BREWER – Gov. John E. Baldacci joined officials from Brewer, Maine’s Congressional delegation, Cianbro and others for the grand opening ceremony on Aug. 15 of the new Cianbro Eastern Manufacturing Facility.

The governor praised the local, state, federal and private partners for their achievement, the culmination of many months of planning and work to convert the former Eastern Fine Paper mill into a state-of-the-art modular manufacturing facility.

The event also highlighted a major client of the new manufacturing facility.

Motiva Enterprises has contracted with Cianbro to build an oil refinery expansion for the company, and the modular work will be done at the new Brewer facility.

William Welte, president and CEO of Motiva Enterprises, was on hand for the event. Welte described Cianbro Eastern Manufacturing as a world-class facility with first-class workers.

“Today marks a significant milestone in economic development for Brewer, the Greater Bangor area and the state,” said Baldacci. “The high quality work force and collective efforts of the community partners attracted Cianbro and a national corporation of the caliber of Motiva to this area. Everybody here worked together in the true Maine fashion to make this day possible.”

The governor said that when Eastern Fine Paper closed in 2004, the entire community was deeply affected.

“This community rallied to make the mill property attractive to other buyers and relentlessly pursued investors,” said the governor.

Cianbro President and CEO Peter Vigue said that the company expects to employ 500 workers at the Brewer facility.