As an employee of Eastern Fine Paper in Brewer for the last 35 years, I’ve been through the good times and the bad of the paper industry. It is hard to stand by and watch a manufacturing industry die.

Eastern is the second industry in Brewer that I was employed at that has slowly come to an end. The first was the shoe industry. How many shoe shops in the Bangor-Brewer area do you see in operation today? How many paper mills are operating in Brewer today? None.

April 13 the last of the skeleton crew working at Eastern was released into the unemployment world to join all the others before us. I am sure this scene has been repeated many times before as the small mills across the state have come to an end. How much longer will it be before one will ask: “How many paper mills are operating in Maine?” None.

We cannot all be gainfully employed as ticket sellers to the Great State of Maine National Park.

Roy Mayhew

Carmel