E. Millinocket lots to hold mill operation

EAST MILLINOCKET – A father-son team planning to open firewood and lumber mill businesses in a town industrial park next summer moved to buy two park lots from the town for $7,566 on Tuesday.

Rickey Deloge Sr. of Medway and Rickey Deloge Jr. of Millinocket signed a sales agreement with town officials Tuesday, buying the land for $706 an acre, plus legal expenses, said Shirley Tapley, town administrative assistant.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” Tapley said Tuesday. “They hope to begin clearing the land and letting it settle over the winter before doing the firewood business.”

The unnamed firewood cutting and distribution business they plan to open on lots 16 and 17 of the Katahdin Regional Industrial Park off Route 157 will create four new jobs in addition to their own and eventually, they hope, will lead to a lumber mill on the same site, the Deloges have said.

The town planning board had some reservations about mixing a wood mill with commercial businesses in the town-owned park, fearing that the wood operations would be too messy to adjoin commercial properties, but board members voted 3-0 last week to allow the business to proceed.

Rickey Deloge Sr. has been in the firewood business for more than 30 years, he has said. He spent more than a year preparing his business plan and scouting locations for his fledgling enterprise. He looked at properties in Millinocket and Medway, but almost from the start was set on the industrial park.

The park has electricity and sewer connections they will use, close access to Route 157 and Interstate 95, and several other businesses operated by friends are in the park, Deloge Sr. said. East Millinocket taxes are low compared to those of other towns, he said.

Four other businesses own or use space within the 19-lot industrial park, Tapley said. The lots range from 0.895 to 6.12 acres.