N.H. town to lose 250 jobs when pulp mill closes

BERLIN, N.H. – While some residents worry about the impending closing of the Fraser pulp mill, others say it might be just what the city needs to move beyond its paper and pulp dependency.

The company said Tuesday it plans to close the mill on May 6, leaving 250 workers without jobs, the second time since 2001 the northern New Hampshire community has gone through the trauma of industrial retrenchment. The nearby Gorham paper plant will stay open.

“Almost everybody in my family has worked there at one time or another,” said Julia Sullivan, 72, who retired from the mill when it was operated by James River.

“They will have to leave town or we will have to find another avenue of income,” she said, adding that she opposes construction of a federal prison in the city and that aside from tourism there is no work in the city of 11,000 people.

But Eugenia Leath, 69, had a different view of the mill, which closed in 2001 and reopened in a scaled down version when it was bought by Fraser.

“I wish the mill would have stayed closed so we could have gotten over the hump. This has just been a slow death,” she said.

“I have concerns about the people but you have to face facts, this mill is stopping the town from getting anyplace,” Leath said.

Mayor Robert Danderson said the city’s response will depend on what Fraser decides to do with the plant. He said the buildings could be used for a power plant or a wood-pellet fuel factory.

“We need to find out what their plan is before we make any big decisions,” he said, adding that the city is in better shape now than five years ago and pointed to the proposed federal prison, expansion of the state prison, development of an ATV park, expansion of Isaacson Steel Co. and construction of a Wal-Mart store.

“We have things in the hoper here that we didn’t have in 2001,” he said.

“My main goal is to make sure the people work,” the mayor said.