CONCORD, N.H. – A Connecticut company officially took ownership of the idle pulp and paper mills in Berlin and Gorham on Friday, giving North Country residents new hope of getting back to normal.

Officials from Fraser Papers of Stamford, Conn., joined Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, state officials and former millworkers to celebrate the signing of the paperwork that completed the company’s purchase of the mills.

When the mills shut down Aug. 12, 860 workers lost their jobs and the region’s economy was crippled. The mills’ parent company, American Tissue Inc. of Hauppauge, N.Y., filed for bankruptcy a month later.

State and local officials have touted the sale as a major step in getting northern New Hampshire’s largest private employer up and running again.

“We just won the Super Bowl,” Berlin Mayor Bob Danderson said exuberantly after receiving a $6.1 million check from the company.

As part of the deal, Fraser Papers paid millions in back taxes owed to several communities by the mills’ former owners. Gorham got $1.3 million. Another $22,000 went to Shelburne.