OLD TOWN – National Emergency Grant money has been moved from Georgia-Pacific Corp.’s former Baileyville mill to help with workers displaced from the paper company’s Old Town facility, according to state officials.

“We were given the go-ahead to shift some of the money from a NEG grant for Baileyville,” Dave Conroe, Tri-county Rapid Response coordinator for Penobscot, Hancock and Piscataquis counties, said Tuesday. “We were given permission by the Department of Labor in Washington to use $351,068 from Baileyville. I don’t know how it came about. We just got the call that we had some startup funds.”

Rapid Response personnel are in the process of applying for another NEG to help the 300 unemployed G-P millworkers who were laid off April 4 when the mill cut its work force in half.

“We are currently doing that [applying for another grant], but I don’t believe we have gotten it in the mail yet,” Conroe said.

G-P’s former mill in Baileyville was allocated $517,000 to help 131 displaced workers and used approximately $166,000, according to officials. The Baileyville plant was closed Sept. 16, 2002, and then sold to Louisiana-Pacific Corp. L-P officials have said the mill will reopen this summer, which eliminated the need for much of the NEG funding.

Twelve areas in Maine now are receiving NEG money.

“We usually can expect to get half of what we ask for,” said Conroe. “That’s kind of the game – the strategy. Maine has more NEG grants than anywhere in the Northeast.”

Rep. Michael Michaud wrote Emily DeRocco, assistant secretary of the Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, pressing for assistance.

The NEG program falls under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 under the Department of Labor and is available to help states respond to major, unexpected events related to labor. Large-scale layoffs, plant closures, natural disasters or downsizing all qualify states for a NEG.

“To receive a grant, a state must apply to the secretary of labor and demonstrate that the state’s existing federal dislocated worker funds, which are allocated to all states by formula, are insufficient to meet the unexpected need for assistance,” states the U.S. Department of Labor Web site. “Grants are administered by local Workforce Investment Boards and currently may be used for job training, reemployment services, income support and supportive services.”

Funds also can be used to supplement health care costs.

In a related story, the G-P mill in Old Town will shut down in mid-May for just over one week for cleanup and inspection of the plant, company officials said.

“The process gets under way [May 12], and if everything goes well, the mill will start up on [May 20],” said G-P senior communications manager Robert Burns. “This is an annual maintenance outage.”

Rumors that the pulp operations of the mill will not reopen after the mill shutdown are “absolutely not correct” said mill manager Ralph Feck, who also serves at vice president of G-P’s Maine operations. He said the annual shutdown is preventive maintenance work.

“I can understand the concern with the recent retail layoffs,” he said. “This is something that has been scheduled for several months. It’s very standard. There will probably be 700 contractors here improving stuff. It’s really repair and improvement so we can run better when we come back up.”

The cost of the shutdown is approximately $3.4 million.

“In addition to that, we have three projects,” said Kelli Manigault, manager of administration for G-P’s Old Town mill. “We’re working on replacing the spout opening on the recovery boiler [costing $200,000], installing a new bleach plant washer drum [$500,000] and installing a new bleach plant chemical mixer [$250,000].”

Burns said company officials also have been working with Gov. John Baldacci’s staff on efforts to keep pulp operations and pulp drying at the plant up and running.