Municipal and school officials in the two towns most affected by Great Northern Paper Inc.’s bankruptcy are taking different approaches in dealing with the situation.

Despite the financial differences between Millinocket and East Millinocket, officials in both towns are putting off final decisions on budget proposals until the future of Great Northern is clearer.

One key piece of information they are waiting for is the sale price of the paper company, which may affect total property valuations.

Some are waiting to see if the mills will have one or more owners. Jim Giffune, GNP’s new chief executive officer, says it could go either way.

Giffune said there was a reasonable chance the two paper mills could be split up. “This is a bankruptcy and anything could happen,” he said during an interview Thursday. He said the management team could not require interested companies to buy both paper mills.

“If I have a better deal for the creditors on a split, I’ll have to take it,” said Giffune. “The odds are as good that they will be apart as they are that they will be together, at this stage.”

Earlier this week, Giffune told a group of town leaders that it was evident from the questions asked by some of the companies looking at the mills that they were more interested in one segment of the business than another.

Giffune and Warren Richardson, a member of the management team, said they believed the mills would be better off if sold together because of the synergy between them and because it was easier to develop markets with a broad range of products.

Richardson said the two mills had become more dependent on each other. The Millinocket mill provides sulfite pulp to East Millinocket, according to workers. East Millinocket provides recycled fiber and groundwood pulp to the Millinocket mill. The energy system for both mills now is managed as one, but workers say there is flexibility to power the mills independently.

Millinocket and East Millinocket have received no tax payments from Great Northern, which provides the bulk of their tax revenue.

East Millinocket officials have cut more than $200,000 from their budgets, eliminated 12.5 full- and part-time positions, and have implemented numerous initiatives to save money.

School officials have indicated support for sending all of East Millinocket’s high school students to Millinocket next year.

In Millinocket, municipal and school officials are deferring capital projects, conserving energy, cutting travel, limiting overtime and are monitoring finances closely.

The reason for the different action so far is that Millinocket is in a better financial position.

Millinocket receives about $2.9 million in state education subsidy. East Millinocket receives about $87,000. East Millinocket schools rely on GNP for 46.6 percent of their revenues. Millinocket schools get 28 percent of their revenue from the papermaker.

The town of Millinocket has a bigger surplus, about $2.5 million on July 1, 2002. East Millinocket’s surplus was $1.1 million, but is in the form of equity and not available cash. The town has been borrowing from the more than $800,000 it had in reserve accounts to pay its bills. The reserves totaled about $198,000 at the end of last month.

Mary Morris, East Millinocket’s administrative assistant, estimates the town will be able to operate until April or May before tapping into its $2.4 million tax anticipation loan.

If not for Millinocket’s surplus, most in the form of cash, Millinocket Town Manager Gene Conlogue said the town would be facing a big problem right now.

He said the town has enough cash to operate until the end of March. The town still has all of its $1.2 million tax anticipation loan. It expects to receive second half-year tax payments, due April 11, and other revenues. “We are still looking at June being our month of concern,” said Conlogue.

The manager said some of the cost-saving measures already implemented were being offset by the rapidly rising costs of fuel oil, gasoline and diesel fuel. Conlogue said officials are pressing methods to receive additional tax payments.

Members of the Millinocket Town Council on Thursday asked Conlogue and Brent Colbry, the school superintendent, to come up with three scenarios for cutting this year’s municipal and school budgets by 10, 15 and 20 percent, which would translate into cuts of $400,000, $600,000 and $800,000 respectively.