Howland to support firm that will create local jobs

HOWLAND – Friendship Trap Co. will invest more than $400,000 and create about 20 jobs when it expands its operations to Howland early this fall.

With no opposition, residents on Tuesday approved a development grant that will assist the lobster trap company in purchasing the former JSI Store Fixtures facility, located on the LaGrange Road.

“I was real impressed with the company,” said Joe Dunn, chairman of the board of selectmen. Dunn recently took a tour of the company’s Friendship operations.

“I am going to welcome them and everyone else that comes to town,” said the chairman.

Friendship Trap is a 24-year old company whose primary business is making wire-mesh lobster traps at its facilities in Friendship and Columbia Falls. It is the largest manufacturer of traps in the Northeast.

Bartlett Bench & Wire is a company that makes wire-mesh bench tables and displays for greenhouses and garden centers at its facility in Northbridge, Mass. Sales for the 12-year old company doubled last year and are expected to increase again this year. The two companies employ about 60 people year-round.

J. Pike Bartlett, the owner of Friendship Trap Co. and Bartlett Bench & Wire Inc., plans to relocate his greenhouse bench and display operations from Massachusetts to Howland within 30 days.

Initially, the company plans to employ three to five people in Howland. If sales continue to rise, Bartlett said, the company could employ 5 to 10 people by next year.

Bartlett also plans to expand his current lobster trap business with more production at the Howland site by next spring. Within a year or two, Bartlett expects to employ 25 or more people at the new Howland facility, which will produce lobster traps, wire benches and displays for the greenhouse industry and a new product, a wire-mesh gardening basket. Pay rates for the new jobs will be between $6.50 and $8.50 an hour.

During Tuesday’s public hearing, Bartlett said it was possible the number of employees could reach as many as 40.

The company owner said he was excited about expanding his business to Howland. Sandwiched between Bath Iron Works and MBNA, the company has not been able to find enough labor to work at its Friendship facility in the last few years. It has contracted work to a Nova Scotia company, which employs 25 to 30 people to do that work.

Looking for a way to bring his lobster trap production back to Maine, Bartlett looked for property in Maine. While at an auction in Massachusetts, he met the owners of JSI, who are selling their Howland facility. Bartlett said it was the right type of facility and he already has had 20 people apply for jobs.

Bartlett plans to begin renting a portion of the Howland facility in 30 days and hopes to complete his purchase of the facility by September or October.

Now, the town will seek a $200,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development’s Development Fund Loan Program.

Eastern Maine Development Corp. is assisting the town with its CDBG application. The money will be awarded to the town as a grant and then passed on to the company as a low-interest loan.

Victoria Burpee, an EMDC official, expects the application could be approved in about three weeks.

Some residents asked whether the town would be liable for the loan. D’arcy Main-Boyington of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, said the town would not be liable for the loan.