Governor visits G-P officials More work urged for Old Town mill

OLD TOWN – Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday visited with officials at Georgia-Pacific Corp. paper mill to discuss the recent announcement that about 50 employees will be out of a job by the end of the year.

The decision to shut down all converting lines at the Old Town paper mill by year’s end was made by corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., and was announced to employees by the mill manager on Tuesday.

Despite the shutdown, the governor said Wednesday that he’s been talking with G-P officials in Georgia and Old Town about the possibility of bringing more work to the Old Town mill.

“We have been in discussions with the company about the possibility of doing more work on the site,” he said.

G-P recently installed a biomass boiler that has drastically cut energy costs, and while it’s still a high cost mill, the No. 1 paper machine was put back on line in January because of the savings.

“The more work at the facility, the per-unit cost diminishes,” Baldacci said.

He went on to say that the Old Town facility is a “first-class integrated pulp mill” and that he hopes to strengthen it as an asset to the state and to the G-P corporation as a whole.

The governor met Wednesday with Karen Dickinson, G-P’s vice president of northeast operations, and G-P PACE Local 80 union President Paul Randall, to discuss the pending changes.

“We’re trying to make sure the support is there for the work force,” Baldacci said. “They’re the most important asset we have.”

The mill has two tissue converting lines and four napkin lines as part of its Quilted Northern Bath Tissue and Vanity Fair Tissue production. All six lines, which transform large rolls of paper products into what consumers see on the shelves, are slated to be shut down as part of a companywide restructuring by G-P corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Ga.

After the converting line shutdown, the Old Town mill will employ about 400 people. It will continue to produce paper pulp and parent rolls, which are large rolls of paper products.