Brewer officials testify for funds

BREWER – In order to bolster support for a $500,000 pledge the governor made to help redevelop the defunct Eastern Fine Paper Co. mill site, two lawmakers and a city official testified Thursday in front of a joint legislative committee.

D’arcy Main-Boyington, state Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, and state Rep. Charles “Dusty” Fisher, D-Brewer, appeared before committee members.

Gov. John Baldacci pledged the funds during his State of the State address in January to help bring back jobs to the mill site and made the request a part of his supplemental budget.

The Appropriations Committee is reviewing that supplemental budget and is expected to have final figures by March.

“I think for the most part it went very, very well,” Main-Boyington, Brewer’s economic development director, reported Thursday afternoon. “There were a lot of supportive people in the room – not all, but a lot. We’re off to a good start, I think.”

The Brewer group spoke in front of a joint legislative committee formed by the Appropriations Committee and the Business Research and Economic Development Committee.

“[Economic Development Commissioner] Jack Cashman spoke on behalf of the Brewer money, and he was extremely supportive,” Main-Boyington said. “I was very happy.”

After Eastern Fine closed in January 2004, city leaders met with Baldacci to discuss the redevelopment effort, and soon after, the state issued Brewer a $15,000 planning grant. The city acquired the site five months after it closed and is in the process of redeveloping it into a multi-use facility.

If approved, the money would be used for demolition and to clean up the century-old industrial site, which has a half-buried hazardous waste dump in its backyard in South Brewer.

Rosen said that when mills close, it’s appropriate for the communities in which they are located to ask for redevelopment funds from the state.

“It’s going to take a tremendous amount of help” to refurbish the 41-acre former mill, he said. “It’s certainly a legitimate request to create economic opportunity, job growth and to make the property a continuing property tax payer” once again.

The redevelopment effort not only will bring back jobs and economic development to the vacant site, but also will do much to bolster self-esteem among former workers.

“They would like to see it return and contribute to the well-being of the area,” Rosen said. “I think it’s extremely important.”

Until the final decision is made, a Brewer official will attend all the meetings in which the possible funding for Brewer is discussed, Main-Boyington said.

“We’re willing to do whatever is necessary to go down and support it,” she said.

Brewer city leaders are “certainly very hopeful” that the funding will remain a part of his supplemental budget this year, the economic development director said.

“I do believe the governor is strongly behind this project,” Main-Boyington said.