G-P closes Houlton chip plant 10 workers displaced; costs, bad market cited

HOULTON – The American flag fluttered Friday outside the Georgia-Pacific Corp. wood-chipping plant on B Road.

It was the only thing moving.

The company has shut down the facility indefinitely because of wood costs and adverse market conditions, according to Meg Fligg, spokesperson for G-P in Atlanta, Ga.

The last day of production was March 23, but all deliveries of logs to the plant were suspended in early March, she said.

At the time production ceased, the mill produced about 700 tons of chips a day.

There were still a few piles of logs in the yard at the Houlton plant Friday, but the giant loaders that normally feed those logs into the chipper sat idle and the whining grinder blades were silent.

Blue and white no-trespassing signs ringed the property.

The shutdown will affect 10 employees, but three of those have been hired to work at the G-P mill in Old Town and a fourth will retire after more than 30 years at the plant, Fligg said.

The remaining six workers will begin impact bargaining with the company through their union this month to determine a severance package.

The Houlton plant, which has been in operation for more than 30 years, supplied wood chips for the papermaking process at the G-P mill in Old Town and at the Domtar Industries paper mill in Baileyville

G-P purchased the plant from James River Corp. in 2000.

The plant was shut down last fall for about six weeks reportedly because of an oversupply of wood chips.

G-P also has chip plants in Milo, Costigan and Portage. Fligg said those plants would continue to supply chips to the Old Town and Baileyville mills.