Mill town chosen as plant site Company to hire 250 for Millinocket factory

MILLINOCKET – An Oregon-based composite material company is planning to start two independent Maine operations with Millinocket the new manufacturing location for its patented, highly durable composite known as Monolite.

Monolite Composites, which is in the process of starting a research and development facility in Bath under the name Maine Monolite, is looking to employ 250 people within 18 months at a Millinocket facility where employees will use the composite to create efficient engines and multiuse vehicles, among other uses.

The Millinocket company, which has yet to be named, will use the raw Monolite produced in Bath, according to Anthony Burich of Maine Monolite. The Bath City Council in February approved a Community Development Block Grant application on behalf of the project.

The Maine facilities will be employee-owned and operated as independent companies, Burich said. Employees will gain their ownership through an employee stock ownership program.

The Millinocket facility potentially could employ 500 to 700 people, depending on the rate of growth and the number of orders, Burich said. The U.S. Department of Defense already has expressed an interest in the multipurpose vehicle the company plans to build at the facility, Burich said.

Beyond product sales, the goal of the company will be to create viable manufacturing jobs and offset the downturn of the mills and companies that are leaving the state, Burich said.

“I don’t agree with the philosophy that it makes sense to move manufacturing jobs overseas,” Burich said Friday from his Topsham office. “There’s a work ethic in this state that’s beyond compare with anywhere else in the world.”

Burich’s wife is a Millinocket native.

Lightweight and malleable, Monolite has ballistic capabilities, can withstand temperatures of up to 2850 degrees and is broken down by UV rays at a much slower rate than plastic, according to its inventor, Ron Huegli, who works near Vancouver, Wash., for Monolite Composites.

With a nonporous surface and more structural strength than fiberglass, Monolite has unlimited possibilities, Huegli said.

“We’ve found that we can use it in just about every place we’ve looked,” Huegli said Friday from his office. “This is ideal for building construction, for boats, for cars. It’s just a good, usable material.”

The plan for the Millinocket company is to use Monolite paneling in the construction of a military vehicle that could resist armor piercing by a .50-caliber round and potentially withstand a rocket-propelled grenade, Burich said. Similar in size and shape to the Volkswagen minibus, the vehicle platform could be outfitted to serve in a military setting as an ambulance, an electronics center or a weapons center, he said.

Powering the military-style vehicle likely would be a lightweight, high-power engine Monolite Composites has developed and patented, Burich said. Made of Monolite and other composites, the swing rotary engine measures about 1 foot long, weighs 40 pounds, can generate up to 500 horsepower and can run off almost anything that burns, Burich said.

It gets about 150 miles per gallon, he said.

“You’re talking about a sizable amount of horsepower that could push an SUV,” Burich said. “We think we’ve got something pretty special here.”

The U.S. military alone buys about 150,000 engines a year and even one-tenth of that market could keep the company quite busy, Burich said.

Military uses aside, the applications are limitless, Burich said. The nonporous nature of Monolite keeps substances from adhering to it, meaning ice would not build up on a roof made of Monolite, he said. The Millinocket facility could work with other companies to enhance current product lines, he said.

Unlike other industries in the state which have seen jobs exported to foreign countries for cheaper wages, all of the technologies developed by Maine Monolite or the Millinocket-based manufacturing company will remain in the state, Burich said. In addition to a commitment from the people working to start the two companies, the pledge to keep the technology in Maine will be written in the company bylaws, he said.

U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud is pursuing competitive grants and appropriations to assist in the company’s startup.

“This is a combined effort and no doubt will take all our creative energies … to make this project a reality for our region,” Michaud said in a statement released Thursday. “We are incredibly hopeful that this project will be only the beginning of good news for an area so hard hit by job loss.”

Burich will be working in the coming weeks with the Millinocket Area Growth and Investment Council and Town Manager Gene Conlogue to identify an existing facility for the startup company to locate.

The Monolite project is an exciting concept, Conlogue said Friday. In addition to Katahdin Paper and Brims Ness, the water filtration sensor company, the Monolite manufacturing company has the potential to further diversify and strengthen the Millinocket-area economy, Conlogue said.

“Manufacturing is the common thread in all three of the companies, but not one of the three is dependent on the other two to be successful,” Conlogue said. “My gut tells me that we could be doing very well economically over the next few years.”