BREWER – Gov. John Baldacci wants two weeks to find a manufacturer to fill the vacant Eastern Fine Paper Co. in Brewer, even though some people, including Brewer city officials, think it’s time to move away from papermaking and redevelop the 41-acre waterfront site.

The governor’s plan to form a task force to study manufacturing possibilities was announced in a press release issued late Friday by his spokesman, Lee Umphrey, causing speculation as to whether the announcement was politically motivated.

The press release was sent to the media less than a day before Baldacci attended a barbecue planned for the mill’s 350-plus workers who lost their jobs in the past year. The press release also came three days after Baldacci made an appearance at Eastern Fine’s former sister mill, the newly named Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co., congratulating workers on the return of their jobs after a six-month shutdown.

“The majority of us feel that we got sidelined in this thing,” said Scott Reglin, a 20-year Eastern Fine employee. “It left a very bitter taste in my mouth last week when they fired Lincoln up, that he [Baldacci] was there at the gate greeting the first guys coming back and nothing was said about us at all. Nothing.”

Brewer city officials, including City Manager Stephen Bost and economic development manager Drew Sachs, were upset that the governor’s office decided to publicize the creation of a task force. Bost said he believed he had an agreement with Baldacci and Jack Cashman, commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, that the task force would not be announced until details on how it would be formed were worked out.

“The press release was of some concern to us,” said Bost after having a telephone conversation with Baldacci on Saturday morning and being served a hamburger from him at the picnic. “It is important that this whole issue not get out ahead of us. I don’t like reading about what we’re planning to do from someone who has not been part of the conversation, and I’m talking specifically about Mr. Umphrey.”

Baldacci, however, said Saturday that he is sticking to his plan to replace the manufacturing that was lost when Eastern Fine was shut down in January.

“It was the right thing,” said Baldacci on Saturday about the timing of the press release. “I think it needed to get out. We needed to let people know that we’re working on this and that we’re going to turn every stone and shake every tree. I’m going to go through this effort. I have to. I’m a very persistent, stubborn individual. If there’s an opportunity out there for these workers to be at work or for a mill to be reopened, I owe it to them. And if there isn’t, then I owe it to them to let them know that there isn’t.”

The governor’s two-week deadline coincides with a calendar by creditors of the mill’s former owner, bankrupt Eastern Pulp and Paper Corp. of Amherst, Mass., to remove paper machines and chemicals from the Brewer site to satisfy their multimillion-dollar liens.

Bankrupt Eastern Pulp was sold more than a week ago to First Paper Holding LLC of Connecticut for $23.725 million, and the buyer handed over ownership of the Brewer mill to the city of Brewer.

Bost said it’s the city and not the governor that should direct future decisions about the mill.

“It’s in the city’s interest to direct this conversation,” Bost said. “[The mill is] located in the city and the city owns it. We want to do something with the facility that directly benefits this community and the region.”

First Paper reopened the Lincoln mill and by mid-August will employ about 360 of the more than 500 people who were laid off there in January. More than 240 people lost their jobs in Brewer when the shutdown occurred. In May 2003, 125 people were laid off there.

The laid-off millworkers, who characterized the barbecue as a “family reunion,” had mixed feelings about the creation of a task force to study whether there are any manufacturing possibilities for the mill. Some of the workers, who asked not to be identified, called Baldacci a “one-termer” in the governor’s office while others walked away when the governor approached their picnic table.

“The governor actually did some good today,” said Richard Sutherland, who worked at the mill for 30 years. “He passed me a hamburger.”

Yet some millworkers, including Reglin, said Baldacci needed to be given one last chance to try to resuscitate the mill.

“I would love to see that,” said Reglin, wearing a “Show Us the Jobs” button from a recent nationwide union campaign that focused on the loss of manufacturing jobs. “I have talked to several city councilors and they don’t see it happening. If Baldacci can pull something out of the corner of his hat, he’ll have my vote.”

Peter Coppa, former president of PACE Local No. 1-0403 at the Brewer mill, said he thinks paper – and profits – can be made at the mill.

“I think it’s a good idea to take one last shot at it,” Coppa said. “No false hope, just see if there’s any hope there.”

Added Roy Mayhew, who worked at the Brewer mill for 35 years, “I think as governor he did all that he could to bring both mills back up. He’s not a superbeing.”

Baldacci and Cashman had been in negotiations with Don McCann, a Bangor native who is an investor now in Tennessee, about purchasing the Brewer mill. But McCann stopped his pursuit on Friday. According to Cashman, the prospective buyer had been trying to line up customers.

McCann could not be reached for comment this weekend.

There is speculation that Baldacci may be trying to partner with the University of Maine and the UMaine Pulp and Paper Foundation about using one machine at the mill to experiment in producing paper from sources other than wood. Baldacci would not comment on the possible partnership.

Sachs said that while the city and the governor may form a task force to study the mill, people need to be realistic that papermaking may not be returning to the site.

“The reality is there are no serious interested parties out there,” Sachs said. “The last potential one pulled the plug [Friday]. For what it’s worth, we owe it to the employees here not to string them on when it doesn’t look like it’s a significant possibility.”