Millinocket council wants utility study Katahdin towns to discuss use of payment

MILLINOCKET – The Town Council wants to explore using a $75,000 regional economic development payment to study establishing a public utility in the Katahdin region.

The council must approve the idea formally with the boards of selectmen from East Millinocket and Medway, but most councilors seemed enthusiastic about the idea when Town Manager Eugene Conlogue presented it during a meeting on Tuesday.

Another Conlogue idea, using the money to fund the construction of a multipurpose recreational bridge just outside town lines as part of the area’s first all-terrain vehicle trail network, received a similarly warm response. It wasn’t discussed as thoroughly.

“This is the one [idea] I have heard the most discussion about going back to last summer,” Conlogue said Tuesday. “In essence it is saying that you might consider using these funds for a pair of feasibility studies.”

If the studies prove it can be done, the immediate benefit, Conlogue said, would be to greatly decrease electricity costs for residents and businesses by the utility purchasing the electricity wholesale and offering it at retail rates lower than those offered by other utilities.

“It might be one of those small tiebreaker inducements that will bring a business to Millinocket,” he said, calling the idea “one way to bring a greater chance for economic development for the area.”

With a plethora of hydropower dams and biomass boilers in the region and several wind farms under construction, operating or seeking permits in nearby towns, the area doesn’t lack for electricity producers, councilors said.

Seizing a dam through eminent domain, an idea the council discussed previously, would not be part of the plan, councilors said. The studies would provide the specific steps needed to form a public utility, similar to the one Madison has, Conlogue said.

Councilor Jim Mingo expressed reservations about the idea. Legal fees alone might make it too expensive to pursue, he said.

Madison’s utility rates “are half of what we pay,” Councilor Scott Gonya said.

Council members will meet with selectmen on Dec. 4 to discuss regional economic development ideas and how to use the $75,000. The money is earmarked for regional economic development, or a regional development agency, per an agreement with Brookfield Renewable Resources, which owns dams on the Penobscot River, in the event of a mill shutdown.

The Katahdin Avenue paper mill, which is owned by a Brookfield subsidiary, temporarily closed on Sept. 2.

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