Beyond Paper in Brewer

Gov. John Baldacci’s efforts to bring a variety of officials together to plot the future of the former Eastern Fine Paper mill in Brewer got off to a bad start when his intentions were mischaracterized as a Quixotic attempt to return papermaking jobs to the riverfront facility. Despite some testy exchanges on the pages of this newspaper, the governor and Brewer officials have a lot in common when they envision the future of the abandoned mill.

While the governor has not given up his determination to find a buyer who will restart papermaking operations at the mill, the working group he announced last week has the broad task of looking for any potential uses of the mill that will bring jobs to the area. This is wise because although papermaking was once a dominant industry in Maine, it is clear – through countless mill downsizings, bankruptcies and sales – that, in the absence of a change in state policy that encourages major investment in the state’s aged mills, this business is on the wane here.

The working group includes officials from the governor’s office, Department of Community and Economic Development, Eastern Maine Development Corp., the city of Brewer and the papermakers’ union. Although it will continue to seek buyers who might restart the paper mill, the governor acknowledged that no such buyers were on the horizon. Such a search should be of short duration and attention should quickly turn to, in the words of the governor, “a long-term redevelopment effort to attract good-paying jobs and commercial or industrial opportunities” to the former mill.

The working group was immediately criticized by Brewer officials as a foolhardy effort by the governor to return papermaking to the mill, putting Eastern’s 300 workers back to work. Although the governor would be delighted with this outcome, that is not, and should not be, the intent of the group.

The difference in opinion is a matter of degree. The governor says he wants to be sure that people don’t give up on the possibility that papermaking could return to the mill. City officials say they want to move forward on redeveloping the mill, which they now own, in a way that will offer the most opportunity to the city and the region. If that includes a papermaking facility that will put Eastern’s workers back on the job, they would support it.

City officials are rightly concerned about the “roller coaster” effect the last several months have had on the former mill’s workers. Some former employees have put off job training in hopes that the mill would reopen. These are dim hopes at best, so workers, like city and state officials, should pursue all possible options to return economic activity and jobs to the mill site.

The governor’s working group is a good vehicle to accomplish this.