaska who was assigned to drive me someplace. They both saw no future in Bucksport.
Isn’t Maine one of the states where ‘refugees’ are being sent at a furious pace? I thought importing third world unskilled non working immigrants was a boost to the economy.
The jobs pay well but it is also the fact that job opportunities in northern Maine are not that good.
Governor LaPage is doing a good job but the Rats control both chambers of the legislature.
The attack of the paperless workplace.
Ah, it's the buggy whip scenario.
I heard that it's in some disrepair. Have you been recently?
I was there about two months ago. It has been very nicely trimmed up, there is signage with explanations about the cannon and shot furnaces, and all. It probably hasn’t looked this good since the Civil War. There are some contemporary photographs of site from the nineteenth Century, really very nicely done. There is a parking fee now, about five bucks, but it was more than worth it.
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