First Paper seals $23.7M mill deal 360 to return to Lincoln facility

BANGOR – After more than five months without jobs, 360 people in the Lincoln area will begin returning to work next week at the town’s paper mill – the newly named Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co.

On Friday afternoon, Connecticut-based First Paper Holding LLC completed its $23.725 million purchase of abandoned Eastern Pulp and Paper Corp., which owned the Lincoln mill, to the elation of a community that experienced a similar fate in 1968.

Then, the Lincoln mill was shut before Joseph Torras Sr. of Amherst, Mass., purchased the facility in 1969.

Now, 35 years later, it is Torras who relinquishes control after 3 1/2 years in bankruptcy protection, where financial reorganization was sought but property abandonment was ordered.

“Joe wanted nothing more than for the sale to go through and for the workers to regain their jobs,” said Portland attorney George Marcus on Friday. He had represented Torras and Eastern Pulp until a federal bankruptcy judge in February ordered the company to be liquidated.

Eastern Pulp, bankrupt since September 2000, owned the Lincoln mill, formerly named Lincoln Pulp and Paper Co., Eastern Fine Paper Co. in Brewer and a corporate office in Amherst, Mass.

The company shut down operations on Jan. 17, leaving 750 people without jobs. More than 390 people will not be returning to work, including 140 people in Lincoln.

First Paper Holding is owned by John Wissmann, a strategic consultant at Fisher International Inc. in South Norwalk, Conn., Rodney Fisher, owner of Fisher International, and Keith Van Scotter, former mill manager at Fraser Paper in Madawaska who currently lives in Tacoma, Wash.

Van Scotter will be president of the Lincoln mill and plans to move to Lincoln. Doug Walsh, former manager of the Lincoln and Brewer mills, will be vice president of operations.

The fact that the Lincoln mill is going to be restarted is bringing hope to a community that realistically can be classified as a one-industry town. Tourism is strong, with visitors arriving in July to camp along the town’s 13 lakes.

But it’s the mill that’s the lifeline for year-round residents who aren’t afraid of long winters and black flies.

“How do you put that into words?” asked Town Manager Glenn Aho about his exuberance when hearing the sale of the mill was completed Friday afternoon. “Elation. Relief. It just means so much to the community. The thing is, this mill is not just a mill. It’s woven into the social fabric of this community … going back to 1968 when the mill went down before and the phoenix rose out of the ashes.”

A skeleton crew of up to 30 workers has been maintaining the Lincoln mill since the shutdown to protect the machines from low temperatures and from rust during the spring thaw.

They also watched as the state Department of Environmental Protection packed up chemicals to avoid an environmental accident.

In the last few weeks, staffing levels have increased as maintenance and management crews paid by First Paper Holding prepared for a mill startup even though the sale nearly collapsed two weeks ago.

“We’ve had people at the mill doing what they had to do to make sure we had a successful startup,” Wissmann said Friday. “They’re on top of it. They’re a good group.”

Steve Corriveau, president of PACE Local No. 1-0396, said that more maintenance workers would go to work Friday night and another 120 people will be on board Tuesday and Wednesday. The boiler will be restarted Tuesday and a tissue machine will start operating Thursday.

All 360 people will be back to work by mid-August.

“They plan on having the whole mill up by June 17 except for one paper machine,” Corriveau said. “I hope it lasts forever. But we still have to get it up and running yet.”

Gov. John Baldacci and Van Scotter will be at the Lincoln mill at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday to welcome returning workers. Joining them will be Maine’s 2nd District Congressman Mike Michaud; Jack Cashman, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development; David Littell, DEP deputy commissioner; state Sen. Mary Cathcart; and state Rep. Rod Carr.

“The opening of Lincoln Paper and Tissue benefits the entire region,” Baldacci said in a statement. “There was an outstanding level of support and cooperation behind saving these mill jobs.”