Council adopts resolve to support mill towns

BANGOR – While the mills might not be located in their community, city councilors Monday night unanimously adopted a resolve in support of the thousands in the Katahdin region whose economic well-being hangs in the balance as Great Northern Paper Inc. begins the struggle back to fiscal health.

The councilors’ resolve, adopted unanimously, served as a show of support for their counterparts in Millinocket and East Millinocket, where GNP’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing threatens to leave 1,130 people jobless and hundreds of retirees without company-paid health insurance.

To put the matter into perspective, Councilor Michael Crowley likened what Millinocket and East Millinocket were experiencing to having all of Bangor’s major employers file for bankruptcy protection – at the same time.

“They’re scrambling. They’re in survival mode,” said Crowley, who grew up in Millinocket and whose family still resides there.

Councilor Dan Tremble noted that the potential job losses could be far reaching. Each manufacturing job supports four to five jobs in the service sector, he said.

An apparent group effort, the strongly worded resolve was conceived over the weekend by Councilors David Nealley and Michael Crowley, with the support of the rest of the council and City Manager Edward Barrett.

It calls upon Great Northern, its employees, its creditors and state and federal officials to take appropriate actions to ensure the continued operation of GNP’s mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket.

The councilors urged participants in the company’s effort to restructure its debt “to work diligently and cooperatively to ensure that the mills resume production as soon as possible and to establish a firm basis for their long-term operation through fair and reasonable solutions to both the immediate and longer-term financial issues involved.”

The councilors made the following key points in the resolve:

. The company employs 1,300 people in the Katahdin region and indirectly supports thousands of other jobs throughout the region and state in such economic sectors as industrial supply, transportation, logging and other service businesses;

. The loss of those jobs and associated economic activity will have a “catastrophic” effect on the two host communities and will adversely affect the economy of northern and eastern Maine;

. Natural-resource-based industries throughout Maine remain an important element of the statewide economy and are under significant pressure due to economic factors and global competition; and

. The loss of any significant industry in northern and eastern Maine will further erode the regional economy, worsen the already wide gap between these areas and other parts of Maine and increase the level of state spending required to support individuals without access to quality jobs and communities with declining property tax bases.

Because there wasn’t time to distribute the document before Monday’s council meeting, Crowley read it into the official record in its entirety.

The council order directed that copies be forwarded to Gov. John Baldacci, Bangor’s congressional and state delegations, the Penobscot County commissioners and the communities of Millinocket and East Millinocket.