Millinocket Mill to Close 9/2 (Bangor, Old Town: sales, motels, purchase)

[Northern Maine Land Man]

The paper mill in Millinocket, Maine will close on September 2 after nearly 100 years of operation. It was a great mill with a fine crew and they made the best softwood paper in the world. Over 200 jobs will be lost. This comes a day after the announcement that the Otis mill will shut down one of its two paper machines.

In the past 12 years the Millinocket area has gone from over 4,400 good paper industry jobs to about 440 jobs today. That is 4,000 families who have either left the area or endured a sharply reduced standard of living.

It's going to be a hard winter in Millinocket.

Katahdin mill to shut down Sept. 2 - Bangor Daily News (http://www.bangornews.com/detail/49575.html - broken link)

[jschw90]

I don't imagine Millinockett will bounce back from this.

[fxtrader]

They are now temporarily shutting down the East Millinocket #5 paper machine for 28 days which will affect 140 workers. They hope to restart if they get enough orders. I used to live in Millinocket during it's hey days and it was a great place for jobs and location. It used to be that you would graduate from high school and start working at the mill making good pay. I really feel for the community and hope they make it through this rough time. Katahdin Paper plan will affect at least 140 - Bangor Daily News (http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/98863.html - broken link)

[tcrackly]

It is definitely going to get darker before it gets lighter.

[Maine Writer]

Woodland survives, Millinocket will figure it out too.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

It is definitely going to get darker before it gets lighter.

Remember... It's always darkest, just before the lights go out.

[Submariner]

After the lights have gone out, if you wait a while, your eyes will adjust.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

"Woodland survives, Millinocket will figure it out too."

There is a big difference between Millinocket and Woodland. Woodland is affected by the general economic conditions in Maine. Millinocket is the target of multi-million dollar organizations that want to crush the town.

[cebdark]

This sickens me to no end. My great-grandfather was an Italian stonemason who moved the family to Millinocket to help build it. My grandfather worked there his entire life - my uncles spent many hours there as well. Many, many of my childhood weekends were spent playing in the parking lot.

Back in the day, Millinocket was a fully functional, booming town replete with grocers, hardware stores, Epstein's clothing store, a full-service hospital and a Kmart. Everything and anything anyone would need was contained within. Car dealerships benefited from good wages to purchase vehicles, and the remoteness of it provided equal business for recreational vehicle/sporting goods sales as well.

One of the reasons Bangor has become the shopping hub it has is because there's little up there now but a Hannaford and a Family Dollar store.

Tourism brings lots of dollars, but they will in no way even begin to compensate for the jobs lost by the mills. Here's hoping that someday it can be restarted.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

It's an illusion. Tourism doesn't bring many dollars to Millinocket. The tourists arrive self contained with their tents or campers for lodging. They bring most of their own food and even have enough gas to make it back down to Old Town or Sam's to fill up for the ride home. Motels do OK with the snowmobilers, but they increasingly stay in Greenville or points north. Most hunters and fishermen are also self contained. Canoe trippers are self contained. I think the big money is made by the gate fee system illegally begun several years ago.