March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Statler talks continue as mill prepares to close

AUGUSTA — The Statler Tissue Co. plant, expected to close by the end of the week, was the subject of more talks Wednesday involving representatives of a state agency seeking to ease its financial pressures.

“The company right now is proceeding with an orderly shutdown of the mill,” said a spokesman for the Finance Authority of Maine, Charles Mercer.

“We told them that our financial aid package was still on the table,” Mercer said.

A $1.5 million aid package was approved by the agency nearly two weeks ago. FAME has pegged the mill’s debt to the bank at around $10 million, and to its creditors at $12 million to $14 million.

Charles Dearborn, president-elect of the United Paperworkers International Union Local 57 that represents most of Statler’s workers, called the pending closing a surprise and complained that company officials had not been forthcoming.

“I think they’ve been trying to keep us in the dark. I don’t think they’ve been 100 percent honest,” he said.

Word of the scheduled closing came Tuesday night.

“I certainly have no concrete evidence it’s going to restart,” plant manager Rodney Hill said.”We’ve been struggling for a couple of months. It unfortunately came to this.”

Hill said a decision to close the mill stemmed from an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon in Boston between company officials and U.S. Trust of Boston. Hill said the mill’s president, Leonard Sugarman, had unsuccessfully sought a credit extension.


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